Consider the following scenario: A death row inmate who is less than 24 hours away from execution has called you to his cell. He chooses to make his final appeal to you because he knows that you are a Christian. He states the following: "I have been convicted of a heinous crime, and I have been sentenced to death. But I have seen the error of my ways. I thought God was merciful and forgiving. Why am I not receiving forgiveness? I'm very sorry for what I did, and I'm not the same person that I was 14 years ago." What is the difference between forgiveness in Christ and being accountable to the State? In your response, refer to the required readings and study materials for this module/week. You must include concepts from the Biblical Principles of Criminal Justice article to support your statements. Assuming capital punishment is the appropriate sentence for this inmate, how is justice being served? In your response, refer to the required readings and study materials for this module/week. You must include concepts from the Biblical Principles of Criminal Justice article to support your statements.
Reply to 1 of your classmates' responses (one hundred fifty words) regarding justice being served from the perspective of a family member of the accused. In your response, refer to the required readings and study materials for this module/week. You must include concepts from the Biblical Principles of Criminal Justice article to support your statements.
1.) There is a huge difference between forgiveness in Christ and you being accountable to the State. As related to the scenario forgiveness in Christ is between you and God. In the sense, you have come to know that what you have done is wrong because you have found God and want to come to peace with him. We must obey Gods laws that he put in place for us. When you sin, you have disobeyed Gods law from the 10 commandments. Even though you may sin and disobey God he loves and cares for us. This is proven through the promise of redemption presented in the Adamic covenant in Genesis 3:15 (Kahlib Fischer, 2016, 10). Our God knows that we will sin that is why he sent his only Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to die on the Cross for our sins. We are also humans and God did call only for limited government because we all sin as humans (Kahlib Fischer, 2016, 10). We do have the promise of redemption through Jesus Christ but we also have our government to pay for crimes that someone may commit. We have to ensure that the criminal is brought to justice. As it says in the Biblical Principles, "All crimes are sin but not all sins are crime" (Kahlib Fischer, 2016, 21). This meaning that when you commit a crime you are sinning as well and we know that God loves us and cares for us and we do have that promise of redemption through Jesus Christ. You also have to be held accountable to the state to pay for the crime you have committed because it is a sin as well and God put laws in place to follow and allowed for limited government to ensure these laws are obeyed and followed. The accountability to the state allows for justice because we have laws put in place by our legislatures to have order in our society just as God gave us laws to obey.
2.) This inmate while in prison for fourteen years has pleaded to the guard that he is very sorry and that he has seen the error of his ways. He has over the years of being confined to a prison has thought about the heinous crime he has committed and found God in the process. As I said in the first question, God knows we will do wrong and sin, he also loves and cares for us as is the promise of redemption he has promised us. He has made right by God and asked for forgiveness but he must still be accountable to the state for his crimes. God gave us free will to makes our own choices (Kahlib Fischer, 2016, 10). Justice is being served because he committed the crime fourteen years ago and it was part of the sentence that he would get the death penalty. He made himself right with God while in prison and feels as though he should get another chance at life because he found his shortcomings and made right with God. Although he has become a Christian and sought God and his forgiveness, he still must reap the consequences of the crime he has committed. We separate the State from individual believers because that is what God has called for. He must understand that asking forgiveness from God for his crimes and sins are not going to change what he already has done to another one of God's creation (Bill Muehlenberg, 2007, 1). He can ask for forgiveness from God and the person he hurt or the family effected and they accept and forgive him like Jesus has told us to do instead of an eye for eye (Matthew 5:38). The state ultimately looks out for the interest of justice not whether he ask for forgiveness. Even in the Noahic covenant it says "he that sheds man's blood by man must his blood be shed" (Genesis 9:6) (Kahlib Fischer, 2016, 11). As long as the crime for which the man committed has a fair punishment and not cruel and unusual than justice is being served. As in the case law of Woodson v. North Carolina, it held that First degree murder carries a mandatory death sentence (Hendrix, N. 2013, 273). There is a need for capital punishment for the most heinous of crimes like murder.