What does the Bible really say about the death penalty? PART 1
Affirmations for LIFE from God
by Andrew Chan, Senior Pastor, PBC, Vancouver, BC
TEXT: Exodus: 21:12-17 (NLT)
12 “Anyone who hits a person hard enough to cause death must be put to death. 13 But if it is an accident and God allows it to happen, I will appoint a place where the slayer can run for safety. 14 However, if someone deliberately attacks and kills another person, then the slayer must be dragged even from my altar and put to death.
15 “Anyone who strikes father or mother must be put to death.
16 “Kidnappers must be killed, whether they are caught in possession of their victims or have already sold them as slaves.
17 “Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death.
Any discussion re: death penalty must begin with certain affirmations of the Bible:
1. God is for LIFE:
a) See this in Jesus’ understanding of the Father’s heart:
1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4“And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:1-6 (NKJV)
In speaking of His impending death Jesus affirm life, for to believe in God is to…
i. Receive a place in heaven to live – “many mansions” - in NIV “many rooms”– it’ll be roomy “prepare a place” dwelling for life
ii. Reserve ahead – reservations guaranteed not by VISA or M/C but by Jesus “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself…”
iii. Recognize the way – Jesus affirms here that thus is always God’s intention that people can avoid the death penalty and receive life through Him
2 Peter 3:9b (NIV) “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish…”
How much clearer can this get: Jesus says “I am…the LIFE!”
b) See this in the very beginning of creation
i. Part of God’s blessing for people (before sin entered the world) was for life to flourish – “be fruitful and increase in number” Gen.1:27-28
ii. The package did not include death!
iii. Pronouncement of God’s Word can’t be missed: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Gen.1:31a (NIV)
iv. God has tremendous enjoyment and joy at the work of His hands, He even rested … and admired His work!
2. God is for ENJOYMENT of life:
John 10:10 (NLT) says: “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”
a) Need to emphasize God’s will is not for death but to celebrate life and the fullness of it
b) To affirm death is to go the side of Satan, that’s his purpose.
“We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death. But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying.” Heb.2:14-15 (CEV)
Death was the result of sin: man deciding they know better than God how to live life, which is the Satanic lie! Who has power over death???
15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. 16 But the LORD God gave him this warning: “You may freely eat any fruit in the garden 17 except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die.” Gen.2:15-17
Instead of heeding warning, Adam disobeyed and believed Satan’s twisting of God’s Word “surely can’t die, gonna be God’s competitor and rival, wouldn’t it be great…
“So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ.” ( I Cor.15:21)
c) Case study in Cain and Abel story: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” asked Cain and God’s answer in YES… no right to kill… to end life… to take away a life – this is not God’s intention
Even after this episode God did not right away execute Cain… though it would be consistent if law and not mercy and grace intervened.
“The Lord personally spared the original first-degree murderer. Would he then have ordered for all time the execution of anyone who kills, no matter how, in passion’s fury or will cool calculation?” Lewis Smedes in Mere Morality (1983,p.121).
d) Case study in Jonah: If God was for death He would not have sent Jonah, spend such energy and trouble to coax a reluctant prophet to persuade Nineveh to repent.
Jonah was eager to put people to death but not God! He was eager to show mercy to 120,000 (and animals too) who do not right from left (morally corrupt).
e) Case study in woman caught in adultery: Crowd eager for death but not Jesus (John 8:1-11).
f) Case study in Moses, David and Jesus: If God was for death He would have ordered the death of Moses cause he too murdered and so did King David and at the same spared Jesus the agony of the birth, life and death on earth - so that His death can give us life eternal.
g) That is why we have hope:
For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your godly one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. Ps.16:10-11(NLT)
So don’t believe for a minute God is for death…. God is against it! If He was for it, He would have snuffed out humans before they have a chance to be Hitlers, Attilas, Alexanders, Napoleons, Genghis Khans, Jeffery Dahmers, you and me.… for all fall short of God’s glorious standard!
We’ve gotta remember how Jesus was deeply troubled and bawled his eyes out at the sight of death….
John 11:25 ff.
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. 26 They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” 28 Then she left him and returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” 29 So Mary immediately went to him.
30 Now Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. 31 When the people who were at the house trying to console Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. 32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell down at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, he was moved with indignation and was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them.
They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him.” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Why couldn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?”
38 And again Jesus was deeply troubled. Then they came to the grave. It was a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man’s sister, said, “Lord, by now the smell will be terrible because he has been dead for four days.”
40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you will see God’s glory if you believe?” 41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so they will believe you sent me.” 43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 And Lazarus came out, bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
Oh how God wants to unwrap us and let us go! He is for resurrection and for LIFE! He is mad at death (see John 11:33)… He is troubled by it!
Scripture twisting will say God want people to die, but God is for life and for maximum enjoyment and pleasure within His rule and kingdom!
Conclusion:
1. We should be deeply troubled by death like Jesus was.
2. God is for life to flourish: It is not the divine will for death to occur.
3. God opposes death… see that most clearly it His victory over it, the Resurrection!
Then why is there the death penalty? It seems clear that Exodus law says “put to death”… Next time in PART TWO… stay tuned!
