Priceless: Finding Your Value in God, Lesson #7
 Cherished in God’s Eyes; Psalm 8
Good Questions Have Groups Talking
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Psalm 8

OPEN

Let’s each share your name and what is the most majestic natural wonder you have seen—perhaps the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls.

DIG

1.       Overview. How would you summarize the message of this Psalm?

Creation is the focus of this hymn of praise. It is the latter part of Genesis 1 turned into a song. Biblical Hebrew has no word for ‘thank you’, but it manages to express thanks in a way rather like many of our English expressions are used when a gift is received (‘It’s the very thing I wanted!’; ‘How beautiful it is!’). As psalmists and prophets understand more of God’s character and works, they extol them. The expressions of delight in God’s works, as here in verse 1, are themselves a mode of thanking him for them. Here a joyful song praises God’s creative activity. The term gittith in the title may indicate a musical instrument (a Gittite lyre) or a bright melody to which it was sung. All three psalms that have this word in the title (Pss. 8, 81, and 84) are joyful songs of thanksgiving. Gittith is probably from the name of the town Gath in the south-west of Israel. — Allan Harman, Psalms: A Mentor Commentary, vol. 1–2, Mentor Commentaries (Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor, 2011), 131.

2.       Think about David’s life. On what occasion might he have had to write this Psalm?

As a shepherd, David would no doubt have had many opportunities to lie on the hillside and look up at the stars above. Perhaps it was this that led him to the inevitable conclusion that the stars do indeed declare the glory of God.

Our universe is quite large, gang. If the distance between the sun and our earth, ninety-three million miles, was represented by the thickness of one sheet of paper, you would need a stack of paper seventy-one feet high to represent the distance between earth and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. But to represent the distance between earth and the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, you would need a stack of paper three hundred ten miles high. That would be a short stack, however, compared to the thirty-million-mile-high stack of paper you would need to represent the distance from earth to the edge of the known universe.

What’s beyond the universe? The Word declares it’s the glory of God—the chabod, the weight, the substance. It’s what people crave, and we get to explore it throughout eternity. — Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary: Volume Two: Psalms-Malachi (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 10.

3.       Have you ever wandered outside, looked at the heavens and said, “Wow! Lord, you are awesome!”

The exclamation of praise with which the psalm opens begs the question: What sort of ecstatic event or experience has caused the psalmist to cry out in praise? The answer is given in the first full stanza of the psalm. As v. 3 indicates, the psalmist has wandered outdoors at night, gazed up at the heavenly wonders, and been moved to praise the Creator. It is worth stressing that throughout the entire poem, the Creator is addressed directly and intimately: your name, you have established, your heavens, you remember them, and so on. The vast expanse of the firmament impresses the psalmist deeply, but it does not overawe to the point where the personal dimension of faith is squelched. This hymn is a prayer to God, not merely a poem about God. This aspect of the psalm is even more striking when considered in light of the psalmist’s ancient Near Eastern context. Many in Israel and among her neighbors worshipped the heavenly bodies as divine bodies. In this pagan conception, the heavenly orbs were endowed with sentience, power, and identity. Here, they are merely objects that testify to their Creator’s glory—indeed, the psalmist belittles them by calling them the works of your fingers. — Rolf A. Jacobson and Beth Tanner, “Book One of the Psalter: Psalms 1–41,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 122–123.

4.       How important is it to your spiritual life to be in nature? What does nature do for you spiritually?

Now let’s take a look at people who tend to grow best and relate to God most closely when they’re surrounded by nature. These people are the naturalists, the tree huggers, the green believers. They come alive from head to toe whenever they are surrounded by natural splendor, be it mountains, deserts, plains, woods, oceans, or beaches.

For these people, being in a natural environment dramatically increases their awareness of God. They often draw direct spiritual meaning from nature. People who love the mountains, for example, see in the massive rock formations a reflection of the rock-solid faithfulness of God or a manifestation of his unchanging character. Desert-loving folks might hike in the heat of the mid-day sun to an oasis that offers shade, water, and refreshment. There they find spiritual comfort and refreshment because they are reminded of the promise of God to restore our dry, dusty souls.

Ask people with a strong creation pathway when they feel closest to God, and it’s a no-brainer for them. Ask them where they would prefer to have their devotions, where they would most enjoy being with a small group of brothers and sisters, where they would most like to reflect for a while on their life, and they’ll answer, “Close to nature.” We shouldn’t find this all that surprising, given that God created man and woman and put them in a garden. So it’s just back to their original roots for these folks.

