A woman asked Pastor John Piper of Desiring God if it's considered a sin to be pregnant outside of marriage.
Piper thought it was a complicated question to answer, and so he decided to reframe the question: "Are the effects of sin, sin?"
Personally, Piper believes the answer to that is 'no." However, the pastor said there are several other things attached to the question.
"Because pregnancy before or outside of a marriage covenant may be owing to a woman's sin or maybe owing to being sinned against, like rape. Or both," he shared on his website. "Like, if she engaged willingly and he engaged willingly, they are both sinning. She is being sinned against by a man who should take better care of her, and she is sinning by willingly participating."
In other words, Piper said that sexual relationship is only acceptable if it belongs to a marriage covenant between one man and one woman while they both live. The presence of a child in the womb outside of marriage could either be the result of two consenting adults committing sin, or rape.
Regardless of how the child is formed, Piper stressed that pregnancy outside marriage is not sinful. "It is crucial that every Christian and every church make clear that any stigma to pregnancy outside marriage is because the pregnancy signifies previous sin, not because the pregnancy is sin," he said. "And if there has been no previous sin, say, in the case of rape, that should be handled really delicately and tenderly."
If a woman feels any shame in her pregnancy outside marriage, Piper said it should only be attached to her previous sin and not the present pregnancy. The reason for that is because sin can be forgiven because of Jesus Christ.
At the same time, the sovereignty of God makes it possible for both the pregnancy and the child to be turned for good in the life of the woman and all those around her.
"No one needs to feel, no woman needs to feel, no family needs to feel that, because the child originated in a sinful act, if it did, God cannot make this child great. He can," said Piper.
He reminded women feeling weighed down by the sins of their past not to treat their pregnancy as a sin, because any act they did leading to it is "no less forgivable" than any other person's sin. "Your experience of that forgiveness through repentance and faith in Jesus can become a mighty testimony to the beauty of Christ. And that child can grow up in the beauty of Christ and become great," he said.
