It is in mercy to sinners and to his saints that God requires the removal of the murderer, first in the Church because of sin by excommunication and then by the State, because of a crime that admits no adequate compensation of equity (a life sentence in prison by no means compensates for the loss of an image bearer by death).

“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. (Gen 9:5-6 ESV)

Capital punishment was first instituted by God in the Noahic Covenant as a necessary reckoning for murder, because murder destroys a being who is made in God’s image. Civil magistrates are appointed by God and are authorized to bear the sword and administer justice as God’s image bearers, and to preserve the dignity of all human life; Paul affirms this authority in Romans 13. Both Church and State must uphold God’s holy justice by purging murderers from their midst, lest these societies collapse by unchecked violence and destruction. Judgment in the civil and the church courts prefigures the righteous judgment of a holy God coming over all the earth.

In the days of Noah, the earth had become universally wicked and violent. Life had become dangerous, with exceedingly few men finding favor with God. Yet Noah found favor, and he, with seven other souls, was delivered from the wrath of God’s judgment against sinners – God provided a means of deliverance in those days, Noah and his family, in the ark.

After the devastation from a universal judgment in the Flood, God covenanted with Noah never again to destroy the world by water. The sign of this covenant is still with us in the rainbow in the sky. God’s bow remains a sign of this covenant with Noah and all his creatures, as does his promise (the dire prognostications of climate change notwithstanding).

One feature of the Noahic Covenant that remains, along with his sign in the sky, is God’s instituting capital punishment for the crime of murder. For in this narrative, God tells his prophet, “…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” (Gen 9:5).

Now, the means of reckoning with murderers has also been instituted by God. No private person is to judge and execute punishment for the sin of murder. Still, God has given the civil magistrate authority to judge and execute just punishment for the crime of murder. This does not mean that every person who has committed murder is necessarily to be executed. Still, it does allow the State to prosecute crimes to their full penal sanction, i.e., life forfeited for life unjustly taken.

Some Christians do not think that the civil government has the right to exercise capital punishment, especially not at the hands of a Christian civil magistrate. But Paul exhorts all believers to consider that all authority is from God, and that the civil magistrate has been set in place by God’s authority to mete out justice. Paul calls the magistrate’s power his “bearing of the sword” and notes that it is not ceremonial dress but can and will cut. But is not the execution of any person, even by a God-ordained official, a merciless act which shortens the life of the murderer, thus removing his opportunity for a future repentance?

The short answer to this is to remember the reason God instituted capital punishment in Genesis 9. It is because, left without such recourse, violence tends to continue and multiply without abatement. Life for all creatures then becomes unbearably difficult. Thus, Lot’s conscience was in ceaseless torment over the godlessness of Sodom in his day, which drew God’s wrath, not of water but of fire and brimstone, unto destruction. And just as God’s righteous judgment came to Lot’s city at the time of the Abrahamic Covenant, which covenant held out the promise of blessing unto all nations yet not revoking the earlier promise of the Noahic Covenant., So today in the New Covenant we must affirm the continuing duty to remove the wicked from our midst all the while promulgating the Gospel of salvation and forgiveness to all men, calling them to believe and repent. The Church must affirm both the severity of God in punishing sin and the mercy of God in forgiving sin – if both are not held forth and practiced in any society, that society will be in peril of violence and destruction (Rom 11:22).

Despite the clarity of this doctrine of Scripture, at least two factors strongly prejudice against seeing its necessity and equity. The first is the denial by some Christians that God is sovereign over all things, especially over the souls of men. Man is thought to be so free to do as they please that heaven has nothing to do with the conduct of sinners in the world. But Scripture teaches that the wicked commit sin and crime because God has decreed it (Jer 10:23; Pro 20:24). Besides, the death of the wicked is not the end of their existence, as atheistic secular thinking teaches; believers leave God to judge the everlasting state of the soul as he pleases. If he gives sinners over to their own violent desires by committing murder, he has already judged sinners (Rom 1:26,27). Therefore, the wages of that sin deemed to be a crime may be lawfully prosecuted by God’s providence in the civil courts.

The second is the denial that the former covenants with humanity (and all of creation in man) are no longer binding or relevant in New Covenant times. Nevertheless, it should be clear that the general penal sanctions of the Old Covenant for moral breaches of God’s universal and perpetual Moral Law are still binding. The manner of their administration may change, but the matter of it still stands – e.g., execution by stoning is not necessarily to be enforced, but an equivalency of hanging or of lethal injection may be used by the State. Why else would Paul mention God’s civil servant bearing the sword in Romans 13:4? Does the government bear the sword in vain? For these governors are appointed for the protection of God’s people, lest the wicked eat up the righteous as though they were pieces of bread (Psa 14:4).

The proximate reason for God’s appointing capital punishment in Genesis chapter 9 was not pragmatism but the fact that man is in God’s image. All who destroy God’s image, God will destroy, either immediately in hell or mediately at the hands of his appointed men in the civil courts. Consider also that man is a temple for the Spirit of God, and all who destroy this temple will himself be destroyed. This doctrine is therefore to be upheld in the Church and in the State.

Some, of course, will judge this teaching to be ridiculous and self-defeating in mandating the death of an image bearer for killing another image bearer. But the Law plainly commands, “You shalt not murder” (Exo 20: 13). Jesus tells us never to avenge ourselves but to turn the other cheek (Mat 5:39). Nevertheless, unless proper judgment is executed in both the Church and the State, in accordance with the wholesome will of the sovereign God, wicked men will certainly proliferate with abandon, seeing no recompense for their wickedness. Look! The wicked by nature are so morally blind as to see no correlation between sin and misery, crime and punishment, so that this rule, being implemented in society, may not deter crime. This objection, however, is off point. It is in mercy to sinners and to his saints that God requires the removal of the murderer, first in the Church because of sin by excommunication and then by the State, because of a crime that admits no adequate compensation of equity (a life sentence in prison by no means compensates for the loss of an image bearer by death).

We note also that, “judgment begins in the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). God works first in his Church and then in his civil courts, in executing judgment. All who have eyes to see the sword of the Lord in the Church and the sword of the Lord in the State will take heed and desire to keep decent order. As Adam and Eve were kept from returning to Eden on their own by God posting an angel bearing a sword, those who are appointed to death have the Church and the State as sentries posted at the gates of heaven, reminding all men that God is just to condemn sin and crime, and that he is an avenger of all who destroy his image-bearing man (Gen 3:24; Rev 21:8; 22:15).

Lou Veiga is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Covenant PCA in Houston, TX.