Our Church Service on August 28 will take place at 4734 Samish Point Rd, Bow WA 98232 at 11 am

Sanctity of Life - Intrinsic Human Value

Jan 16, 2022    Victor Kuksenko

A month ago many of you might know that we had an important Supreme Court case called "Dobbs v. Jacksons Women's Health Organization" .

What is the value of a human being?

• Is a human being no better than an animal?
• Is a human being only valuable when we chose to call them human?
• Is a human being worthy of life only when the society says it is? When our culture defines it so?
Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed for God made humans in his image"

• To murder another human is a grave sin because humanity is a unique creation made in God's image.
• Our value is intrinsic.

Humans are not like animals, they are unique, they are made in God's image and likeness.


We as Living Word Bible Church stand for the sanctity of human life.

• We believe that human life is sacred and precious, no matter who you are, where you are born and what your medical issues are, you are precious in God's sight.
• Every human being has an intrinsic value simply because they are human made in God's image
• We believe that life begins at conception and to kill a baby anytime in the womb is to kill a human being.
__________________________________________

Genesis 1:26-28

1. God had a divine counsel and planned to created humanity PP

Now notice when we get to creation of humans we read "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness"

• This creation had a class of its own.
• Before creating humans, there was a divine counsel.
○ The Trinity has decided to make humans.

By implication, we can say that even today, there are no ultimate unplanned pregnancies.

SO, from the beginning humanity was planned by God, and even to this day, our birth and others coming into this world is not an accident.

Psalm 139:13 "For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb".

2. God created humanity in his own image which is unique from all other creation
• Image - means "to carve" or "to cut", something that describes a carved likeness of an animal or a person. In other words the representation of God.
• Represent - Ancient rulers would set up images of themselves to represent the ruler, stood for his authority, and to remind his subjects that he was indeed their king.
• Likeness - is a resemblance or a form of something else.
• Mirror - reflecting God, to see something of God's love, God's kindness, God's goodness.
○ Herman Bavinck (a Dutch theologian) "The entire world is a revelation of God, a mirror of his virtues and perfections; every creature is in his own way and according to his own measure an embodiment of a divine thought. But among all creatures only man is the image of God, the highest and richest revelation of God, and therefore head and crown of the entire creation"


So what is this image of God, exactly?

- v. 26 - Dominion - Mankind is to rule, as God rules the world

- v. 27 - Fellowship - a man needs the companionship of a woman, in other words humans are social beings.

- v. 29-30 - Responsibility - Persons who are responsible beings, who can be addressed by God

Two important implications:

○ We are to live as God's representatives.
○ We are to value, protect and care for those created in God's image
• Proverbs 31:8-9 "Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy."

3. Humanity sinned which did not destroy the image of God but it did tempered with it
Genesis 5:1-3 "This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind. Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image.

Sin did not destroy this image but it did temper with God's image in us

• In a sense we need to realize that God's image in us is in two ways: Structurally and Functionally
○ Structurally we are made with capabilities to reflect God, functionally is to do what we were created to do, and that is to glorify God in everything that we do.
○ In the fall mankind still has structural image of God, where they are able to serve, think and will things for God. But functionally they started using those abilities on themselves.

I. Sin disfigured the image of God:

• In Romans 3:21-23 we read: "For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles."
Herman Bavinck says it well, "Man through the fall... has not become a devil who, incapable of redemption, can no longer reveal the features of the image of God. But while he has remained really and substantially man and has still preserved all his human faculties, capacities and power, the form, nature, disposition and direction of all these powers have been so changed that now instead of doing the will of God they fulfill the law of flesh".

II. Christ is the exact image of God

• He was the exact representation of God.
○ He said "if you have seen me, you have seen the Father" (John 14:9)
• The book of Hebrews says: "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all thing by his powerful word" (Heb. 1:3).
• In Colossians we read "that Jesus is the image of the invisible God" (1:15)

III. In Christ the image of God is renewed

• Rom. 8:29 "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son"

In conclusion: We should ask ourselves this

• What makes humans valuable?
• What does it mean to be created in God's image?
• How did that image of God change in us after the fall?
• How does Christ bring us back to God's original design as image bearers?