By Stephanie Neugebauer
Faithful Lutherans, both past and present, have rightly denounced the many sins that debase human life: abortion, sexual and domestic abuse, assisted suicide, human trafficking. Not only does our church body speak against such things, but she also boldly and beautifully advocates for life and the preservation thereof from womb to tomb. With time, talent and treasure, many faithful Lutherans advocate for life from fertilization to natural death.
We LCMS Lutherans are becoming well-trained in identifying and addressing the sins against human life that are utterly egregious.1 God be praised! The LCMS is unabashedly a pro-life church body. Yet Christians must keep vigilant, lest they fall prey to the same lies that secular culture has chewed on, swallowed and is still fueled by.
We live in a time where abortion is heralded as “freedom,” medical aid in dying is wrapped in the enticing messages of “compassion” and “progress,” and complete bodily autonomy stands uncontested as a “fundamental human right,” even to the extent that it infringes on the rights of others. Will we stand against these lies and be willing, as Martin Luther put it, to “call a thing what it is” today? Can we name the lies about life that the evil foe has fed our culture? Might we even find that we, too, have fallen for lies of the enemy, rather than embracing the fullness of life that God alone gives?
The following is an exercise in identifying the fundamental lies that lead to the abuse of God’s good gift of human life. Each lie listed in bold type is obviously flawed, but bold-faced lies are not typically how the serpent operates. He is crafty, cunning, sharp and practiced. He disguises lies in messages that sound appetizing, life-giving and freeing, but at the core lead only to death. And though he is cunning, he is not creative; he works with the same age-old material today that he used on Adam and Eve in Eden. In Genesis 3:1, he enticed humanity to doubt God’s authority and the Creator’s good will by wrapping his lie in what appeared to be an honest question: “Did God actually say?” Every one of his lies thereafter is a simple repurposing of the same exact line.
In response to each of the following five lies, Christians both individual and corporate must ask ourselves this: Will we take God at His Word and submit to His Law regarding human life, or do we perceive ourselves to be our own lawgivers? Do we believe that the Lord and Giver of life actually knows best and wants best for human life, or do we consider ourselves lord of our own lives, capable of discerning between good and evil for ourselves (Gen. 3:5)? What will our answer be to the perpetual question, “Did God actually say?”
Let’s begin.
LIE #1: Life has no meaning.
An extreme version of this lie can be found on the dead-end road of Darwinism and the theory of macroevolution. Under this theory, life and death are quite literally a matter of “survival of the fittest.” At worst, our origin as a human species remains unknown, and at best, we share a common ancestry with all other life forms. There is no ultimate purpose to each human life other than to play a miniscule role in the necessary chain of reactions that keeps humanity evolving.
This, we know, is blatantly false, and we reject these teachings as outright lies. Yet in the dark night of the soul, or sometimes on any given day of the week, Christians can fall into believing the lie that sometimes life is just plain meaningless. The suffering continues despite our heartfelt prayers. A wanted child is born lifeless. The horrors of war and hate pour out of newsrooms around the world on a daily — no, hourly — basis. We may look for meaning amid suffering, but we are hard-pressed to find it.
When lies accost you, remember the truth. The resurrection of Christ gives all life purpose and paves the way for a beautiful telos, or goal (1 Cor. 15:12–19). Life is bursting with meaning because of the Triune God and the activity of each Person therein — in creating human life, in redeeming human life through the death of God’s Son, and in sanctifying human life through Baptism. Every Sunday when you join in confessing the words of the Creed, you profess this truth and claim it as your own.
LIE #2: Life is a commodity.
Human life is often viewed as a commodity, as a resource that can be bought, sold, used, abused or altogether discarded at the whim of the “owner.” When life is seen as disposable, then abortion, infanticide, sex trafficking and other forms of violence all become defensible.
Toying with the same lie, faithful believers can be caught commodifying human life. Christians should be cautious about treating human life, particularly children, as something that can and should be acquired at all costs. Children are not something that we are entitled to but rather gifts that should be received as blessings from a loving God (Psalm 127:3–5).
The truth is that human life is God’s to give and take. It is ours to receive and rejoice over. To claim anything different is to deny God as Creator and human life as His beloved creation.
LIE #3: My life belongs to me.
You’ve likely heard it said, “My body, my choice.” This statement is more than just a little self-flattery; it claims a god-like status. It outright asserts that every person is autonomous, a word that literally means “a law unto oneself.” Every person is his own god; every person can decide what is good and what is evil for himself. Sound familiar? It’s the age-old lie couched in modern individualistic, progressive language that gets thrown around to justify abortion, suicide, self-harm and more.
“Folks out there” aren’t the only ones prone to believing this lie. Even staunch pro-life Christians are tempted to forget that their life is not their own; instead, every body is a gift to steward (1 Cor. 6:19–20). It therefore matters what we consume and how we care for our bodies. Every way in which we steward our bodies affects not only us, but also others around us. Why? Because by the very nature of the church, Christians do no live insular, isolated lives in work, worship and rest. Rather, Christians belong to one another — in all of life — as members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–27).
LIE #4: Life has purpose only if it is productive.
Perhaps you won’t hear such a blatant phrase spoken, but it’s certainly assumed by the way that our culture reveres productivity, mental acumen and economic contribution as hallmarks of a life well-lived. “That child will be born into a hopeless cycle of poverty.” “They’re a burden on society.” “Assisted suicide should be a legalized option for people who are terminally ill.”
Christians should firmly renounce such a utilitarian view of human life. But how easy it is for us to fall into this way of thinking, even if to a lesser extreme. Do churchly people reserve the best pews up front for the wealthy or the “put-together” member, while avoiding the ratty-clothed, impoverished newcomer in the back? James 2:1–13 speaks against the idea that some people are more important than others, especially within the church. There simply is no place for preferential treatment in the kingdom of God (Gal. 3:27–29).
LIE #5: You only live once.
Once popularly known by the acronym “YOLO” (though now probably outdated), this mindset still swirls around today. Teens, young adults and those in “mid-life crisis” are most susceptible to using this as justification for excessive partying and drinking, overspending, sexual promiscuity and other self-destructive habits. Concerning these folks, Jesus Himself tells a parable wherein He labels such people fools (Luke 12:13–21).
Popular, feel-good Christianity touts a similar message, while maintaining that God exists: Moral living, opposed to licentiousness, is the road to the good life. God serves in a therapeutic way to help “good” Christians live healthy, wealthy and happy lives. This is not orthodox; yet don’t our hearts expect God to operate this way, at least sometimes?
Dear Christian, the good life has already been won for us on the cross and secured by Christ’s resurrection (John 10:10). We live already in light of our resurrected life (1 Cor. 15:50–57).
Having completed this exercise, we realize how easy it is for us, too, to fall for the serpent’s lies. When tempted by the serpent’s question — “Did God actually say?” — we are more like our father Adam and our mother Eve than we care to admit. Yet the Gospel words spoken to them in Genesis 3:15 are applied to us also in Baptism. God’s Word-made-flesh tramples all lies and leads to life both now and forevermore.
This article originally appeared in print in the April 2026 issue of The Lutheran Witness.
- The Lutheran Witness addressed life issues specifically in the January 2023, December 2023 and September 2025 issues, as well as in many individual printed and online articles on life topics published in between. Further in-depth resources on life issues are readily available at lcms.org/life. Your local LCMS pastor is also trained to address God’s authority on matters such as abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and violence and abuse. ↩︎
