Romans 13:1-4
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): The question of capital punishment—this is certainly a very contemporary question. There are those who say that killing, in any shape or form, is always wrong…The Old Testament makes it perfectly plain and clear that that is not the case.
WILHELMUS à BRAKEL (1635-1711): God has commanded this: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man,” Genesis 9:6.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It needs emphasizing today that capital punishment as the penalty for murder was ordained by God Himself long before the giving of the Mosaic law, and, since it has never been repealed by Him, that precept is binding until the end of time. It is important to observe that the reason for this law is not here based upon the well-being of human society, but is grounded upon the fact that man is made “in the image of God.”
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Murder is not only an offence against man, but also an injury to God, and a contempt of that image of God which all men are obliged to reverence and maintain.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): But there is also a strong feeling in the mind of many that the severity of the punishment is questionable. There are some who pronounce authoritatively that the murderer’s blood must be shed for murder. But there are some who think the Christian dispensation has ameliorated the law and that now it is no longer, “eye for eye, tooth for tooth.”
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Paul was willing to abide by the rules of the law, and to let that take its course. ―“If I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die,” Acts 25:11.
ROBERT HALDANE (1764-1842): Would the Apostle Paul have in this way sanctioned this punishment, allowing its justice, if it have been contrary to the law of God?
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The Christian’s view of the state; you’ve got to start with that. The state is the representative of God; the state is “the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us consider, first, what is the function of the magistrate? As Paul clearly declares that he is “the minister of God to us for good,” we thereby understand that he was so ordained of God.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The office of magistrates is to do all in their power for the suppression of iniquity, and for the promotion of universal happiness. It is for these ends alone that power is put into their hands. They are to be “a terror to the workers of iniquity.”
JOHN CALVIN: What is the extent of his power?
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The “sword” is an emblem of the power of life and death.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: So the power of the sword that the state has, is a power that God Himself has delegated to the state. Why has He done so? Well, surely the answer of the whole of the Old Testament is this: God is the Author of life. It is the greatest gift that He gives to man. And as God is sole Author of life, He alone has a right to take life. It is at that point you see the enormity of murder. That’s why murder is a very special and unique crime. It is the thing which makes it the most terrible crime of all; that a man should take it upon himself to take another man’s life!―this is the most precious of all that man possesses.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Murder is the summit of human wickedness.
JOHN CALVIN: When the murder is proved, God sternly requires, and commands that it should not remain unpunished.
A. W. PINK: This law of judicial retaliation ought to be upon our statute books today and impartially and firmly enforced by our magistrates. But alas, so foolish and effeminate is the present generation that an increasing number are agitating for the abolition of capital punishment.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: But then says somebody, “Doesn’t the commandment say, Thou shalt not kill? And what about turning the other cheek?” And the answer to those is that all those commandments are to the individual―the individual is not to kill; the individual is to turn the other cheek. However, we are now dealing with the power of the state to take life in the form of capital punishment. So, it’s no use quoting one of those ten commandments, or the teaching of the sermon on the mount—they are addressed to the individual, and not to the state.
C. H. SPURGEON; Sometime ago a lady sought an interview with me, with the object of enlisting my sympathy upon the question of “Anti-Capital Punishment.” I heard the excellent reasons she urged against hanging men who had committed murder, though they did not convince me. She proposed that when a man committed murder, he should be confined for life. My remark was, that a great many men who had been confined half their lives were not a bit the better for it. “Ah,” she said, “that is because we have been all wrong about punishments. We punish people because we think they deserve to be punished. Now, we ought to show them that we love them; that we only punish them to make them better.”
“Indeed, madam,” I said, “I have heard that theory a great many times, and I have seen much fine writing upon the matter, but I am no believer in it. The design of punishment should be amendment, but the ground of punishment lies in the positive guilt of the offender. I believe that when a man does wrong, he ought to be punished for it.”
JOHN GILL: He that is guilty of wilful murder shall surely be put to death by the order of the civil magistrate. “Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death,” Numbers 35:31.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It is the positive duty of the state to use the sword.
MATTHEW POOLE: No intercession nor ransom shall be accepted to save his life, or procure him a pardon.
WILHELMUS à BRAKEL: He who forgives a murderer is opposed to the commandment of God and is an accomplice to the murder.
THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): A felon having committed six murders, the judge may be said to be guilty of five of them, because he did not execute the felon for his first offence.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: There is nothing, in other words, that should so teach us the sacredness, and the sanctity of life, so much as the execution of capital punishment.
