Greetings Beloved,

I find myself hard-pressed and challenged by the Lord, as He inquires of my conscience, “Do you truly understand the value of a life?”

Mind you, the value of life is weaved through the whole of my beliefs and convictions as one of the pivotal centerpieces of my theology.  O, how I love the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who came to bring life and life to the full, even making mention of me before the Father, that I might be filled with the knowledge of God unto eternal life.  I understand that He knew each and every one of us before we were formed in our mother’s womb, knowing the hairs on our head and the number of our days.  It is no longer a mystery to me that He is pleased in His design of every human soul and frame, even in all of our intricacies and quirks, so that we might be a reflection of His glory and have great fellowship with Love Himself.  Nevertheless, this simple but convicting question pierces my conscience…

“Do I truly understand the value of a life?”

Most of us, if we have been in the church for any length of time, are probably acquainted with Jeremiah 1:5, which says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you…”, and also Psalm 139:16, which states, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” We know that, at the dawn of history, in Genesis 1:1, God had already numbered the hairs on our head, the days of our life, and the paths He had traced out for us.  And if we hold to a true, unadulterated and biblical world-view, we know that we were, quite literally, ‘dwelling’ in the loins of Adam when he walked in the garden (I will give scriptural support in just a bit).  By this we know that we are truly Adam’s seed, a fallen creation called to return to the Lord our God, that we might walk with Him again, redeemed by the blood of Christ, unto fellowship in the pleasures and perfection of God.  All of this, if taken to the full extent, testifies to the great value of human life (for we were in Adam’s loins), and also to our need to be re-born by grace, through faith in Christ (the only begotten of God).  It is here that we find the value of the mortal life, and the value of the eternal life.  Whenever we shed innocent blood, may it be abortion, euthanasia or otherwise, we chose to agree with death.  Whenever we make agreement with death, God condemns our souls.  Nevertheless, if we repent, thus breaking our covenant with death, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Let us then run toward the mercy seat of Christ!

I would like to take this even one step further.  I present to you a concept easily seen in the book of Hebrews, chapter 7.  In verse 10, God clearly describes Levi as existing in the loins of his ancestor Abraham. This is a physical reality, not an ethereal concept.  For if it were an ethereal concept, it could bring into question the significance of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, by which all our hope, life and salvation hinges.  If we fail to take this Scripture literally, we risk losing sight of the true nature of Jesus’ sacrifice and priesthood.  We must be consistent in all aspects of the Word of God, as all its contents point us toward the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

If Levi was in the loins of his ancestor, so were we in the loins of our ancestors, and the ancestor of us all is Adam.  Therefore I ask, “Do we understand what it means to have been ‘in the loins’ of Adam?”  This means that thousands of years ago we existed in the body of our ancestor. We were not only a thought or an intention in God’s heart, but we were within Adam in the garden, created beings whom God had already ordained to come forth some many generations later. Through Adam we receive the blessing of life from God, but through Adam we also received the curse of fallen mankind.

I earnestly believe that God is crying out for a people who will trust Him with the whole of their lives, believing that true prosperity is defined by the bearing of children (or by adopting them). What if we were fully committed to the blessings He longs to bestow upon us?  I am not saying that everyone needs to desire a large family in order to be godly, but let us not devalue human life. Children are an inheritance from the Lord.  Practically speaking, maybe you are unable to have children. You may still reap a reward from God by adopting children, helping others to adopt, or by giving of your finances or time to ministries that genuinely help children and families. The practical means to put your faith into action on this matter are endless.

We often say in the pro-life movement, ‘life begins at conception’. On a purely scientific level this has merit. Yet, on a much deeper and more divine level, our life and the lives of our children and grandchildren began at Genesis 1:1, when “in the beginning God created…”, or as it says in Psalm 33:9, “For He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm.” God ordained our lives from the beginning of time. When we, as adults, decide to ‘play God’, we commit two grievous sins called pride and murder.

It says in Psalm 25:12-13, “Who is the man that fears the Lord?… He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth.” We must understand that our heritage will result in eternal blessing if we bear children and raise them in the fear of the Lord.  Whenever we neglect, embitter, or abort our children, we jeopardize our heavenly inheritance and will not prosper in our ways. Instead, let us keep before us this great blessing, trusting in the grace and power of God, who pours out favor and prosperity upon those that honor life.

Come, let us return to the Lord, and cry out to Him that he would reveal to us the value of the human life.  I am still asking myself, “Do I truly understand the value of life?”

Beloved, we are made in His image!  May the peace and knowledge of God renew your minds through the revelation of Jesus!

-J. S. Marek