What Does the Gospel Say to Those Who’ve Had an Abortion?

What does the Gospel say to those who've had an abortion? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's our phone number. We'll be taking calls for the next 25 minutes at 833-THECORE.

That's 833-THECORE. Now, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites. In fact, you can watch Adriel right now on our YouTube channel, and you can send him a question through YouTube. You can also email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

Now, you can also post your question through YouTube. We'll be taking calls for the next 25 minutes at 833-THECORE. So, there is an element here of physical healing that's being spoken of. Now, let me just read one of the most beautiful prophecies in all of the Bible, Isaiah 53, speaking of the suffering servant, the sufferings of our Lord Jesus as he went to the cross, bearing the weight of our sin. Verse 1, who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Now, physical healing is important, brothers and sisters, but I think the most important kind of healing that we could experience is the healing of our broken and sinful hearts.

And so I would say that that's central here in Isaiah chapter 53. In fact, you think about that scene in Mark chapter 2 where Jesus heals the paralytic, and the paralytic is let down through the roof. And Jesus first says to him, your sins are forgiven. That's the great miracle, and the religious leaders begin to scoff and to say, who does this guy think he is that he can forgive sins? And Jesus responds to them by saying, which is easier, to say to this man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk, but so that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, rise, take up your bed and walk. And he healed that man physically. But the physical healing was there to confirm the fact that Jesus has the authority, the power to forgive our sins, to heal our souls, if you will. And I think that's what's central there in Isaiah 53.

So that while, you know, there is this hope that we have, especially at the resurrection of the dead, that our bodies are going to be fully restored, here specifically, we're thinking about the forgiveness of sins that we have through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Thank you for that question. Thanks so much for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question regarding the Bible, the Christian life doctrine or theology, maybe some doubts you have about the Christian faith, we are open to your questions right now at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Rhonda, who's calling in from Nebraska.

Rhonda, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Okay, Pastor Adriel, my question is I have a severe nerve disease. The pain is off the charts. I have tried every treatment they have. I tried a new treatment where you're infused with anesthetic for hours on end.

It's not just a quick shot. Your body is completely infused with this. They talk about disassociation.

You can actually feel where your soul is trapped inside your body. Pastor, it opened up a can of worms. I'm a born-again Christian. I've trusted Jesus Christ as my savior, but the spiritual warfare was unbelievable.

Do you think I did something wrong? Well, Rhonda, we experience, and as the children of God, can experience immense suffering in this life. It doesn't always necessarily mean that we've done something wrong. You remember what Jesus said to his disciples in John 16, in this world, you will have tribulation. We do experience sickness, pain, persecution. Paul says in Romans 8 that through all these things we're more than conquerors. It's not that we as the children of God aren't going to necessarily experience those things.

It's that even through them, we're not separated from the love of God. The first thing I want to say to you is that the suffering that you experience, this chronic pain that you have, cannot separate you from the love of God that is exhibited so clearly in Jesus' suffering for your sake. Now, my heart breaks for you, and so what I want to do right now, and I want to invite all of our listeners as well, is just pray for you and ask that the Lord would grant you relief and strength and faith and a sense of his great love for you, even in the midst of this trial.

So let's pray. Father, be with our sister Rhonda who is experiencing this great pain. Would you grant her, Lord, relief in her body by the grace of your Holy Spirit? We pray for healing. Lord, we pray that you would give wisdom to the doctors and those who are caring for her, and Lord, that if there is a treatment plan that would be better for her, Lord, that you would give her wisdom and just lead her and the doctors to that treatment plan, Lord, that would grant her relief. But we look to you as the God who is able to heal and the one who comforts us, Lord, in the midst of our affliction. Would you comfort our sister? Would you fill her with your Holy Spirit, and would you give her a sense, Lord God, of your love for her, even in the midst of this great trial that she faces?

Lord, set her eyes on Jesus, your Son, by faith and strengthen her faith, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. It's so important, brothers and sisters, that we don't assume that our circumstances, even the great suffering that we experience in this life, mean that God has stopped loving us. John says in 1 John that God's love is exhibited in the fact that He sent His Son into the world for our sins. We have to be careful that we don't get this sense of, well, God loves me based on how I'm doing today or my feelings or even the perfection of my obedience because we're not perfectly obedient.

We fall short of that. We look to the cross when we're questioning, we're struggling with this question of, have I done something wrong? Does God not love me anymore? We look to the cross where His word is, I do love you, I forgive all your sins, and you have in me, Jesus says, the hope of the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. And so here with the apostle Paul says also in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 16, we do not lose heart.

