Welcome to the Equipping You in Grace podcast, hosted by Dave Jenkins. The Equipping You in Grace podcast is a podcast about helping Christians develop a biblical worldview in a conversational tone about issues inside and outside the church. Now, for today's episode, let's join our host, Dave Jenkins. Well, welcome back to the Equipping You In Grace podcast. My name is Dave and I'm the host for this show. And on today's episode, we're gonna talk about something that is absolutely critical. And I don't think that perhaps many of you have heard about this or know what is happening in our world today. But there are so many issues that are really, really important that aren't getting enough coverage in the media, even in Christian media today. And one of those is my state, the state that I live in, Oregon, it is becoming an assisted suicide hotspot in the United States. Let's start with verse Genesis 2 7 says then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature. Now individuals who desire medically assisted suicide are traveling to Oregon because of a new policy in my state that allows people from outside the state to obtain this procedure. Staffers of the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Medical Board agreed last year to stop enforcing residency requirements for the state's euthanasia laws, meaning that individuals from other states can now travel to my state Oregon for assistance with ending their lives. Dr. Nicholas Ginzon of Portland is now welcoming patients from outside the state to visit the clinic and have live choices and end their lives according to a report from the Daily Mail. Ginzon told the outlet that there are tons of people coming from all over to his facility. He says for a small number of patients who otherwise qualify or are determined to go through that and who have the energy and the resources, he continued, it has started to happen. And assisted suicide is legal in nearly one dozen states in the United States. In fact, Canada will soon permit euthanasia among minors as medical assistance in dying becomes a leading cause of death in some provinces. And so as Christians, we must understand this issue. In fact, I remember when I studied moral philosophy at a secular college in the Seattle area in the early 2000s, we discussed euthanasia. And they think that politically, those who are politically liberal, they think that they can just lump all these issues like abortion and euthanasia and all these things together And they they think that if they can defeat The the pro they think that they can defeat the pro-life view if they just you know deal with the whole of the arguments But here's the thing God made people in his image and in his likeness and if you are a Christian Engaging in the practice of euthanasia is forbidden In the Ten Commandments, God says that one of the prohibitions is do not murder. The word murder, it means slayer intentional, assassinate. So we have to ask the question here, Isn't that definition of the Hebrew word murder in the Ten Commandments, doesn't that fit the definition of what an abortion is and also what euthanasia is? And the answer is it absolutely does! It absolutely does. Euthanasia is murder. And no matter, and I just want to be clear here, no matter how you spin this or whatever, if you're a Christian, and we're talking about, I'm speaking to you as a Christian, You cannot support abortion and you cannot support euthanasia. There's not a biblical grounds to do so. There's not a biblical argument that you can make to support euthanasia. And we're going to talk about that biblical argument today. But we're also not only going to talk about abortion and euthanasia, we're going to talk about other things as we go along the way, because these kind of issues, they are out there in the culture today, and we haven't even talked about some of these things on this show. But one of my commitments to you, those who listen to this podcast, I want you to know that as these issues come up, there's going to be some times when I'm not able to cover them just because of the nature of things and we don't do shows Monday through Friday. And so I do plan these episodes out. But as these things come up, I want you to know that I'm going to do my very best to cover them, and this is one of those that is absolutely critical that we have a good biblical foundation on. Because we are, as Christians, we are to be for life from the womb to the tomb and everywhere in between. Now, the simple but sublime words of Genesis 1-26 that God created man in his own image and likeness are some of the most important words in all of the Bible. The teaching that man is the image and likeness of God is absolutely foundational for a Christian understanding of human nature, the dignity and value of the person, and really for all of Christian ethics. And the biblical passages in the Old and the New Testament that relate to the image of God are vital. But for our purposes, we need to define it this way. The image of God in man is that which gives human beings a capacity for a uniquely personal relationship with God. The image of God encompasses man's humanity, as such it involves the whole person. The body, the mind, the emotions, the will, the spirit, and man's humanity cannot be reduced to only one of these aspects. In fact, the image of God is not a human achievement, it's a gift conferred on all humans by God's creative act. And the