The Power of Life and Death

Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. What does that mean? In a word, it means that life is sacred. Revered. Blessed.

Life is a gift of God, and only God has the power of life and death. That means that only God can create life, and He alone has the right to say when it should end.

Have you ever noticed that human beings are not capable of creating life? Oh, we might think we can when we give birth to a child. Some, perhaps many, miss the truth that every life is a gift, a blessing from the Creator. And human life is especially precious to Him because we are created in His image. King David marveled at the way God had knit him together in the secret place, his mother’s womb. He said he was, “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Have you also noticed that humans are also not capable of dying in their own power? Stop for a moment and think about that. We certainly have the ability to kill. We can take the life of a child in the womb. We can kill one another in all sorts of acts of violence. We can even kill ourselves. But we do not have the power to just tell our bodies to release our spirits and die any more than we had a choice in our creation.

When Jesus was nearing the end of His earthly life, He said, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” (John 10:17-18a)

Wait. No one took Jesus’ life from Him? Didn’t the Romans put Him to death on a cross? Yes. But in truth, Jesus could have laid down His life at any time. He could have released His Spirit to the Father before one nail pierced his hands and feet. He has the authority over life and death. To lay it down and to take it up again when he rose from the dead.

We absolutely cannot do that. We might have a strong will to live, but we don’t have the power to will ourselves to live forever. We might have a strong urge to die, but in ourselves, we cannot will our spirits to leave our bodies. Have you ever watched someone who was near death? They often fight death or perhaps wonder why it is taking so long, especially if they are suffering, but they have no control over that actual moment.

Considering the fact that we are so powerless over our own lives, without going to extreme outside measures, why do we think we have power over anything? And why is it so hard for us to admit that we are not in control, yet there is One who is?

We’ve been watching nature shows, marveling at the vastness and beauty and intricacy and fine tuning of creation. For instance, there is a flower that only one type of insect is made to reach the pollen in its long tubes. And yet just such an insect exists. By chance? That takes more faith for me to believe than to recognize that there is a designer, a creator of these things.

And if God is the Creator He claims to be, then He also made you and me. He’s made everything our eyes can see. He’s the One who created every child in every womb. He’s the One who walks through this life with each one of us if we’ll let Him. He’s the one who carries our souls from our bodies to what awaits us beyond. Eternal life for those who love and trust Him. Eternal separation from Him for those who don’t.

I know that we are living in a world that wants to think that we should be able to do whatever we please. My body, my choice. I get that. I don’t like anyone telling me how I should live when it comes to my body. But don’t you know that women/females are the only ones whom God has given the privilege of carrying another person inside of their bodies? The animal kingdom mates to survive and the mothers, sometimes the fathers, care for their young after they are born. They don’t think any other way. They do what their Creator made them to do.

When God created the world, He commanded the humans to “be fruitful and multiply.” Today, we see that as optional. Maybe even archaic. We worry more about preserving the earth than the children who will inherit it.

Human life was God’s idea. Of course, He knows that sometimes a woman finds herself in an anxious and painful situation and the thought of an unexpected pregnancy is more than she can bear. The mother’s life is just as sacred as her unborn child’s. That’s why we need to come alongside both and support them both in whatever way we can. There are countless crisis pregnancy centers that are doing just that. One that our church supports, comes alongside the mother throughout her pregnancy and three years after she gives birth.

The point is, all life matters to God. Especially all human life because we are His image bearers. But our culture has forgotten that because we can justify anything if there is no Creator. We can justify killing anyone at any age, if you think about it. Who’s to stop us?

But we do not have that authority. We are not all powerful, and the sooner we see ourselves in comparison to the One who does have that authority, the sooner we will come to seeing life in a new, better, sacred way.

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