Theological term
Lawful Homicide
4 sermons · All terms
Leviticus 20 - the Death Penalty
Leviticus 20 catalogues capital offenses under the Mosaic law — idolatry, witchcraft, adultery, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality — and provides the occasion for a sustained biblical-theological treatment of the death penalty across the covenants. The study traces the authorization of capital punishment from the Noahic Covenant in Genesis 9 through the Mosaic legislation and into the New Covenant via Acts 25 and Romans 13, arguing that the death penalty remains a binding obligation upon civil magistrates. Romans 13 is read as the New Testament's clearest statement that the sword entrusted to the civil magistrate is God's instrument for executing wrath upon evildoers in history, not merely a sign of general authority. Hearers are called to think biblically about the proper and limited role of civil government, to resist the conflation of civil submission with capitulation to tyranny, and to uphold the abiding moral normativity of capital punishment for murder and other heinous crimes.
The Triumph of Samson at Gaza
Judges 16 records the final chapter of the Samson cycle, moving from the removal of Gaza's city gates through Samson's betrayal by Delilah to his death in the destruction of the temple of Dagon. Against readings that reduce Samson to a figure of ungoverned sexual appetite, this exposition argues that Samson is a faithful judge of Israel, Spirit-empowered and strategically purposeful, whose every encounter with the Philistines is ordered by divine providence toward the deliverance of God's people. The departure of Yahweh from Samson is traced not to moral degeneracy but to Samson's disclosure of the sign of his Nazirite vow, which jeopardized the mission for which he was set apart. Throughout, Samson is presented as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose greater deliverance through death saves more than his life alone could accomplish.
The Things God Hates
Proverbs 6:16–19 presents a numerical list of seven things God hates and finds abominable — a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. This sermon works through each item in canonical order, grounding the list in its immediate context (the portrait of the son of Belial in vv. 12–15) and in the broader testimony of Proverbs, the Psalms, and the New Testament. The abominable members (pride, lying, murder, the cunning heart, swift feet) and the abominable actions (perjury and discord) are each exposed and applied. The sermon concludes by urging hearers to pursue the opposites of each vice — humility, truth-telling, protection of innocent life, guarding the heart, swift pursuit of good, faithful witness, and peacemaking — and to rest in Christ, whose perfect obedience is the righteousness that covers remaining corruption in the believer.
The 6th Command, Part 2
The sixth commandment's prohibition against murder extends far beyond the physical act of killing to encompass the internal disposition of the heart — unwarranted anger, bitterness, and character assassination. Drawing from Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:21-26, Leviticus 19:17-18, and the Westminster Larger Catechism, this study traces the biblical distinctions between murder and lawful homicide (capital punishment, just war, and self-defense), demonstrates that all human beings at every stage of life bear the image of God and therefore possess inviolable dignity, and applies the commandment's positive duty to preserve life. Hearers are called to deal faithfully with relational sin rather than harbor grudges, to resist the culture of abortion and euthanasia as violations of the image of God, and to understand the civil use, pedagogical use, and normative use of this commandment.