The Mask Of Virtue – A Life Sunday Sermon

Text: Isaiah 5:20

“Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.”

So spoke the main character in a modern movie. But the message is timeless: Evil is more tempting when it appears to be good. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and his servants appear as ministers of righteousness.

Despite our sinful condition, most people—at least in our society—want to be on the side of righteousness. Given a clearly-marked choice between good and evil, most people would choose the good.

Unfortunately, evil does not come today with warning labels. Truth-in-packaging laws require manufacturers of candy bars to disclose the calories, the calories from fat, and the ingredients contained therein. Movies are rated G, or PG, or R, to give us some idea of what to expect, and whether they’re suitable for our children.

But there are no truth-in-packaging laws for evil and falsehood. False teachers do not wear lapel pins saying “Warning: I am a heretic.” Temptation is tempting only when it is attractive, falsehood is believable only when it is disguised as truth, and evil is alluring only when it appears to be good or beautiful.

Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah recognized this. And he warned us in 5:20, our text for today: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (KJV)

We live in an age in which many in high places—officials in government, justices on the courts, anchors in the media, professors in the academy—tell us the act of terminating the life of an unborn child is not evil but good. That which is a killing, they call “choice,” even though the unborn child doesn’t get a choice. That which is a child, they call “tissue.” That which is an abortion, they call “terminating a pregnancy.” That which should be and formerly was a crime, they call a “constitutional right.” That which is evil, they call good.

They tell women it’s their only choice, that it is a “simple surgical procedure,” and that it will all be over soon. They mask until it is too late the physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds caused by abortion. Again, that which is evil, they call good.

And the manipulation of words continues. Protection of the child’s right to life is called “repression.” Protest is denounced as “intolerance.” The child that is a gift from God is cast away as an “inconvenience.” That which is good, they call evil.

We think largely with words, so terminology affects our thinking. We therefore need to make sure our terminology reflects reality. And what is the reality—what is that “creature” in the womb some want to abort?

The Bible treats the preborn child as a living human being. When Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, came into the presence of Mary who was carrying Jesus in her womb, Elizabeth declared that “the babe leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1:44). That doesn’t sound like a fetus or fertilized egg; that sounds like a child! It reminds us of Rebekah, of whom we read, “And the children struggled within her ….” (Genesis 25:21-26). These preborn children displayed traits that would follow them most of their lives.

The original languages used in these accounts make no distinction between born and preborn children. Of all of the Greek words used for child, brephos connotes a baby or very small child. That’s the word attributed to Elizabeth: “The brephos leaped in my womb for joy.” We see the same word in the next chapter: “Ye shall find the brephos wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And in 2 Timothy 3:15 Paul uses the same word: “From a brephos thou hast known the holy Scriptures ….” The same word is used for a child in the womb, a child newly born, and a child sometime after birth.

Another Greek word used for “son” is huios. In Luke 1:36 the angel tells Mary, “And, behold, thy cousin, Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a huios.” And the angel tells Mary in Luke 1:31, “Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a huios.” Two verbs, “conceive” and “bring forth,” with the same direct object, a “son” or huios. And years later, when Jesus is a young man, God the Father says to Him, “Thou art my beloved huios” (Luke 3:22). Again, the same Greek word used for a preborn child, a newborn child, and a young man.

The same is true of the Old Testament Hebrew. The same word used for the preborn children in Rebekah’s womb, bne, is also used for Ishmael when he is 13 years old (Genesis 17:25) and for Noah’s adult sons (Genesis 9:19). And Job says in his anguish, “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child (gehver) conceived” (Job 3:3). The Old Testament uses gehver 65 times, and usually it is simply translated “man.” Job 3:3 could be accurately translated, “There is a man conceived.”

The biblical authors identify themselves with the preborn child. In Psalm 139:13 David says, “Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.” Isaiah says, “The Lord hath called me from the womb” (49:1), and in Jeremiah 1:5 we read, “before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” They don’t say “the fetus that became me”; that person in the womb is “me.”

Job wishes he could have died before he was born: “Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!” (10:18) How can the preborn child die if he or she is not alive?

And David says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). There was nothing sinful about the act of David’s conception; this passage establishes that the preborn child has a sinful nature. How can a non-person have a sinful nature? And while other verses establish the child’s personhood before birth, this passage shows his or her humanity all the way back to conception!

