SPROUL: If somebody destroys an image bearer of God,
God says that person forfeits their right to human life.
The person who raises his hand to slay a human being is making an assault against God.
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”
This is in the imperative. This is a command. That person must be killed.
And so God doesn't just give the magistrate now the right of capital punishment. He gives
the magistrate the duty of capital punishment. And that is what causes so much controversy.
Now, I remember reading an article complaining about Christians constantly protesting against
abortion laws in the United States. And, he said he would not take the Christian communities
protests against abortion seriously, until these same people would mobilize against capital
punishment. And when he said that, he revealed that he didn't understand the biblical rationale.
Which is the same in both cases. What is behind
the Church's protest of abortion and what is behind the historic Christian communities'
backing of capital punishment is the concept of the sanctity of life.
And people who oppose capital punishment, oppose it appealing to the same principle. The principle
is that every human life is sacred, and if a person chooses to murder another human being,
we're adding to the desacralization of life by executing the murderer.
And the point is is that everybody's life is sacred, even the murderer.
So, we have to do something besides retaliate with revenge or so on. But the point of the
original institution of capital punishment is not for deterrence, it's not even for vengeance.
It's to maintain God's directive that every human life is sacred. Notice what He says, "Whoever
sheds man's blood, by man his blood should be shed. For, in the image of God, He made man."
The rationale that God gives for requiring the death of the murderer is the very real sense that
person who raises his hand to slay a human being, but is making an assault against God. Because
every human being is an image bearer of God. And when you kill a human being, you kill somebody who
is bearing the image of God. And God is saying, that to be in the image of God is so sacred,
and so Holy, that if somebody wantonly destroys an image bearer of God, God says that person forfeits
their right to human life. And they are to be executed. So, the punishment for murder that God
establishes, not just in the Mosaic economy, but in the Noahic economy, is the death penalty.