DEFINING HUMANITY

Point: a New Jersey couple sued their doctor for allowing the “wrongful birth” of their Down Syndrome child. Sadly, they are not the only ones: over 300 such cases have been filed in recent years.
Point: in Louisiana, embryos conceived “in vitro” (i.e., by joining sperm and egg in a laboratory, rather than in the womb) are protected by law. However, as soon as an “in vitro” embryo is successfully implanted into a human uterus, it can be aborted legally until the moment of birth.
Point: a pregnant Indianapolis woman was charged with attempted murder because she shot herself in the abdomen trying to kill her unborn child. Ironically, she lived not far from an abortion “clinic” where she could have had the child killed legally.
These three points typify our society’s efforts to redefine humanity. Because we seem incapable of determining what a human being is, we are at a loss to state when real human life begins. “What is humanity?” we ask, but we just can’t seem to find the answer.
King David asked the same question over 3,000 years ago. Listen to his inspired ponderings about human existence and meaning.
“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 honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
The basis for understanding humanity is right there. Did you see it?
“Thou hast made him . . .” There’s the key: we are created. We are not independent beings. We owe our existence to our Creator.
Because we are not self-made, we are therefore not self-defining. Only He Who made us has the right to define our existence. He has, in fact, already done so in Holy Scripture. He has told us two basic truths about why we exist.
First, we are created for His glory. We hold this purpose in common with the rest of creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). God plainly declares His intention for those He formed and made, stating, “I have created [them] for My glory” (Isaiah 43:7). Therefore, the Apostle Paul exhorted believers to live up to their created purpose: “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist. Our uniqueness is founded upon the fact that we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). Nothing else in the entire universe can claim this attribute. Only humanity has this distinction.
We are creations of God uniquely designed to reflect His image back to Him in worship and to the rest of creation in stewardship. Once we understand that, it changes everything about our lives, from conception to death. We’ll look at this in more detail next Friday.
Next week: In His Image for His Glory