Clearly the Bible, especially in its original languages, treats the preborn child the same as a child already born. The Bible knows nothing about “potential human beings”; to the authors of Scripture, there are only human beings with potential.

And on this point, revelation and reason agree. Modern medicine and modern science confirm Scriptures’ teaching concerning the beginning of human life. Consider the following established medical facts: 

• From the point of conception, the child’s DNA or genetic make-up is fixed and remains constant throughout the child’s life. This DNA determines, to a large extent, the child’s eventual bone structure, skin, eye, and hair color, and many other characteristics.

• Two weeks after conception, the child already has her own blood supply and blood type. Her blood and the mother’s blood come into contact through a membrane but do not mingle.

• Three weeks after conception, the heart is beating and a body rhythm is established that will remain constant throughout the child’s life.

• Four weeks after conception, the brain, arms legs, kidneys, liver, and digestive tract have begun to take shape. The heartbeat can be detected on an electrocardiogram.

• By the end of the second month, the child is less than one thumb’s length in size, but everything—hands, feet, head, organs, brain—are already in place. The child even has fingerprints!

• During the third month, the palms of the hands become sensitive, as do the soles of the feet. The child will grasp an object placed in his hand and can make a fist. He swallows, his lips part, his brow furrows, and he is capable of moving to avoid light or pressure. His eyelids even squint.

• By the end of the third month, the child sucks his thumb and can feel pain. From this point on, development consists mainly of growth. 

And yet, the U.S. Supreme Court ignored all of this evidence in 1973 when it decided, by a 7-2 vote, that abortion is a constitutional right. In so doing, the Court struck down the laws of Texas, and nearly every other state, that prohibited abortion. But do you realize that the U.S. Constitution nowhere mentions abortion, or even the so-called right of privacy upon which the Court’s reasoning was based? Do you realize that the Court, in order to justify its abortion decision, had to rely upon unnamed, fictional “rights” that the Court said are found, not in the Bill of Rights, but in “emanations” that supposedly flow from the Bill of rights? And do you realize that the Court dismissed the idea of the child’s right to life, a right which seems to be clearly stated in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments that “nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,” simply by dogmatically stating, without any supporting evidence, that the term “person” as used in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments means only persons who are already born? Over the years, and over some very strong dissents, the Court has cleverly called “evil good, and good evil,” has “put darkness for light, and light for darkness,” and has “put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”

Luther didn’t play any such word games. He stated his position forcefully: “For those who have no regard for pregnant women and who do not spare the tender fruit are murderers and infanticides.” And John Calvin was just as clear: “If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy the unborn in the womb before it has come to light.” No wonder Orthodox scholar Alexander Webster wrote that abortion “is one of only several moral issues on which not one dissenting opinion has ever been expressed by the Church Fathers.”

Although Luther afflicted his listeners with the terrors of the Law, he also comforted the afflicted with the Gospel. Jesus, who was perfectly good, took upon Himself all that was evil. He received the punishment for evil we deserved, and God covers us with the goodness of Christ that we do not deserve. God just doesn’t make us look good through faith in Jesus, He declares that we are good! He sees us as if we had never sinned.

This is true for all who, with repentant hearts, bow before His cross. Christ died for every sin and for every sinner. He died for each of our sins and for all of our sins. That includes the sin of abortion. Sometimes that sin can make those who have committed it feel as if it is too big to be forgiven. It is not. If any listener here today has been involved with an abortion in the past, we want you to know that Christ the Son of God extends to you His grace, His forgiveness, His acceptance, and new life in Him. You are welcome here with the rest of us sinners who have had the evil of our sin covered by the goodness of Jesus.

More people burdened with the sin of abortion need to hear this Good News spoken to them. But that can never happen if we do not first confront the sin of abortion for what it is. So let us resolve, today, that no longer will we call evil good, or good evil; and when others do so in our presence, we will stand up and speak out for the truth. No longer will we stand idly by while innocent unborn children—not products of conception, not tissue, but living human beings—are put to death under the guise of “terminating a pregnancy.” No longer will we allow villainy to proceed under a mask of virtue! Rather, we will speak the truth in love unmasking evil for what it is and pointing to the goodness of Christ for who He is. Amen.