The Justice of God – Part III

Death?

Does justice on earth involved the final human penalty of death? Whether or not we think there should be capital punishment today, it is important, in any discussion of war, to examine the Scriptures' teaching on the death penalty. Many pacifists reject all war because it involves the taking of life. I refer to the human penalty of death here, for of course the final penalty is the eternal judgment of hell, which onlhy God can pronounce (Luke 12:4, 5). God has, however, given to men the responsibility to pronounce the death penalty in certain circumstances. "From each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" (Gen. 9:5, 6).

Our society teaches us that the death penalty is cruel, abnormal, and barbaric. Human beings are so precious that no one ever has the right to set himself up as a judge and deprive another of life—so the argument goes. It is true that human life is precious. the Christian above all people shoudl regard every human life as sacred whether born or unbor, handicapped baby or fragile old person, weak or strong. However, it is this very dignity of the human person, the fact that we are the imag-bearers of God, which is the basis for God's decision that the life of a murderer, who despises this image, should be forfeited.

The requirement of the death penalty for certain crimes is repeated many times in the Mosaic law, for example in Deuteronomy 19:11–13:

But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood£ from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Christians will often point out that the Ten Commandments forbid killing. However, it is clear that the commandment "You shall not kill" means "You shall not murder." In the context of this commandmen in Moses' law, judicial killing is also commanded. So the death penalty is not prohibited by the law; in fact it is required.

Just Vengeance and Punishment

In our culture we are taught that the primary purpose of punishment is the regabilitation of the offender, and a secondary purpose is the protection of society; all notions of requital or avenging are ergarded as vindicative, barbaric, and uncivilized. We need to reeducate ourselves according to Scripture. Neither the punishments that God requires men to hand out, nor those that God himself imposes, are primarily educational. They are seen rather as just vengeance required by God.

This is a difficult idea to grasp in these times, but we have only to consider the plagues with which God punished Egypt, the destructino of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the perishing of the whole human race (apart from Noah's family) in the Flood, to see that God as judge of all the earth is acting rightly and justly when he takes life. Human wickedness in some situations becomes so great that God will no longer tolerate it, and he consequently judges with terrible judgment.

War in the Old Testament

The death penalty is prescribed by God not only in casess of individual wickedness, but also in the case of war between nations. Israel suffers unjust attack and oppression at the hands of other nations; God sanctions wars of self-defense, to relieve oppression and to punish wickedness. For example, Joshua's army was required to destroy the Canaanites in the land of Palestine because of their great wickedness (Joshua 6:21; 8:1, 2). When Israel was oppressed by the Midianites, God raised up Gideon to lead the people to overcome their oppressors (Judges 6:7). There are many examples of such wars of self-defense and wars against oppression throughout the nation's history.

Justice within and between nations is so important to God that unjust governments are not immune from attack, even though government was established by God. To maintain justice, even at the cost of civil war, authorities who despise the rule of law are overthrown. When Israel's own rulers became wicked tyrants, God sanctioned revolution against them. (Jezebel and Athaliah provide two examples of this, 2 Kings 9 and 11.)

Because God so clearly sanctions war in certain circumstances the Psalmist could write:

Prasie be to the Lord, my Rock
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.

May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vengeance on the nations
and bind their kings with fetters,
their nobles with shackles of iron,
to carry out the sentence written against them.

This is the glory of all his saints.

Who Are the Peacemakers?, Jerram Barrs