Sanctity of Human Life & Post-Abortive People

Closing Remarks

 When I speak of “hiding” I mean that I was hiding from God, and everyone else.  This wasn’t necessarily the Church’s fault.  It was mine for believing the lie that, even after repenting and turning my life over to Christ, I wasn’t worthy of the love and forgiveness of Jesus.  I believed, as many post-abortive people do, that I had to work to earn my place in God’s family, and if anyone found out, they would cast me out for the sinner that I was.  Because what I had done was so much worse than what anyone else had.  So I hid; a captive to fear.  But we know that true love casts out fear, and that there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.  So we need to be taught this in our churches and bible studies, reminded of what this looks like in our small groups, and shown how to live this out by mature men and women of the faith.

This is an area where the Church falls short; church isn’t a safe place to share your struggles most of the time.  It’s easier and less messy to slap on a smile and spout “everything’s good,” when in reality so many of us are broken and hurting on the inside.  But that is because of human pride.  We want to be accepted and “good enough,” in when fact not a one of us is.  We each are equally not good enough, save our redemption through Jesus Christ.  Thus, as a grace-filled and faithful people, we need to be the safe place, for the only genuine and lasting solution to broken and sinful humanity is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  While the truth of the gospel is salvific for those who respond, it is the process of discipling people – helping fellow believers grow in their relationship with God, working out our sanctification among a healthy and mature group – that enacts change in the life of the believer.  We are to be building one another up in the faith, teaching the younger among us how to walk righteously and live godly lives, to encourage and support and helping one another when we fail.  We are to be a people of grace, in theory and practice.     

   

There are churches that excel in this practice.  Indeed, had it not been for one very brave women’s ministry leader and an extremely supportive and God-honoring church leadership team, I might be burdened with the guilt and shame from my abortion still.  Though they didn’t understand the nuances of the prison post-abortive people find themselves in, even after salvation, this church knew that Jesus came to heal the broken-hearted, and that included the post-abortive population (which they admit they had no idea was as big as it really is).  And they did this because they believe the gospel – that the heart of God is to see His people redeemed and set free from the effects their sins have upon their lives. 

And I know now, after hiding for 9 years in the backs of churches and staying silent at bible studies and small groups, that transparency and vulnerability breed further transparency and vulnerability.  It takes those who have truly found freedom in Christ to say, “This is my story of the grace of God in my life,” so that others may know the power of the gospel and the truth of a changed life.  Truly, had it not been for the testimony of a post-abortive women some 14 years ago, I might not be among God’s people today.  For the enemy is overcome by the blood of the lamb and word of our testimony, to the glory of the Lord.  This is what a grace-filled community looks like – realizing that no one is “good enough,” that we are all equally “bad” except for the grace of Jesus, and that our stories are for His glory.  That is how we attract new followers: living out changed lives, filled with God’s grace, among a world in such desperate need.   

If you are someone who has experienced and abortion in you past, please know that you are LOVED.  And you are not alone.  Please know that you can reach out -- there are so many genuine and loving people who want to help you through your pain.  The links below are to ministries that I am personally acquainted with and trust.  Or you can contact me.  I am willing to answer any questions, offer what help I can, and pray with you -- confidentially.  Because you, dearest one, are loved by the Maker of the Stars.  

Click the following link to see a video presentation of why abortion recovery is so important, for women, for men, for couples, and for church leaders.  Abortion Recovery

Surrendering the Secret (Nationally for women and couples)

Rachel's Vineyard (Nationally for women and men, Catholic)

ARIN (Nationally for women, men, and couples)

Life Choices Pregnancy Center (in Colorado)

Me: Jen Baros, jen@jenbaros.com |or| @jenKbaros on twitter

To see where we've been in this mini-series on "Sanctity of Human Life Sunday & Post-Abortive People," go to questions 1 & 2 or questions 3 & 4 or questions 5 & 6.  Thank you for joining us.  

JESUS: an unvieling of GOD

As part of our new family devotionals, the minis have learned their first Koine phrase:

Egw emi.

“I AM HE.”

It is found in Luke 4, and is the first and most efficient time Jesus tells someone who He is.  His audience, a woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria, would have recognized the God language, the utter audacity, of this statement.  Particularly because she had just referenced the messiah’s impending coming.  She did, of course, believe this bold and clear statement; and subsequently became the first foreign evangelizer.   

At our house, we say it in hushed tones.  Unless, of course, you’re the eight-year-old boy; in that case you shout it so that everyone in the canyon can hear.  Jesus’ proclamation that He is the messiah; He is God.  So much beauty and eternity in four syllables.  Which is why I subjected the minis to memorizing it, so that they can have it etched on their hearts.  This simple and beautiful truth, that Jesus is the Christ, and He is God.    

