Latest / Reformed Thinking / Blood That Cries, Blood That Cleanses: Murder, the Sixth Commandment, and the Gospel of Mercy

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Blood That Cries, Blood That Cleanses: Murder, the Sixth Commandment, and the Gospel of Mercy · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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take the source material, God's Word, and the theological
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tradition that seeks to understand it.
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And we we really wrestle with its implications for you today.
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Our focus in this deep dive is a precept that is as brief as it
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is staggering. The 6th Commandment You shall
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not murder. It stands as a theological fence
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around one of the most sacred realities in the universe.
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And our mission today is to go beyond, you know, the simple
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police report idea of this command.
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We are examining why, in God's economy, the shedding of
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unauthorized human blood is not treated as just a social tragedy
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or a legal inconvenience, but if a theological outrage, it's an
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act of cosmic treason against the Creator.
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That phrase, cosmic treason, is, I mean, it's established right
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away in the biblical narrative. Think about the very first
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murder in Genesis 4. Cain and Abel.
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Right when Cain strikes down his brother Abel, God doesn't wait
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for human witness. He doesn't need forensic
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evidence. He confronts Cain and reveals
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something chilling. He says he hears the voice of
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your brother's blood crying to me from the ground.
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The Lord hears what the world tries to silence and bury that
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victim's life. It speaks directly to the throne
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of God. It does.
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It has a voice. That is a staggering reality.
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It changes everything about how we view violence.
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So today we want to understand the radical implications of that
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sound. First, we'll need to define
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murder according to God's precise categories.
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Then we'll take Christ's scalpel and search the heart where he
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says the crime really begins. And finally, we will present the
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radical remedy for blood guilt, which is found only in the
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Gospel of Jesus Christ. So we have to begin with
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clarity. While the 6th commandment is
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short, I mean it's just two words in Hebrew.
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It is not at all vague. And you, the listener, need to
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understand that this is not a blanket prohibition against all
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taking of life. Right to treat all killing as
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morally identical, is it? Just ignore the specific
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vocabulary that the law giver himself uses.
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When I first encountered the difference between those Hebrew
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words, it felt like the entire command just snapped into focus.
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That clarity hinges entirely on the vocabulary God shows in
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Exodus 20.13. Yeah, the specific Hebrew verb
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used is ratzak. That is the crucial term.
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If God had wanted to outlaw all killing, whether in, you know,
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self-defense, war, or by a magistrate, he could have used
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the more general verb harag, or maybe Hemet, which is a general
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term for causing death. But you didn't.
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He didn't. He used Lutherzak.
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You shall not murder. And when we look at how Ratzak
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is used across the Old Testament, it reserves itself
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almost entirely for one type of action.
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What is that defining characteristic?
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It is reserved for unlawful, culpable and extrajudicial
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bloodshed, so it covers things like private violence,
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vengeance, malice and injustice. So it's by definition the
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unauthorized shedding of human blood.
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It's the individual operating outside of God's established
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authorities, asserting the prerogative of life and death
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for himself. That's it.
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And the weight of this language choice is just immense for a
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formed understanding. It provides the theological
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basis for civil government. Really.
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OK, so the command itself guards against two errors at the same
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time. Yes, on the one hand, it guards
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against a kind of sentimentalism that would stop the magistrate
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from doing his God appointed duty to punish violent evil.
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And on the other, it guards against an anarchic pacifism
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that just refuses to acknowledge the moral categories that are
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needed to maintain a civil society.
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Right. The Bible interprets Scripture.
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The very same law that for Biz Ratsak is the law that commands
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the civil magistrate to administer justice, even the
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severest penalty in Exodus 21.12.
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So the state bears the sword as God's minister, which is what
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Romans 13 confirms. This is authorized public
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action, not private malice. So the difference is located not
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just in the outcome of death, but in the authority and the
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intent. Right.
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And that is what takes us to the detailed framework laid out in
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Numbers 35, which forces the human court to apply this
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distinction with painstaking care.
