The Lord instructs mankind to look at the government as a means of preserving
justice and restraining evil in the earth (cf. Rom. 13; 1 Peter 2). From a biblical
perspective, a government is to encourage righteousness and punish wickedness in
order to drive evil out of the borders of a given nation. The complicating factor which
each government must deal with is the fallenness and depravity of the heart of men.
This reality corrupts the application of justice as well as the upholding of
righteousness on the parts of the governors and the citizens. The government
upholds justice and righteousness through the passing and enforcing of laws within
the borders of the particular nation. Each country and nation sets a code for what will
and will not be tolerated from a legal standpoint in any society, as such, certain things
will be made illegal and other things will be encouraged. One important distinction to
make, however, is that the government does not get to set the definition of what is sin
and what is not, the government only decides what it will allow, which may or may not
be in line with the absolute truth of the moral code of Yahweh. McQuilkin and Copan
point out that, “Crime and sin are not synonymous.”[1] God sets the ultimate
standards and anything outside of that is mere opinion, however noble the intention.
i i i i i i i i i i Much has been made in America recently over the way in which the law is kept
and applied across the citizenry. Motives are constantly maligned and efforts to keep
law, order, and peace are subjected to relentless scrutiny. This author, along with
many others, have heard the assertion time and time again that the environment and
culture one is raised in has led to criminality and recalcitrance. McQuilkin and Copan
explain, “Blaming society means abdicating personal responsibility for the direction
of one’s life. And this refusal to own up to one’s wrongdoing shuts the door to the
possibility of salvation by God’s grace.”[2] Passages such as Ezekiel 18 explain that
each person is responsible for their actions, and everyone who lives will eventually
stand before the Lord and be judged according to their deeds (Ro. 2:6). There can be
little doubt that the single greatest contributing factor to the incarceration rate and
the criminality rate in the United States are due to, as McQuilkin and Copan point out,
“We believe the breakdown of the family is the leading negative environmental
influence.”[3]
i i i i i i i i i i As referenced in the prompt, people such as Michelle Alexander and others have
claimed that minorities are targeted for imprisonment and the law is applied
unequally, leading to claims of the motivations as racism or white supremacy.
Tragically, there are cases where the law is applied unequally in a fallen world, at the
same time however, America has also suffered from a move towards attempting to
“rehabilitate” those who commit crimes to the neglect of a consequence for the crime
or the making right of what was wrong. For instance, there has been an increase in
states moving to ban Capital Punishment for any crime, with a hope of rehabilitating
the alleged murderer through life in prison. Such penalties, in the opinion of this
author, neglect to deter future instances of major crimes. What can happen in such
situations is the languishing of the convicted felon in prison for decades, without
making anything right for the life that was taken leading to the imprisonment in the
first place. Kevin Vanhoozer remarks on the loss of faith in our institutions in part as,
“As we read contemporary culture, we can perceive that this ideological cancer has
progressed to the point of regarding all institutions and authority with systemic
distrust and cynicism.”[4]
i i i i i i i i i i This author agrees in part with McQuilkin and Copan that there should be an
effort in the justice system to protect the innocent, rehabilitate the criminal, and
uphold justice. The rehabilitation should be sought, but not at the expense of swift
justice, as noted in Ecc. 8:11. A helpful strategy for curbing criminality is an equal
application, with swift timing (allowed due process), and strict punishments, for
crimes that are not to be tolerated within society. Just because a crime is non-violent
does not mean that it is not dangerous for the offender or for those around them.
Even in the cases where Capital Punishment should be applied, there should be an
attempt to reach the offender for Christ and lead to a heart change, but this does not
mean that the convicted felon should be released back into society or allowed to keep
their lives when an innocent life has been taken irrevocably. The place for showing
mercy is in the seeking of salvation of the soul of the offender, making some sort of
restitution for the family of the victim, and the application of appropriate punishment
so as to dissuade others from considering the same actions as a viable option for
conduct within society.
[1] Robertson McQuilkin and Paul Copan, Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in the
Way of Wisdom, 3rd edition (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014). 429.
[2] Ibid., 431.
[3] Ibid., 431.
[4] Kevin J. Vanhoozer, “In the Evangelical Mood: The Purpose of the Pastor-
Theologian,” in The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision by Kevin J.
Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015). Kindle.
