Some people who are against capital punishment use this argument:
“People are created by God, so we should not kill them, even if they are hard criminals. After all, they are made in the image of God.”
Did you know that the Bible uses this same reasoning for capital punishment?
Take a look at Genesis 9:6 –
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”
If a person premeditatedly murders an innocent life, the consequence is, according to the passage here, his life should be taken.
But isn’t the death sentence also taking the life of someone who bears the image of God? Is the Bible contradicting itself?
Look at it this way: Is there a moral difference in the killing of a convicted murderer after a fair trial and the premeditated cruel killing of an innocent victim, especially when the victim is a child?
While I certainly don’t claim to speak for God, I think it is pretty clear in this case that to God, there is a HUGE moral difference between the two circumstances of killing.
The very fact that the victim bears the image of God is why God is so tough on someone who acts against that. He doesn’t look on that lightly and gives a slap on the hand. No, the consequence is very severe, it is death.
When someone violates another life with outright disregard for the image of God in that life, he slapped God in the face, turned his back on the image of God that God gave him. In a sense, he has tore up his ID card as bearing the image of God.
There may well be other reasons to be against the death penalty. But the argument that the Bible teaches “man is made in the image of God” as the reason is not taught in the Bible. That is in fact misusing what the Bible teaches. Please come up with another reason.