               But what do we do with this God-language today? 

               What does it mean to us that Jesus says, “I AM?” 

As it has since that day at Jacob’s well, it means that Jesus is the revelation of God – His life on earth illustrates perfectly for us, so much as we can comprehend, who God is and what God is about.       

{read: Matthew 11:25-30}

In Matthew’s gospel, as Jesus is teaching in Galilee, he very clearly asserts that he is a special revelation of God by crediting the Father as the source of his miracles, power, and knowledge of the kingdom of heaven; and then telling his followers that no one can know God the Father without the Son revealing him to them (Matt. 11:27).  As with his declaration to the Samaritan woman, Christ’s statement is concise and effective.  Jesus Christ is the supreme and sufficient, specific revelation of God the Father to his people Israel, to the Gentiles, and to us these 2,000 years later. 

Bruce Demarest and Gordon Lewis make a strong case for Jesus Christ as the pinnacle special revelation of God in volume 1 of Integrated Theology.  Citing another segment of Matthew (16:17), they note that the verb Jesus uses to commend Peter’s confession of him as the Son of God is “apokalypto, which occurs twenty-six times in the New Testament, [and] signifies the removal of a covering and hence the disclosure of what was previously hidden or unknown.”[1]  Demarest and Lewis also note that in infancy narrative in Luke the noun form apokalypsis is used by Simeon when he is “filled with the Holy Spirit, cradl[ing] the infant Jesus in his arms and described him as ‘a light for revelation [apokalypsis] to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel’ (Luke 2:32).”[2]  For the eighteen times this noun appears in the New Testament, it consistently carries with it the connotation of a divine revelation. 

Ray Dunning agrees with Lewis and Demarest, in that the incarnation of Jesus is a revealing of God.  Dunning asserts that “If general revelation leads one only to knowledge of the law, then special revelation must carry us on to the gospel.”[3]  Dunning sees prevenient grace {grace that comes before, is expectant or anticipatory}  as the expression of general revelation; thus Jesus Christ is how God is known through special revelation.[4]  It is the incarnation and propitiation of Jesus for the sins of the world that most specifically reveal God to his creation.  For Dunning, God is best seen and most deeply known through the person and sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Where Theology Can Go Wrong     

Feminist scholars[5], such as Pamela Dickey Young and Radford Ruether, agree with Dunning that the incarnation of Jesus is a unique event in the special revelation of God, for “in Jesus [Christians] see God’s presence, God’s love and care exemplified.”[6]  However, they do not consider Jesus to be the final or ultimate revelation of God.  In fact, some such as Ruether attribute to the person of Jesus a “’messianic humanity’ who is disclosed…in many times and places.”[7]  For Ruether, saying that only Jesus embodies the “timeless revelation” of the Christ closes the revelation of this messianic humanity, which she believes is “continue[ing] to be disclosed to [the Church] in our sisters and brothers.”[8]  If the revelation of the messianic humanity were closed, the only way to apprehend the truths revealed therein would be through the apostolic teachings, which feminist theologians feel “leaves no more room for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, no room for [the Church] to hear God speaking to us in the present.”[9]  Therefore, feminist theologians like Ruether acknowledge the special revelation of God through the incarnation of Jesus Christ; however, they do not hold that it was a specific, one-time revelation that was separate from the revelation of God through his Holy Spirit, and is closed to further revelation.

The danger in this theory is that it while the Holy Spirit does inspire men and women, and believers after Christ’s heavenly ascension have heard from God, neither of these examples equate to the eternity-altering reality of the Divinity Incarnate in Jesus Christ.  No other event in human history can so singularly and efficiently illume who God is and what He is like.  Even inspired by the Holy Spirit, we are gazing through a mirror darkly, unable to adjust our finite human eyes to the glory of Almighty God.  Thus, just like Christ’s simplistic declaration to a Samaritan woman, His incarnation boldly proclaims who God is and how He interacts with His creation; and He does so in a concrete way that finite human being can understand.  Secondly, holding to the doctrine of open messianic revelation, the position suggested by the feminist theologians, allows for subsequent messiahs to reveal more about God.  This is dangerously similar to the claims made by Islam and Mormonism.  It directly undermines the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ, which is outlined in the opening chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  Christ is all.  And that is enough.   

Summary
Instead, we must forward a gospel-driven doctrine of special revelation in the person of Jesus.  As Dunning suggests, this means that God’s grace was eternally present and available to creation, but finds its specific culmination in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, once and for all who so choose to follow him.  Thus, only Jesus reveals more about who God is and how He relates to human beings and all of His creation than any other event in human history.      

Want to know where we've been in this series?  Click the links below for more. 

Why Theology? | How do we do this? | What are attributes? | What's Omnipresence? | What's Transcendence? | What's Revelation? | Is Scripture Inerrant?

