Those three words will change your life. Instantly. Permanently.
Three words. When you hear them, I absolutely guarantee the speaker will have your UNDIVIDED attention. You’re going to be hanging on every word. Your mind will begin filling with hundreds of questions that will wash in like a massive tsunami.
Three small words will suddenly bring into perfect perspective what is truly important in your life, and what is not.
When I heard them, I didn’t stop to consider if the car I was driving was the latest model. I wasn’t concerned whether or not I was wearing designer clothing. I couldn’t have cared less about the size of my house or how important my current title was or wasn’t.
My first thought was for my wife. Then the tsunami hit, and my brain was deluged.
Some days you NEED to hear hard things. The day I heard those three words was one of those days. TODAY is one of those days, too. There are some things we need to hear today. I love you enough to tell you; I hope you trust me enough to listen.
Let me begin by introducing today’s verse:
I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE
Regardless of which side of the abortion issue you’re currently on, you’re likely aware that today is the forty-ninth anniversary of Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. In fact, even if you aren’t strongly on one side of the issue, you’re probably aware. New outlets liberal and conservative have been covering the topic in recent days. It is currently one of the lead stories on ABC, BBC, CBS, FOX, NBC, NPR and USATODAY. (Nope, not CNN.)
Like cancer, abortion is not a topic one enjoys talking about. But when necessary, it is a topic that cannot be avoided. So I’ll begin by stating my position, then I’ll share some information you may or not know and try to put it in perspective. Then I’ll share THREE OTHER WORDS that have more power to change your life than “You’ve got cancer.”
My position is simple. Abortion is murder.
The first thing you may NOT know is this: JESUS LOVES MURDERERS. So, if you have had an abortion, you are NOT excluded from the grace of God. There is grace and forgiveness available for you, and you do not need to carry a burden of guilt. If you had an abortion or convinced someone to have one you’ve committed a grievous sin; but Jesus can and will forgive you, cleanse you, heal you and restore you if you ask Him.
Jesus doesn’t hate people who have had an abortion. Nor does He hate adulterers, thieves, liars, homosexuals, alcoholics, or any other sinners you can categorize. He loves them all; and His Church ought to love them as well. But loving someone means that we care enough to identify the things that are killing them from the inside and destroying their lives. We do this because we know sin is serious, we know that if sin is ignored it will eventually end your life. Along the way it will cause incredible pain and eventually impact your ability to lead or enjoy a normal life.
The second thing you may not be fully aware of is the scope of this issue. I’m going to give you some horrific numbers, and then add some perspective.
According to the World Health Organization, the specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health, there have been just short of 2.5 million abortions performed worldwide in the first 22 days of this year. That’s about 125,000 per day.
In the forty-nine years since Roe v Wade made abortion on demand legal in the United States, 63,459,781 lives have been aborted. Yes, over sixty-three million!
I made a clear point that Jesus loves murderers, and He does. His grace is sufficient to forgive any sin that we repent form and lay at His feet. But you know who else Jesus loves? He loves each and every one of the 63,459,781 babies who were aborted. I deliberately use the present tense. They have not ceased to exist, they are with Him.
Here’s some perspective on that number. To kill 63 million people in the US today, I’d have to murder every person living in California, New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. All of them.
Or I could wipe out the entire population of 28 smaller states. (In case you’re curious, those states would be Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Utah, Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas,
New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming. You’d still be 680,000 short unless you add in the District of Columbia.)
The American civil rights era of the 1950’s and 1960’s was over before I reached age ten. World War II ended ten years before I was born. So I didn’t play an active part in either one. A few days ago I received an email that said, “If you ever wondered what you would have done during the civil rights era that sought to end segregation from society or during Nazi Germany, what you are doing today is the answer to that question.” Though the sender was speaking about a different topic, my mind immediately went to the abortion issue.
Germany’s Nazis killed roughly six million Jews between 1941 and 1945. That works out to about 4,000 people a day. Thankfully, we don’t abort quite that many a day in the US; but we allow well over 3,000 abortions a day, so we’re close. Certainly close enough for a comparison to be made.
I chose those words very carefully … “we allow” — because none of us can claim ignorance. Every single one of those 63 million were innocent and defenseless human beings. It is always wrong to directly and intentionally kill innocent, defenseless human beings.
I know that some of you may disagree with my characterization of abortion victims as “human beings” and so I want to address that. Whenever a specific element of society is marginalized and isolated, a common tactic is the deliberate dehumanization of the group. One of the best explanations I’ve ever heard made in this respect was made at Baylor University by Matt Walsh; and it’s the foundation for what I’m about to write.
People who favor abortion often claim the unborn child is not a human person and thus does not have the same moral standing as the mother; so she ought to be allowed to kill it. But does that argument actually make sense?
It’s simply a scientific fact that the being in the womb is indeed a “being” – because it exists. It is clearly a “living being” because there are only 3 states of being – Living, Dead, and Inanimate. If it wasn’t a living being, there would be nothing to abort.
It is also a member of the human species. All living things must be a member of some species. If it is not a member of the human species, then what species is it? (By the way, “fetus” is not a species, it’s a stage of development within a species.) We know that it’s of the human species because it has human DNA. It was created by two humans, and human people could never ever create anything other than another human being.
So growing within the mother is a living member of the human species. It is a human being. Efforts to dehumanize it notwithstanding, it cannot be anything else. It’s innocence is undeniable. It’s inability to defend itself is evidenced by the 63 million abortions we are discussing. It is therefore an innocent, defenseless human being. And it is always wrong to directly and intentionally kill innocent, defenseless human beings.
I began with three words that changed my life forever: YOU’VE GOT CANCER. Here are three more (not the final three, though) that we need to consider – ABORTION IS SIN.
As I’ve said before, sin is always destructive, always causes pain and never leads to peace and joy. When Christians speak of freedom from sin it is not a condemnation of the sinner, whom Christ loves; but a hatred for the sin which is killing the one trapped in sin. God hates sin, He loves us. Because He loves us he leads us out of sin and into freedom.
When my doctor told me I had cancer, he knew the cancer was serious; he knew that if I ignored it the cancer would eventually end my life. Along the way to killing me, that cancer would cause incredible pain. Either I had to kill the cancer or the cancer would kill me. Sin is no different. Not just the sin of abortion, either. But every sin in your life and mine.
I hope you never hear the three words that changed my life – YOU’VE GOT CANCER. Those are horrible words from which there may be no escape.
But let me close with three words that will certainly change YOUR life forever —
Here they are: JESUS FORGIVES SIN
Every sin. and all sin. He will take it (and the guilt and pain) away if you ask Him. It may take some time, but He will do it.
Want three more? JESUS IS WAITING
He truly is !! He wants you to come to Him, and He wants to embrace you and let you know that He has forgiven you.
Here’s the final three for today —
JESUS LOVES YOU
Those three words will change your life. Instantly. Permanently.
