We are often told today that bodily autonomy is sacred. “My body, my choice” is the rallying cry. From abortion to assisted suicide to gender-transition procedures. The assumption is that if a person consents, no moral or legal barrier should stand in their way. But as a society, we don’t really believe that. Not when we’re honest.
If someone tries to end their life, we intervene, not to control them, but because we believe their life has value, even if they don’t see it. We don’t let people self-harm without trying to stop them. We don’t let them sell their organs, even willingly. We don’t let people amputate healthy limbs in the name of identity, unless the identity is “trans.” Then suddenly, we call irreversible physical harm “care.”
This inconsistency exposes a deeper issue: we all recognize that bodily autonomy has limits, but we no longer agree on who sets those limits, or by what standard.
Some appeal to “natural law,” the idea that we can discover moral truths through conscience and creation. Historically, this served as a common ground in the West. And in part, it still does. Natural law offers a starting point, a glimpse of moral order embedded in the created world. But we must be clear: natural law is not the foundation, and it is not enough.
The natural order points to the Creator who made it. As the Apostle Paul wrote, the created world renders all men “without excuse” (Romans 1:20). But if we stop at general revelation and fail to proclaim the gospel, we have failed to deliver the truth. The knowledge of creation must lead to the knowledge of Christ.
Francis Schaeffer warned decades ago:
“If there is no absolute by which to judge society, then society is absolute.”
(How Should We Then Live?)
We see this now. In the absence of God’s truth, personal desire becomes law, and law becomes a tool of destruction. Schaeffer also wrote:
“If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity.”
(Whatever Happened to the Human Race?)
And yet that is precisely what we see, from the sterilization of confused teenagers to the dismemberment of unborn children, all cloaked in the language of rights.
We must go further. As Greg Bahnsen rightly stated:
“There is no neutrality. All reasoning is either in submission to Christ or in rebellion against Him.”
(The Great Debate: Bahnsen vs. Stein)
Once we acknowledge the Creator, the illusion of neutrality disappears. All men everywhere are obligated to obey Christ. That includes civil magistrates, whose duty is to uphold justice by God’s standard, not redefine it by their own. Bahnsen was right to say the natural law tradition, apart from Scripture, is ultimately bankrupt. Its usefulness lies in opening the door to the gospel, but only God’s revealed Word can define righteousness.
Bodily autonomy is not absolute because human beings are not autonomous. We are created. And because we are created in the image of God, our bodies and lives are not ours to destroy. That applies to the suicidal adult, the gender-confused person, and the unborn child alike.
The only way to consistently defend life, oppose tyranny, and uphold justice is to return to the truth: Jesus Christ is Lord, and all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him (Matthew 28:18).
