Will I Have to Give an Account for My Abortion When I Stand Before Jesus?

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Will I Have to Give an Account for My Abortion When I Stand Before Jesus?

December 9, 2024

Questions about whether a woman who had an abortion as a teen and later became a believer will have to give an account to Jesus for it when she stands before him.

* I had an abortion as a teen and became a believer in my twenties. I am racked with guilt I still can’t get past in my forties. The Scriptures say we will all give an account of our actions. I lose sleep over the thought of standing before Jesus for this. I cry often. Will I be held accountable?

Transcript

You're listening to Stand to Reason's hashtag S-T-R-Ask podcast with Amy Hall and Greg Koukl. It was the very first time you have ever stumbled, Amy. You'd think after saying it hundreds and hundreds of times.

Not in the years that we've been doing this, yeah. All right. You're a human being, everybody knows.

Yes, now everybody knows. The truth is out. So today, actually, we have a pretty serious question today, but I thought it was important because we've been talking about abortion a lot.

And I think people have a lot of guilt over that. So this is related to that. But it's also about a verse that we talked about back in July.

It's been a little bit, but we have more on this verse. But I wanted to talk about this specifically in terms of this particular question. Yeah, especially since there's so many things that we've talked about.

There's such a ground swell in certain areas to restore abortion rights, at least on a state level for many states, but also a surge to, given the right makeup of the executive branch, et cetera, and the legislative to restore it on a national level as well. Yeah, and I think it's hard for people. So many people have had abortions, even in the church.

I think it's hard for people to listen to all the arguments against it. Because it can feel very condemning. So anyway, here's the question from anonymous.

I had an abortion as a teen and became a believer in my 20s. I am racked with guilt. I still can't get past in my 40s.

The scriptures say we will all give an account of our actions. I lose sleep over the thought of standing before Jesus for this. I cry often.

Will I be held accountable? Well, there's the reason I'm pausing is because I'm trying to think the best way to construct an answer here. And I was thanking God just last week because early on in my Christian life, I received such a robust understanding of the grace of God that it has been the a solid foundation for me for over half a century as a Christian, understanding that nothing can separate me from the love of God. Now, I just summed up obviously a much longer for passage or verse out of Romans eight.

But this might be a good place for people struggling with this kind of question to go, whether the guilt is related to abortion or any other sin. Because I looked back at my life and I think of what a profligate moral idiot I was for so many years until I became a Christian at 23 years old and still remained in many ways that profligate idiot for a few years. After until God brought my life in line with the truth of scripture.

And by the way, he's still doing that. And so this promise from Romans eight that there is nothing that will be able to separate us from Christ, the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And by the way, the love of God that is in Christ Jesus is redemptive love.

It isn't just God loves everybody kind of thing. No, this is a redemptive love. Notice that this comes in the book of Romans that is is a careful piecemeal characterization of the this chapter has there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

By the way, that's the first verse of Romans eight. And the promise that I made reference to earlier a few moments ago is the last verse of Romans eight. And so the whole passage has to do with confidence that we have in what Christ has done.

Now, there's some question. How do we know? And there is a trajectory, so to speak, according to the flesh. Paul talks about trajectory according to the spirit.

And if you're in the flesh, if you're according to the flesh, that means unregenerate. No, you cannot please God. But if you're regenerate, if the spirit of God dwells within you, this is Paul's language.

Then you are your your by nature, now the new nature, putting to death the deeds of the flesh. And those things that happened beforehand are of no consequence in God's assessment. The notice that in the final judgment, there is the book that are open and people are judged according to their deeds, but there's also another book called the book of life.

And if a person's name is in the book of life, then the deeds have no consequence in the judgment to them because the punishment has already been taken by Jesus. And I'll give you a passage here for anonymous that I have gone too many times and it's part of a whole chapter. Hebrews chapter 10.

I love this passage because it lays out the nature of what Jesus did. This is the passage that has the verse that I say is the most famous Bible Christmas verse you'll never find in a Christmas card. When he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

That other thing that wasn't adequate. And that's what the theme here of this section of the book Hebrews is about. That's why I'm here.

I've come into the world. Father, you have given me a body. In Holbert offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have not taken pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come in the scroll of the book. It's written of me to do your will. Oh, God.