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Yeah. Numbers 35 details the moral
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framework for judging homicides, and it distinguishes the crime
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by intent. It draws a very stark line
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between premeditated malice, intentional murder, and a death
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that occurs without enmity or without lying in wait, which
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shows a lack of murderous purpose.
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This keeps the legal system from just collapsing intent and
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outcome into one single category.
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Which is what makes the of refuge so relevant.
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If God's system were based purely on outcome, the victims
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relative the avenger of blood, could immediately pursue and
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execute the killer. But God steps in and says no,
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wait. The Cities of Refuge were God's
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institution for ensuring due process and for mitigating that
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kind of unchecked vengeance. They gave the accidental killer
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time to get a measured hearing before the community elders.
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And if they found the ACT was done without the deliberate
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intent to harm, the killer was protected inside the city.
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If Malice was found, the killer was delivered back to the
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Avenger. This shows that God refuses to
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sanctify the vendetta. He teaches that guilt isn't
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measured solely by the fact that a death happened put by the
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moral agency involved. Was there hatred?
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Was there reckless disregard? Was the life treated as an
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object to be eliminated? All these questions matter.
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It's a protection for the innocent, but also a moral
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framework for the guilty. It demonstrates the precision of
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God's justice. The man who intended to kill
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must face the highest penalty, the man whose act was heedless
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or unintentional. He still faces consequences, but
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not the ultimate one. It's a structured approach.
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And this attention to motive is so critical because it shows us
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that the 6th Commandment is not just a restrict offense.
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It points us toward the law's positive duty.
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So if God forbids unauthorized bloodshed, he must also be
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commanding the active preservation of life.
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That is where the Reformed confessions and catechisms take
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us. Following the biblical breath,
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the prohibition you shall not murder.
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It doesn't just require passive non violence.
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It demands active measures. It requires the cultivation of
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virtues that serve and protect our neighbor.
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So we're instructed to resist destructive passion.
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We're talking about hatred, envy, settled rage, and that
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deep seated desire for revenge that can fester for years.
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These are the internal poisons that lead to physical violence.
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And we must actively practice the opposite virtues, patience,
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gentleness, restraint and intentional peacemaking.
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The Westminster Larger Catechism reflects this by treating sinful
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anger, hatred and bitterness as direct violations of the
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command. So if you secretly wish I'll
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upon your neighbor or you cling to a long held grudge, you are
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falling short of the positive duty to actively preserve their
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life and well-being. The law essentially forces the
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question Do you treat your neighbor's life and dignity as a
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sacred thing that you are responsible for upholding, or as
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an obstacle you are justified in removing or diminishing?
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And the answer to that question will reveal whether Rat Sack
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starts in your heart or not. So we've established the proper
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terms. Now we have to address the
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theological justification for such severity.
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Why does God treat the unauthorized shedding of blood
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so much more seriously than, say, stealing?
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To understand the gravity of murder as cosmic treason, we
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have to go back to the source. The sacredness of human life
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isn't based on our feelings or our political structures or
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individual achievements. This dignity is rooted in a
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divine decree. That is the anchor point.
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This takes us directly back to the Imago day, the image of God
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in Genesis 1. This is the absolutely non
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negotiable reason that human life is set apart from the rest
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of the created order. And the core ethical implication
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here is that the Imago Day is a bestowed dignity, not some kind
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of earned badge. It's a status granted at
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creation. And this truth, when you take it
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seriously, it demolishes every sliding scale by which society
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tries to quantify human worth. The world constantly pressures
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us to accept that worth is tied to usefulness.
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If dignity rests on function, on ability, productivity, or
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convenience, then you can justify disposing of anyone who
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becomes a drain on society or an inconvenience to personal
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desire. And that includes the unborn,
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the elderly, the severely disabled or those deemed
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unproductive. But if dignity rests on God's
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eternal decree, then every human being possesses an inviolable,
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non negotiable worth that no circumstance, not disability,
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not moral failings, not age, can erase.
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It remains even after the fall. It does.
