Maintaining the Sanctity of Life: Lloyd-Jones on Capital Punishment

The thirteenth volume of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Life in Two Kingdoms is a tour de force of Christian teaching on the church, the state, and the individual Christian’s relationship to the ‘higher powers’. One mark of Lloyd-Jones’ treatment is specific, straightforward application. One such application concerns capital punishment—the state’s use of the ‘sword.’ The following is excerpted from pages 59–62.

But there is another matter that I must just touch on at this point, and that is, of course, the question of capital punishment. Here it is: ‘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.’ The ‘sword’! Here again is a very vexed question. What is the teaching? Well, from the reference to the use of the sword, and bearing in mind the fact that the sword is the ultimate emblem of the authority of the state — the governing power — it is clear that the state has power to take life, and that this power is granted to it by God.

Now there are objections to this view. Indeed, objections have recently been raised in Britain and as a result capital punishment has been abolished. So what should be the attitude of Christians towards this teaching?

Now I must first say that I am speaking only of capital punishment as the penalty for murder. There was a time in Britain when people were put to death for all sorts of reasons, for stealing sheep, and so on. But those laws were reformed, and the death penalty was only given for murder. So I confine my remarks to that.

But what about the objections that are generally put forward, even in cases of murder? There are those who say that killing in any shape or form is always wrong. There is only one answer to give to that: the Old Testament makes it perfectly plain and clear that that is not the case. God commanded the children of Israel to kill certain people, and, indeed, even to exterminate certain nations. And, of course, throughout the centuries the saints have acted on this principle. There have been some very saintly men in the armies and navies of countries, outstanding Christians some of them, and there have been great Christians such as Oliver Cromwell and others in Britain, who clearly give an answer to that statement that killing is always wrong. ‘But then, says somebody, ‘doesn’t the commandment say, “Thou shalt not kill”? And what about “turning the other cheek”?’

These are the stock arguments. And the answer is that all those commandments are given to the individual. The individual is not to kill; the individual is to turn the other cheek. We dealt with that towards the end of our study of the twelfth chapter of Romans. We are now, however, dealing with the power of the state to take life in the form of capital punishment. So it is no use quoting one of the Ten Commandments, or the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

And, thirdly, there is a fierce argument about the deterrent effect of capital punishment. But I do not deal with that because it is not relevant to our scriptural and spiritual discussion. It is a debatable point for lawyers, and does not concern us at all.

What, then, is the scriptural answer? Romans chapter 13 teaches that it is the positive duty of the state to use the sword: ‘He beareth not the sword in vain.’ How does the state come to bear it at all? It is because the state is the representative of God. The state is ‘the minister of God’: ‘For he is the minister of God . . . a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.’ So the power of the sword that the state has is a power that has been delegated by God Himself. It is not that the state has taken it but it has been given by God.

Why has God done this? Surely the answer of the whole of the Old Testament is that God is the author of life. Life is the greatest gift that He gives to men and women. And as God is the author, and the sole author, of life, He alone has a right to take life. It is at that point that you see the enormity of murder. That is why murder is a very special and unique crime. It is one thing to take a man’s goods or his money. It is different again to take his life. A man’s life is the most precious of his possessions. It is God who has given it; only God has a right to take it away.

In other words, it seems to me that, based on the teaching here, the argument for the death penalty can be put like this: capital punishment is designed to maintain and to emphasize and to establish the sanctity of life. It has no vindictive quality in it at all. If the vindictive element comes in, it is wrong. The purpose of capital punishment is not to say, ‘You have taken someone’s life, I am going to take yours.’ It is not that at all. The purpose of capital punishment is to vindicate God’s lordship over life, and to tell man that if he passes beyond that border, he must forfeit his own life. There is nothing that should so teach us the sacredness and the sanctity of life as the carrying out of capital punishment.

It is very interesting to observe the people who are opposed to capital punishment; generally you will find that they are the humanists, the atheists. And generally it is the same people who have been agitating for what they call this ‘new morality’ and who have succeeded in passing a law to allow homosexual practices between adult males. They are acting on the same consistent principle; they do not recognize God and their view of men and women is that they are only animals. They know nothing about the sacredness, the sanctity of life. They do not know that God alone is the author of life. They are ignorant of all this, being blinded by the ‘god of this world’. As humanists, they start and end with man and have no other considerations whatsoever.

But here, in Romans 13, there is the specific statement that the state ‘beareth not the sword in vain’. Furthermore, this is in accord with the Old Testament teaching, including God’s commands to the children of Israel to enforce this principle, in a judicial manner, with other nations. So we must assert the principle that underlies capital punishment. In the next study we will go on to consider pacifism and the relationship between the state and the church.

Buy the book: