For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.
Romans 13:3-5 (NIV)
Many Christians are squeamish about punishment. Their gut instinct is to forgive; they want to heal the offender rather than to lock him up in prison; at the very least, they desire to prevent the spread of socially dysfunctional behavior. On a personal level the gospel welcomes such compassion. However, when it comes to the public order, Christians are called to develop a more robust response to crime and to criminals. They need to move beyond therapy and prevention and locate both within a healthy vision of justice.
Paul captures this critical element of punishment in his remarks about the relationship between the Christian and the Roman state. Flawed as it may be, the state operates as an agent of God even while it relies on fear as a deterrent to wrongdoing. Through the state, God works as an upright judge to bring wrongdoers to justice. The state has a legitimate authority, yet it functions within the parameters of conscience and thus has natural constraints built into its operations.
There is an abiding temptation in contemporary Western culture to dismiss this attitude to punishment in the name of therapy and of deterrence. Any idea of divine wrath or retribution is considered hopelessly archaic and cruel. But, as C. S. Lewis demonstrates in his “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment,” only retribution can ensure justice and decency. All other approaches can go terribly awry when they become the highest standard. If therapy is king, then the courts are perfectly entitled to keep a man locked up for as long as it takes to “cure” a person. This could mean life imprisonment for shoplifting, if the thief refuses to express remorse. If deterrence rules, guilt can be irrelevant; if folk are going to be deterred, they will be deterred by the execution of an innocent, as terrorists well know. It is retribution that safeguards justice, for it builds two crucial conditions for any punishment. If I am innocent, then I cannot be punished, even if such punishment acts as deterrence. And when I am punished, the punishment must fit the crime; so the state cannot exact a punishment beyond what I deserve. Both of these conditions are judged by the informed conscience.
Punishment is a painful business, but we must not yield to slipshod and sentimental forms of thinking in this arena. There is always a place in the law for mercy and for anticipating the good effects of punishment. Yet punishment needs to be grounded in a deep, inward sense of divine judgment.
–The BibleMesh Team