The Value of Life

1. Read: Luke 6:6-10

2. About the Text:

1) Acts 10:38 says that “. . . God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

2) In our text, it is the Sabbath day.

3) He went into a synagogue.

4) There was a man there with a withered hand.

5) The scribes and Pharisees were watching him so as to accuse him.

6) Jesus knew their hearts.

7) He told the man to stand forth.

8) He asked the scribes and Pharisees a question.

9) “Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9).

10) Jesus healed the man.

11) We should note that Jesus equated “doing good” with “saving life.”

12) Jesus recognized the value of human life.

3. The devaluing of human life.

1) It is unfortunate that in today’s world many devalue human life.

2) We see many problems in society around us in this regard.

a. There is the problem of abortion.

b. There is the problem of infanticide.

c. There is the problem of euthanasia.

d. There is the problem of suicide.

e. There is the problem of homicide.

3) The heart of the issue is to understand the reasons why human life is valuable.

4. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. There is implicit in this reason the fact that God exists.

1) William Provine, a professor at Cornell University, said the following in 1998. “Naturalistic evolution has clear consequences that Charles Darwin understood perfectly. 1) No gods worth having exist; 2) no life after death exists; 3) no ultimate foundation for ethics exists; 4) no ultimate meaning in life exists; and 5) human free will is nonexistent.”

2) We don’t praise William Provine for his beliefs, but we do agree with his assessment.

3) If God does not exist, then human life can be only valuable in a relative sense.

2. But God exists.

1) Cosmological argument – argument from cause and effect.

2) Teleological argument – argument from design.

3) The moral argument – argument from morality.

4) This can’t be some god less than the greatest that can be.

5) This must be a transcendent God – above and beyond all things.

6) This must be the God that is responsible for all creation.

7) This must be a personal, individual God.

8) This must be a moral, righteous, and holy God.

9) This must be a God of truth.

10) Anything less than these could not be the true god.

3. God created all things.

1) Genesis 1:1 states “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

2) Isaiah 40:28 “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.”

3) True value can only come from an eternal and infinite God because only an eternal and infinite God possesses absolute value.

4. Out of all of God’s creation, man is special and unique.

1) Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

2) Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

3) Psalm 8:3-5 “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”

4) If we are going to assign any value to human life at all, God must exist and man must be created by God.

5. Human life is thus intrinsically valuable because . . .

1) God, the infinitely valuable One, created it.

2) God created man unique and special.

3) Thus, man’s life, as created by God, stands above that of all other living things.

4) Cows, dogs, pigs, rats, bugs, and microbes do not sustain the same relationship with God as man.

5) These creatures do not have the same value/worth as man.

1. Does man have an immortal soul?

1) Atheists deny this to be true.

a. When man dies, he is simply dead, never to return again.

b. Atheism implies that man has no intrinsic moral value.

2) Some religious people would deny this in an effort to escape the Bible’s doctrine of Hell.

a. In escaping that doctrine, however, they also devalue human life.

b. They do this by denying the only thing of eternal and absolute value that man has.

c. If the soul is not immortal, then life has no actual value in the present.

2. The Bible teaches man has a soul/spirit and that it was created by God.

1) Numbers 16:22 and 27:16 talk about “the God of the spirits of all flesh.”

2) Ecclesiastes 12:7 says that upon death, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

3) Zechariah 12:1 “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.”

3. The Bible teaches that this soul is immortal/eternal.

1) Matthew 25:26 implies immortality for both the righteous and wicked. “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

2) 2 Timothy 2:10 says regarding God’s grace “But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

4. Because the soul is created by God and immortal, it possesses an intrinsic value.

1) This means that all humans, regardless of what their personal situation is, have value.

2) The human child just conceived has value.

3) The severely autistic child has value.

4) The old woman in the nursing home with Alzheimer’s has value.

5) The man made “brain dead” by a car accident has value.

6) The woman suffering from cancer has value.

7) There is no human that does not have absolute and intrinsic value.

8) Each one’s life deserves our respect, care, and defense.

