In the sermon Sunday, I took on the task of describing when was a time to kill in the rhythm that God has set for His creation (taken from Ecclesiastes 3.3: a time to kill, and a time to heal). I could have gone with a time to hate, or a time for war, but I didn’t; I went straight toward that which contained the most tension in it: murder. Due to the fact that the sermon was not on this topic alone, I only spent a minute or two explaining this and the elders felt it would be helpful to expound a bit on my statement: God requires a reckoning for the taking of a life.
The verse that I quoted was Genesis 9.5-6, which says:
And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
This verse is part of God’s covenant with Noah after the flood. The reason that I used this verse rather than the many in the Mosaic Law that deal with the death penalty is that the covenant with Noah was not limited to a specific time or people. It is a covenant with humanity. What this means is that this is not something that was fulfilled in Christ and changes with the gospel, instead, this is a universal law laid out by God for all time. This covenant has numerous aspects to it:
- God promises to never again destroy all of humanity
- He commands people to cultivate the earth (in population and culture)
- He puts a fear of humans in the animals (which is why they scurry when you approach)
- He gives everything, meat and plant, for food (but forbids eating it while it is still alive)
- He sets in place the principle above
After the flood, God sets up a new understanding of the relationship between Himself and people (1), between people in cooperation (2), between people and nature (3&4), and between people in conflict. This is not a conditional covenant, so the failure of humans to follow God’s order will not result in Him dropping His end of the deal. It is, however, wise to heed God’s direction. We must ask, what does He mean when He says: Whoever sheds the blood of man,by man shall his blood be shed?
It seems pretty clear that God is giving a specific instance in which murder is justified. As Ron Gleason, author of The Death Penalty On Trial: Taking of a Life For a Life Taken (which is a good read if you want to do further study on this) puts it: all murder is killing but not all killing is murder. The difference between taking an innocent life and terminating the life of a murderer is one of justice; or as God says in Genesis 9, a reckoning for destroying the image of God (for God made man in his own image). In order for the value of life to be honored (not just as a human but as the image of God), the appropriate punishment must be levied; for murder, the right response is death. This principle also provides the backbone for government and judicial systems made up of human beings that enact God’s justice on this earth, because God is not encouraging vigilante justice (which Jesus speaks to frequently in the NT).
Not everyone will be convinced by this and there are a few major arguments to the issue of Capital Punishment from a Christian perspective. Some will argue that the Law of Grace supersedes this (but, Ananias and Sapphira). Some will say that a life sentence gives a person time to repent and believe (the question is whether He owes this time). Some will argue that killing someone for killing someone else sends a mixed message (Genesis 9 seems to say otherwise). We can disagree on application of this. What we must agree on is that God takes sin very seriously; much more seriously than we do. We must do our best to explore His Word to get our lives aligned with His. This may force us to challenge some things we have always believed. God is complex, but He is also good. The work is always worth it.