You can categorize this post in the context that is perhaps in answer to Covid Amnesty, a Warning from the Wall, a note to future rebuilders of a just civilization, Christian Nationalism, or a message on the good news of the Gospel of salvation by Christ Jesus. The Law of God is far-ranging. None has kept the entire Law, other than Jesus, that is.

First, the good news.

“18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: 23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.” – Deuteronomy 21:18-23

You are the stubborn son! You have rebelled against the Father, your creator, and cannot be redeemed in the Law from sinning against Him. You couldn’t stop sinning against God if you wanted to; there’s no escape but the full restitution in the Law, which is death under the penalty of the code for your rebellion; you are a sinner. In rebellion, openly at times and stubborn, yet unknowing at others, you should be hanged on a tree, accursed of God, that all may see and know what becomes of a rebellious and stubborn son.

But God made a way impossible for you under your own strength: He gave His only begotten Son, a sinless perfect testament to God’s holy righteousness; He never broke the Law. Though He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, He fulfilled the law of restitution in perfect obedience to the Law. You owe Holy Father God but could never repay, even with your life, but Christ gave Himself that you might go free.

Jesus was taken outside the city as an unclean thing, treated as the lowest of sinners, and hanged like the accursed upon a tree, yet was He holy and perfect. Jesus was hanged on that cross of wood you deserve; he died for you there and rose again the third day. The whole world is hearing of this; the Law is fulfilled, once for all; the curse of sin is lifted in Christ Jesus.

That is the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets. Though sacrifices by many millions were made over thousands of years to attempt a temporary stay of judgment, Jesus Christ closed all accounts with holy Father God for those that accept His gracious atoning gift of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin and salvation from eternal hell by the wrath of God. The restitution you could never hope to escape was paid in full.

And next, the Law; the Ten Commandments are an outline or table of contents for the entire Law. The Law is not a list of proverbs.

The God of the Holy Bible is the God of restitution; He is the God of the Just Balance (Proverbs 16:11). God’s Law sets forth just compensation, up to or above 100 percent. In God’s economy, crime must never be allowed to pay; it must cost at least double what it destroys. If crime were allowed to pay, you’d be ruled by criminals extracting the nation’s wealth and leaving it all in shambles of inflationary ruin.

It can be noted that the time and work required to re-establish that which was lost to crime are also a cost that full restitution requires. We’ve often heard that somebody got abused by criminals and then abused again by the criminal justice system. It’s not supposed to be this way; the victim is not supposed to pay. Capital punishment is the ultimate just recourse.

“If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.” – Exodus 22:1

The animals in the Law of God are both literal and examples. It was not the Law’s purpose to provide for every circumstance then or now that requires understanding the value placed on the means by which a man makes a living and cares for his family. An ox was a big deal in the ancient agricultural economies. It plowed your field, threshed your wheat, ground your corn. A family of any size couldn’t grow and prosper without such a tool. Think of whatever you require most today to do your job in order to care for your family; that’s your ox. As many seek a simpler life abandoning the cities and suburbs, there isn’t a rural small farmer or property owner today that doesn’t depend upon his pickup truck or a tractor. Without these tools, all his livelihood is gone. According to the Law of God, you must pay fivefold if you separate a man from his ability to provide for his family. No, God is not a communist!

“2 If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.” – Exodus 22:2

Note that the source of the so-called Castle Doctrine stems from this verse. Breaking and entering is grounds for lethal force without recourse against the property holder or a tenant. Property and your family have value to God. God is the God of private property; being secure in your persons and effects is a blessing by the Law of God.

Instead of causing a deep sleep or actual coma to come over the reader, we won’t exposit this entire section, but read the following verses with a mind toward allegorical examples of life today, crime, and just recompense.

“3 If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. 4 If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double. 5 If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. 6 If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution. 7 If a man shall deliver unto his neighbour money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man’s house; if the thief be found, let him pay double. 8 If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods. 9 For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour.” Exodus 22:3-9

The principle behind these laws is that obedience to God will bring you and your family a humble and quiet life. Want to be left alone? Build a civilization that thrives on the Law of God. There is no salvation from hell in the law.

As constricting as the Law-word of God can seem, to those redeemed by Christ, the word of God is liberty from further sin. Nothing is more freeing than salvation in Christ, to go and sin no more by keeping His commandments. If you know God’s word, you know where you stand with God at all times; this is freedom. Keep short accounts with God so that it may be well with you all your days.

The notion that what a man can imagine or exact upon the guilty would be even the spark of an ember of the wrath God has awaiting the sinner in hell is prideful and thorough foolishness. A man cannot begin to imagine the hell of hell, and all the fury he can dispense on earth is silliness compared to the vengeance of the Almighty. The Laws purpose is to set examples among men, not as final judgment. Dominion has limits; final authority is not ours.

Restitution is the principal payment for one man’s crime against another, providing excellent deterrence. The Law of restitution is the essence of justice and righteousness in God’s created order. That’s why whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7), and those that sew the wind shall reap the whirlwind, strangers shall eat of his substance (Hosea 8:7).

Western civilization used to operate under restitution. The criminal is supposed to pay, not the taxpayers; the criminal is to yield in full and then deliver a number of times again, depending upon the type of crime. The habitual criminal is condemned to death (Deuteronomy 21:18).

“Biblical law has no prison system. A criminal was held in prison only pending a trial, and then either made restitution, or was a bondservant until he worked out his restitution, or was executed.” – Rev. R.J. Rushdoony

Restitution can be no more abolished than God can be eradicated. All things are brought before the throne of the Almighty; a just recompense is His very nature; holy and just is He. America and the west can try to wiggle out of the principles under which God has ordained His created order. In the mercy of His longsuffering, He may, with patience, take a season and leave us to our ways desiring all the while for us to come to our senses again, but if men do not implement justice, He will. It would go so much better if America had a true revival of heart toward the Holy One, and we set about to correct all things in accordance with His word. But short of that, He will set things straight, and when He’s left with little choice, red, black, and pale horses are usually involved.

Rushdoony again:

Without restitution, man’s idea of law loses its center and becomes erratic and unstable. Among the more common eccentricities of law have been emphases on class, caste, race, or status, whereby the law becomes an instrument for inequality. A related eccentricity is the emphasis on equality, so that law and justice are separate from justice as restitution and made the instruments of a drastic levelling of men, circumstances, and institutions. Eccentric law loses its orientation towards righteousness or justice and becomes governed by social standards, mores, and pressures. Law then becomes the product of pressure politics, not of a principle of justice.

Restitution makes the Law focus on the object of the offense, whether it needs to be restored two or four-fold, instead of focusing on the criminal. Today, by way of courtroom illusions, the criminal becomes the aggrieved party in need of restoration that God empowers no State to provide. Only the Church, through the Gospel, can restore a man. The law is the schoolmaster; Christ is the redeemer (Galatians 3:24-25).

And worse it gets, the victim receives no compensation which is due; the taxpayers, who are no party at all to the dispute, pay $60,000 a year to keep the criminal entertained, while the State pretends that it has power over the soul of the criminal to make him whole. This is not God’s ordained way of justice. Its trickery and sleight of hand played against the ignorant.

The cross, where this post started, requires us to see the urgent need for restitution. For it is God’s own way of Law; it’s why Christ had to die on that cross to save your soul; somebody worthy, by the Law of God Almighty, had to pay.

Civilization can only fail where there is no justice. And justice short of restitution is no justice at all. Somebody has to pay; by God’s divine hand, they always will, even if He has to destroy your civilization to get it through your head.