The Incarnation and the Sanctity of Human Life

In his chapter on "Abortion" in Evangelical Ethics, John Jefferson Davis writes the following:

In the New Testament, the incarnation of Jesus Christ is a profound testimony to God's affirmation of the sanctity of prenatal life. In theory it might have been possible in the eternal plan of God for the Savior to come to earth as a grown man, but in the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ recapitulated the full span of human existence--from conception through death--in order to fulfill the purposes of God. The personal history of the Son of God on earth begins not when he was "born of the Virgin Mary," but when he was "conceived by the Holy Spirit." His human history, like ours, began at conception. His conception was, of course, a supernatural one, but the significant point is that God chose to begin the process of incarnation there, rather than at some other point, thus affirming the significance of that starting point for human life. As the writer of Hebrews says, he had to be "made like his brothers in every respect" (2:17), in order to be a merciful and sympathetic high priest on their behalf (p.136).