The penalty is not a sin

      I recall in times past that a person taking our Bible course sent in a question. She was concerned over people who murdered and are now on death row. She wanted to know that since murder is a sin, why would anyone be in favor of the death penalty, since that is murder too?

What she needed to understand, as we all need to, is that there is a big difference in the eyes of God between murdering someone and justice being carried out. In Genesis 20:13, God said, “Thou shalt not murder.” In the next chapter God said, “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death” (21;12).

One might conclude that in both cases two people die and there is no difference. There is a difference. One is murder, the other is the penalty for murder. The latter is not sin because sin is transgression of law, and to administer the penalty for sin is not transgression, it’s obedience (I Jn. 3:4).

The question is, has this fact changed now that we are under the gospel and the old laws have been done away with (Col. 2:14)? Man is still told not to murder (Rom. 1:29). If someone does murder, are we allowed to kill them? The scriptures do not authorize someone to take the law into their own hands. The laws of the land are for us (Rom. 13:3-4), and we must be subject to them (vr. 5).

What should our disposition be if there was a death penalty? Would such be against God? The apostle Paul didn’t think so. He stated that if he did anything worthy of death he would not refuse it (Acts 25:11). If Paul wouldn’t object if he was the one facing the sentence, it is right to think he would object if it was anyone else? Of course not.

May we see the difference between murdering someone and one facing the penalty for murder. What our God wants from man is obedience. The penalty for a crime is not a crime!

                                                                                                                                                                                               Chuck