Jesus comes. And this is the this is the narrative of this section of scripture. Jesus comes as the perfect sacrifice to be able to do for us what the imperfect sacrifice of the bulls and goats and all of the other provisions of the mosaic law were never capable of ultimately doing, providing forgiveness once for all.

But that's something Jesus did. By this will we have been sanctified. I mean, set apart and made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

First, that's verse 10, verse 12. But he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, verse 14, for by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. You have this repetition of the same concept because the writer of Hebrews is trying to drive home the fact that Christ, that under the blood of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus as opposed to the sacrifice of bulls and goats, you are rescued.

And there I think there's also a reference to a new covenant verse. There are sins, there it is, verse 17, and there are sins and there are lawless deeds. I will remember no more.

Now, this is something when we are assailed by guilt and we talked about, I think maybe in the last show, demonic attack in which the devil is the accuser. When we are accused of our past sins, which is run of the mill activity by the devil and which anonymous here is suffering from. This is where we have to go back to the truth.

Oh, part of the truth is, yeah, we sinned. But if it isn't that sin, it's other sins. And in aggregate, they're really serious for every individual.

But how do we deal with that? We go back to the truth in the face of the accusation, say, yes, yes, yes, you're right. But Jesus died for sins once for all in my sins and transgressions. He will remember no more.

And then the capstone of this line of argument, all right, is now where there is forgiveness of these things. There is no longer any offering for sin. If it's already paid for, there's no need to do more.

Okay. And then we have this incredible application starting in verse 19. And notice the language that Paul, the writer of Hebrew is not Paul, the writer of Hebrews uses.

It isn't Paul because of something else is said in chapter three, makes it pretty clear. In any event, verse 19, therefore, brethren, therefore, based on everything I've just said, therefore, you following? Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, you know, the holy place is the holy of holies. Nobody could come without the blood, right? That's right into the very presence of God.

We have confidence we can do that. How? By a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. And since there's that word again, we have a great priest over the house of God that's making provision for us, then let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful, full stop. I mean, that is one of the most magnificent passages in Scripture, underscoring the reality of the work of Christ on our behalf that gives us massive confidence to go before the Father as clean in God's eyes, regardless of anything else that has ever happened in our life, any other sin. Paul says, look it, I'm the greatest of sinners because I persecuted the people of God, but God showed mercy to me as an example that he can show mercy to anyone if he shows mercy to the greatest.

I think that's in 1st Timothy somewhere, but notice the equation, the way he's arguing, which means any person with any sin, whether an abortion resulting in the death, willful death of a child, or willful death of multitudes, and by the way, a lot of people have been guilty of that, and found mercy through Christ. They are cleansed completely, though your sins be a scarlet, they should be whitest so your sins and your transgressions, I will remember no more. That's the truth for anyone in the situation of our dear anonymous here.

As a believer, that's the requirement, as a regenerate, putting your trust in Jesus believer, seeing your sin that humbles you, realizing that you receive mercy of a certainty through Christ that you did not deserve. That's the grace of God. So this is a perfect example from what we talked about with the episodes about the demonic.

As you mentioned, Greg, this is the accuser saying things that are false to you, and the way you fight it is by reminding yourself of the truth, as Greg was just doing. And I want to add to this the idea that we will give an account, we'll give an account for every word or every word that a man speaks. Whatever that means, whatever that looks like, it doesn't mean that Jesus will ever be against us or condemn us in any way.

This we know for an absolute fact. So I'm just going to read a couple passages about this, and the first one to consider is, consider the fact that he has already saved you. So this is from Romans 5, why we were still helpless.

At the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. So we've already been reconciled.

There's no wrath for us to face in the future at all. And then this one from Romans 8 is even more specific, because here's what it says. If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all.

How will he not also with him freely give us all things? And here's the important one. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? So first he starts with the Father.

He's not going to condemn us. That is clear. He justified us.

He's not going to condemn us. So who else can condemn us? But then he goes on to Jesus. Christ Jesus is he who died.

Yes, rather who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us? So he's not going to condemn us. So both of those, yes, specifically both of those will, they will not condemn us.

Now, if it is the case that we will stand before Christ with our sins laid bare before him, we will do that being fully forgiven. And this is not going to cause us to fear this when if this happens in this way, this is going to be a cause for glorifying him and for marveling at his love. And the reason why I say this, and we brought this up a few episodes ago, is because we have an example of this in the Gospels of the woman in Luke 7. And this is the woman who goes into the house and she's wetting Jesus' feet with her tears.