5. “Quality of Life”

1) Many want the standard of whether someone lives or dies to be based upon one’s “quality of life.”

2) The argument goes that if someone’s life isn’t of high enough quality, that is, they are not able to experience life’s pleasures or if one’s quality of life is filled with too much pain, then we are justified in terminating that life.

3) What if we judged whether someone lived or died based solely upon so called “quality of life.”

4) Who becomes the judge for what life has quality and what life doesn’t?

5) If the standard for “quality of life” is merely pain and suffering, then who sets the thresholds?

6) How long must one suffer before their quality of life is considered degraded to the point that they can now be put to death?

7) Older people suffer more than younger people. Should we set an age and mandate older people be put to death at that age?

8) People with disease suffer more than people without disease. Should we set a limit on the number of diseases one is allowed to have and after that he is put to death?

9) Poor people suffer more than rich people. Should we set a poverty line so that only those who make so much money get to live?

10) Less intelligent people suffer more than intelligent people. Should we give I.Q. tests to determine who lives and who dies?

11) Some races suffer more than other races. Should we start eliminating races or nationalities of people who suffer more than others?

12) Once we start judging who gets to live or die based upon so called “quality of life” it is a slippery slope to Nazism.

13) Quality of life simply cannot be measured by pleasure, pain and suffering.

14) Living humans possess fundamental quality intrinsically.

15) No one has the authority to take that away from them.

6. Accountable souls deserve the greatest opportunity God has given to be saved eternally.

1) God does not desire the death of the unrighteous.

2) Ezekiel 18:32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”

3) 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us–ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

4) If we hasten the death of sinners, how does that mesh with God’s desires?

5) Are we carrying out the great commission by so living?

7. What about “safe” souls?

1) “Safe” souls provide an opportunity for the accountable to demonstrate true love, mercy, and grace.

2) In Galatians 2:10 – the apostles were concerned about remembering the poor.

3) The unaccountable/non-responsible would be considered among this class.

4) When we treat these souls with any less dignity than any other human deserves, we cheapen our own existence to nothing more than pleasure seekers.

5) We undermine the absolute standard of right and wrong in favor of a relativistic standard of the value of life.

6) Caring for “safe” souls reinforces God’s absolute standard of morality.

1. An absolute standard is a standard that must exist for all equally in all places and times.

2. If God does not exist, then no absolute standard of morality could exist.

1) If man is all there is, then none has the absolute authority to tell any other how to live.

2) No group has the absolute authority to tell any other group how to behave.

3) No society has the absolute authority to tell any other society how to behave.

3. Similarly, if an absolute standard of morality exists, then God must exist.

1) If there is an absolute standard to which all must adhere, then it cannot come from people.

2) That standard must be beyond any given time and any given place.

3) That standard must come from God.

4. For human life to have any absolute value, an absolute standard must exist that protects that life.

1) If an absolute standard did not exist there would be no respect for human life.

2) Anyone could take the life of another with impunity.

5. The Bible indeed teaches an absolute standard of morality in regard to respect for innocent human life.

1) Proverbs 6:16-17 states that God hates “hands that shed innocent blood.”

2) Exodus 20:13 “Thou shalt not kill.” “Thou shalt do no murder.”

3) Matthew 19:18 “…Thou shalt do no murder….”

4) This standard is so absolute that death is pronounced upon those who violate it.

5) Exodus 21:12 “He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.”

6) There are also protections given for those who are falsely accused of murder.

7) Deuteronomy 19:9-10 “If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three: That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.”

1. Each one of us is worth the price that God paid—the blood of Christ.

1) “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

2) “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20).

2. This price was paid for all of mankind.

1) “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

2) “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).

3. No one else could pay this price.

4. Only God affirms man’s value by paying the price of the blood of His Son for man’s redemption.

1. Human life is valuable . . .

1) Because God created it.

2) Because the soul is immortal.

3) Because there is an absolute standard of morality.

4) Because Jesus died to save it.

2. Invitation