Imagine what would happen if someone who was wired up like this actually put together a spiritual formation plan that allowed them to triple the amount of time they spend in nature. What if they moved to a different location so they could live more closely to the natural world God created? What if they included nature in their vacation plans, knowing that by doing so they would rest and refresh not only their bodies but their souls as well? I believe that such a plan would almost guarantee people on the creation pathway a greater awareness of the presence of God in their lives. — Bill Hybels, Courageous Leadership (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).

5.       Think of this from the opposite angle—how does our relationship with God change our view of nature?

After I had faith, living things became precious to me. I wanted to pet them, hug them—babies and dogs and lizards, whatever. For me the great fruit of belief is joy. There is a God, there is a purpose, there is a meaning to things, there are realities we cannot guess at, there is a big peace, and you are part of it.

“God is good.” Near him is where you want to be. There is something called everlasting happiness, and Saint Paul—a fiercely imperfect man who was a great man—was granted visions of it, and that great user of words was floored by it and said that no one can imagine how wonderful it is. The human imagination cannot encompass it. —Pope John Paul II, quoted in Peggy Noonan, John Paul the Great (Viking, 2005) /Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 193.

6.       What does worship do to your soul?

The night sky casts a divine, pensive spell over us, as people have found through the ages; God designed it to do so. David the psalmist, who gazed out upon those stars during so many nights of watching over his sheep, must have continually marveled. And he must have realized who was watching over him. As he considered his Lord, according to the psalm, he finally was brought to consider himself. “Who am I that I would be worthy of even a thin moment of Your attention?” he wondered. “I look upon the crown of Your creation, and I wonder: How is it that You could place a crown upon me?”

For David, of course, a royal destiny did beckon. But true worship has this effect upon us: It simultaneously humbles and uplifts us. In other words, worship places us exactly where we should be, in the realization that we are small, yet a little lower than the angels; we are tiny creatures in the presence of God, but tiny creatures whom He adores. — David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God (Nashville, TN: Integrity Publishers, 2002), 17.

7.       What does looking at the night sky, or the Grand Canyon affect your view of yourself?

The spontaneous reaction of a human being, upon seeing the nighttime universe reflected in the stars and moon, is to become aware of his own insignificance. From a poetic perspective, the vastness of the universe is subtly magnified, for the heavens are the work of God’s “fingers”! Though God does not have physical dimensions, the poet makes a striking point. In contrast to God, the heavens are tiny, pushed and prodded into shape by the divine digits; but in contrast to the heavens, which seem so vast in the human perception, it is mankind that is tiny. The response to this heavenly panorama is a response which so many humans have felt, whether or not they have encountered Ps 8. In such a vast space, with dimensions beyond human comprehension, “what is man?” (The expression “son of man,” v 5b, is simply a poetic synonym of “man” in v 5a). The question of v 5b is phrased in such a manner that it evokes from the person without revelation (the enemies of v 3?) the answer: Nothing! In such vastness, it is inconceivable that human beings have significance or meaning; it is inconceivable that God, if there is a God, could remember each human being or give attention to each person. The poet deliberately creates this sense of despair, first, in order to make the positive answer to the question, when it comes (vv 6–9), all the more powerful. From an objective perspective, human beings are but the tiniest fragments in a giant universe; it is not conceivable that they could have significance or a central position in that universe. But the name of God, through which revelation comes, indicates that the very opposite is true. — Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50, vol. 19, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 108.

8.       What does this Psalm teach us about man? What does it teach us about ourselves?

PART OF THE TWISTED THINKING of the fallen human condition is a tendency to switch the price tags on God’s creation—to devalue human life while elevating the importance of other created things. We can sometimes be more concerned about the condition of our pets and our flower beds, for example, than about the people with whom God has chosen to populate our lives. For while each of these individual specimens of His creation is certainly important to Him—important enough that He feeds the “birds of the air” and adorns the “lilies of the field” (Matt. 6:26, 28)—His uncommon care for mankind goes beyond all other loves.

Even in the act of creation itself, we see God speaking many things into existence—trees, plants, animals, fish, the moon, sun, and stars. But when creating human life, it was as though He rolled up His sleeves and got His hands involved, forming man “from the dust of the ground” (Gen. 2:7), then fashioning woman from a rib taken out of the man’s side (verses 21–22).

