God's Word the Bible tells us that human beings are unique—different from all the rest of creation, including the animals—because we alone are made to be like God. Genesis 1:27 tells us:
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27).
Every man and woman, boy and girl, shares the image of God. And this is the heart of the reason why God forbids murder. The sixth commandment is "Thou shalt not murder" (Exodus 20:13).

God will not tolerate murder because each of us is precious to Him, made in His image and likeness. God commands the death penalty for murderers:
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man (Genesis 9:6).
Human life is precious to God and since we claim to be His children we ought also to hold it as precious. Thus the first question demanding our attention is the status of the little thing floating in its mother's womb.

Some, though, wouldn't agree. They'd say we should begin our discussion of the Bible and abortion by speaking of the law and religious pluralism, of toleration of different faith systems’ teaching on the morality of abortion. Still others would want us to begin our discussion by speaking about the mother herself and her right—indeed, her duty—to act as a responsible moral agent exercising the decision-making capacity God has given to her. They would emphasize that these mothers are accountable to God to be good stewards of the resources they have been given.

But these and all other considerations are far down the road from the one consideration which is of absolutely primary importance: namely, what is the status of this little body tucked away in its mother's womb?

• Is this a person made in the image of God or isn't it?
• Is this a life or isn't it?
• Do God's commands against shedding innocent blood extend to the blood of this little one or not?
• When God's Word warns us:
  "Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, or the widow. And do not shed innocent blood in this place" (Jeremiah 22:3); or when Jesus warned His disciples, "Whoever welcomes a little child...in my name welcomes me. ...See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 18:5,10);
  are such passages to be taken as warnings of God’s protection for the little one in its mother’s womb?

This question demands our attention: "What is the status of this little one?"

Not, what right does the mother have to control her own body—after all, the right that the Bible speaks of is the right to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, and the right to take up our cross and follow Jesus.

Nor is our first concern some supposed duty the mother has as a moral agent to exercise good stewardship in a finite world.

Rather, the first question is: What is it that we have here? Or, Who is it that we have here?
"The Lord said to me, "I knew you before you were formed within your mother's womb, before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world." (Jeremiah 1:4).

You made all my delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. You were there when I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breath. Every day was recorded in your book. (Psalm 139:13-16).

Listen to me, all you in far-off lands: the Lord called me before my birth. From within the womb He called me by name (Isaiah 49:1,5).
And in Galatians 1:15,16 we read:
But God, in His grace, chose me even before I was born, and called me to serve Him (Galatians 1:15,16).
What do these passages of Scripture, and others like them, teach us about this little one in its mother's womb?

They teach us that God, our Heavenly Father, knows each one of these little ones. Psalm 139 shows us that:

• God is with this little one while it is being formed.
• God looks on—sees—this little one.
• God schedules each day of this little one's life even before it begins to breathe.
• This little one's life is recorded in God's Book before it is born.

And the Jeremiah and Isaiah texts demonstrate that:

• God knows this little one personally.
• Jeremiah had been set apart as a prophet by God before he was born.
• God called Isaiah to his work while in the Womb and He called Isaiah there by name!

Evidently, we know quite a bit about God's relationship with this little one—but do we know anything about this little one's relationship with God? Does Scripture that shows us whether this little one is capable of responding to God in its mother's womb?

Each year during the Advent season we hear the following Scripture fresh read. It is found in the account of Mary and Elizabeth greeting one another while pregnant with their miracle conceptions—Jesus and John the Baptist:
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy." (Luke 1:39-44)
The Greek word used here for 'baby' is the same word (brephos) used in a number of other places in the New Testament for newborn babies, and even for young children. But that's not the crucial thing here.

The crucial thing here is that John the Baptist began to carry out his calling to be the one who prepared the way for the Lord, he began to do his job, while he was still in His mother's womb. Elizabeth, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that the leap was a was a leap of joy. And joy is an emotion.

Why did John the Baptist leap for joy? Well, can there be any other answer than this: John the Baptist was filled with joy as he welcomed His Master.

Let’s review what we know about these little ones:

• God was with them in the darkness of their mother's womb.
• God watched them there.
• God scheduled every day of their lives there.
• God wrote their biography there.
• God knew and called them by name there.
• God gave them their job, their calling, there.
• God was intimately acquainted with them there.
• God set them apart for holiness there

And concerning the John the Baptist, we know he responded to God there in his mother's womb with joy!

Now, all through our discussion of these passages I have referred to the fetus as the "little one" and I have used the word 'it' for my possessives. But really, this was—and is—foolishness. This isn't "a little one in its mother's womb." This is a precious child in his mother's womb. This is a child, alive, known, set apart, loved and named by God, as helpless and tender a creature as any on earth.

And to say that "there are no specific rules against killing these little babies in Scripture" is foolishness.

Evil days give birth to strange mutations in discussions of right and wrong today, just as Jesus warned us, and in an effort to give God's blessing to these killings, some do indeed argue that since the Bible doesn't explicitly command us not to abort the babies in our wombs, we are free to choose it as an option to end an unwanted pregnancy. This is what is meant by "freedom of choice." And there are those who would even dare to say that this can be a responsible, a moral and ethical, a good choice—indeed, a Christian choice.

Blasphemy!

Because the Bible doesn’t specifically condemn every permutation of evil ever conceived doesn't mean followers of Jesus Christ may engage in that evil.

Down through the ages both Jewish and Christian interpreters of Scripture have, with one voice, condemned the destruction of the unborn. Summing up the whole Judeo-Christian tradition of Biblical interpretation on abortion, George Williams, a professor of church history at Harvard Divinity School, said:
Two thousand years of Jewish-Christian history maintain that the fetus is a person with the right to life.
And again and again, down through history, right up until about twenty years ago the great interpreters of the Bible used many different passages of Scripture to argue for the protection of babies in their mothers' wombs. One quotation from many I could choose to illustrate the 2000 years of clear teaching on this matter is John Calvin’s comments on Exodus 21:22, a passage of Scripture that gives laws concerning an accidental miscarriage:
The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to life.
One very common statement heard during discussions this sort is, “Well, everyone has a different opinion of what the Bible means so how do you know which one is right?”

But is the meaning of Scripture unclear here?

No: the Bible is unambiguous in stating that the killing of innocent human life is wrong, unambiguous in stating that God is the Creator of all human life, and unambiguous in stating that God enters into relationships with men and women in their mother's womb. And for more than 3000 years Judeo-Christian tradition has unambiguously condemned abortion as an act of terrible wickedness.

Speaking of the modern world, the great American novelist of the 20th century, Flannery O'Conner, a devout Christian, said that modern men and women, rejecting God's goodness, create their own. She wrote:
We govern by tenderness…which (has been) long since cut off from the person of Christ (and) is wrapped in theory.

When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcome is terror. It ends in forced labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber.