When Does Life Begin?

You saw me before I was born. (Psalm 139:16 )

So when does life begin? It’s one of the most debated legal questions of our day. The dispute has spread so wide and far and created so much division, that the U.S. Supreme Court has been forced to weigh in on it. Every state has had to deal with the issue when passing and enforcing laws. Every country has had to decide where it stands on the matter of what to do with a life inside of a mother’s womb.

When does life begin? Only when we answer this critical question can we know how to answer the abortion debate.

For believers the question takes on a different form. We need to ask ourselves, Where does God stand on the issue? And that question is dealt with definitively in Scripture.

“You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Psalm 139:15-16).

According to God’s holy Word, life begins at conception. Your life began before your mother and father knew they were going to have a child. Your days were numbered before you were a twinkle in your daddy’s eye. God knew your soul before he decided to place it into a body.

The debate on life is really nothing more than a question on the authority of God. If you believe that God created us and that Scripture is his inspired Word, the question has already been answered. There is nothing left to talk about. God weighed in on the debate before it ever became a debate. We simply have to ask ourselves whether we’re going to take his Word as truth or continue arguing our opinions.

How much easier to simply leave it to God to answer the big questions of life and concentrate instead on trusting what he says.