And Rhonda, I don't want you to lose heart. We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. We do experience suffering and affliction in this life, sister, but compared to the glory that God has prepared for those who love Him, those who trust Him, and Paul says it's light and momentary, God has prepared something for you. And so I pray that you would continue to cling to Him and trust in Him and find in Christ and in the gospel the very clear word of His love for you. God bless you. Some great words of comfort.

Thanks for that, Adriel. It really applies to anyone who is going through extreme physical suffering right now, so thanks for those good words. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We want to tell you about a great book we have available this week, and it's by one of our favorite authors, Dr. Tim Keller. Yeah, we've been offering this book this week, and I think it's so important that we understand a sort of right theology of work. So many people go to their job every day frustrated, not feeling fulfilled, wondering, you know, what is it that God has called me to? Is work just this sort of necessary evil?

Well, it isn't a necessary evil, and work has been a part of the lives of God's people since even before the fall. And we want to help you understand this, and Tim Keller helps you understand this in his book, Every Good Endeavor. And so again, we're offering it this week for a donation of any amount, and you can get a hold of it over at corechristianity.com.

You will really enjoy this book. You'll enjoy Dr. Tim Keller's writing style and the way he applies scripture and theology to our daily lives. You can check it out by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the core, and you can call us 24 hours a day with your voicemail at 833-THE-CORE.

Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named Bill. I was just wondering what kind of relief someone might find in the Bible to those greatly suffering from past abortions. What kind of relief does scripture give an individual who is suffering over having had an abortion? And I'm assuming that this is something that they've confessed to the Lord. They've repented of it, but they're deeply grieved by what they've done. Well, the hope—and I was just talking to Rhonda about this in the midst of physical suffering—the hope that we have when we're suffering, that sense of shame and guilt over our sins, the hope is still the gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse each and every one of our sins, even those sins which we look at and we say, man, this is horrible.

How could I have done this? And you see this in scripture over and over again. This is the story that's told throughout the Bible.

I think of David, for example, after he had committed that heinous sin, murdering Uriah the Hittite, having taken Uriah's wife and taken advantage of her, having this sexual relationship. He's sinned in this grievous way, and he's blind to his sin. He doesn't even really realize the gravity of what he's done until he's confronted by Nathan the prophet. And Nathan the prophet confronts him. At first, David doesn't realize that Nathan is talking about him, and finally he does. And he says, I've sinned.

And what does Nathan say to him? He says, the Lord has removed, has taken away your sin. In other words, David, God forgives you. And that's what we all need to hear.

That's what we all need to know. We need to hear God through the gospel speaking to us saying, I forgive you. And we need to rest in that word.

Now, even when we hear that, and frankly we need to hear it week in and week out, we can still struggle with the sense of guilt. And I think actually David did. In fact, when you look at the psalm that he wrote in Psalm 51, which, by the way, this is just an excellent psalm to pray every day when you wake up in the morning or before you go to bed at night.

Read, pray Psalm 51. What does David say? The psalm begins, to the choir master, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. This is after Nathan confronts him and tells him, God has taken away your sin. And yet we still read, David saying in verse 14, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing loud of your righteousness. If you're struggling with a sense of guilt, a sense of shame over sins that you've done in the past, you need to fix your eyes upon Christ and his redemptive work for you. And I would say pray, pray with David here in Psalm 51 and saying, Lord, deliver me, cleanse me, right?

What does he say? Purge me with his eyes up and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins.

Blot out my iniquities. And brothers and sisters, when we pray that prayer by faith, when we confess our sins, we know that God is faithful and just to cleanse us and to forgive us of all unrighteousness. And so we have the promise of his holy word. And I'm going to continue to hammer away at that on this broadcast because there's no greater news than the fact that your sins can be forgiven.

My abortion, the infidelity in the past, stealing, go down the list. The answer is the blood of Jesus is sufficient for you. Receive it by faith and rest in God's love for sinners as you turn to him and receive that sure word that he gives you. Some great words there and continue to hammer that message home. We love that. I need to hear it too. I mean, yeah, I mean, we all need to hear it. I think this is one of the reasons why it's so important in churches as well, you know, that the message of the cross is central. I heard a pastor, a Lutheran friend of mine say not too long ago, you know, you should be hearing in your worship service, you're forgiven at least three times throughout the service. It's something you should be hearing over and over and over again because that's the good news of the gospel in Christ. And that's what we receive when we gather together for worship. And that's the reminder that we all need. We need to live in light of the great redemptive work of Jesus Christ for us.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a note, we're going to be recording a second episode of Core Christianity after this live one finishes up here in a couple of minutes. So if you weren't able to get through on the phone, you can still call us. In fact, you can call us for the next 35 minutes or so at this number, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Our phone lines will be open until about 2 30 central time. So feel free to give us a call. Let's go to a YouTube question.