She's drying them with her hair. And Jesus says, he points out that the Pharisee didn't do this for him. He says, do you see this woman? I entered your house.

You gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss.

But she, since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven for she loved much.

But he was forgiven little, loves little. So encountering Jesus who has forgiven you does not end in fear. It ends in love.

And we see Jesus reaction to her. He doesn't condemn. He loves her.

He accepts her. He even honors her for the way that she's glorifying him for his forgiveness. So any revelation of our sins at the end of time is only going to cause us to love Jesus more.

He was forgiven much, loves much. And Jesus wanted to see that situation more than the Pharisee who only needed to be forgiven little. So no condemnation, no wrath will happen no matter what.

So my account at the end of the time will be, here are all the sins you covered. Here they are. And I'm in awe of this.

I'm in awe of your love. I'm grateful. It's only going to cause us to worship.

It's not going to cause us to be fearful. And we know he'll respond as he did to the woman in Luke 7. And finally I just want to say there was a movie called Unplanned. It was about a woman who had headed up a Planned Parenthood and then she became a Christian.

And she had overseen the death of, I don't know how many, yeah, of how many children. And so when the weight of that comes down on her and she realizes what she's done, she's just devastated in the movie. And I don't know how close it follows reality.

But in the movie she says, how can God forgive me? Which is a natural question. And her husband, I didn't like his answer. The husband's answer was because he's God.

But that's not the answer. That kind of answer makes it look like just by God's will, by his power, he just, yeah, he just dismisses all the charges. To me, that doesn't feel solid because how do you know they're not going to come back? How do you know they weren't satisfied? They're still out there.

I still have this guilt that's unpunished. Well, the guilt is still outstanding. It's just being ignored.

Right. It's just being ignored. But this is the beauty of this.

We're not forgiven because God just sweeps an under the rug or ignores it or by an act of his power. We're forgiven because it is covered. It is paid for.

It's solidly gone. It is dealt with. There's a justice that has been achieved that we can rest in so that there's no more justice for us to fulfill.

Right. And that just helps me understand the solid ground and the reality of the forgiveness that we can experience. So the takeaway here, I think, or maybe the application is that when anyone for whatever reason is straining over the guilt of their past, any actions in the past, is to remind yourself of the truth.

And to go to the passages that we have just talked about, write them all down. They'll be in the show notes, right? Do you have show notes for this? No, we don't have show notes for this show. Well, whatever.

Just listen to this over again and take notes and get the passages we're talking about. And remind yourself of the truth regarding these things. And I'll just add two more quick verses that really fit so well with what Amy just said.

They're both in 1 Peter. This one is in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 24. And it says that he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.

And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. And then the next page over chapter 3 verse 18 for Christ also died for sins once for all the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. So these are verses that are meant to reassure you of these other things.

There are verses about judgment and many people experience this judgment. But these are verses that say whatever judgment might be in a certain sense theoretically level of the Christian. Okay, here's what you did wrong.

That isn't held against us because it has been paid for. 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. My little children, John says, I write these things to you so that you do not sin. But if you do sin, you have an advocate with the Father in Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he himself is the propitiation for our sins. That word propitiation means satisfaction. That's paying the debt.

God is not mad at you anymore regarding your sins because of Jesus. And sometimes it takes a long season in our life where we keep reminding ourselves of these truths before they take deep root in our heart. And I know these passages because even after half a century I'm still reminding myself of these truths to encourage my sense of safety in the arms of Jesus who shields me and protects me from the wrath of God I otherwise would deserve.

And one last quick verse to add to this. 1 John 4, John's talking about how we've come to know and have believed the love that God has for us. And then he says we have confidence in the day of judgment because there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment.

So when we have God's love for us, we do not have to fear punishment. And this just goes throughout the New Testament. And all we will do is glorify Jesus and rejoice in his grace.

That is what we will experience. We won't experience shame or fear of any kind or condemnation. Thank you so much for sending that in because I'm sure there are many people out there who struggle with us.

And I would hope that this would free you from your anguish over your past sin. And even those of you, when it's not evolved, when it doesn't have to do with abortion, this applies to everything. So thank you for listening.

This is Amy Hall and Greg Cocle for Stand to Reason.