Capital Punishment and the Sanctity of Life

I remember when the state of Pennsylvania was struggling over the issue of capital punishment, and the governor of Pennsylvania had to deal with a bill that was passed by the state legislature to restore capital punishment in the state of Pennsylvania. The governor vetoed the bill and he spoke publicly on it, and he said, “We will not have capital punishment in this state. I’m vetoing this bill because God says, “Thou shalt not kill.”

I thought that was strange because when God said, “Thou shalt not kill,” He made the provision for those who broke that commandment, for those who did murder—that God required that the murderer be executed. Why? It says here, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” This is not a prophecy. This is not saying those that live by the sword will die by the sword. That’s not the point here. God is issuing a commandment.

Why? Because in the image of God, man is created. That the greatest assault against human dignity is to maliciously take a human life, to murder. We’re not talking about involuntary manslaughter, we’re talking about malice aforethought, first degree murder. God sees murder not only as an attack upon a creature who bears the image of God, but He regards it as an attack against God Himself, because God is saying, “I have put My image on every human being, and human life is so sacred, I will not tolerate the murdering of it.”

It’s interesting to me to listen to the debates over capital punishment, because those who oppose capital punishment inevitably do so on the grounds that capital punishment denigrates the sanctity of human life. They’re saying that human life is so sacred, we should never take it intentionally, like the execution of a murderer. Even the murderer’s life is sacred. Even the murderer’s life is valuable.

I agree that the murderer’s life is valuable and all of that, but the point in the debate is, which view has a higher view of life? If the motive for capital punishment is vengeance or revenge, then God hates that. But the moral justification for capital punishment is because God says human life is so important, so sacred, that if somebody else willfully, maliciously goes and murders another human being, they forfeit their right to life.