Featured Punishment and sin

God's stated purpose, Numbers 15:30-31.

 

The purpose of God’s punishment is to demonstrate the Righteousness of God and His commands and/or expectations to the folks that ought to obey them

peace to you

 

Yes, Yes and more.

By “righteousness” I refer to God’s nature of perfect righteousness. When used by God, punishment always demonstrates a perfect moral right to pass judgment and determine consequences all of which is perfect because of His nature.

peace to you

 

How is forgiveness relative to the OP? Does it negate consequences and or punishment?

Brings to mind Heb 9:22. Just any blood? New birth?

What was the plan, before the foundation of the world? Before, by one man sin entered the world?

 

No, by “moral right” I mean His perfect nature of righteousness.

Far more than an artists claim over something they created.

peace to you

 

God being sovereign is an attribute of His nature. Being sovereign doesn’t necessarily mean “good, right, pure”. Look at any human king/queen in history and see the truth of that statement.

God is pure goodness, pure love, pure right thinking, right doing. All His ways are pure, true, right, correct, without blemish or hint of wrongness, failure, falling short…. Perfect in every way. His righteousness is displayed in every action He takes, including punishment.

By displaying His righteousness in all He does, including punishments, He reveals Himself to His creation, to us. He reveals the quality of His divine nature.

We serve The God of perfect righteousness, of perfect love, of perfect decisions, of perfect thoughts and actions. We can trust the Living God to always act perfectly, righteously in everything He does.

peace to you

 

I'm not sure that question make sense or maybe its just the premise of the question that I reject.

There is no goal. What would that even mean?

The wages of sin is death. That makes sense because God is life itself. That which is proper to life is the good; that which negates, opposes or destroys it is the evil. Thus, the wages of sin is death because it is the seed of death. Sin is death in its nascent stage. Death then isn't any more (or less) of a punishment for sin than is sitting in the dark a punishment for turning off the lights.

When people go to Hell for rejecting God and His offer of salvation through the death of His Son, God is only granting them that which they have desired, which is to be away from Him and forever so. Since God is Life, being separated from God is the very definition of death, at least in the spiritual sense of the term.

 

Punishment actually has a range of meaning. It could simply refer to the natural consequences of an action as in Romans...

Romans 1:27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.​

Then I understood you correctly.

If there is a goal it is to serve justice.

Romans 1:32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.​

Luke 12: 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
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And there is a deterrent effect as well...

Where there is no fear of God there is no deterrent effect....

Genesis 20:11 And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.​

Where the fear of God exists, the deterrent effect also exists...

Exodus 1:17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.​

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Where is there room for controversy?

As for Hell itself being a punishment, what I said before I say again....

The wages of sin is death. That makes sense because God is life itself. That which is proper to life is the good; that which negates, opposes or destroys live is the evil. Thus, the wages of sin is death because it is the seed of death. Sin is death in its nascent stage. Death then isn't any more (or less) of a punishment for sin than is sitting in the dark a punishment for turning off the lights.

When people go to Hell for rejecting God and His offer of salvation through the death of His Son, God is only granting them that which they have desired, which is to be away from Him and forever so. Since God is Life, being separated from God is the very definition of death, at least in the spiritual sense of the term.

 

The purpose of justice is the same as the purpose of righteousness. Justice is righteousness.

Thus, as I said, that which is proper to life is the good; that which negates, opposes or destroys life is the evil. So, the purpose of justice as for any other form of righteousness, is to enable, affirm, enhance and otherwise support life.

Quite so. That which negates, opposes or destroys life is evil. Life is much better without evil and it wouldn't be Heaven for long if evil were allowed to persist there. That sounds like a good motive to me!

Are you asking this because you don't know the answer and are just exploring the issue or are you driving at something in particular?

 

As for criminal justice, the biblical principle is basically the inverse of the Golden Rule. It is done to the criminal as he did (or sought to do) to his victim. The punishments dealing with religious crimes are a different issue and were both in place and punished for various, often symbolic, reasons that are not directly related to morality and had to do only with the nation of Israel within their peculiar relationship with God.