We do have a YouTube channel and you can check out Adriel live in the studio every day on YouTube. And here's one from Alexander. He says, I'm an ethnic Jew, but believe in Yeshua. Does this make me a messianic Jew?

Can I still honor customs like wearing tallit or observing Purim? This is a great question. Well, one, let me just say how awesome is it that you are a Jewish person who has come to faith in Jesus, the Messiah. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 9, his passion, his desire to see his kinsmen, his brothers and sisters according to the flesh, the Jews come to faith in Jesus Christ.

And of course, in the first century, there were many who did and there were many who rejected Christ. But you have this promise that the gospel is going to continue to advance and that God is welcoming people from every tribe, tongue and nation into his family. And you're a part of that. You're a part of that through Christ.

And so I praise God for that. Now, the question of what ceremonies to observe and whether or not you should still or could still keep some of those traditions is a really good question. And it's one of the questions that was central in some of the discussions at the early church had books like the Book of Galatians, books like the Book of Ephesians, which customs do we still keep? I mean, under the old covenant, the Old Testament, you had to be circumcised.

You had to keep these certain rituals, food laws, these kinds of things. Well, do you still need to do that in order to be a faithful part of the people of God? And the answer that's given in the New Testament over and over again in places like Ephesians and Galatians or Acts chapter 15, the Jerusalem Council is no, you don't have to do those things to be a part of God's people. We're the people of God by faith in Jesus Christ and through holy baptism. And so that's what we observe. We're marked by that, by the reality of faith in Christ and through having received the gospel. And Paul says in Colossians chapter 2 verse 16, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

That's it right there. The substance is Christ. And so these rituals that we had in the time of the Old Testament, whether it was the sacrificial system in the temple or the feasts that were observed throughout the year by the Israelites or some of these, I mean, these rituals are pointing forward to, we're pointing forward to Jesus, the substance.

And so we have that now. That's what we have today in the new covenant. And so I would say focusing on that, embracing that, and plugging into a solid church where that's the focus.

And I appreciate your question. And again, just praising the Lord that you are in Christ and that the Lord has done a work in your life. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. A reminder, we have this great book available for you today. It's all about the Bible's View of Work by Dr. Tim Keller. And you can find that by going to CoreChristianity.com forward slash offers. The book is called Every Good Endeavor, Connecting Your Work to God's Work. So check that out if you would.

We do get emails here at the Core. And here's one that came in from one of our listeners. This is from Jeannie. She says, I've been a believer my whole life, but recently I've had serious reasons to doubt. I lost the love of my life a few years ago.

He drank himself to death. I don't understand any of it anymore. I just find it hard to believe there's a God and that he cares about me or my children at all. Then I listened to a podcast the other day and it talked about how the Catholic Church is the one who decided what books were going to be in the Bible and that it's all about control and what they want to be in the Bible. So how am I supposed to believe that the Bible is real and from God? It really shook me to my core. I'm faithless and so very lost.

Please help me. Jeannie. Well, let me, let me pray for you. I'm just, again, it's, it's heartbreaking that you've experienced this loss. And so in the midst of the suffering that you're going through, I want, I want to pray for you, Father. As Jeannie has reached out to us here via email, Lord, and expressed the difficulty that she's going through right now, I pray that you would meet her where she's at, that you would, by the grace of your Holy Spirit, comfort her and minister to our sister, Lord, who is mourning the loss of her loved one and who is wrestling with questions of faith. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would be with her, comforting her and opening her eyes to the truth of your word, Lord God. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Jeannie, you need the stability of God's Word right now and the promise that God gives to you in His Word, of His grace, of His forgiveness, of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, that life is not meaningless, that even the suffering that we experience is not meaningless, that somehow God is able to and does work in and through it. But it sounds like you're questioning that right now because somebody said, well, the Catholic Church just put together the Bible. Well, that's not true.

That's not true at all. The Word of God is self-authenticating. It's God's speech to us. It wasn't that some people got together and just decided, here's what we're going to have in the Bible. It was that the Church received the Holy Speech of God because she recognized these are God's Words. There was this universal reception, this apostolic affirmation.

These books, especially when we're thinking about the books of the New Testament, were written by the apostles or someone closely associated with the apostles. And you have the prophetic testimony given to us in Scripture, which is what Peter says in 2 Peter. And so you can be confident that the Bible is God's Word and that what He says to you is true. And you need to receive that as a comfort. I want you to receive that as a comfort for you in the midst of this trial. God bless you. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.