America is suddenly confronting the death penalty again–and from dramatically different directions.
On September 30, Tennessee attempted to execute convicted murderer Christa Pike by lethal injection. It didn’t work. After receiving two doses of pentobarbital, Pike survived and was rushed to a hospital, where she remained unconscious for days. She has now regained consciousness and is speaking, while Tennessee has halted further executions pending an investigation into what went wrong.
At almost the same time, President Donald Trump approved an extraordinarily rare execution: former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan is to be put to death by military firing squad for murdering 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre. If carried out, it would be America’s first military execution since 1961.
Meanwhile, Idaho has made the firing squad its primary method of execution–a change that followed the state’s failed attempt in 2024 to execute longtime death-row inmate Thomas Creech by lethal injection.
Suddenly, capital punishment is back in the headlines.
For Christians, however, the question goes deeper than lethal injection versus firing squad:
Can followers of Jesus support the death penalty?
It is tempting to answer emotionally. Pike’s crime–the brutal 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer–was horrific. What happened in Tennessee’s execution chamber was also deeply troubling.
But Christians cannot build their theology of justice around which event produces the stronger emotional reaction.
The question is what Scripture teaches.
And while Christians have legitimate reasons to be cautious about how capital punishment is administered, the biblical case that government possesses the authority to impose it for the gravest crimes is strong.
Why Genesis 9 Matters
Perhaps the clearest foundation appears in Genesis 9:6:
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.”
This comes before the Mosaic Law. God gave this command to Noah following the Flood, and His reasoning is enormously important.
Murder warrants such severe judgment because human beings are made in God’s image.
That turns a common objection to capital punishment on its head.
The death penalty is not necessarily based upon the idea that human life is cheap. Genesis 9 grounds it in precisely the opposite principle: human life is so valuable that deliberately destroying an innocent image-bearer can warrant the ultimate earthly penalty.
There is a profound moral difference between murdering an innocent person and government lawfully punishing the murderer.
One destroys justice. The other is intended to uphold it.
Government Bears The Sword
The New Testament does not simply abolish that principle.
Romans 13 describes civil government as God’s servant for restraining and punishing evil. Paul says the governing authority “does not bear the sword in vain” and calls it “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”
Notice the contrast with the chapter immediately before it.
Romans 12 commands Christians not to avenge themselves.
Romans 13 gives government authority to punish wrongdoing.
That distinction is essential.
Christians are forbidden from personal vengeance. Government is charged with public justice.
A Christian can therefore forgive the murderer of a loved one while believing that a court has the authority to punish that murderer.
Forgiveness does not eliminate earthly consequences.
If it did, Christian forgiveness would logically require eliminating prisons and every other criminal penalty.
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But Didn’t Jesus Teach Mercy?
Jesus commanded His followers to forgive, love their enemies and turn the other cheek. Christians should never minimize those commands.
But Jesus was teaching believers how to respond personally to evil. “Turn the other cheek” does not mean police cannot arrest violent criminals, judges cannot sentence them or governments cannot protect innocent people.
Acts 25 contains an especially revealing statement.
Facing charges before Roman authorities, Paul declared:
“If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death.”
Paul maintained his innocence, but he plainly acknowledged that some crimes could deserve death.
