Holy Life at Large

This past Sunday was Sanctity of Life Sunday in many churches around the nation. That's not a phrase you hear much around the average water cooler. The focus is far more often directed toward the quality of life and choices people make when they think that quality is not what it should be. The primary areas of interest are at the ends of the spectrum - beginnings and endings, birth and death, abortion and euthanasia, women's rights and right to die.

Please understand that I believe those are most important issues deserving of our time, thought, and attention. However, we must not overlook the sanctity of life in the rest of the spectrum. The sanctity of our own lives, that is. Or should I say holiness of life? That's a term that might be a little more familiar even though it is sadly out of favor.

Consider who we are, where we came from and how we got here. We are unique creatures, created in the image of God and like no other, created in righteousness and holiness with the ability not to sin. And then it happened, the fall, that awful marring and near destruction of God's image in us. But marred though it is, it is still recognizable. Marred though it is, it is still redeemable. And that is just what God determined to do for His people, redeem them from the curse of sin and death and reconcile them to Himself.

Consider the cost of our redemption. You want to talk about fair, and how it's not fair that we get charged with sin because of Adam. How fair is it that the perfect and sinless Son of God got charged with sin because of us? How about what He experienced in our place - His Father's wrath, just punishment for each one of those sins His people committed; the barbaric torture of crucifixion; death.

Consider the glorious benefits He purchased for us at that terrific cost. Eternal life, reconciliation with God, awesome spiritual blessings that can only be fully appreciated in eternity, fellowship, peace, purpose, the list is endless. If those benefits have been purchased for us and applied to us by the redeeming blood of Christ, how can our lives possibly not show it? How can we treat His life so cavalierly that it has no effect on how we live ours? If life is sacred at all, the redeemed life should be doubly sacred because it was not only created in the image of God; it has been re-created in the image of God and is being restored more and more each day.

How's the sanctity of your life?

By His grace,
Sundoulos