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Theological term

Political Use of the Law

1 sermon · All terms

Jan 15, 2017

The Bible and Abortion

Jim ButlerExodus 21:22–25

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.