This is why we are not surprised when we later see the tender, caring heart of Jesus reaching out to the poor, the weak, the oppressed and disenfranchised—dirtying His hands over people many would consider of far less value than the other “things” in their lives.

We know from observing our God in Scripture that every life is precious to Him, to be treated with great care, affection, and compassion. May our affections and actions be shaped by the priorities that matter most to Him. — Nancy Leigh DeMoss, The Quiet Place: Daily Devotional Readings (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2012).

9.       What does it mean that He made man a little lower than the angels?

Hebrews 2:6–8 quotes Psalm 8:4–6. Psalm 8 begins by reflecting on the majesty of the universe. Then the psalmist notes that God has preeminent regard for humanity, which makes humanity even greater than the universe. The honor God has bestowed on the human being, his own image, is humbling. Such honor accords greater praise to the Creator.

Psalm 8:5 says that God originally made us a little lower than Elohim, and crowned us with glory and honor and gave us dominion over the creation. But what does Elohim mean in this verse? One view, which is followed by most English translations, says Elohim here means angels. Humanity was created a little lower than the angels and given dominion over the earth. Another view says Elohim means God, as it does almost everywhere else. Humanity, as the image-bearer of God, is a little lower than God, and is God’s vice-regent over the cosmos.

The reason most English translations take the view that Elohim means “angels” is that Hebrews 2:7 applies that thought to Jesus. This verse says that the Son was made a little lower than the angels. This presents a question: Is Hebrews 2:7 making a precise translation of Psalm 8:5? Or is verse 7 making a paraphrased application of the psalmist’s thought to a slightly different teaching about Christ? Scholars have debated this at length.

This we know for certain: Adam took the coregent’s dominion God had given him and turned it over to Satan. Thus, Adam subjected himself to an angel—a fallen angel at that. This may be the reason God used (unfallen) angels to represent him among humanity until Christ came. In redeeming us, the Son was incarnated under the curse of Adam’s sin. He made himself lower than the angels for time, submitting to the punishments we deserve (vv. 8–9). — R.C. Sproul, Before the Face of God: Book 4: A Daily Guide for Living from Ephesians, Hebrews, and James, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; Ligonier Ministries, 1994), 172–173.

10.   Does the Bible have a low, or high view of man?

Here is a paradoxical question: does the Bible have a high or low view of man? As we grow in Christ will we come to think more or less of ourselves? Is our problem thinking too much or two little of ourselves?

As we grow in Christ we grow in a profound understanding of how deeply we are sinners. If you talk to someone who is far from God about this, he is likely to say that he is not that bad. Talk to someone who has been walking with Christ his entire life about his sin. They will say with Paul, “I am the chief of sinners.” Growing in Christ is, in part, growing to understand how profoundly my sin has offended the heart of God.

But, Christianity is not, as some have called it, “worm theology.” The goal is no to think as badly as possible about yourself. Some seem to think that more scummy they see themselves, the more spiritual they are. That is not the gospel.

The gospel is summed up in the words of John Newton who said, “Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

Take your sin seriously. God does. And, take grace seriously. God forgives. Claim it. Receive it. — Brad Whitt, Rooted

11.   One of the implications of this verse affects how we think about abortion. This passage teaches the value of man and, by extension, the fact that it is wrong to take a human life. Take a guess as to how many abortions are performed each year. How big of a problem is this?

Across the world, over forty-two million abortions occur every year.[23] That’s 115,000 abortions every single day. I find it hard to fathom that number when I look at the faces of my four children each night as I put them to bed. I find it hard to imagine 115,000 other children who that day were introduced to the world with a tool or pill aimed at taking their lives. And I find it hardest to comprehend how I, for so long, could show no concern for this gruesome global reality.

The worldwide practice of abortion is why I do not believe it is anywhere close to an overstatement to call abortion a modern holocaust. My intention in saying this is in no way to downplay the horror of the Holocaust in the mass murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children over a few short years. But we’re talking here about the massacre of forty-two million unborn children every single year. And just as German Christians should not have ignored the reality of what was happening in concentration camps across their country, I should not have ignored —and American Christians must not ignore —the reality of what is happening in abortion clinics across our country and around the world. As multitudes of babies are dismembered and destroyed daily, this is clearly an issue where the gospel requires us to counter culture. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

12.   Can you think of other verses that speak to this issue?

As you read through the Bible, you won’t find the word abortion anywhere. But that doesn’t mean Scripture is silent about it, for the core truths we’ve already seen in the gospel concerning who God is, who we are, and what Christ has done speak directly to the issue of abortion.

