Cited in sermons
Randy Alcorn
11 sermons · All people cited
Sanctity of Life
The Sixth Commandment — 'You shall not murder' (Exodus 20:13) — extends its protection to the pre-born, grounding the prohibition against abortion in the doctrine of man as image-bearer of God. This sermon works through three lines of argument: the precise meaning of the Hebrew word for murder, the consistent biblical testimony to the sanctity of human life at every stage from conception to old age, and the specific case law of Exodus 21:22–23, which affords the pre-born equal legal protection under the lex talionis. The sermon closes with a call to press the law upon a culture that celebrates abortion, while proclaiming that the blood of Christ is sufficient to forgive all who have participated in this sin.
The Bible and Abortion
Abortion is not a political issue but a theological and ethical one — a violation of the Sixth Commandment against murder and a direct assault on the image of God borne by every human being from conception. This sermon works through Exodus 21:22–25 to demonstrate that the Mosaic case law governing accidental injury to a pregnant woman treats the pre-born child as a full person, applying the lex talionis — life for life — when the child is killed. Supporting passages from Genesis, Job, Psalms, Jeremiah, Luke, and Paul establish the biblical case for the personhood and sanctity of the pre-born. The sermon closes by calling the church to preach the whole counsel of God on this subject, to pursue sexual fidelity, to pray for the end of abortion, and to proclaim the gospel's mercy to all who have sinned in this way.
The Bible and Abortion
Abortion is not merely a political question but a theological one, demanding that Christians know what Scripture says about the pre-born. Working through Exodus 20:13 and Exodus 21:22–25, this sermon establishes the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder, grounds the sanctity of human life in the doctrine of the image of God (traced from creation through the incarnation), and demonstrates from the Mosaic case law that even accidental harm to a pre-born child carried the full force of the lex talionis — life for life. The sermon closes by addressing the church's responsibility to preach both law and gospel, to vote and live consistently with the conviction that abortion is both sin and crime, and to extend the forgiveness of Christ to those who have been party to this particular transgression.
The Sixth Commandment
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), rests upon the foundation of the imago Dei — the conviction that every human being, from the pre-born to the elderly, bears the image of the Creator, and that to assault an image-bearer is to assault God himself. The sermon distinguishes murder from lawful killing, arguing from Genesis 9, Exodus 22, and Romans 13 that capital punishment, self-defense, and just war are not violations of the commandment but are grounded in the same principle that makes murder heinous: the sanctity of human life. Modern applications — abortion, euthanasia, and the neglect of capital punishment — are examined in light of both Old and New Testament texts, and the sermon closes by directing those who have participated in these sins to the pardoning grace of Christ.
The Bible and Abortion
Exodus 21:22–25 is examined as a direct biblical address to the ethics of abortion, situating the text within the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder and the broader biblical witness to the sanctity of human life from conception to death. The sermon argues that the Hebrew vocabulary of the passage — the language of childbirth rather than miscarriage — establishes that God's law affords protection, including capital sanction, to pre-born image-bearers of God. The image of God in man, displayed across every stage of human life from Genesis to James, grounds the absolute moral prohibition of abortion and exposes the moral bankruptcy of societies and churches that disregard it. Hearers are called to informed prayer, faithful proclamation of the law, sexual purity, and confidence in the sufficiency of Christ's blood to forgive even this sin.
The Shedding of Innocent Blood
The sixth commandment's prohibition of murder, grounded in the doctrine of man as image-bearer of God, applies with full force to abortion. This sermon works through Exodus 21:22–25 to demonstrate that the Mosaic civil law affords explicit legal protection to both mother and pre-born child, and that the correct translation of the passage — 'she gives birth prematurely' rather than 'she miscarries' — is exegetically decisive for the abortion debate. The sanctity of human life is established across the full range of human existence: before the fall, after it, in children, the pre-born, the handicapped, the sick, and the elderly — and is ultimately grounded in the Incarnation, by which Christ assumed and thereby dignified human flesh. The sermon closes by calling the church to informed prayer, chaste living, and flight to the cross, where there is full forgiveness even for those implicated in abortion.
The Murder of the Preborn, Part 1
Exodus 21:22–25 provides the case-law context for examining what Scripture teaches about the sanctity of human life, the personhood of the preborn, and the biblical prohibition against abortion. The sermon grounds the argument against abortion in the imago Dei — man is not merely made in God's image but is the image of God, a dignity that extends from conception through old age and that no civil court or medical consensus can override. The preborn child is demonstrated to be a full human person through the consistent testimony of Genesis, the Psalms, the Prophets, and the New Testament, while the Lex Talionis of Exodus 21 establishes that taking the life of a child in the womb carries the full capital sanction reserved for murder. Hearers are called to understand, articulate, and act upon this biblical truth — in their prayer closets, at the ballot box, and in their own personal holiness.
The Sin of Abortion
Abortion is not primarily a political question but a theological one, grounded in the biblical doctrine that every human being bears the image of God from the moment of conception. This exposition of Exodus 21:22–25 argues that the case law of Israel assigns the full protections of lex talionis to the pre-born child, treating even accidental abortion as a capital offense — which renders intentional abortion an act of murder. The sermon also addresses the abortifacient mechanisms of certain contraceptives as an extension of the same ethical concern, and closes by directing those who bear guilt over past abortions to the forgiveness available in Christ.
A Biblical View of Abortion
Exodus 21:22–25 presents a case of accidental premature birth caused by fighting men, and the lex talionis applied to any resulting harm — including harm to the child — establishes that the pre-born bear full legal and moral standing under the law of God. This sermon argues that abortion is first and foremost a theological issue, an assault on the imago Dei, and that the church is without excuse in its silence or ambiguity on this question. Drawing on texts from Genesis through the New Testament, the preacher demonstrates that the pre-born are persons from conception, that the civil use of God's law restrains even unregenerate society, and that the church must respond with weeping, prayer, witness, and gospel proclamation.
The Sanctity of Life
The sanctity of human life is grounded not in sentiment but in the biblical doctrine that God created man in his own image — a dignity that persists after the fall and extends to every category of person, including the preborn. Exodus 21:22–25 is examined as a text that directly addresses the legal standing of the unborn: the lex talionis applied to a premature birth demonstrates that God's law protects prenatal life with the same weight it protects any other. The sermon then takes up the wickedness of murder across its biblical dimensions — divine prohibition, divine hatred, divine observation, and divine punishment, including eternal judgment — while insisting that the church's primary instrument against these evils is the preaching of the gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith alone, under which even those guilty of abortion may find forgiveness in Christ.
A Christian View of Abortion
Abortion is not a political question but a theological and ethical one, answered definitively by Scripture. This sermon works through the biblical case for the sanctity of human life from creation to law, grounds the personhood of the pre-born in texts from Genesis through Luke, and then expounds Exodus 21:22–25 to show that God's law affords full legal protection — including the lex talionis — to the unborn child and the mother alike. Christians are called to weep over this ongoing atrocity, to arm themselves with Scripture, to pray and witness faithfully, and to proclaim both the law that condemns and the gospel that saves to all who have participated in it.