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Genesis 9.6 confirms that even after sin enter the world,
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bloodshed demands recurring. Precisely because God made man
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in his own image, that rationale remains the moral constant
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across all generations and all covenants.
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So the image is not a reward for moral virtue, it's a reality of
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creation that demands respect from every other image bearer.
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Moving from God's image in man to God's authority over man, we
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then confront the second major ground for the sanctity of life,
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divine sovereignty. Our sources insist that life is
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the exclusive property of the Creator.
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Yeah, we have to remember we are not self-made.
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We confess with Job. The Spirit of God has made me
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and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
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God is not just the one who started life, He is the one who
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continually sustains it. The Psalmist marvels that God
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knits life together in the womb in Psalm 139.
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So what A person stands before a magistrate or a medical
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procedure or even an enemy? The question of life and death
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is never simply their body, their choice, or my decision.
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Our lives are property of the Creator by the right of
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creation. And only he holds the keys of
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life and death. Therefore, murder is not only an
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injury to the neighbor, it's primarily a theft from God.
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It's a grasping at divine prerogatives.
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As Deuteronomy 32 says, I even I am he, and there is no God
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beside me. I kill and I make alive.
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To murder is to attempt to steal those keys.
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It is a Declaration of Independence from the sovereign,
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making it the highest form of treason.
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And the Bible deepens the significance of humanity even
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further by pointing to the incarnation's witness, the fact
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that the Son of God did not come to redeem angels, but instead
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took on human nature, flesh and blood.
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That's the most dramatic declaration of the eternal worth
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of humanity. I mean, think about the
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implication God honored humanity enough to wrap himself in it,
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and the cross shows us the collision of all these truths.
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It shows what murder is, sinful men unjustly shedding innocent
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blood. And yet, through that very act,
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God provides the atoning mercy that cleanses us from all blood
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guilt. So if the life of every person
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is so valuable that God roots its dignity in his own image and
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sovereignty and validates it through the incarnation, then
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the Church must treat every human being with a kind of
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trembling reverence. If we limit the 6th commandment
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to just the act of the hand, we really miss the law's spiritual
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diagnosis. This is the transition from the
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external prohibition to the internal problem, from the deed
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to the root. And no one makes this diagnosis
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clearer than the Lawgiver himself, Jesus Christ in the
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Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.
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He's not abolishing the command, He's showing its inner spiritual
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reach. He tells us that the sin of
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murder begins long before a weapon is ever lifted.
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Right. The Pharisees thought they were
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like, just because they hadn't committed homicide.
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Christ, looking into the Spirit, declares that the one who
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harbors anger against his brother is liable to judgment.
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He takes the commandment entirely beyond the reach of the
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civil court and places it squarely before the judgment
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seat of God. The Apostle John drives this
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truth home in what should be a deeply uncomfortable verse for
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every single churchgoer who thinks they're doing fine.
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He says everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.
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Hatred is murder in principle. If you allow hatred to live and
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thrive in your spirit, you have already committed the sin.
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This forces us to spend time with Christ's terrifying
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analysis of the progression of this sin, what's often called
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the genealogy of hatred. It shows how contempt escalates
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from an internal emotion to the warrant for eternal judgment.
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And Jesus starts by Speaking of continuous anger.
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The Greek use there the present passive participle orgisomenos,
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is such a devastating detail. It's not the momentary,
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justifiable flash of temper that comes and goes.
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This signifies A continuous settled brooding condition.
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Nursed resentment, an intentional posture of hostility
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toward your neighbor. It's the anger of a settled
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mindset, not the anger of a fleeting moment.
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And the moment that settled resentment finds a voice, the
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transgression escalates to the second stage, contempt, which
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Jesus labels with the Aramaic epithet.
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Raqqa, which roughly translates to worthless one or empty
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headed. So to say Raqqa is to look at a
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person stamped with God's Insignia, the Imago Dei, and
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verbally pronounce them valueless.
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You are denying their inherent dignity.
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And this verbal assault, Christ warns, makes 1 liable to the
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Council, The Supreme Court of Israel.