purpose of man's creation as the image of God is that man might enjoy a personal relationship with the Creator both in time and eternity. And a definition of the image of God that encompasses more explicitly the various strands of biblical revelation could be as follows. Being created in the image and likeness of God means being created to share the status of Christ's royal sonship, reflecting on earth God's heavenly authority, glory, and righteousness. Jesus Christ is the true and perfect image of God, reflecting the Father's character and enjoying, as the Eternal Son, intimate, loving fellowship with Him. We, as redeemed human beings, are being renewed in the divine image and granted the status and the privilege of Sonship by adoption. As those who are being renewed in the image of God, we are called to reflect the holiness and righteousness of our Creator in all of our thoughts and all of our words and all of our deeds. And so the biblical doctrine of man's creation as the image of God is foundational for all of Christian ethics. because it teaches that the lives of all human beings have intrinsic and not merely instrumental value. Our lives have value not merely in terms of what we may be able to do for others. Human beings have inestimable value in the sight of God, irrespective of gender, race, state of health, dependency, or social and economic utility, but simply and profoundly because human beings among all God's creatures have been designed and created for the purpose of enjoying a personal relationship through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Creator of the universe. But the biblical writers also draw ethical implications from the image of God in two important areas. That is capital punishment and the dignity of the human person. Genesis 9, 6 states that whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. And so just as the desecration of a nation's flag is an attack on the values of the nation that the flag represents, So an attack on the life of man is an attack on the majesty of God who created man to be his representative on earth. And it must be asked if the word shall in Genesis 9, 6 is to be understood merely as a prediction of future retribution and revenge or as a command to execute the murderer. And while either possibility is grammatically possible based on the Hebrew text, the interpretation of the words as a divine command is more likely given in the context of Genesis 9. And the very fact that a reason is given, the presence of a divine image in man, makes it more plausible that a command is intended. And this understanding is also consistent with the fact that other passages in the Mosaic Law explicitly require the execution of a murderer, for example in Numbers 35, 16-21. and the fact that this command is given in the context of the covenant with Noah which renews the creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply. It indicates that the command to administer capital punishment justly is not limited to Old Testament Israel, it's valid for all nations and all societies for all times. And so in the New Testament, James draws also important implications from the presence of the divine image in man regarding respect for the dignity of the person. And he notes the inconsistency in the way human beings can use the tongue. with blessing and cursing coming from the same mouth in James 3.9. With it, the tongue, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the image and likeness of God. James points out the absurdity of praising God, cursing men, since the curse is, in effect, to curse God. And since men and women bear the divine image James' stricture on cursing can be extended to all forms. Verbal, physical abuse of the person, such abusive and destructive language is contrary to the inherent dignity and value and worth of the person created in the divine image. And that means verbal abuse, domestic abuse, and torture are all abhorrent to God. And so James teaching presupposes that the image of God is still present in man even after the fall. And this is inconsistent with the New Testament teaching in another sense that the image of God needs to be renewed and restored in the believer through the sanctifying power of the Word and the Spirit. Theologians have made a helpful distinction between the formal image which is universally present despite the fall and the material image which is being renewed by grace in the believer. A brand new automobile that has been wrecked in a collision is still an automobile in the formal sense, but in the material sense it now lacks the beauty and the functionality that was originally designed to display. In fact, earlier in his epistle, James had warned believers against showing favoritism to the rich in their assembly in James 2, 1-7. And such partiality is a violation of the royal law to love your neighbor as yourself in James 2, 8. And the command to love your neighbor is, in itself, inherently related to the image of God. since equal respect for the person, despite differences of social and economic status, is ultimately based on the presence of the divine image in all people. The biblical teaching concerning the image of God has important implications for contemporary issues such as human rights, the sanctity of life, and bioethics. The concept of the image of God has been foundational in Western civilization for the institution and the practice of human rights and