The Sanctity of Life

“Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?” (Job 3: 11 KJV).

Human life is a sacred thing. It’s because man was made in the image of God that taking a human life is murder and is punishable by death (Gen. 9: 6).

But we need to decide when human life begins so that we can decide if there has been a murder when that life is taken.

There are those who believe that the baby has no life and is not a human until they are born and brought out of the womb. There are others who believe that life is given at conception; the moment the egg in the mother is fertilized by the sperm of the father.

The Bible agrees with and supports the latter view. The traducian doctrine, which was first taught by Tertullian, teaches that both the body and the soul are propagated by the parents at conception. That means that at conception, the baby has everything he needs to be called a human being because he has both his physical body and spiritual being.

Psalm 139: 14-17 is when David speaks of himself when he is still in the womb. He uses the pronoun “I” and identifies himself and all the qualities and characteristics of himself that God also acknowledges. He is speaking as an adult of his past existence and the conditions of that existence.

God tells Jeremiah that before he was formed in the womb, He knew him. Jeremiah, like everyone, preexisted in the mind of God. God knew Jeremiah as an unborn baby before He knew him later as a prophet of Israel (Jer. 1: 5). He is the same person, first as an unborn baby and then as a man of God.

In our text, Job wishes he hadn’t been born, for then he wouldn’t be alive to all his troubles. For the unborn baby, as well as the adult death, means the giving up of the “ghost.” That means just like when an adult dies and their spirit leaves their body even so when an unborn baby dies, it gives up the spirit too.

The “ghost” or spirit or inner man is the seat of personality. It is there where the image of God is stamped. “God is Spirit” and so is man, even the unborn man. So, in the womb, there is a complete person. Just as complete as an adult person. The only difference is that the baby is not fully developed, but the adult is.

With an abortion another complete, though undeveloped person is murdered. A human being made in the image of God is in the womb, and killing that baby is no different than killing an adult.