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The tongue has committed a capital crime against dignity.
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The final highest stage is moral apostasy, calling a brother thou
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fool Moros. This isn't a mild intellectual
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insult in the biblical sense. It implies A moral rebel,
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someone who is spiritually bankrupt or defying God.
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And this verbal acts warrants the ultimate penalty, the
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Gehenna of fire. Gehenna, of course, references
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the valley of Hinnom, which it becomes synonymous with
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perpetual burning and judgment. So Jesus is teaching that the
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seemingly respectable sin of hateful speech, the devaluing of
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a person in your heart, warrants the eternal wrath of God.
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The distance between heart hatred and physical violence is
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often only opportunity, not nature.
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And we see this progression played out again and again in
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the historical narratives of Scripture.
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These stories trace the dark roots that produce bloodshed,
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starting with the archetype Cain.
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Cain's murder in Genesis 4 was not accidental.
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It was the result of two deeply ingrained sins, envy and pride.
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God accepted Abel's offering, but not Cain.
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'S Cain should have corrected his offering, but instead his
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pride refused correction, which then curdled into toward his
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brother. God warns him.
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He says if you do well, will you not be accepted?
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And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
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It's desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.
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But Cain refused the call to self mastery.
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The anatomy of envy is always this.
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If I cannot have joy or acceptance, neither shall you.
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He eliminated the evidence of his own failure by eliminating
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his brother. The narratives also show how
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much more insidious murder can become when it's, you know,
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sanitized, mediated through power, and dressed up as
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necessary procedure. You're thinking of David and
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Uriah and Second Samuel 11. Yes.
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David does not lift the sword himself.
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He commits adultery, then deception, then finally he
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wields his authority. He writes a letter commanding
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his general Joab to place Uriah in the hottest part of the
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battle so he will die under enemy fire.
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It's the sin of delegation. David used the legitimate
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institution of warfare to satisfy his private lust and
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fear. He thought distance and a
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plausible account he died honorably in battle would
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conceal the crime. But the prophet Nathan exposes
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the truth immediately. He says David has despised the
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word of the Lord and acted as a murderer.
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This teaches us that murder is not only the sin of the rage
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filled thug, it's the temptation of the powerful king.
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Authority can murder just as surely is brute force, using
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official procedure and distance as a disguise.
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And a third terrifying example is institutional murder.
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Ahab and Naboth in First Kings 21.
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This isn't just about an angry heart.
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This is about weaponizing the law itself.
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Ahab wanted Naboth's vineyard. His wife, Jezebel created a
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flawless legal procedure. She used false witnesses,
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manipulated the elders and invoked a national fast to make
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the whole community complicit. So Naboth was murdered by being
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legally judicially executed on false charges.
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It was murdered dressed in the costume of legality.
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Yet when the prophet Elijah confronts Ahab, God cuts right
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through all the paperwork and asks, have you murdered and also
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taken possession? God sees the heart of the matter
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even when the deed is hidden behind a state seal in
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bureaucratic procedure. These narratives, Cain, David,
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Ahab, they all show that the common thread is idolatry.
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When desire becomes a God, whether that desire is for
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acceptance or for a woman or for a piece of property, people
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cease to be image bearers and become sacrifices to that idol.
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And finally, we have to mention the dehumanizing tongue.
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The tongue can be spiritually and socially murderous and we
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see this danger acutely in the digital age.
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James warns that the tongue can be a world of unrighteousness.
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Contempt reduces an image bearer to a label, making it
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psychologically and spiritually easier to harm them later.
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Racism, classism, and the political language of
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demonization are all sins of the tongue.
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Because they deny the dignity of the image they bear, they train
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the heart to despise, and that contempt is the prelude to every
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form of violence. Recognizing this pervasive
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wickedness that the potential for Ratzak lives in every human
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heart, we now have to address how God responds to this in a
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fallen world, right? God does not abandon humanity to
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a perpetual blood feud. He restrains evil through
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appointed civil order, which is His common grace provision.
