Matt Chandler - A Sober Celebration of Life

Well, good morning! If you have your Bibles, I would love for you to open up to that passage. I am going to cover some of the verses before it and kind of give you a broader picture of what’s going on in that passage. It was almost 15 years ago that I was just doing my normal kind of Bible reading plan. It was in January; you know what I’m talking about—a Bible reading plan? Has anybody ever done one of those? Like, you did it, and you made it, and you read through it? Okay, anybody not? Like, man, you tried, but you hit Leviticus and Numbers and got body slammed, and didn’t know what else to do. Don’t feel bad; just keep chipping away at it, man. Life is long; the Word is there for you. Just keep at it, right?

So I’m reading and I come across a very strange verse in Genesis 5:3. There are a lot of strange verses in Genesis, but I came across Genesis 5:3, and it was a big block of reading. I think I was in six chapters that morning. Here’s the verse: you never know when the Holy Spirit’s gonna ambush you. You never know—sneaky like that. It pops up in a crazy verse like this and just changes your life. This is what I read: «When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.» Saylah. Let’s pray. I’ll be like, «What? Huh?»

So, I’m minding my own business at our table, reading my Bible, and I come across that verse. Here’s the thought—that has brought me a lot of pain and a lot of joy since then. The thought I had was: Is the phrase «in his image» and «in his likeness» the same as in Genesis 1:26 and 27? That was the naturally curious thought that hit my mind when God, when we get the story of God creating humankind in Genesis 1:26 and 27, and the Triune God of the universe says, «Let us make man in our likeness, in our image, ” and then He makes them male and female. Is that phrase „likeness“ and „image“ the same in Hebrew?

So, man, I pop open Logos. I’m not getting paid to say that, but I pop up my Logos and do a Hebrew word search, and sure enough, it’s identical. Now, why does that matter? Here’s why that matters, and here’s why it’s been both painful and beautiful ever since. The imago Dei is a distinctly Judeo-Christian idea. What I mean by that is it did not exist in the world until Christendom and Western civilization took root. The imago Dei—the idea that you and I, as humankind, are distinct among all of creation in that we are like God somehow, that we have a moral nature, an intellectual nature, and a spiritual nature that no other creature has—is the foundation for every conversation that’s ever been had about rights and equality. You go study and tell me where the Assyrians had any idea about human rights or equality. Can you show me where Rome had any idea about equality or human rights? These concepts were born of the Judeo-Christian doctrine of the imago Dei. Whole moral laws and legal systems have been built on this foundation.

One of the ironies of our day is that those who hate Jesus Christ and hate His church actually have to use His stuff to try to accomplish what they feel they’re owed, which didn’t exist before God made it abundantly clear in His written word. It’s sadly and painfully ironic. So, now I’m on this trail; it’s just kind of how I’m built sometimes. I hate this about myself. So now I’m like, „Okay, let me pull this thread.“ Because if the image that we’re like God somehow is in His image and likeness, and now I’ve got that same thing happening when a son is born, then it appears that whatever makes us like God somehow is handed off as we have children, so that our children are made in His likeness and in His image.

Now, I’m kind of moving down the line, and then what starts to be clear over the course of the next year, as I read through the Bible, is throughout the Scriptures, the Scriptures unapologetically begin to teach that life begins at conception. That’s what the Bible teaches. It’s what the church has believed for thousands of years. It’s not new; it’s not novel; it’s what the Bible has taught forever. And so then, because I believe that science and faith are not adversaries—I think you’ll start to see this if you’re paying attention—like, if you come, it’s like I think sometimes science catches up to the Bible. So, let me give you an example. Has anybody seen an article like this over the last couple of years? Scientists discover that taking a full day off, unplugged from work, actually leads to longevity and greater physical health. Am I seeing something like that all the time? You’re like, „Yeah!“ Like, for 6,000 years, it’s called Sabbath, right?

So I started—and here’s what I found: I’m not a doctor or a biologist, so I need to ask questions of those who are. I found that almost all biologists, when it comes to mammals, will say life begins at conception.