When
God addresses us as our Creator and Lord, he reveals that we are his creatures
and servants. In acknowledging this, we recognize that we are not the masters
of our own existence. Our life is given to us as a loan by God for us to serve
God and neighbor. So with whatever other command God addresses us, God also
tells us that we shall will to live. To live means to live freely as a
particular person for God and in fellowship with others. It also means, for
God’s glory and the sake of others, to give back to God the life loaned to us
when he asks for it.
If
we recognize that our life is a loan to us from God, we will treat it with
respect. We will also respect the life of every other human being for the same
reason. Indeed, God’s command to respect life is found explicitly in the
commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17). Respect
first means honoring with wonder and affirming the mystery that each person’s
existence is. It is to see every day as one more chance to make our lives
extraordinary. Still, our respect for life in this manner is limited by our
reverence for God. Remembrance of this limitation is our modesty. It is also a commitment
to obey God in those extreme situations where God paradoxically demands a
willingness to live as one who freely diminishes or gives back one’s life to
God.
Respect
for life means respecting our physical needs for sleep, food, etc., neither
denying nor indulging them but fulfilling them in a way appropriate to
particular humans living before God in solidarity with other human beings and
all creation. Regarding the plants of creation, in Genesis 1:28 God gives all
fruits and vegetables for our nourishment. Respect means eating all we need but
only what we need.
The
dominion over animals granted to us in Genesis 1:26, 28 includes the authority
to domesticate them. That dominion is limited by our gratitude to God for
animals. This gratitude expresses itself in a nurturing relationship toward
them. The question of whether to kill animals is a serious one, in that doing
so disturbs the peace of creation and resembles homicide. Genesis 1:29-30
assigns plants to both humans and animals for their food. The Old Testament
speaks of a time to come when violence between humans and animals will be
overcome (cf. Isaiah 11:6f.). In the meantime, God grants us meat for food
(Genesis 9:3). Yet even this interim time is the time of God’s grace. The
crucifixion of Jesus Christ reconciled humankind, and in it all creation, to God.
Given the seriousness of our responsibility in having dominion over the
animals, and the utmost gravity of taking life, we can kill animals only with
God’s permission and command.
Returning
to human existence, respect for life means the will to live and therefore the
commitment to remain healthy. Health is the vitality of soul and body needed to
serve God and neighbor. Sickness, then, is the relative loss of this vitality.
Even when really sick, health is our will to serve God with others to whatever
degree we can. Conversely, even when apparently healthy, our will to live for
God with others as distinct individuals may be weak. Finally, our will to be
healthy includes a will to promote sociocultural environments which nurture
health and to oppose those which are destructive to health.
Two
other points on sickness and health. First, sickness is no illusion even though
some people are mistaken about what ails them. Instead, sickness is a
manifestation of both the power of chaos and of God’s righteous judgment
against sin. But God in Jesus Christ did reconcile us to himself and did
destroy this power at the cross. So our obedience to God now is to join with
him in saying no to sickness and death and yes to health and life. We do this
through proper diet, exercise, and medicine, of course, but primarily through
faith and prayer.
Nothing
contrary to what has just been said is intended when we recognize this second
point: our lives are by nature limited. “Teach us to number our days” (Psalm
90:12). Sometimes, behind the mask of sickness and death comes the messenger of
eternal life. What are we to do? First, no giving an inch to the power of
death. Against it we bring faith, prayer, and a stubborn resistance. But if in
it we meet the God who is Lord of both life and death, then the death we meet
is not evil but good and we may respond to it not only with patience but even
with joy.
Yes,
the vitality of health abounds with joy. Both Old and New Testaments,
especially in the Psalms and Philippians, abound in references to joy. Because
Christ is risen we rejoice, we know the joy of celebration and triumph, of soul
and body, of food and drink, of dance and prayer. What is this joy? At its
simplest: gratitude. Joy is our gratitude for, satisfaction in, and celebration
of our attainment of any one of the many little goals of life. Then, if ever so
briefly, the restlessness of our life pauses as life itself smiles upon us.
Furthermore, true joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and present whenever the
Holy Spirit is present. So the will for joy will find it at unexpected times
and places and in odd shapes and sizes. True joy strengthens rather than
weakens our will for life. It is a refreshing pause rather than a permanent
escape. It does not damage fellowship but fosters it. It does not damage our
health but restores it.
Ultimately
the command to rejoice means being ready for one of life’s fulfilling moments
in whatever form God brings it. This of course means being ready for
fulfillment when we meet it in the form of suffering and death. Our joy was
true in life’s higher moments if we still appreciate it in life’s darkest ones.
Either way life and joy come to us as God’s gracious gifts and under his
gracious lordship. And either way our life and joy are provisional as we continue
to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.