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And this structure of restraint is defined by a magistracy and
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the sword. The New Testament confirms that
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civil authority is God's servant for your good, and that the
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magistrate does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the
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servant of God and avenger who carries out God's wrath on the
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wrongdoer. That's Romans 13.
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So the sword represents real coercive authority to restrain
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violent evil and to punish wrongdoing.
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But it's a delegated authority. It doesn't mean the state is
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autonomous. The state is accountable to God
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for how it wields that sword. And this structure is precisely
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why you, as a Christian, have to make a clear and principled
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distinction between public justice and private vengeance.
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Romans 12 instructs the believer, beloved, never avenge
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yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.
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So the Christian is personally forbidden from administering
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retaliation or satisfying a private grievance.
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But Romans 13 confirms that public justice administered by
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the state is one of the ordinary means by which God executes
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temporal wrath and restrains evil.
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The sword belongs to the magistrate, not to the offended
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individual. This distinction forces the
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believer toward mercy and forgiveness in their private
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life while still submitting to and upholding the public
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structure of justice when they are the victim.
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Which brings us to due process. Why is due process witnesses,
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careful adjudication, the presumption of innocence so
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critical to the 6th Commandment? Because God's justice must be
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measured, principled, and public, if the state unjustly
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executes an innocent man, the state itself has committed Rat
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Sack. The cities of refuge show God
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protecting society from both unpunished malice and from the
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disaster of the innocent being swept away by mob passion.
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Justice must protect the accused as a moral duty to the Amato
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Dai. Which is why we have the
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necessity of two or three witnesses from Deuteronomy 19
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and careful adjudication. It protects the innocent from
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hasty judgment and political corruption, just like in the
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story of Naboth. So the 6th Commandment protects
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life from the murderer, but it also protects life from wrongful
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conviction and unlawful punishment by the state itself.
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Justice must be sober, slow enough to be careful, and firm
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enough to be real. This returns us to the critical
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moral distinctions. What killing is not murder?
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We have to be clear here without creating moral loopholes. 1st as
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we established, lawful civil justice, when it's administered
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under God ordained authority and due process is not murder.
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When the magistrate punishes wrongdoers, he is operating as
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God's servant. But even severe punishment has
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to be pursued with rigorous evidence and a kind of moral
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fear, because the magistrate answers to God for innocent
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blood. The temptation for the state is
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always to become a God unto itself. 2nd, the defense of life
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against unjust aggression is not murder.
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Proverbs 24 calls God's people to rescue those who are being
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taken away to death. If you stop immediate,
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unprovoked harm to the innocent, you are fulfilling a positive
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duty of the law. But this act has to always be
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constrained by necessity and proportionality.
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Defense is oriented towards stopping immediate harm, not
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satisfying wounded pride. The force used must be
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sufficient to stop the aggression and nothing more.
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And the moral difficulty arises when the heart delights in the
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harm, even if the action was legally justified.
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That delight is the spiritual seed of Ratzak. 3rd War War is
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considered a matter of magistracy and a tragic
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necessity at best, as the reformers categorized it.
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It's never a private revenge on a national scale.
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It's morally permissible only when approached to the means to
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restore peace and restrain grievous evil.
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The Church should be the last place to romanticize bloodshed,
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even when recognizing that magistrates may have just
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occasions to bear the sword externally.
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War is a lamentable consequence of the fall.
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It is not a moral blank check or a theater for human glory.
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So we recognize the legitimacy of the function while weeping
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for the necessity of the carnage.
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These distinctions prevent us from being either too strict,
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saying all killing is murder, or too soft, saying that a public,
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authorized act somehow purifies the heart of malice.
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The law demands both justice and restraint.
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In our present age, the application of the 6th
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Commandment is urgent because we live in what is accurately
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called a culture of death. The modern world increasingly
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measures worth by metrics of usefulness, autonomy or personal
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desire, which renders life negotiable.
