In the wake of a horrific new abortion law passed in New York allowing infants to be murdered in the womb up until birth, and even in some cases, after birth, Carl Lentz took to Instagram to express his anger and frustration at the plight before us.

“I’m saddened and angry that we are now a state that has made it legal to have an abortion even into the last day of a pregnancy,” Lentz says, “the only way I can describe where we are and where this is all headed..is evil, shameful and demonic.”

He’s right, this is demonic. It’s also the judgment of God on a rebellious nation. You see, the problem isn’t the laws that were recently enacted. The problem is the wicked hearts of the people of New York and everywhere else for that matter. This law is simply a reflection of what these people want.

But what’s interesting is that Lentz, in the midst of his rant, took a moment to point out that the pro-life movement is hypocritical because it supports the death penalty and doesn’t do enough social justice services for poor women–and apparently, that’s why these women decide to go through with abortions.

I’m also aware that often “pro-life politics”(while also supporting the death penalty, of course) have been quick to condemn abortion and the people that have them and then be invisible and hypocritical when it comes to helping women in need, in poverty, those who cannot gain access to proper medical care and creating policies that can help those that dont[sic] choose abortion. Those are facts. 

Yes, they are facts. While the church is commanded to have mercy on those who are need, giving money, food, and shelter to poor women isn’t going to stop abortions. Abortion is an act of hatred towards another individual. It’s an act of selfishness. It’s a heinous assault on another human being–a direct attack on the Image of God. It’s murder, and murder demands justice.

And God has two ways of dealing with justice. God has instituted the civil government to carry out temporal justice here on Earth–and obviously, our governments have failed. Christians should be seeking the enactment of the death penalty for all murderers–the Bible does, after all, teach “an eye for an eye.”

But more importantly, God enacted the ultimate justice at the cross. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and we all deserve the penalty of death (Romans 6:23).

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…Ephesians 2:4-8

Jesus took the penalty for the sins of all who would repent and believe in Him. It is God who is the just and the justifier. He has done what we could not do–bearing the full, righteous wrath of God in our place that we might be forgiven in Him.

This is ultimately the answer to abortion–and this we must proclaim.