Home > Work > Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us
1 " It’s not that the law has no meaning; it’s just that grace has the last word. "
― Shane Claiborne , Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us
2 " Arnobius wrote in the fourth century: “Evil ought not be repaid with evil. . . . It is better to suffer wrong than inflict it. . . . We should rather shed our own blood than stain our hands and our conscience with the blood of another” (Sider, 101). In his writings on “public homicide,” Lactantius raged against the ways we have glorified death—that we have a “thirst for blood” and “lose our humanity.” Here are his powerful words insisting that it is wrong to kill, even legally: It makes no difference whether you put a person to death by word or rather by sword, since it is the act of putting to death itself which is prohibited. . . . There ought to be no exception at all but that it is always unlawful to put to death a person who God willed to be a sacred creature. (Sider, 110) He goes on to say that when we kill, even legally execute, “the bloodshed stains the conscience. "
3 " We often miss the irony that the same Paul who writes “submit to the authorities” goes to jail and is condemned for subverting the authorities! He "
4 " My concern is, How do we deal with evil without becoming it? If we aren’t careful, our “justice” can be as bad as the crime itself. Yet, "
5 " When we see the crucifixion as a legal transaction in which Jesus “paid the bill,” we run the risk of cheapening the work of restoration at the heart of the cross. After "
6 " The death penalty did not flourish in America in spite of Christians but because of us. So "
7 " she was tempted to give up on God because she couldn’t reconcile her doctrine with her deity. She "
8 " between God’s permissive will and God’s perfect will. This "
9 " Limiting violence was a good place to start. Abolishing it is a good place to end. "
10 " Healing from sin is a process we get to participate in. God "
11 " God’s love and justice are much more dynamic than many of our theologies allow for. "
12 " Sin, too, is real. All we have to do is look at the news or, if our vision is good enough, look in the mirror. "
13 " we now are invited to extend that same grace to others. We are to be like God and forgive. We are to see people who do evil with the possibility that they can be healed. And we are to extend to them the same grace God extends to us. We are all victims of the crushing power of sin, and all in need of liberation. "
14 " when we receive the gift of grace, it should transform us into grace-filled people who want to see other people given a chance, and other people loved back to life again. "
15 " The Latin word for the wafer of the Eucharist (often referred to as “the host”) is hostia, which literally means “the victim.” All "
16 " There are two ways to submit to authority, then. One is by obeying the good laws; the other is by openly suffering the consequences of disobeying the bad laws—that is, "
17 " God hates sin, because God loves people and sin destroys us. So divorce is bad because it breaks people’s hearts and rips families apart—not just because we broke a law. God hurts when we hurt. God cannot stand to watch us hurt ourselves and others. Sin leads to death—it eats away our bodies and our souls like a cancer. "
18 " now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us by the Father through the crucified one. . . . [T]he more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers.3 (Arnold, 81) "
19 " such a brutal way of killing someone that it gave birth to the word “excruciating. "
20 " the crucifixion of Jesus—became the conduit of God’s grace and salvation. One "