democracy. When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, the background of his thought was this fundamental teaching of the first chapter in Genesis. Human beings are not in fact equal in ability and gifts and education or achievement, but are equal in view of their common creation as image bearers of God. The political scientist John Howell has pointed out that the modern world, having lost sight of this crucial biblical truth, has in fact no basis for believing that all men are equal, no firm basis for human rights that are anything more than creations of human societies. Likewise, the very concept of democracy finds its true basis in this crucial biblical truth. The principle of one person, one vote, and the principles of political equality and self-government are consistent with the equality of all persons as equally bearing the image of God. It is in the image of God that the Christian faith grounds a sanctity of life ethic in issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and even stem cell research. As image bearers of God, by their fact of being created by God, the lives of human beings, as we've stated, have intrinsic and not merely instrumental value. An innocent human life is invulnerable and may never be licitly destroyed for someone else's benefit. And if it's asked, when does the image of God appear? Man, the best biblical answer is at the beginning at creation. When a living human being is present, the image of God is present. Human life has the transcendent value in the eyes of God from the moment of conception until natural death and always must be respected. Finally, it's helpful to remember that at this juncture of our nation's history that the ethical implications of the image of God are not limited either to the political right or the left, but they encompass both the sanctity of life and even the social justice agenda that we've talked about on this show many times. This foundational, this biblical teaching calls all Christians to honor the dignity and value of every single person at all times and in all circumstances in our thoughts and our words and our deeds. Now let's talk some more about this. You hear about abortion, euthanasia, pornography, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, embryonic research, genetic enhancements in our culture on our TV screens every day. And Christians surveying the cultural landscape in the West have a clear sense that things are headed in a destructive direction. And we have questions. And while most believers can easily identify the symptoms of decline, few feel competent to diagnose and even address the root causes. And there are many complex reasons for these developments, but one invaluable tool for better understanding and even engaging with the culture today is the concept of a worldview. The sociological quakes and the moral fissures we observe in our day are largely due to what we might call cultural plate tectonics, shifts in underlying worldviews and the collisions between them. And as the word suggests, worldview, it is a overall view of the world. It's not a physical view of the world, but rather a philosophical one, an all-encompassing perspective on everything that exists and everything that matters to us. In fact, a person's worldview, it represents their most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the universe they inhabit. It reflects how we're going to answer the big questions of human existence, fundamental questions about who we are and what we are, where we came from, why we're here, where if anything we're headed, the meaning and the purpose of life, the nature of the afterlife, and what counts as a good life in the here and now. And few people think through these things in any kind of real depth and even fewer have real answers substantive answers to such questions but a person's worldview will at least incline them towards certain kinds of answers and away from others. Now worldviews shape and they even inform our experiences of the world around us like spectacles with colored lenses they affect what we see and how we see it and so depending on the color of the lenses some things may be seen more easily, or conversely, they may be de-emphasized or distorted. In fact, some things may not be seen at all. In fact, worldviews are also largely determined people's opinions on matters of ethics and politics. And what a person thinks about abortion, euthanasia, same-sex relationship, environmental ethics, economic policy, public education, and so on, it's going to depend on their underlying worldview more than anything else. And so worldviews play a central and a defining role in our lives. They shape what we believe and what we're willing to believe, how we interpret our experience, how we behave in response to those experiences, and how we relate to others. Our thoughts and our actions are conditioned by our worldview. And so worldviews operate both on an individual level and at the societal level, and rarely will two people have exactly the same worldview. But they may share the same basic type of worldview. However, within any society, certain worldview types will be represented more prominently than others, and so therefore they will exert greater influence on the culture of that society. Western civilization, since around the time of the 4th century, has been dominated by the Christian worldview, even though there have been individual groups and