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And the Christian must insist that dignity is inviolable
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because God decreed it so. We are called to a positive,
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costly, public minded love that protects life and refuses every
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narrative that dehumanizes. This requires confronting
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socially sanctioned killing. And the most glaring and
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grievous violation of the 6th Commandment today, because of
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its scale and the vulnerability of the victim, is abortion.
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This can't be viewed as simply a political controversy.
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It is a theological crisis, the shedding of innocent blood.
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It is in its essence the sacrifice of children to the
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idol of convenience and the God of self.
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Scriptures detailed descriptions of divine involvement are
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unequivocal. God knits life in the womb.
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He forms, sustains, and knows the person there.
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Psalm 139 is just crystal clear on this.
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To interrupt that process is an assault on God's creative
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prerogative. When a society allows the mass
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extraction of the image of God based on personal desire, it
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trains the heart of the entire culture to despise the weak and
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the inconvenient. It violates the whole premise
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that life is sacred property. And we see a similar underlying
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logic at the other end of life spectrum with euthanasia and
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assisted suicide. While it's framed in terms of
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compassion and medical assistance, this is the ultimate
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assertion of the idol of autonomy.
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It's the final tragic claim that my life is my own, to dispose of
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as I see fit. But our sources tell us that
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life is the Creator's property. Taking one's own life or
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assisting in the taking of life is stealing the keys of death
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from Christ who alone holds them.
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Revelation One makes that clear. This is self treason.
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True mercy is not elimination, it is presence, patience, and
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care and suffering. The Church must embody A
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compassion that supports endurance and covenant love,
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refusing the temptation to define mercy as the removal of
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pain by removing the person. Now we have to turn Christ's
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radical interpretation onto the Church itself.
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The 6th Commandment confronts the silent killers within our
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own hearts and communities, the sins we tolerate because they're
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not illegal or physical crimes. We must confront partiality,
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classism and racism. James, too, specifically calls
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partiality A transgression. To deem another person less than
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based on skin color, economic status or social persuasion is
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to deny the dignity of the image they bear.
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It's a functional assault on the Imago day.
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So if we treat the poor man or the marginalized person as if
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their perspective doesn't count or their life isn't worth
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protecting, we have fallen into that Rocca mindset.
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We have reduced a soul bearing God's image to a worthless one,
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setting the stage for disregard in systemic neglect.
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Another deeply pervasive silent killer is bitterness and
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unforgiveness. To harbor grudges for decades is
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a slow acting poison that kills the one who holds it and
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spiritually murders the one upon whom it is directed.
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Why is unforgiveness spiritual homicide?
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Because to refuse forgiveness to a genuinely repentant person, or
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to hold on to a grudge long past its expiration, is to steal
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God's seat as judge. You are attempting to reserve
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the right to punish eternally wishing damnation or temporal
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judgement upon another person, usurping the role that belongs
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only to the avenger of blood, which we are forbidden to take
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for ourselves. And finally, we must govern the
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tongue, which in the digital square today is often a weapon
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of mass character destruction. Slander, gossip and public
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mockery assassinate character and kill reputations.
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We are participating in the sin of Naboth's false witnesses.
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The Christian must actively refuse the culture of contempt
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that rewards sarcasm, snark, and the public shredding of
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opponents online. We must train our hearts to
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despise contempt itself, refusing to label our brother or
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sister in a way that denies the dignity of the image they bear.
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The commandment requires us to put away wrath, clamor, and
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malice, as Ephesians says, and to pursue reconciliation
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quickly, even prioritizing it over worship, which is what
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Matthew 5 teaches. When we allow the law,
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especially Christ's radical interpretation in Matthew 5, to
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speak its full truth, it brings us to the dreadful reality of
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blood guilt. We are all exposed.
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Every one of us stands guilty of the murderous heart, whether by
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hand, by tongue, or by venomous thought.
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The law does its work here. It insists that human life, once
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unjustly taken or wished away, cannot be repaid by human
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effort. No amount of good deeds, no
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apology, no penance can purchase innocence or raise the dead.
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The law's function is to strip away all our self justifications
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and drive us to confess. We are truly blood stained.
