We all live in God’s world: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Whether we acknowledge it or not; there is no escaping that reality. As human beings, we can rage, rail and try to circumvent God’s world for a time. He may even allow us to be successful at it. In fact, Jesus rarely stays where He’s not wanted. For example, after healing a demon-possessed man, the nearby town wanted Jesus gone, so He left (Luke 8:37).

But although we may be somewhat “successful” trying to escape the reality of God, all people know God is there and this is His world (Romans 1:18-20).

Although the predominant culture may proclaim that abortion is a “right” and the “right thing to do,” there is no escaping the crushing guilt which comes from taking another person’s life. You can even feel guilty when you’ve done nothing wrong. Like when your wife experiences a miscarriage.

My wife and I have one child, but she has experienced two pregnancies. (You can read more about the first one here. In fact, this blog is named after that deceased child). The options were laid out to us like this: either she could hemorrhage out the baby, or have a DNC—which is also a common abortion procedure.

Allowing my wife to hemorrhage seemed way too horrifying. She was in enough pain (physical and emotional) already, that to go through such an experience seemed overwhelming. So we chose to go with the DNC.

And we still felt guilty. Was our baby truly dead? Or were we now responsible for ending his life? Did we honor his little body? Did we do the right thing?

Our only hope in that time was that we trusted God to give us wisdom to make the best decision possible (James 1:5-8).

If we have experienced such guilt even though we did nothing wrong, I cannot even imagine the guilt which women face who actually decide to end the life of their still living baby. After having made such a decision, there are really only three options. They can suppress the guilt and through gritted teeth proclaim that everything is ok. Some of you will not buy my argument that women who have abortions feel guilt, because some women will testify that they don’t feel guilty for their decision. My rebuttal to that is this: we still live in God’s world. We must play by His rules. And although He allows us to suppress the truth (see Romans 1 again), this does not negate or nullify the truth. They may also despair from the guilt. There may be a haunting which pervades their life because of what they’ve done.

The third option is this: turning to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only message which can cleanse the conscience and relieve the guilt. Women who have had an abortion may feel like something violent and repulsive should happen to them because of what they’ve done. What the Bible declares is this: something violent and repulsive has already happened, but it happened to God’s only Son, Jesus. Jesus faced rejection and desertion. He faced being whipped and being crucified—nails driven into His hands and His lungs filling up with His own blood. He did so, on your behalf so that the cost of your sins could be paid. He died so that His blood could cover over your own blood-stained hands. God counted Jesus to be a sinner, so that we could be counted free. That means you if you come to Jesus.

“But it’s just too easy!” you may think. Really? And how would you make up for it? Is there any way to truly cleanse the blood of an abortion away? A lifetime of doing good will not, indeed, cannot, do away with the guilt of sin. Only a perfect sacrifice can do that. A perfect sacrifice like Jesus.