Consider the way the Bible describes the relationship between God and an unborn baby. The psalmist writes to God:

You formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
PSALM 139:13-16

As we read these words, we’re reminded of the core gospel truth that God is the Creator. He alone has the power and authority to give life. Elsewhere in the Bible, Job says, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). He also says, “In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10). — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

13.   What percentage of women in America have had, or will have an abortion?

Abby was in her early twenties. She had grown up in a Christian home, attended a Christian school, and had even joined a church. But a relationship with Christ was far from a reality in Abby’s life. Instead, she was consumed with her work and caught up in the pleasures and pursuits of the world. She met a man who captivated her thoughts and quickened her emotions, and before long they had given themselves to each other. Everything was going great.

Until Abby discovered that she was pregnant and he was gone.

In an instant, it seemed as though the world had come crashing down around her. This can’t be, she thought. I can’t have a baby. My reputation will be ruined, my family will be shamed, and my career will be over. Enveloped by panic and gripped with fear, Abby saw a lone solution to her problem —only one way out of her predicament.

One Friday afternoon, Abby walked into an abortion clinic. Within a couple of hours, her problem was solved and her predicament taken care of (or so she thought). The following Monday morning, she returned to business as usual and life as normal, hiding the secret of what she’d done as if nothing had ever happened.

Abby is not alone when it comes to abortion in America. Conservative estimates reveal that approximately one-third of American women have had (or will have) an abortion at some point in their lives. In light of this, I realize that various Abbys with abortions in their past are likely reading this book right now. Some of these women have never shared that secret with anyone else. Abortion has been called a silent killer —not only of babies but of moms who possess deep wounds and dark scars from past history.

So I want to be sensitive to women who have had abortions. I do not presume to know all that may go through your mind and your heart as you read what I’m writing. I lean on good friends who have had abortions and who have shared with me that their deepest comfort has come not in minimizing the severity of abortion before God but in magnifying the reality of grace from God. That, more than anything, is what I want to do. I want to be clear about how a holy God views abortion, but I want to be equally clear about how a loving God views you in the gospel. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

14.   We always do well to study Scripture with a heart for emotion. How does God feel about abortion?

In light of these biblical realities, it becomes abundantly clear that abortion is an affront to God’s sole and sovereign authority as the Giver and Taker of life. Abortion, like murder or suicide, asserts human beings as the ones who control life and death. But God the Creator alone has the right to determine when someone lives and dies, and abortion flies directly in the face of his authority.

Abortion is not only an affront to God’s authority as Creator; it is also an assault on his work in creation. Did you hear the psalmist describe the beauty of the way God forms the “inward parts” of a baby in a “mother’s womb”? As the psalmist reflects on God’s work in the womb, he responds in an outburst of worship: “I praise you! I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” The way God creates people compels praise. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

15.   Again, read with emotion. How does the David feel in this Psalm? How does he feel in Psalm 139?

These verses are all the more stunning when we realize that the psalmist came to his conclusions without knowing so many of the details that we know today concerning a baby’s development. The psalmist didn’t necessarily know how God takes an egg and a sperm and brings them together. How a few weeks later, often before a woman even realizes she is pregnant, a human heart is beating and circulating its own blood. Within a few more weeks, fingers are forming on hands and brain waves are detectable. Before long, these “inward parts” are moving. Kidneys are forming and functioning, followed by a gall bladder, and then by the twelfth week, all the organs of a baby boy or girl are functional, and he or she can cry. All of this occurs within three short months —only the first trimester! A heart, a brain, organs, sexuality, movement, reaction —and the Creator of the universe is orchestrating all of it! This work of creation evokes awe and amazement.

So then, imagine in this moment of creation inserting a tool, taking a pill, or undergoing an operation that takes the very life God is developing and destroys it. Most abortions occur between ten and fourteen weeks of gestation —what is described as the “optimal time” for dismemberment and removal. Abortion is without question an assault on God’s grand creation of a human life. There is no way around it. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

16.   We believe what we believe about this. But, many argue that women have the right to believe and practice what they want. How would you answer this?

