The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Kayla M. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Research on the Sanctity of Life
Throughout His Word, God reveals to us that life is a precious gift from Him. With this revelation comes responsibility –we must treasure and protect the gift of life with which He has entrusted us.
Human life is sacred because God created us in His own image. In Genesis 2, God fashions Adam with His hands out of the dust and "breathes into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen. 2:7). This vivid depiction of God's creative act sets human beings apart from the rest of creation as special. The reason for this "setting apart" or "sanctification" is clear; God "created man in His own image" (Gen.1:27). As the crowning glory of His creation, God stamped His own likeness on a human being and endowed him with the precious gift of life, the opportunity to explore and rule over creation while communing with his Maker.
Since God is the One who bestows the gift of life, it still belongs to Him even after He first gives it. In awe of God, Jeremiah writes that "a man's life is not his own" (Jer. 10:23). This serves as a powerful reminder that life proceeds only from the hand of God; we must treasure it in response and treat it the way He commands. Since life belongs to God, it is for Him alone to decide when it should begin and end. "I put to death and I bring to life," says the LORD in Deuteronomy 32:39. Life coming straight from the hand of God is not only precious; it is costly as well. The "ransom for a life is costly; no payment is ever enough" (Ps. 49:8). For this reason God established the death penalty in ancient Israel, impressing upon His people the intrinsic value of human life.
As revealed in God's Word, the precious value of human life does not begin at birth. "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you," says the Lord in Jeremiah 1:5. His loving, omniscient care for human life begins ""in the depths of the earth" where we are "woven together" (Ps. 139:15). God's care for sacred human life continues as He "knits" (Ps. 139:13) us together in the womb. Life is holy before birth. From its very beginning in the "secret place" (Ps. 139:15), God's design for life is evident, and He shapes it as the precious mystery that it is. Since God has revealed the sanctity of life to us in His Word, we have a responsibility to value it the way He does, to care for and protect life just as He does. In awe at the precious gift of life He has created, we can say with the psalmist, ""I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps. 139:14).
God's gift of life continues after creation and conception. He has given us a gift even more precious than life itself- Jesus Christ, in whom we can enjoy eternal life. In Jesus is "life…the light of men"" (John 1:4). During His ministry on earth, He healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, and raised the dead to life. "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Sent from the Father, Jesus' self-proclaimed mission is to bring us eternal life. The only gift from God's hand more precious than holy human life is the everlasting life He gives us through Christ.