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And we must not confuse God's pardon with the removal of all
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temporal accountability. Forgiveness removes the eternal
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penalty for the repentant Sinner, but justice often
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demands consequences in this life.
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We see this vividly in David's case.
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He was forgiven when he confessed his sin regarding
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Uriah, but the prophet declared the sword shall never depart
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from your house. True repentance submits to
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lawful authority and accepts temporal consequences rather
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than seeking to evade them. But if the law is the relentless
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avenger of blood, then the gospel provides the only refuge.
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Here we return to that beautiful Old Testament typology, the city
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of Refuge, the Air Mic Lat. The City of Refuge was the
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designated place of safety for the fugitive from the Avenger of
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Blood. The one who fled there was safe,
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but only under 2 critical conditions.
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First, he had to remain within the walls, and 2nd, his safety
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was secured only until the death of the high priest.
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Once the high priest died, the fugitive was free.
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And that typology finds its consummation in Jesus Christ.
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He is the true city of refuge for the soul, pursued by the
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guilt of sin. The law demands our life, but
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Christ opens his wounds and invites us to hide in Him, the
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ultimate fortress. But how can a just God shelter
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the guilty? The answer is the great
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exchange. Our safety is purchased with a
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price. The remedy for murder is found
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in the most heinous, public and definitive act of murder in
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history, the crucifixion. The cross was the ultimate
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violation of the 6th commandment.
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Yet God used this greatest injustice as the means of
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atonement. The guilt of our hatred, our
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anger, our raka statements, and our moral apostasy was credited
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to Jesus Christ. He stood in the place of the
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murderer and took the judgement we deserved.
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We go back to Genesis 4. Evil's blood cried for
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judgement. It demanded retribution from the
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ground. But Hebrews 12 tells us that
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Christ's blood sprinkled onto the mercy seat in heaven, cries
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a better word. It cries mercy, reconciliation,
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peace. He satisfies the avenger of
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blood, the justice of God, so that the sword is sheathed
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forever for those who are sheltered in him.
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And this gospel is not for the politely broken, it's for the
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genuinely blood stained. Think of Paul, who described
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himself as breathing threatenings and slaughter
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against the church. He held himself up as a trophy
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of mercy so that Jesus Christ might display his perfect
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patience in Him. No stain is too deep that
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Christ's blood cannot cleanse it.
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And from that pardon flows the necessary consequence of new
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obedience, not as the price of forgiveness, but as its fruit.
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This is the third use of the law guiding our gratitude.
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Justification brings regeneration.
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We are not free to remain the same person that fled into the
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city of refuge. The Holy Spirit teaches us to
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put to death the murderous impulses of the old man, to
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mortify anger, to renounce contempt, and to refuse
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vengeance. New obedience is the active
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preservation of life, replacing the sword of bitterness with the
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towel of service. The forgiven St. knowing the
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terror of the law seeks reconciliation and the
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protection of the vulnerable. To summarize our deep dive for
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you, we have seen that the 6th commandment is low turdsac,
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forbidding unauthorized bloodshed, not all killing.
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We understand that dignity rests entirely on God's image, making
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life the sacred property of the Creator.
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And Christ showed us that the heart filled with contempt and
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hatred is where the crime truly begins, convicting every one of
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us. The Gospel answers this
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widespread guilt by providing Christ, our eternal high Priest
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and our secure city of refuge, whose blood secures mercy
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through the satisfaction of justice.
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We are redeemed from blood guiltiness so that we may live
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not just as people who avoid the act of killing, but as active
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guardians of life. We're called to embody a culture
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of reconciliation and affirmation.
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We should be the people who cultivate kindness and
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compassion, especially for those who are most despised or most
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vulnerable. So the final challenge for you
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to reflect on is this If Christ's blood cleanses the most
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violent sin of hatred and malice, how must we, His
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redeemed people, actively overcome evil with good?
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How must we live and speak and serve in a way that embodies a
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culture of reconciliation, especially toward those whom the
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world or our own sinful pride trains us to despise and
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devalue?