The key question that we all must answer —and the question that determines how we view abortion —is this: What is contained in the womb? Is it a person? Or is it merely an embryo, a fetus? Virtually every other question and every single argument in the abortion controversy comes back to this question: What, or who, is in the womb? And once this question is answered, everything else comes into perspective.[25]

Think about it. As Gregory Koukl points out, “If the unborn is not a human person, no justification for abortion is necessary.”[26] And some people contend this. They will say that the unborn is not a person or that the unborn is merely a person who has the potential to become human (whatever that means). Again, if this is true, the argument is over; no justification for abortion is necessary.

However, as Koukl writes, “If the unborn is a human person, then no justification for abortion is adequate.”[27] Many people say, “Abortion is such a complex issue, and there just aren’t any easy answers.” But if what is in the womb is a person, then even if someone is proabortion or pro-choice for any number of reasons, all of their reasoning falls apart. Regardless of where you currently stand on the abortion issue, imagine for a moment that the unborn is a person formed and created by God himself. If this is true, then think through the primary arguments for abortion.

“Women have a right to privacy with their doctors.” Without question, we all have a right to some measure of privacy. Yet our laws regularly override people’s privacy when another person’s life is in question. No woman or man has a right to a private conversation with a doctor to conspire how to end someone else’s life. If the unborn are people, then we must protect them, regardless of what that means for someone’s privacy.

“Women should have the right to choose.” Yet we all agree that no one should have unlimited rights to make choices. If toddlers or teenagers become burdensome or expensive, parents don’t have the right to eliminate them. Similarly, then, when it comes to abortion, the real question is not whether a woman has a choice, but whether that woman actually has a human being that God recognizes as a valuable person in her womb. If so, then a moral duty to honor life supersedes the personal hardship that might come due to pregnancy. Choosing to terminate innocent life is by definition choosing to murder. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

17.   Are there any of you that used to believe that abortion is OK and came to change your mind? Tell us your story.

Indeed, the primary issue in the debate over abortion is the identity of the unborn. Listen to Gregory Koukl describe a little girl named Rachel, a daughter of a family friend:

Rachel is two months old, but she is still six weeks away from being a full-term baby. She was born prematurely at 24 weeks, in the middle of her mother’s second trimester. On the day of her birth Rachel weighed one pound, nine ounces, but dropped to just under a pound soon after. She was so small she could rest in the palm of her daddy’s hand. She was a tiny, living, human person. Heroic measures were taken to save this child’s life. Why? Because we have an obligation to protect, nurture, and care for other humans who would die without our help —especially little children. Rachel was a vulnerable and valuable human being. But get this . . . if a doctor came into the hospital room and, instead of caring for Rachel, took the life of this little girl as she lay quietly nursing at her mother’s breast, it would be homicide. However, if this same little girl —the very same Rachel —was inches away resting inside her mother’s womb, she could be legally killed by abortion.[28]

To any reasonable person, this makes absolutely no sense. Abortion is utterly ludicrous if this is a child in the womb.

Everything —everything! —revolves around what is happening in a mother’s womb, and Scripture is clear: that womb contains a person being formed in the image of God. Any distinction between the unborn and a person (or a human and a person, for that matter) is both artificial and unbiblical. God recognizes the unborn as a person and designs the unborn for life from the moment of conception. While our culture is continually pushing against this idea, it is not possible to believe the Bible and deny that the unborn are persons. And once followers of Christ accept this, we can no longer sit idly by while people are mercilessly murdered in their mothers’ wombs. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

18.   Do you think abortion should be permitted in the case of rape?

Likewise, God’s works are wonderful even (or especially) in the midst of difficulty. People ask, “Well, what about cases of incest or rape? Is abortion justifiable then?” Once again, I don’t claim to know what it is like to be in such a situation. I shudder at the horror of rape happening to my wife or to any other woman, for that matter. I cannot imagine the physical and emotional toll such a situation brings upon a woman and her family.

Yet we come back to the fundamental question: Is the baby in the womb a person? If so, then our entire perspective changes. Would we murder a child outside the womb because he or she was conceived by rape? Of course we wouldn’t. Then why would we murder a child inside the womb? Why should we punish a child for the father’s crime (see Deuteronomy 24:16)?

How, after all, should we treat an innocent child who reminds us of a terrible experience? The answer is clear: with love and mercy.