people who have challenged it, but in the last couple of centuries, from reasons ranging from technological to theological, the Christian worldview has lost its dominance and competing worldviews have become more prominent. Now these non-Christian worldviews include naturalism, which is there is no God, human beings are just highly evolved animals, the universe is a closed physical system, post-modernism, there are no objective truths and moral standards, and so reality is ultimately a human social construction. Pantheism, God is the totality of reality and thus we are all divine by nature. Pluralism, the different world religions represent equally valued perspectives on ultimate reality. There are many valid paths to salvation. That's what pluralism teaches. Islam believes that there's only one God and that he has no son. God's revealed his will for all people through his final prophet Muhammad and his eternal word, the Quran. Moral therapeutic deism teaches that God just wants us to be happy and nice to other people and he intervenes in our affairs only when we call upon him to help us out. Each of these worldviews has profound implications for how people think about themselves, what behaviors they consider right or wrong, and how they orient their lives. And it's crucial that Christians be able to engage with unbelief at the worldview level. Christians need to understand not only what it means to have a biblical worldview, but why they should hold to that worldview, and why they should hold to it for all of life. But they should also be able to identify the major non-Christian worldviews that vie for dominance in our society, to understand where they fundamentally differ from the Christian worldview, and to make a well-reasoned case that the Christian worldview alone is true, good, and beautiful. And let's be clear that the challenge is greater than ever, but we shouldn't be discouraged as Christians today because the opportunities and the resources that are available to us are greater than they've ever been. In the last half century or so, there's been a great increase in Christian philosophy and apologetics, much of which is on defending and applying a biblical worldview. And whatever God calls us people to do, he equips them to do. The problem is not that the church is under-equipped, but that she has yet to make full use of all that God has provided to her. And friends, as we wrap up this episode today, I just go back to the beginning. We started talking about from Genesis 2-7, which says, Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. There are those out there in our society, not only in my own state, who support the killing of men and women who are older, but there are those also in our country and in our world who do this. We need to speak up and we need to be very clear that we are for life as Christians from the womb to the tomb and everywhere in between. And those who like Dr. Gidson of Portland who encourages people to come to his shop and to give up their lives and to, you know, end their lives. We need to tell people that in Christ there is real meaning and there is real purpose out there. We are living in a time when, in our country, in America, even in the West, where it is very easy to be discouraged. It's just easy to be discouraged by the politics, by the policies, by the politicians that represent those policies and procedures, by the state of our national security, and so much more. But make no mistake about it. Our God reigns. Our God is on the throne. Our God is, we have a great high priest who summons us, Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, before the throne of grace. We have a message of grace. We have a message that calls sinners to repent of their sin and to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In every single way, We have a better message. And that message is grounded and it's rooted in the sufficient and authoritative word of God. And so, you know what? Romans, we are living in a time where Romans 1 is rampant. People are lovers of self rather than lovers of God. You know what? We are living in a time when everyone would rather do what the Bible calls living right in their own eyes. They would rather live morally how they want to live. And yet if you're a Christian, Romans 6, 1 tells you that you cannot live how you want to live. In Romans 6, 11, it tells you to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. So if you're a Christian, if you're united to Christ by faith in his name, You are indwelt by the Spirit, you are sealed by the Spirit, and you are sent out by the Spirit from your local church to make disciples of the nations for the glory of God. We are living in a time not only of moral confusion, but of great sexual confusion. And we're gonna talk about this in the coming months ahead, but I just wanna say, all of these issues, whether it's euthanasia, whether it's abortion, whether it's all these other things. Everybody, every view out there is trying to make disciples. of their particular view. R.C. Sproul once said it this way, that everyone is a theologian, the question is whether you're a good theologian or a bad theologian. And this is where the rubber meets the road. If you are a disciple of the world, and of the world's philosophy, you are always going to follow after the theology, the views, the philosophy of the world. But that also means something. If you're following the