 

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[1] Demarest, Bruce and Gordon Lewis.  Integrated Theology: Knowing the Ultimate Reality of the Living God. vols 1 & 2.  Grand Rapids: Academie Books, 1987.  Volume 1, page 105.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Dunning, H. Ray.  Grace, Faith, and Holiness: A Wesleyan Systematic Theology.  Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1988. Page 171.

[4] Ibid., 162

[5] Again, though I am a Christian Feminist, I do not identify with the branch of Theology currently labeled “feminist theology.”  A Christian Feminist is defined as a Christ-follower who seeks gender equality afforded through the Incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as it was part of the pre-curse, original creation, and is opposed to vaulting one sex over another.  See Christians for Biblical Equality for further definitions and the scriptural basis for this view.     

[6] Young, Pamela Dickey. Feminist Theology/Christian Theology: In Search of Method. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. Page 99.

[7] Ibid., page 38

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

A Watery Gospel

A few weeks ago, I wrote this post outlining 6 ways Christians should deal with the topic of abortion.  A good friend, whose thoughtful insight I respect, responded to my social media wall, in part:

“One problem is that we have watered down the gospel message to make it palatable to the non-believer as opposed to letting the Holy Spirit change the hearts of people. Jesus called for repentance of sin (Go and Sin no More), yet our churches talk about love being sufficient…Though there is no need for hate speech, preaching the true gospel as Jesus did, is not hate speech and unfortunately it seems to be labeled by the world AND A LARGE PORTION OF THE CHURCH as such.” – Jason Laurie, of School of Fish {www.schooloffish.wordpress.com}

I then read this post by Rachel Held Evans, and have been ruminating on the pendulous views of these two believers; for I see therein the scope of contemporary Christianity regarding abortion.  Thus I return again to the topic, for clarification, for those who may not yet have the courage or ability to speak, and for those who simply aren’t sure what to say.

                   

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD…

There is no price for which I would kill my only son.  There is no price for which I would sacrifice my only daughter.  Frankly, should you all be damned, I will never sacrifice my children on your behalf. 

                Thank God I’m not Him.   

But God, in His love, sent His Only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you and for me.  Yet before Christ was sentenced to death, He sought out people who were ravaged by sin, so mired in it, so broken by it that the religious people of their day would have nothing to do with them.  And He saved the lost.  He healed the broken.  He restored the sinners.  Jesus, Divinity incarnate, sought out these people not to demand repentance of them so that He could heal them; Jesus healed them so that they could repent.  And when Jesus admonished the adulteress woman to “go and sin no more,” it is only after her accusers have dispersed (John 8:2-11).  It was a moment shared between only God’s Son and this sinner.  Meant for her heart – not for public consumption.  Meant to work out her salvation in her, meant to form her spirit, meant to protect her from the further evils of which each human being drawing breath is capable.  Repentance is not a clarion call the religious folk are told to make prior to offering God’s Grace – it is Christ’s, it is the Holy Spirit’s, it is God’s.  For each one of us is filthy and decrepit and worthless.  Each one of us is a condemned sinner.

                                                BUT FOR THE BLOOD OF JESUS.

  Of the 75 times the Bible calls for repentance, 48 are in the books of the prophets.  These men issued the call for repentance to the Nation of Israel because she had abandoned her primary role of caring for the “least of these” (Jeremiah, Daniel, Matthew 24).  Effectively, most Israelites were leaving those who had no standing in the patriarchal society that was bent on keeping the outcast, foreigner, single woman, and orphan from the promised blessings of Yahweh (land, generational proliferation, relation to the messianic kingdom) to fend for themselves.  Abandoning those who, without assistance, would never be able to be free from their poverty, station,  or un-cleanness.  Forsaking these people so that they were without hope, without protection, without help.  Yes, the call to repent was a call to return to Yahweh; but that return required behaving as Yahweh had instructed: to care for these who could not care for themselves and who were just as loved by the Almighty as those who brought fellowship offerings out of their abundance.

In the contemporary context, one must admit that the unborn must be among “least of these.”    

But what about the women, pregnant and frightened, who feel they have nowhere else to turn – that they have no one other than the friendly folks down at Planned Parenthood to trust?

 If women in crisis feel their only hope lies with the Kermit Gosnells of this world, what would God say to His church in light of this?

 

Dearest one, let me be perfectly clear: Love is not accepting or tolerating or enabling sinful behavior.  Love is recognizing that not a single person is free from sin – save JESUS CHRIST, Himself.  Love is the truth that every person ever is guilty of sin unto death.  Be it murder of the unborn or self-focused pride.  Every single one of us deserves death.  I, beloved, deserve to die.  As do you. 

                                                BUT FOR JESUS. 

