Little do some people know, punishing others for their sin will not atone for their sin, abrogate their sin, take care of their sin, or cleanse them of their sin. I am mainly speaking here about the misguided notion of humans punishing other humans for their sins. Only Jesus Christ can take away sin because he was considered as a lamb without spot or blemish, the perfect sacrifice (according to 1 Peter 1:19, John 1:29, Hebrews 10:12). Furthermore, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was once for all and doesn't require any further sacrificial atonement in any capacity whatsoever, and this concept is repeated often in the book of Hebrews (for example, Hebrews 9:12, 10:10, 10:14).
There are forms of "punishing" people in church discipline and other aspects of life, but actual consequences never atone for people's sin, they only urge people to repent. Procedures should always resemble Biblical steps such as Matthew 18:15-17.
People, in their wicked human nature, always tend to take their striving for revenge, vengeance, and punishment far beyond the Biblical idea of "eye for an eye." A person who loses their eye typically wants to cut another's head off and eat their heart for breakfast. That is unrighteous behavior and thinking, and people should be using the civil and criminal courts to seek justice anyway. Jesus warned people in the sermon on the mount, "...do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also" (Matthew 5:39).
A study of the civil ordinances in the Old Testament will reveal that many of the statutes follow the principle of restorative justice and restitution. The offender pays back the victim in a sum equivalent to the wrongdoing. Modern criminal justice should generally reflect the principles found in the civil ordinances of the Mosaic Law.
All of this is notwithstanding the specific way in which God's wrath might be satisfied by punishing people in hell (though it is eternal punishment, so we can't assume the wrath is ever satisfied). The whole first part of this post was to communicate specifically as to how things are "under the sun" in terms of human relations (and what we have to consider about Jesus Christ), not how God's wrath is poured out against the unsaved. However, atonement has the specific connotation of reconciliation- sinners reconciling with a holy and just God. "When we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him [God] through the death of his Son (Romans 5:10; see also 2 Cor 5:18-19, Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20). Punishment in hell has no aspect of reconciliation that I've ever seen the scriptures.
There are forms of "punishing" people in church discipline and other aspects of life, but actual consequences never atone for people's sin, they only urge people to repent. Procedures should always resemble Biblical steps such as Matthew 18:15-17.
People, in their wicked human nature, always tend to take their striving for revenge, vengeance, and punishment far beyond the Biblical idea of "eye for an eye." A person who loses their eye typically wants to cut another's head off and eat their heart for breakfast. That is unrighteous behavior and thinking, and people should be using the civil and criminal courts to seek justice anyway. Jesus warned people in the sermon on the mount, "...do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also" (Matthew 5:39).
A study of the civil ordinances in the Old Testament will reveal that many of the statutes follow the principle of restorative justice and restitution. The offender pays back the victim in a sum equivalent to the wrongdoing. Modern criminal justice should generally reflect the principles found in the civil ordinances of the Mosaic Law.
All of this is notwithstanding the specific way in which God's wrath might be satisfied by punishing people in hell (though it is eternal punishment, so we can't assume the wrath is ever satisfied). The whole first part of this post was to communicate specifically as to how things are "under the sun" in terms of human relations (and what we have to consider about Jesus Christ), not how God's wrath is poured out against the unsaved. However, atonement has the specific connotation of reconciliation- sinners reconciling with a holy and just God. "When we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him [God] through the death of his Son (Romans 5:10; see also 2 Cor 5:18-19, Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20). Punishment in hell has no aspect of reconciliation that I've ever seen the scriptures.
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