In Acts 3:15 Jesus is called the Author of Life. In the beginning it was God who conceptualized life and created it. Every person on earth is a creation of God and has their life because of him. God is involved at every step of the process of creating new life. At the start, it is God who determines the number of our days (Job 14:5) and that includes not only when they end, but when they begin. To Jeremiah God said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jer 1:5). It is clear from the scriptures that God is also the one who opens or closes the womb (Gen 20:18, Gen 29:31). It is God who promised and provided offspring for Abraham. The sign of the covenant with Abraham was circumcision so that Abraham had a visual reminder when he laid with his wife that it was God who would provide. Psalm 139:13 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.” After opening the womb it is God who knits us together. Psalm 17:14 refers to a child in the womb as treasure. In Isaiah 49:1 the prophet wrote, “The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.” There are numerous stories of God working in the womb with children that he has a special plan and purpose for. In Luke 1:44 we even have the unborn John the Baptist leaping for joy and thus expressing life and even emotion. Life is a sacred miraculous creation of God from the moment of conception. Any termination of life before birth is nothing less than murder. Murder is a violation of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:13) and the punishment in scripture is the death penalty (Genesis 9:6, Exodus 21:12).
The End of Everything
Rapture & Tribulation
When will Jesus return?
Divorce
Women in Ministry
The Mission of the Church
Communion
Baptism
The Local Church
The Image of the Church
The Identity of the Church
The word church in the Greek is the word ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) which can mean assembly or church. It is used to describe the entirety of those who make up the Body of Christ. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Faith & Works
It has already been made clear that we are saved and justified by faith alone. Works then is the fruit of our salvation. Faith, which is an active trust in Jesus, will show itself through obedience to Christ. Jesus said in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.”