In
addition to a will for life and health, respect for life includes an
unshakeable will to be oneself. When God addresses us, his command compels each
one of us to take ourselves seriously. God wills that we live, not in a
self-centered way, but in the unique way in which he wishes us to live in
freedom for him. To live, not for oneself but in one’s uniquely personal way
for Christ and the sake of his gospel, is the greatest act of responsibility
and test of character. Our character is who we really are in God’s eyes by
God’s grace. That becomes clearer to us as we struggle with the Spirit, under
the Word, against the flesh and its illusory understanding of our individual
identities.
Finally,
we might refer to the will for life as our desire for the power of love. The
power of love meant here is our ability to benefit from life’s helps and to
overcome or at least endure life’s hindrances. We may distinguish this power of
love from power as the ability to control according to the follow criteria: (1)
The power of love which God gives us is the ability to nurture life. Power from
any other source is always the power of death despite all appearances to the
contrary. (2) The power of love strengthens our character. (3) It is the
ability, not to do anything possible, but to glorify God and to serve others in
the unique vocation and with the particular character given to us by God. (4)
It is determined fully by God. Sometimes it is the supreme ability to wait for
God or to accept defeat.
2.
The Protection of Life
In
the previous sub-section, we reflected on the positive meaning of the
commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” as respect for life. Negatively, this
commandment forbids murder and entails protection of life. But are there
extreme circumstances in which God might positively command us to cease
protecting and actively take the life of another human being? This is the
question we will address in this sub-section.
To
begin with, we must note that in the Old Testament God positively commanded the
death of certain individuals. Even in the New Testament Paul tells us that
governing authorities serve God by bearing the sword against the wicked (Romans
13:1f.). Jesus also states that the supremely unjust Pilate received his power
to sentence Jesus to death from above (John 19:10f.). Still, even in the Old
Testament Ezekiel may repeat, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and
live” (Ezekiel 33:11, English Standard Version). So too the heart of the
New Testament is that Jesus Christ died so that we all might live.
Consequently, we cannot ask too strongly whether the taking of any human life
is now murder in the eyes of God.
The
taking of one’s own life
Would
God ever command us to commit suicide? We must state immediately that suicide
is self-murder, and a violation of God’s commandment, if it is autonomously
willed. God alone as Lord and giver of life decides when we should return the
gift. Autonomous reflections on our own worthlessness or the burden of
existence do not suffice. So long as God wills it, life is benefit and God
gives us the freedom to affirm it.
Simply
because it is a person’s last act does not mean that suicide is any less
forgivable than any other sin. God judges the whole person and does so
according to his righteous mercy. Yet this does not legitimate the act of
rebellion against God which autonomous suicide is.
We
can see the repugnance of suicide only through the gospel of our gracious God.
No moral arguments, categorical imperatives, or social obligations carry any
weight with one assailed by God’s hiddenness, terrified of God’s rejection, and
therefore abandoned to one’s apparently supreme autonomy. Only the victorious
Word of God proclaiming that life is still possible can penetrate the darkness
of this autonomy. But God’s Word that we may live is our freedom to live, not
by our own efforts, but by the grace of the God who is with us and for us. This
is our joy. This Word is why suicide must be rejected.
But
could self-destruction ever be self-offering? God has loaned to each of us the
gift of life. We are not free to use this gift as we please but for service to
God. But service to God may mean our gallant risking or even the deliberate
sacrificing of our own life. When Jesus went to Jerusalem, he knew he would die
there and positively willed to do so in obedience to God. In this way Jesus
Christ must continue to be the supreme standard by which we measure all talk
about the extreme case when God might unambiguously demand that we return to
him the life loaned to us for his service.
The
taking of the life of others
We
turn now, with even greater circumspection, to the taking of the lives of
others. According to Matthew 5:21-26, murder in its preliminary form exists in
the hearts of us all. Since man was created good, this desire and its lethal
consequences must be regarded as a corruption of our nature. The only dispute
now is whether an extreme case may exist which justifies homicide in God’s
eyes.
Abortion
We
begin with the problem of abortion, the deliberate termination of pregnancy.
Our first assertion: abortion is the taking of a human life. From the moment of
conception, we have a specific person and not some other form of life. The
matter in all seriousness, then, is the willful killing of a person for whom
Christ died and therefore on whom the Gospel’s light already shines.
On
this question, we must reject both liberal Christian permissiveness and
conservative Christian absolutism. First the no must be established, then
perhaps the exception in the extreme case. The rejection of abortion is based
on the commandment against murder understood positively as enabling us by grace
to respect human life: to honor with wonder every human being from the moment
of conception. No prohibition alone against abortion can create this wonderful
honoring. The spiritual climate in our churches obviously has proven
inadequate. Its basis is solely God’s gracious Word that we are free to live
and able by God’s mercy to allow others to live as well. This is not a matter
of imposing the law but of proclaiming grace. Only in the light of this grace
may we hear God’s no to abortion. Without at all weakening this objection to
abortion, God’s mercy in Christ also means that even those who have committed
this sin have not committed an unforgivable one.
