Do the Wages of Sin Apply After Conversion?

Christianity Today Magazine's own blog asks this directly in light of a pending Supreme Court case. At issue: a convicted murderer now professes conversion to Christ. Should he be executed?

Yes, I say. When God says that He blots out one's sins, He is speaking strictly about His own set of eternal books. He never promised to blot out the consequences of sin in the world--and that would mean back-timing and rerunning the time stream to make it as if the sin--in this case, the crime of murder--never took place. And I take exception to this quote:

In the wake of 9/11, could it be that evangelical support of the death penalty is growing? If so, how do evangelicals' beliefs on justice fit with their hopes that all come to repentance?

That's not a hope; that's a wish. The two are very different. Sadly, not all will actually come to repentance. Paul says that we are all hard-wired either to come to Christ at some time in our lives--or not. (See Romans 8, and especially Romans 8:28: "And those whom He foreknew, He also decided ahead-of-time would be conformed to the image of His Son..."--Greek prooridzo I am deciding ahead of time, from pro before and horidzoI am deciding--whence "horizon.") And when you consider the lengths to which some people will go to support a theory--evolution--that has more problems all the time, you can't doubt that.

And if they do repent? That will square them in a Heavenly Court--and in the end, the verdicts of that Court are all that matters. But the government, as a ministry of God [Romans 13:1-7] for the provision and protection of law and order, cannot allow murder to have even the appearance of going unpunished, for to do so is to invite more murder.