Question 1

Why are the punishments in the Old Testament so severe?

Accepted Answer

Genesis 3:14-19The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed . . .” Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. . . .” And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. . . .you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”Romans 5:12-21When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. . . . So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.Romans 8:18-25What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)In the original set of punishments issued by God in the Garden of Eden, the entire created order was deeply affected. The terrible punishment for Adam and Eve’s deliberate act of disobedience brought brokenness and suffering into God’s perfect and pristine creation. When we recoil at the severity of the consequences and their ongoing results, we are indicating, among other things, that we find it hard to hold ourselves accountable for our participation in the fallen human race. But if we fail to do that, we are unable to repent and receive God’s free gift of forgiveness. Truth be told, we all sin on a regular basis, confirming that we all share in the guilt of Adam and Eve. We all are in need of God’s healing forgiveness.Genesis 4:9-16The Lord said, “. . . Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”Leviticus 20:1-27The Lord said to Moses, “Give the people of Israel these instructions, which apply both to native Israelites and to the foreigners living in Israel. “If any of them offer their children as a sacrifice to Molech, they must be put to death. The people of the community must stone them to death. . . . You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy.”The serpent was punished forever for tempting Eve and Adam into sin; Cain’s punishment was living alone with the guilt of murdering his brother. People who murdered their children in horrific religious practices were given the death penalty. The severity of these punishments was intended to impress upon God’s people the seriousness of this sin.

Question 2

How does God punish people today?

Accepted Answer

Hebrews 12:11God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.We often fail to distinguish between just punishment and discipline. Just punishment is applied for actions deliberately done despite warnings about the painful consequences. Just punishment ensures that the consequences for the sin are applied. Discipline, which sometimes uses the same means as punishment (not always), seeks to correct, direct, and produce a desired change of behavior or attitude. God disciplines us as a loving Father, by both consequences and rebuke. His desire is always to bring us back to him, not to humiliate or hurt us. Without the discipline and the punishment that goes along with it, people would follow their own sinful desires with abandon.Romans 1:18-32God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. . . . That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires.God allows sinners to experience the consequences of their own behavior, especially when their sin is intentional and deliberate. If he simply warned without consequences, he would neither be loving nor keep his word to us.

Question 3

Will I be punished for my sins?

Accepted Answer

Isaiah 26:21The Lord is coming from heaven to punish the people of the earth for their sins.Judgment and punishment are promised for all sin. Even those who accept God’s gift of forgiveness through Jesus will have judgment applied to their sins. But that judgment is absorbed by Jesus, who is our willing substitute.Isaiah 53:8Unjustly condemned, he [the Messiah] was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.Romans 3:23-28Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. . . . So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.The Good News of the Bible is that Jesus bore the ultimate punishment for our sins—death—when he died in our place. He bore the just punishment for our sins. Therefore, when we put our faith in Jesus, while we may still have to live with the consequences of our sins, we will not have to live with the greatest punishment—eternal judgment and separation from God.Romans 6:23The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.1 Peter 4:4-5Your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead.Revelation 6:10They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?”For all who reject Jesus, punishment is final and eternal. The death described as the wages of sin is not a physical death, but permanent separation from God.

Punishment