Abortion – the scourge of our time (Part 2)

The Bible also makes clear that the unborn child is a human being. So the Psalmist-king David, without the benefit of modern ultra-sound scanning and the like, says that “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex!” (Ps.139:13-14). He also recognised that we are not only human in the womb, but also sinners! “For I was born a sinner – yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.” (Ps.51:5).
So does this mean that the woman/girl who undergoes an abortion is a murderess? The simple answer is “Yes”, and I can never forget, while in full-time pastoral ministry, the young woman whom I sought to counsel – both before, and after an abortion. We sat in her home, about a week after she had left the hospital, as she sobbed “Mr Ross, I murdered my baby”. It was one of those very rare occasions on which I had nothing to say. All that I could do was to silently agree.
But, praise God, this isn’t the end of the story. Further on in that 51st Psalm, David makes the prayerful request “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ... Forgive me for shedding blood, O God Who saves; then I will joyfully sing of Your forgiveness.” (vs. 7 & 14). Paul, writing to the Ephesian Christians, assures them that God “... is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son, and forgave our sin.” (1:7)
The bottom line is that each one of us – male and female; whether or not we have had an abortion – is a sinner. We don’t have to have committed some major crime; we just have to have been born! “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Rom.3:23); but, although “... the wages of sin is death, ... the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom.6:23).
May all who visit this blog, and read these posts, receive that gift, and discover the joy of sin forgiven, and a new life lived out for Jesus.