PostScript: A Devil’s Advocate

During lunch, it came to me that there isn’t all that is to be said on this topic of abortion.  Not by a long shot.

There is the law – the hard Word that tells us how things need to be, even when it hurts, or is inconvenient, or demands very real and tangible personal sacrifice.  There is no way to soften that Word, beyond stressing that Biblical Christians everywhere are commanded to place themselves alongside those whom the Word of the Law has convicted, to speak the Word of healing that can come in the aftermath.  The nature of this blog often focuses on the Word of Law – the hard and convicting Word that says that there is right and there is wrong and that these things are not open to our modification, and are not dependent on our agreement.  I often end up speaking the law to a culture and society that wants to reject the Law in favor of creating their own, less difficult form of law.  But the Law is only half the story, and I would be grossly remiss and terribly callous to forget to speak the remainder of the Word here as well.

Perhaps you’ve had an abortion – or know someone who has.  Perhaps it happened in the distant past.  Perhaps it was just this morning.  Perhaps you’ve never really felt guilty about what you did, and reading my blog stirred an uneasiness within you that you aren’t sure what to do with.  Perhaps you’ve lived with guilt every day of your life.  Perhaps you know the pain and loss more intimately than words can express.

There is another Word you need to hear.  That Word is forgiveness, and that Word is spoken by one person – Jesus Christ. 

The Law hurts.  It constricts us and convicts us.  But the Word of forgiveness frees and pardons us.  By the Grace of God the Father, the Jesus the Son of God came into our world.  He lived the life we are supposed to be living – a life of obedience and love – but that we cannot live.  He suffered a punishment in His death that our rebellion and self-love deserve.  Being more than man, that innocent death was sufficient payment for everything that you and I have ever and could ever do wrong.  Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was God’s stamp of “Paid in Full” on the debt we owe in our resistance to God.  God the Holy Spirit works ceaselessly in creation, turning people’s hearts to this bafflingly simple truth.  There is forgiveness, and the guilt or shame or hurt that an abortion may be causing you is something you do not have to carry. 

Open your heart and mind to the possibility of this forgiveness, this grace, this hope, this relief.  Seek out a friend or family member whom you trust as a Christian, and ask them to help you find someone who can tell you more about this.  Or, alternately, leave me your e-mail address and I’ll contact you directly.  You don’t have to suffer in guilt and shame.  Abortion is wrong, without a doubt.  But there is forgiveness and peace possible – not through the denial of the wrongness of abortion, but in acceptance of the love and grace and forgiveness of a Father who knit you together in your mother’s womb.