But people will say, “Have you no care for the emotions of the woman?” Again, I cannot imagine what that woman has gone through emotionally. Without question that precious woman needs compassionate women and men around her to love her, support her, and serve her in every way possible. But think about it this way. If the rapist were caught, would we encourage this woman to murder him in order to get emotional relief? Surely not. Then why would we encourage her to murder an innocent child in the name of emotional relief?[30] — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

19.   Suppose someone said, “It is not the government’s job to take away people’s right to choose.” How would you respond?

Other people say, “It’s not the role of government to take away people’s right to choose.” But this is absolutely the role of government. You cannot choose to steal: if you do, there will be consequences. You cannot choose to do a whole host of things there are laws against, and it is good that government has made those laws. If everyone chose to do whatever they wanted, the inevitable result would be anarchy. It’s moral silliness and cultural suicide to say that government shouldn’t take away people’s right to choose. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

20.   What is God’s message to those who have had an abortion?

Thankfully, God has given such grace —to me, to you, to all of us —in the gospel.

Remember: God is not only the Judge of sin, but he is also the Savior of sinners. God is the Judge who loathes abortion and the King who loves even those who participate in it, so hear this good news. To anyone and everyone who has ever aborted a child, supported abortion, encouraged abortion, performed abortion, permitted abortion, or done nothing about abortion, may the following realities lodge deep within your soul.

God forgives entirely. “As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is [God’s] mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:11-12, NKJV). God says, “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The good news of the gospel is that when we turn from our sin and trust in Christ, we find that he has paid the price for any part we have ever played in abortion, and because of his cross, we are entirely forgiven.

God not only forgives entirely, but he also heals deeply. God does not desire for you or anyone else to live with the pain of regret. It is altogether right to hate sin in your history. The pain of past sin is often a powerful deterrent to future sin, but don’t let it rob you of the peace God has designed for you in the present. Remember what Jesus said to a woman who had lived an immoral lifestyle: “Your sins are forgiven. . . . Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:48-50). God desires that peace to be yours today.

He forgives entirely, he heals deeply, and he restores completely. To all who trust in Christ, remember this: in Christ you are not guilty, and there is no condemnation for you. This is true whether you have had one abortion or five. This is true whether you have medically performed thousands of abortions or legally permitted millions. You do not walk around with a scarlet A on your chest, for God does not look at you and see the guilt of abortion. Instead, he looks at you and sees the righteousness of Christ. God restores, and he redeems. Even as we saw earlier, God has a track record of working all things, including evil things, ultimately for good.

Remember Abby, whom I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter? For years she kept the secret of her abortion to herself. But on the weekend that her husband proposed to her, she decided she needed to tell him what she had done years before they met. He listened graciously, and they chose to keep it a secret between them for the next eight years. No one else knew.

Until one day Abby and her husband were talking with some friends who told them about the freedom and forgiveness found in the gospel. Abby knew about Christ and had grown up in church, but the words of Isaiah 61 had never clicked in her mind and heart. In a passage that Jesus would later quote in reference to himself, the Bible says, “The LORD . . . has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound . . . to comfort all who mourn . . . to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Isaiah 61:1-3).

For the first time, Abby realized why Christ came and died on the cross. He came to heal the broken hearts of people just like her by freeing them from their bondage to sin and shame. For fifteen years Abby had done all she could to cover her past in order to have others’ approval. Now, for the first time, she knew that in Christ she had God’s approval, regardless of her past.

The freedom Abby has experienced now propels her to lead a ministry in the church that reaches out to women who have had abortions. She has received training on how to wisely, carefully, and compassionately come alongside these women to serve and support them. She puts this training into practice on a regular basis with groups of women in the city. In addition to leading other women in the church, Abby is actively involved in public efforts to minimize abortions in the city, specifically counseling pregnant women who are considering abortions, sharing her own story, and telling them there is another way to solve their “problem.” She does all of this together with her husband and two children —a beautiful daughter, who runs up to me with a huge smile to hug me every time I see her, and a wonderful son, whom I had the opportunity to help coach in basketball. It is a priceless picture to see this woman who once thought abortion had permanently stained her past and forever stolen her peace now transformed by the gospel, and to watch God use her quite literally to save countless children’s —and women’s —lives. — David Platt, Counter Culture: Radically Following Jesus with Conviction, Courage, and Compassion (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015).

21.   What do you want to recall from today’s conversation?

22.   How can we support one another in prayer this week?