philosophy, the ideas, the convictions of the world, then you have to ask yourself, are you really a disciple of Christ? Are you a disciple being formed and shaped by the authoritative and sufficient word of God? And if not, then that means something. It means that you're probably not a Christian, because a Christian follows their Lord. Jesus told us in Luke 9, 23 through 27 to count the cost and to follow Him in all of life, to pick up our cross and follow Him. And whenever Jesus talked this way, people abandoned Him. They didn't want to count the cost. They didn't want to count the cost of following Jesus all the way to death. They really didn't want to give their life But Jesus calls us to count the cost. If you are really a Christian, you have counted the cost. And there is a cost. There is a cost for speaking up about the lack of morals in our society. There is a cost for speaking up about the sexual sin in our day. And it's not even just homosexuality and transgenderism in our day. It's sex trafficking. It's pornography. All four of those things are repugnant in the eyes of God. All four of those things. Transgenderism, homosexuality, the whole nine yards are repugnant in the eyes of God. They are a direct assault against a biblical worldview. But notice that I said that they're an assault against the biblical worldview. Because what Christ wants to do is when we repent and we believe and we put our hope and our trust and our faith in Christ alone, what he does is he changes the heart. See, we not only need to engage in the marketplace of ideas today, but we need to make it clear that we're not only, when we are engaging in the ideas that are out there like this, we need to be clear that we are not against people. We are praying that God will bring the regenerative work of His Spirit that only He can do. As we would call men and women to repent and put their faith and trust in Christ, we pray that the Spirit will use those seeds that are cast out there and He will bring many, many men and women to faith in Christ. Our hope is not in just being and speaking out against unpolitical and moral and social issues. Make no mistake about it, we need to speak out. We need to not be silent. We need to be bold. We need to engage in the marketplace of ideas like Paul did in the book of Acts. We need bold men and women, unashamed for the glory of God. And on this topic, on euthanasia, on abortion, we need to be, frankly, we need to just repent. We need to repent of our apathy. We need to be for life from the womb to the tomb and everywhere in between. I'm gonna be honest with you about something. The news that my state, the state that I live in, that my tax dollars, my tax dollars as a person who lives in the state of Oregon, that it goes to support this through the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Medical Board, that upsets me. That upsets me a great deal. And it's not just in the state of Oregon. And we're not talking about just being a conservative, which I am a very conservative, my wife and I are very conservative politically. But, beyond just being very conservative politically, the question isn't whether you're very conservative or not, the question is, are you biblical? God considers the matter a very serious matter. because he made men and women equal in dignity, value, and worth. And so as Christians, we are to stand and we are to speak up. Jude 3 tells us that we are to contend, contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. 1 Peter 3.15 tells us that we're always to be ready to give an answer for the reason for our faith, but to do so with respect. And this is so important, friends, because one of the things that Jesus, through the work of the Spirit, is doing in our lives is He's taking the truth of Scripture, and He's massaging the fruits of the Spirit more and more into our lives. You cannot claim today that you do not know about this issue. And that means something. You might just tune out this episode, you may think, this doesn't matter. But if you're a Christian, it matters. And your voice matters. You may not have a large podcast or a large audience, and you may not be an author. But you know what? If you're a single mom or a stay-at-home mom, you can certainly talk to your children about this. You can talk to them about the importance of life from the womb to the tomb and everywhere in between. If you're a pastor, you can certainly preach the word. And when you preach on passages related to life, you can certainly talk about these types of issues. Matters of worldview matter, because people matter. People are made in the image and likeness of God, and at the end of the day, engaging in cultural apologetics, engaging in worldview analysis, It's good. It's helpful. It helps us to understand the issue. It helps us to understand issues through a biblical worldview. But just engaging the ideas and the thoughts and the things that we have here today is not enough. The question is, are you going to do something about it as a Christian? Are you going to speak out about the glory of Christ? I want to tell you something. You know, in my wife and I, we do family worship just about every day. We pray for three things, personal, we pray for the government, so our world, and we pray for the church, our church, for the church. And one of the things that we are consistently praying for, we're praying for our government officials to act justly in