Abortion and Godly Sorrow
The video below is shocking. It’s disturbing. It’s heartbreaking. In it, the woman claims to be having an abortion “right now.” She explains that she has just taken the RU-486 abortion pill, and that the pill is working in her body while she is recording the video.
She goes to great lengths in order to avoid referencing a “baby” or even a “fetus” throughout the entire video. She also strives to convey her peace with the “decision,” but spends much of the video repeating self-comforting phrases like “It’s not that bad.” Her strained composure poorly masks her inner torment.
Please take the time to watch the video, not for its shock value, but for what it may show you about human nature and the Gospel.
Perhaps your first reaction to the video was one of anger. And while your righteous anger over the murder of another child is appropriate (Eph. 4:26-27), remember Christ’s command to pray for people like this.
Christians, pray this young lady will experience a godly sorrow over her sin. Godly sorrow produces the repentance necessary for salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). Godly sorrow was necessary for your salvation, and it will be necessary for hers. Our prayer for this woman should not be a type of high-minded Pharisaical prayer (e.g., “Thank you God that I’m not a murderer”), but should be a prayer informed by intense awareness of our own sin.
For that matter, the Christian’s faithful opposition to sinful behavior in the culture is borne out of a realization of his or her own sinful nature. While faithfully and boldly opposing the murder of innocents, Biblical Christians are acutely aware of the depravity out of which Christ saved them. They understand I Corinthians 6:9-10 as a sobering passage wherein all manner of wrongdoing is condemned, including that of murder. But Christians seeking to live in humility will remember Jesus’ condemnation of hatred for our neighbor as tantamount to murder, something of which we have all been guilty.
As we minister to those women who have had abortions, we can offer the solid hope of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We can echo the Apostle Paul, who wrote a letter to encourage some of his readers who had come from a sordid past, “…and such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11, NKJV).
This is a truly exquisite paradox. Biblical Christians live in the beauty of God’s forgiveness for the very sins they must now faithfully oppose. We do not stand against sin merely because we are right, but also because we are rescued.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.(NKJV)