Essay

Before Bethlehem: What Jesus Christ’s Life in the Womb Teaches Us About the Sanctity of Life

You may never have thought about the sanctity of life by looking closely at Jesus Christ beginning with His life in Mary’s womb. But His own mortal experience gives us a powerful way to understand the worth of every human life, including life before birth. Christ does not only teach through commandments; through His own life, He shows us that a child in the womb is already seen, known, and part of God’s purposes.

When we look at difficult social questions through Jesus Christ, we begin somewhere deeper than politics or culture. We begin with Him. So let’s look closely at the Savior’s life before Bethlehem and consider what His story teaches us about the sacredness and worth of babies in the womb.

The Story of Christ Begins in the Womb

On a day that would change her life, Mary learns that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Savior.

Before the manger. Before the star. Before the shepherds. There was a mother and her unborn baby.

After faithfully accepting this extraordinary calling, Mary conceives through the power of the Holy Ghost. Gabriel explains, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ’s mortal story, then, does not begin with Mary holding Him in Bethlehem. Luke first introduces us to Christ while He is developing inside His mother.

Gabriel also tells Mary that her cousin Elisabeth is experiencing a miracle of her own. After years of being unable to have children and now well beyond the usual childbearing years, Elisabeth is already “in her sixth month” of pregnancy with John the Baptist (Luke 1:36).

Mary soon travels to the hill country of Judea to visit her older cousin. Elisabeth is uniquely prepared to understand something of what Mary is experiencing: both women are carrying babies whose births are connected to the work of God. Before we look at what happens when these two women meet, it helps to understand just how early Mary was in her own pregnancy.

How Far Along Was Mary?

Biola University New Testament scholar Doug Huffman notes that Elisabeth was about six months pregnant when Mary arrived. Mary went to visit Elisabeth soon after learning from the angel Gabriel that she would bear the Savior, placing her at the very beginning of her pregnancy.

In other words, Mary was very early in her first trimester, while Elisabeth was in her second trimester.

That timing makes what happens next especially meaningful.

Recognizing the Messiah

Mary arrives at Elisabeth’s home and calls out to her. What happens next is remarkable:

“And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:“And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. “And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? “For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”—Luke 1:41–44

Notice the language Luke uses. Elisabeth is a mother. Mary is already “the mother of my Lord.” Jesus is “the fruit of thy womb.” John is called “the babe.” Neither baby has been born, yet both already have an eternal identity and purpose.

John, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, leapt for joy when he heard the voice of the mother carrying the Christ-child. This tiny, unborn baby knew he was in the presence of the Messiah.

Even in the first trimester, Jesus is already the Christ, the Messiah. From the beginning of His mortal development, He has an identity, a mission, and a place in God’s eternal purposes.

Recognizing the Savior Before His Birth

An associate professor of psychology at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology draws attention to this point:

“Jesus and his cousin, John, … are yet both clearly present as themselves. Baby John the Baptist is leaping for joy in his mother’s womb at the presence of the Lord whom he will follow and die for. Here we see the apostle already established as a person by God and recognized by his parents, acting with intention: ‘leaping for joy’ inside of his mother. And Jesus the Messiah is established as himself, too, with Elizabeth calling Mary ‘the mother of my Lord.’”—Biola University, “Unspeakable Joy”

The insight fits Luke’s language closely. Jesus and John are not described simply as pregnancies that will someday become meaningful after birth. Their identities are already part of the story. John responds with joy, Elisabeth recognizes the Savior, and Mary is already called His mother.

This gives Christians something important to consider when thinking about the sanctity of unborn life: the Savior Himself entered mortality through the womb, and scripture speaks meaningfully about Him before His birth.

God Knows His Children in the Womb

Luke’s account belongs to a much larger scriptural pattern. Again and again, scripture describes God as knowing, forming, calling, and working with His children before they are born.

The Lord tells Jeremiah:

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.” —Jeremiah 1:5

The Lord later tells His people:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” —Jeremiah 29:11

Isaiah repeatedly describes the Lord as the One who forms His children in the womb:

“The Lord … made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee.” “He that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things.” —Isaiah 44:2, 24

The Psalmist describes that same divine involvement in deeply personal language:

“For you were created in 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.” —Psalm 139:13–16

Taken together, these scriptures give us a consistent picture. God is not absent from life in the womb. He knows His children, forms them, understands their purposes, and can already be working within their lives before anyone else has seen their faces.

What First-Trimester Development Helps Us See

The first-trimester setting of Luke 1 becomes especially important when we understand what is actually happening during those early weeks.

The first trimester contains an astonishing amount of development. Beginning around week five, the brain, spinal cord, heart, digestive tract, arms, legs, eyes, and ears begin taking shape. By weeks six to seven, the developing heart has a regular rhythm that may be visible by ultrasound. At nine to ten weeks, he squints, swallows, moves his tongue, and if you stroke his palm, will make a tight fist. By nine weeks he will bend his fingers round an object in the palm of his hand. By weeks eleven to fourteen the face is well formed, limbs have developed, fingers and toes have nails, and the baby can make a fist.

Those facts give Luke’s account particular relevance to the modern conversation. When we talk about first-trimester pregnancy, we are talking about the time when most abortions actually occur. And it is precisely within this very early period that Luke asks Christians to look into Mary’s womb and recognize Jesus Christ.

That does not mean every biological question has been answered. It does mean that Christians should be cautious about assuming that early development makes a human life spiritually insignificant. The first trimester may be early, small, and largely hidden from sight, but early is not the same thing as without value.

What Christ’s Life Before Birth Can Teach Us

The Christmas story usually draws our attention to the manger, the shepherds, the star, and the newborn Christ. Those moments matter deeply. But Luke asks us to look earlier. Before Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes, she carried Him. Before anyone looked into the face of the newborn Savior, Elisabeth had already recognized Him as Lord.

Seeing Jesus Christ as an unborn baby can deepen the way we understand His birth, and the way we think about every child developing in the womb. His story reminds us that even when a life is still hidden in the womb, it is not hidden from God.

Questions to Consider

As you think about first-trimester pregnancy and the conversations happening in our culture, consider these questions:

• If Elisabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost, recognized the first-trimester Christ as “my Lord,” what does that ask me to reconsider about the value I place on human life during the first trimester?
• If I have supported first-trimester abortion because the baby is still very small or early in development, might I examine that belief again in light of what Christ’s own life in the womb teaches me?
• How might beginning with Luke 1 and the life of Jesus Christ deepen the way I think about early pregnancy and the worth of the unborn baby?

It can take humility and courage to reconsider deeply held political or cultural beliefs. Discipleship does not ask us simply to trade one political label for another. It asks us to keep bringing our beliefs back to Jesus Christ and allowing truth to shape the way we see other people.

Perhaps seeing our Savior as an unborn baby can change the way we see Him as a newborn baby—and deepen our reverence for every human life that begins, as His did, in a mother’s womb.