Life, Death and Authority

This week, the government in the state of New York passed one of the most vile and heinous pieces of legislation in the history of this nation, if not in the history of mankind. This bill codifies, in the law, a woman’s right to have her unborn baby killed, in some cases, anytime up to the point of birth. It’s a sad state of affairs when a modern and so-called “enlightened” society celebrates the ability to murder its unborn children. Abortion proponents focus on the rights of the woman, using terms like “reproductive rights” or “reproductive health.” We, who oppose abortion, point out how this conveniently neglects and ignores the rights of the unborn child. We would agree that women (and men) have “reproductive rights.” You have the right to remain chaste and not engage in sexual activity (as a single person anyway). You also have the right to purchase and use contraceptives so as to avoid pregnancy altogether. However, reproductive rights do not include the right to kill a child already conceived.

Now, in this midst of discussion about this controversial legislation, I was reminded of an oft used argument from the pro-abortion left regarding consistency. It is often stated that conservatives are hypocritical when they rail against abortion rights and yet support the death penalty. “If you’re really ‘pro-life,’ then you should oppose the killing of anyone, including those convicted of murder,” or so the argument goes. I can’t speak for conservatives in general, but from the standpoint of the Christian worldview, I think it’s pretty easy to demonstrate that there’s no inconsistency in advocating for the life of the unborn while also supporting capital punishment for certain criminal offenders. In fact, I would argue that it’s only on the ground of a Christian worldview that one can find any truly consistent and objective criteria for judging such weighty life and death issues.

On the surface, it seems like it ought to be a pretty straightforward and easy to comprehend distinction. Abortion is the killing of an innocent, unborn child for the sake of convenience or (perhaps in a very rare circumstance) to potentially save the life of the mother. This situation is a world apart from the case of a responsible adult who has willingly taken the life of another human being. The death penalty is an application of justice. In fact, I find the argument of the pro-abortion crowd on this point rather disingenuous. I suspect it’s more of a smoke screen to divert attention from the real nature of the abortion debate.

Yet, at the end of the day, this really comes down to an issue of authority and the very basis on which we might answer, with any sense of real authority, questions about life and death and justice and standards for law and morality in a civil society. For the Christian, the answer is simple and beyond dispute. The Scriptures are the standard of truth and righteousness. That’s because the Scriptures are God’s word. It is God, alone, who is both the Lord and the giver of life. He is Creator. We are mere creatures. It’s God who gives life, God who defines when it begins and under what circumstances, if any, we might be justified to take the life of another human being. We don’t derive our position on abortion, capital punishment or anything else from mere human reason, from centuries of tradition, from the common consensus or any other human source. We turn to the objective and absolute authority of the Scriptures as the Word of God and the revelation of Himself and His will.

The Bible reveals and defines the sacredness of human life. This comes to the fore both in the Scriptures’ teaching on capital punishment and in the passages relevant to the issue of abortion. Human life is sacred, first, because it’s the creation and gift of God. It’s not the result of long ages of random happenstance and unguided chemical processes. Moreover, of all the creatures God made, only man is created in the very image of God Himself. It’s on this basis that God instituted capital punishment back in the days of Noah, following the flood. Gen. 9:6 reads, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (ESV) Capital punishment, far from devaluing life, affirms the value of life and the seriousness of taking human life. Murder is such a serious crime because it strikes at the very image of God by striking down a fellow human, created in the image of God – a human soul who will exist for eternity either in God’s glorious presence or under eternal punishment. This is so serious that the only way to enact “justice” in the human realm is for the murderer to lose his life.

This foundational principle of law and justice, which was established first in the Noahic covenant, continued through the Old Testament period and was never revoked or rescinded even under the new covenant. Rather, in Romans 13, the apostle Paul affirms the legitimate, God-ordained role of the civil magistrate as one who “does not bear the sword in vain” and “carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” A fundamental, though not exclusive, function of the civil government is to carry out the justice of capital punishment for the crime of murder. This is not only “justifiable” but obligatory. It is the responsibility of human government not to allow the shedding of innocent blood to go unpunished and unavenged.

Scripture also speaks, quite clearly, about the beginning of life, that life begins in the womb, at conception. Numerous passages of Scripture speak of the human life having been formed in the womb. The infant still in the womb is viewed as an individual, fully alive. God fashions an individual life in the womb. John the Baptist leaped for joy in his mother’s womb at the greeting of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Jacob and Esau were already “struggling together” while still in the womb of Rebecca. David, in Psalm 51, traces his sinfulness back to the moment of his conception in his mother’s womb. Of particular significance, in Exodus 21:22-23, the Lord gives a law concerning the case in which a pregnant woman is struck with the result that she gives birth prematurely. If the child is okay, there is no further liability, but if her child dies as a result, then there is a fine imposed, even though this was not an intentional act of murder. In other words, the child in the mother’s womb is treated as an individual and not merely as an extraneous piece of tissue, an extension of the mother’s body.

When Scripture is our authority, then there is a perfect consistency between an anti-abortion but pro-capital punishment stance. God is the giver of life. He is the sovereign Creator and Lord. Human life is sacred and only God can justly dispose of human life as He sees fit. God forbids the taking of human life, and according to Scripture, life begins in the womb. There, God miraculously fashions an individual human being in His own likeness and image. Further, God has ordained civil government and given a mandate to the governing authorities to punish the crime of murder by judicially taking the life of the murderer. This is not an act of private vengeance of an act of anger. It is a solemn, judicial responsibility. It’s an act of justice that mirrors, in some sense, the sentence of divine justice. Capital punishment is right, not because life is unimportant or because some lives are more valuable than others but because human life is so sacred and so significant! No other penalty could be justly imposed for premeditated murder. So, for those of us who are Christians, who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord of all and the Word of God as our standard of truth and ultimate authority, we should stand on the Scriptures consistently and firmly.