Sanctity of Life

To say that human life is important falls short of the description that the Lord would use to describe it… In Genesis 1, we are told about the creation of all things in existence. From the advent of light; the formation of the heavens; the gathering of land; the sprouting of vegetation; the placement of the sun, moon, and stars; the population of the oceans and filling of the sky with birds; to the rising of the creeping things on the land, God has said that it was all “good.”

But then something happened… God created “אדם” or man… For the first time in scripture, we see the text go from narrative to poetic prose.

Genesis 1:27

“So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.”

Something has set this apart from the rest of the story, because in the next verse, things go back to narrative. So what is it? Why is this instance set apart and differentiated between the creation of everything else. Humanity was the first and last of God’s creation that was made in His very image. Man is the only part of creation that carries a semblance of God. There is intended to be in every person, a reflection of a perfect, pure, holy, and powerful Creator God.

Because of sin, this concept has been perverted and twisted, but when we fell, we were not stripped of God’s image. We are still image bearers. We carry an aspect of God’s person throughout our lives. This means that if every man/woman/child is a bearer of God’s image, then when that life is destroyed, then God’s image is marred. It is not our personalities, talents, wealth, status, etc. that give us dignity, value, and worth… It is God’s image that does it.

So, may we see that all people are valuable, and all human life is sacred, whether unborn or at the end of physical life. This is the view we must hold; and the view which if absent causes all kinds of evil.

At The Sanctuary Fellowship, we hold human life in a very high regard. We believe that we are supposed to be preservers of life, rescuers of life, and promoters of life. In that, we have committed to speak up when we should speak up, serve when we can serve, and fight with everything that we have to fulfill what is said in Proverbs 24:11-12:

“Rescue those who are being taken away to death;

hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”

does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,

and will he not repay man according to his work?”