those kind of things, but we're praying, we're praying that God would save. You know, in the case of the state of Oregon, we have an unregenerate, unrepentant, lesbian governor, one of only two in the entire country. The other I think is Maryland or Massachusetts, Maryland, yeah. It just happened this year. We are living in a day when we as Christians need to be in prayer for our government officials. By the way, Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 that it's not an option, it's a command. It's a command to pray for our officials. And so we not only pray that, my wife and I not only pray that our officials would act justly and execute their responsibilities justly in the sight of God, because they're gonna give an account for how they rule, but also that if they're not saved, that God would bring them to repentance in faith in his name. Because, and this is the point that I want to make, the reason that we pray that is because until their heart is changed, their policies will not change. Until their heart has been transformed by the amazing grace of God in Christ, their worldview will never change. Their worldview will always be based on what they think, what they feel, and whatever lobbyists comes to them and throws them the most money. What we need today is to pray for our politicians to repent and to believe and put their faith and their trust in Christ and to learn a biblical worldview. We're not talking about a Christian nation here. We're talking about something that is really important. God cares about the heart of man. But God also sees the heart of man. Jeremiah 17 9 tells us that the human heart is deceitful above all things. And so as we engage in worldview analysis, as we engage on ethical and moral issues, we not only speak up against the ideas and the values of our world, but we do so to analyze it through a biblical worldview, which helps us to see things through the perspective of an understanding of Scripture, so that our lives then will be, we will begin to see through a biblical life view, like I wear glasses, and it helps me to see. So a biblical worldview helps us to know what God has said, but then to see with the right lenses through the world that God has made by understanding what scripture says and what it teaches. So as we engage in the ideas and in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to understand these things. That as we're engaging in worldview analysis, as we're engaging in speaking out about all these moral and ethical issues, we do so out of love for God, first and foremost, and love for our neighbor. And we call our neighbor to repent and to believe and put their faith and their hope in Christ, because it's only there that they might be born again, they might become a child of God, they may become adopted by the grace of God, might be united to Christ by faith in His name, might be indwelt by His Spirit, and then might be empowered by His Spirit to go out and make disciples of the nations wherever we are, all for His glory. And we're not talking even about societal change, we're talking about change that begins in the heart and it works itself out in the actions of all of our lives. And that has a profound influence, yes, also on a society. But we must not only preach the gospel to those on the streets, we must not only preach the gospel on the airwaves, on podcasts, on videos, and radio stations, and so on. If you're a government official, if you work with a congressman or a senator, or you have influence with the president, or you have influence with a lawyer, or so on and so forth, wherever you are, in whatever station of life God has put you in, Preach the gospel. Preach about sin. Preach about the grace of God in Christ. Preach the word. Do the work of an evangelist, as Paul told Timothy. Call sinners to repentance and faith in the name of Christ alone. Only Christ can save. Only Christ can satisfy. Only Christ can change the heart of man. This is why Christ came under the sentence of death to pay the penalty for us in our place and for our sin to be buried and to rise again. And so as we talk about these things, and we will be talking about these worldview matters, We need to understand these things because how we speak about them and how even we think about them, it matters. Because people matter. People that Christ came to die for. People for whom that need the rescue of Christ. And so today I just want to thank you guys for listening or watching this episode of the Equipping You in Grace podcast. I hope that it's been helpful for your life and godliness and that you will stand up and you will speak out for the glory of Christ, for the honor of His Word, and stand upon the authoritative and sufficient Word of our God, who has revealed Himself in Christ in His Word. So I want to thank you for listening or watching this episode of the Equipping in Grace podcast. Until next Monday and Wednesday, may God bless you and keep you. Thank you for listening to the Equipping You and Grace podcast. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe, rate us on the app, and share this with your friends and family on social media. If you want to find us on social media, you can find us on Twitter at Servants of Grace, on Instagram at Servants of Grace, or by searching at Servants of Grace on Facebook. You can also find this episode and many others like it on the front page of our website, servantsofgrace.org.