The Age of Grace – The Kingdom Curriculum X (5)

The Age of Grace

The Kingdom Curriculum X (5)

“You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17

“But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him fatally so that he dies…you shall purge the innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.” Deuteronomy 19:11

Time for Grace.

The Church must insist that the State fulfill its duty to carry out capital punishment. But it must also bear two things in mind as it does: First, sinful states are not likely to adhere to the Law of God, except as far as they may be persuaded of its prudential value for the good ordering of society. Secular states will only imperfectly follow the Law of God, and only then to the extent that they see in it principles to benefit its own agenda.

Second, we must remember that, in the age of the Holy Spirit, there is time for grace to work on the hearts of even the most hardened (Ezek. 36:26, 27). The State’s failure to carry out the death penalty in the way it would have been used in ancient Israel thus creates a window of grace for the Church to pursue its work. For four years I worked in the maximum security penitentiary in Baltimore, with men who had committed every imaginable violent crime. Some of them were on death row. All of them understood and accepted that they were right where they belonged. Most of them expressed real remorse for the crimes that had landed them in the SuperMax. But most important, all the men I knew had experienced changes of heart. They had become believers in Jesus Christ and were hungry to know His Word, to live pleasing to Him, and to help others discover the wonder of His forgiving grace. Some of these men had their sentences commuted; others have been paroled. One has even started a church in a minimum security facility in another part of the state.

It is a measure of the love of God and a distinctive feature of the time of grace in which we live that even the sinful State recognizes that hardened people can change. Pray for your local prison ministry, and pray for your local parole board. Pray that the time of grace in which we live would flourish with grace unto the preservation of life and wellbeing, and especially, unto newness of life in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle John taught that those who would follow Jesus must walk in the commandments of God (1 John 2:1-6). Order your copy of The Law of God by going to www.MyParuchia.com and clicking on Publications, Waxed Tablet. Begin meditating on God’s Law today.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.