The beginning of human life is called conception. This is the very first beginning of human life. This time of life is truly one of the great moments of life when a human being first comes into existence. What a remarkable time it is when life is created. Today Dr. Luke will tell us his thoughts about the beginning of life. Dr. Luke in his writings about 2000 years ago wrote about this. Also other ancient writings in the Bible, which is the book, which contains Dr. Luke and other ancient writings, talk about the beginning of life.
Before we go any farther just what is conception? Conception is when a sperm from the man or husband joins together with an egg from a woman or wife. Most of the time conception occurs in a woman’s body after a man and a woman have sexual intercourse. However, in the modern world we live in this process can occur outside of a woman’s body in a laboratory test tube.
It is important to understand this process for several reasons. First, it helps us to understand the complexity of the first moments of life. Second, it helps us see the great beauty of the creation of early human life. Third, we began to see how man simply could not have evolved but rather was created and the process of conception highlights the beautiful process of the creation of human beings given to us by God.
Let us let look a little more in-depth at the process of conception. One may ask why does not conception occur every time a man and a woman have sexual intercourse? The first and most obvious reason is that the woman or man could be using contraceptive measures, which would prevent conception. Second, for a woman to conceive she must have a uterus or womb, which is ready for the new baby. This is the purpose of the menstrual cycle in a woman. The woman’s uterus each month builds up with a lining, which is rich in a blood supply. The egg is released at just the right time to be fertilized by the sperm and then implant in the lining of the uterus. Too early or too late by even a few days and the woman cannot get pregnant.
The whole process though, of conception, is filled with literally thousand of chemical reactions inside the woman’s body. Many of these reactions happen very quickly.
The Bible has a lot to say about this time of life. Let us look at some ancient writings written about 2500 hundred years ago by a man named David. David wrote a lot of poetry. Here is some of his poetry, which talked about the beginning of life.
‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalms 139.13-16).’ This is a truly amazing passage of ancient writing. What does all of this mean? We can find several points out in this passage, which are helpful to understand conception.
First, God tells us He himself created us. He knit us or made us like a person knits clothes. We did not just happen but God created us. This gives us purpose and meaning. Would God just create us to have a meaningless existence? Second, the writer tells us that he praises God because he is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ We are not just an unfortunate creation or evolved mass of flesh but rather we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ Fearfully made says that we greatly respect God for creating us. Wonderfully tells that David praised God because he was created in a very amazing manner. Third, David tells us that even when our body was unformed God saw us. Even when we could do nothing but exist in our mother’s womb God saw us and knew us. That is amazing and it says that all of life from conception to birth in a mother’s womb is important. Should we take the life of a child in a mother’s womb? No, this ancient writing from the Bible says life from the very moment of creation is important and sacred. Finally we see that God even before one of them started understood all the days of a person’s life. This tells us that our coming into the world was not an accident but rather planned by God. We are created in God’s image with a purpose to live and God gives that purpose to us. This should give all of us a great sense of purpose to live.
Another amazing fact about conception is that the new baby receives one sperm and one egg. Each sperm and each egg has half of the genetic information for the mother or father. Thus when the egg and sperm come together to form the new baby it will have 100% of the genetic information needed to be a living human being. This whole process of this coming about is another miracle of life. However, having half of the information from the father and half from the mother allows the child to be its own unique person but also have some identity with their parents. This allows for a person to be unique but also belong to a family. God thinks of everything doesn’t He? Remember what was said above about us being ‘fearfully and wonderfully made?’ When God makes us like this he truly made us in a very wonderful manner, which is beyond explanation. I want us to talk about why God made us so wonderfully. But first let us talk a little more about what is this genetic information our bodies have.
What is this genetic information? Genetic information is information contained in the body, which is so small we cannot see it. However, this information contains much of the information, which our bodies need to grow and develop. This process of growth and development begins at conception and continues until we grow through adolescence and young adulthood.
Now back to the question about why God made us so fearfully and wonderfully. First we must understand that God has a great purpose in life for you and me. A friend of Dr. Luke’s named Paul also wrote many letters at the same time Dr. Luke did. He wrote in one of his letters about 2000 years ago to a group of people in a town called Ephesus. This town is in what is now modern day Turkey. He said, ‘For God chose us in him before the creation of the world to be different and blameless in his sight (Ephesians 1.4). What does this mean? God chose us to be different that is we are not to be like the people of the world who steal, murder, hate, lie and do other bad things. He wants us to be different. This difference is to be blameless. What does being blameless mean and how can I be blameless? Dr. Luke’s and other writings are contained in a larger book called the Bible. The Bible says that all of have sinned. Sin is going against God or what he wants us to do. We find out what God wants us to do by looking at and reading the book he has written for us, that is the Bible.
The Bible also says that we are helpless and cannot help but sinning. That is we cannot help ourselves and we continue to lie, cheat, steal and think bad thoughts about other people. How can we overcome this? God said that he sent Jesus to the earth to die for our sins. The Bible says, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3.16).’
God created us to have a very full and meaningful now and everlasting life with him. This full life can start now on this earth if only you believe in Jesus and that he died for your sins.
I want to tell you a story of a lady who had a special son. This lady’s name was Mary and she lived in what is current day Israel about 2000 years ago. What was so special about her? Let me tell you the story just as Dr. Luke tells it in his ancient writings. “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendent of David (the same David we talked about earlier in this talk). The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’ How can this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God…for nothing is impossible with God. I am Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’”
This is truly an amazing story. How could a woman give birth to a child if she was a virgin? But this is the story of how Jesus was born. Jesus was truly the Son of God and fully God and also fully man since part of him was from Mary a human being. Though this is a mystery it is true. Two other points though are especially important. First, is the fact that Mary believed God. The angel said to her, ‘nothing is impossible with God.’ Second, the kingdom Jesus would rule over would be a kingdom that will last forever. This is truly amazing. Isn’t it?
No body on earth can lay claim to an eternal Kingdom, but Jesus did. Jesus laid claim on your life and my life from its very beginning in the womb of our mother at the moment conception all the way through eternity.
The miracle of Jesus being born to a virgin is a great and true story. But the conception of every human being is also an amazing story. Why is this the case? As we have seen the Bible says that each and every one of us was planned by God even before we were born. Thus our being born was not an accident. Also the miracle of conception is so important because it shows that God is concerned about even the smallest details of our life from the very beginning of our existence. When you and I were created in our mother’s womb even she did not know we were there. She found out several weeks to a month later. Only God knew you were there. But at that very moment of time he prepared a place for you to start living and growing to become the person that God wanted you to be.
We mentioned above that all of us have sinned and gone against what God wanted us to do. The book of Ephesians mentioned above in this talk says, ‘All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions-It is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2.3-5).’ What does all of this mean?
All of us, whether Chinese, Japanese, Asian, Western, African, Indian or whatever or whoever, sought to gratify our own selfish desires and thoughts. Because of this, God, because he cannot tolerate wrongdoing, had to punish this wrongdoing. However, God loved us more than he wanted to punish us so he put our sins on Jesus Christ so that we could become alive in Jesus Christ and live forever and not live in eternal death.
Would you like to have this type of eternal life so that you know that you can have rich and full life now and forever? If so then pray the following prayer with me. ‘Dear Jesus, thank you for dying on the Cross for my sins. I know I have done wrong. I want to live forever with you. I believe that you died on the Cross for my sins. I believe that after you died and were buried you rose from the Cross and live even now.’ If you have prayed this prayer you are now a child of God and will have a full life now and forever.