Abortion and Treason

As I was driving around town yesterday, I noticed the bumper sticker on the car in front of me: “pro-choice and proud.” I was disgusted and saddened, and then I pondered for a moment how revealing such a message was about the universal human condition. I thought about the fall of man as recorded in Genesis 3. The devil in the form of a crafty serpent told Eve that by eating of the tree that God had forbidden, she and her husband would not die but instead would be “like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Enticed by the serpent, Adam and Eve decided to eat of the fruit of that tree. This was not just a lapse of judgment; it signified profound rebellion against their Maker. It was as if they thought, “God warned us that we will surely die if we do this, but we know better than God. He must be keeping something good from us. We will be gods unto ourselves.” Since then, every one of us is born with the inclination to rebel against God, for “by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19). None of us is neutral in relation to God; naturally our minds are hostile to God (Romans 8:7). And the root of this rebellion is pride: man places himself on the throne of his life and becomes the arbiter of what is good and evil, right and wrong. C.J. Mahaney, quoting Charles Bridges, describes this as “contending for supremacy with God” (Humility, p. 31).

The “pro-choice and proud” bumper sticker is just another tragic example confirming the treasonous nature of mankind: “We, and not God, will decide at what point a living fetus is worthy of the term ‘human being.’ We know better than God. In fact, we are gods unto ourselves, and we will make our own judgments as to whether abortion is evil or not.”

Has shaking our fists against God brought us liberation and satisfaction? Far from it! It has brought death into the world, made us slaves to sin, placed us under a curse, and destined us for the just wrath of a holy God. But eternal thanks be to God for sending His only Son into the world to absorb such fierce and holy wrath on a cross for the sins of all who would turn from their treason and trust in Him.

I prayed for the owner of that vehicle, that he would taste the saving grace of God purchased by Jesus Christ at Calvary. Only the power of the Gospel can reverse the curse of sin and reconcile us to the glorious and all-satisfying God for whom we were made, so that we desire to turn from being proud self-exalters to humbled Christ-exalters.

[I am indebted to John Piper’s sermon “Abortion and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” for the insights in this blog].