humans are made in God’s image. Deuteronomy 25 records that a guilty person was to be beaten with the number of lashes his crime deserved, but there was an outer limit: “Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother will be degraded in your sight” (Deut 25:3). Why did God insist that punishment not degrade the convicted criminal? Because even the criminal bears God’s image. The New Testament carries this principle into
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