CAPITAL PUNISCAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN SCRIPTURE, Part 2 of Chapter 6 of Blood Atone

CAPITAL PUNISCAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN SCRIPTURE, Part 2 of Chapter 6 of Blood Atonement by
OGDEN KRAUT.

CONTINUATION OF THE LAW IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The law of capital punishment was believed and practiced by the Jewish people as long as they had their nation. The story is given in the Apocrypha (during the time between the Old and New Testaments) about Andronicus, a man of Jewish nobility who was not exempt from punishment for the crime of murder:

And being kindled with anger, forthwith he took away Andronicus his purple, and rent off his clothes, and leading [53] him through the whole city unto that very place, where he had committed impiety against Onias, there slew he the cursed murderer. Thus the Lord rewarded him his punishment, as he had deserved. (II Maccabees 4:38)

Some suppose that when Christ came, He did away with the Old Testament law of capital punishment. But He said that He did “not come to destroy the law.” If anything, the punishment for sin was more severe, because the laws were more exacting. Just because a man claimed to be a Christian did not give him the right to get away with murder. Forgiveness of sin is a personal matter, but transgression against the law is quite another. This will be mentioned further in the concluding chapter. True law is, in reality, the legal directive of God, and no one else has any right to change or interfere with the law that God has given. The Apostle James condensed this into a short sentence by saying: There is one law giver, who is able to save and to destroy.” (James 4:12)