Jesus first healed, restored, and saved people from their illnesses, demons, and sins, because no person can come to the Lord righteous and clean without this work of Christ first.  Jesus didn’t require public repentance, didn’t first demand righteousness from those in need of Him.  He knew that He was their only hope.  As His followers, should we not emulate Jesus and seek these people out where they are – to find them in their hurt, to minister to them in their confusion and brokenness, to go ourselves into the sinful places so that we might bring this hope and light with us?  

One wonders – How many Christians have sat in the waiting rooms of Planned Parenthood – ready only to hold the hands or catch the frightened tears of those in line to exterminate their babies?  How many Christ-followers are there now, wanting only to show love to these lost and broken women? 

Yes, that is an extreme thought, but dial it back a bit: HOW MANY CHRISTIANS HAVE EVER EVEN CROSSED THAT THRESHOLD?  Or stood outside, not in angry picket lines, but with a tender smile and the offer of a cup of coffee over which to talk and a listening ear, not to preach, but to know – to witness – the hurt and fear of the woman struggling with this life-ending choice?   

It’s safer to sit behind our computer screens and pass judgment, to meet in our coffee shops and blast the lost for being deceived, to smugly pat ourselves on the back for not being one of those.  Or, worse, to posit such ambiguity and confusion regarding the topic of abortion under the guise of I-don’t-know-what-to-do that we are left impotent and useless on a national stage. *

I’m going to suggest, dear one, that until we as a church can say that we have done this, until we’ve taken a deep breath and ventured into a Planned Parenthood Clinic {dear, God – WHY are they most prolific in the poorest neighborhoods?!  What does this say about whom we as a society value—the richest, the whitest, the most suburban of all children?}, we cannot sit self-righteously in condemnation.  For the propensity of this evil lives in each one of us: we are all capable of murder.  Jesus said thus in his Olivet Discourse.  We are all guilty of murder in our hearts.  And only God is righteous to judge. 

Friends, we must remember that it is not our place to accept anyone into the kingdom – that honor rests solely with Almighty God, for it is His Kingdom, and His alone.  We are the adopted children, filthy sinners, who have been invited in and covered in His Son’s clothes of bloody righteousness.  We are not the arbiters of who’s in and who’s out.  And the moment we forget this, we become the Pharisees.  We have been given the distinct privilege and honor of sharing the Gospel, and of rejoicing with the angels when this truth is rooted into another life.     

Because, as capable of evil as every human is, Christ followers -- empowered by the Holy Spirit are capable of the most beautiful light.  We have the power and ability, through the resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit indwelling us, to alter this world for good.  To change one life at a time.  To save one baby.  To rescue one mother.  To restore one father.  To advance the glorious kingdom of Almighty God, for the good of all humanity and creation, by the power of Grace within us.    

May we ever be amazed by the Lord’s Grace.  May it never cease to be as magnificent as when we first received it.  May we, like a fount, overflow it into the darkest places in our fallen world.  For the coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God. 

~Amen.

 

*{This article by Rachel Held Evans and all the comments thereto are a tragic example of what contemporary “progressive” Christians think about abortion.  I am compelled to clarify that I generally admire Ms. Held Evan’s work on behalf of women, and advocate for her views thus.  But as this article and its comments show, an entire generation of Christians (and non) have absorbed the lies spouted by the abortion industry, yet try to hold this view in conjunction with their faith and end up with a discordant struggle because the two are necessarily, mutually exclusive.  Confusion of the issue, as Ms. Held Evans presents here, is exactly why we are a nation in desperate need of truth – both in their realm of science (no self-respecting embryologist would claim that life begins at any point other than at conception) and in our churches.}                

 

Formation in 5 Books

I once again find myself in the tension between having the formation of a post stealing my sleep, and the end of the semester breathing down my neck (3 papers, 1 quiz, and 2 finals remain).  The post that is consuming my waking, non-study time is one I want to address with appropriate thoughtfulness and research, as it is in response to a comment about my previous abortion post.  I will return to it later this week; yet , for today, it sadly has to yield to my assignments.    

In its place, I offer a list of the five most formative books I’ve read since I’ve been in seminary.  Three of which have also provided me with the distinct pleasure of studying under the authors; and to which I return most frequently.  I know these may seems cumbersome because they are textbooks, but if you desire to love the Lord your God with all your mind as we are commanded to, I highly recommend these: 

Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey

 by Dr. Craig L. Blomberg

From Pentecost to Patmos: An Introduction to Acts through Revelation

by Dr. Craig L. Blomberg

 

Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith

by Dr. Douglas Groothuis

 

 

 

Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us

by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

 

 

Discovering Biblical Equality: Complentarity without Hierarchy

edited by Ronald W. Pierce and  Rebecca Merrill Groothuis