The
extreme case is based on the presupposition that God is Lord of the life he has
loaned to each person. By definition the extreme case is quite rare. One such
case: when either the life of the mother or the life of the child must be
sacrificed to save the other. First, God’s command does not favor automatically
one or the other. The decision in this case must be made by the mother with a
conscience both critical and clear. Third, it must be made freely in obedience
to God. Finally, to be made with the needed confidence and joy, the decision
must rest in the knowledge that God’s love is greater than all the ambiguities
involved.
Euthanasia
We
must reject euthanasia because, despite intense pain, there can be no certainty
that life has stopped being God’s blessing. Might not truly loving family and
friends devote themselves to doing everything possible to care for and support
to the end the sick person’s will to fight the good fight and stubbornly resist
the disease? And would not a physician’s participation in this killing compromise
the medical profession’s first commitment to do no harm? With abortion we faced
the painful matter of life vs. life. Here, however, the choice is death or life
with suffering. This choice as such cannot be reconciled with the commandment
of God to protect life.
Killing
in self-defense
We
must first ask whether self-defense may be commanded by God. Paul called
Christians in Corinth unrighteous for taking each other to court (1 Corinthians
6:1-11); that is, for exercising legal self-defense. He exhorted Christians in
Rome not to avenge themselves but to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:17-20).
In Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus lumps one attacking us with the one begging from us.
The rule, then, is that self-defense is not commanded by God. More deeply, when
attacked physically or verbally, returning the attack only makes us aggressors,
damaging another’s well-being even as we degrade ourselves. Furthermore, we are
attacked out of some perceived need. Counter-attacking does not meet that need
but only leaves it even more unmet.
Killing
in self-defense, then, cannot be considered our normal legitimate response to
dangerous aggression but only, if anything, the extreme case. We again affirm that
God’s commandment against murder is God’s gracious Word calling and enabling us
to serve rather than to fear others. This Word of God, then, destroys any
spontaneous justification of self-defense. Through it God establishes himself
as our able defender. But as people at peace with God, committed to the
well-being of others, and self-disciplined in this way, God may ask us to actively
resist the wicked by restraining someone from attacking ourselves or others.
And when ordered by God, this resistance is not responding to evil with evil.
The cause, as judged by God’s commanding Word, is not our own but his. The
cause then is not self-defense but service to God.
The
question of whether God would ever command us to kill in self-defense we will
address under capital punishment.
Capital
punishment
To
begin with, if self-defense is ever legitimate, then individual arbitrariness
and communal anarchy are best avoided when counter-attack is executed by civil
authority on behalf of citizens according to established law. This increases
rather than lessens individual responsibility. It means that each one of us is
represented by and therefore has a share in every action taken by the police
and courts on our perceived behalf.
There
are two justifications of capital punishment we must address. One, such
punishment protects society by eliminating one source of violent behavior and
by setting an intimidating example for others. Two, such punishment is an
expression of God’s retributive justice.
For
Christians, the problem with accepting capital punishment as divine retribution
is that Jesus Christ already suffered the death penalty for all sin. Death is
not the punishment which reflects the righteousness of God. Punishment
reflecting God’s righteousness would reveal to the criminal God’s forgiveness,
provide him with the chance to live for God rather than against him, restrain
him from further evil while encouraging his positive participation in society,
and affirm his humanity rather than denying it.
Regarding
society’s protection, society is better protected by acknowledging in humility
its responsibility for and its solidarity with criminals and therefore by
hearing the question which all crime asks of it. Second, society is a
provisional order meant to protect the lives and rights of its citizens.
Capital punishment contradicts this and therefore threatens rather than protects
the society practicing it. Finally capital punishment, rather than inspiring
respect for law, inspires contempt for it by itself justifying the use of all
necessary means. Therefore, on the basis of God’s command to respect and
protect life, we must reject both capital punishment and killing in
self-defense.
War
Modern
warfare involves not only soldiers but all citizens. Furthermore, the real
issue in modern warfare is not the well-being of human beings but the
maintenance and expansion of the power to control. This power is not something
we gain but is something which possesses us. Our love for it makes us suicidal.
Third, war means nothing less than the commitment to destroy the other side
using every possible means. Given these presuppositions, our first response as
Christians is to express our thorough revulsion for war and our equally
rigorous commitment to peace.
The
Church first must not accept war as normal but as abnormal and understand it
not as the proper work of the state but as an alien one only. The normal task
of the state, for which it has been established by God, is to enhance the
well-being of human beings by establishing a just peace. When peace is
fashioned for illegitimate ends rather than to nurture people, war and
revolution become inevitable. The Church’s commitment, then, is to work for a
meaningful and viable peace within and between states that makes war
unnecessary. Given the horrible nature of modern warfare, the illegitimate means
and ends of all modern states, and the modern idolatry of technology and the
national state, our final response as Christians today must be the rejection of
all calls to arms and a thorough commitment to developing a way of living that
nurtures every human being and all creation.
Copyright © 2019
by Steven Farsaci.
All rights
reserved. Fair use encouraged.