What happens if you commit a crime in the bible?

Answer 1

There are two main subsections to the Bible, the 'Old Testament' and the 'New Testament'. While they both adress each other, the subject of crime and penalties is treated differently:

Old Testament/Old Covenant: The Old Testament, most noteably the first five books of the Bible*, adress the laws that the jewish people are to follow if they wish a covenant with God. Most of the laws adress one or more of three areas:

Health (such as not touching the dead or touching blood, which might bear disease) Morality (such as do not murder, do not commit incest) and/or remaining set apart (do not marry foreigners who worship other gods, do not mimic the pagans in how they worship their gods or the clothes they wear to worship their gods, etc).

Punishment "fit the crime" in this sense. There were judges and courts, and if someone was found to harm another person, he would have to either pay a requisite fine, or even suffer bodily harm himself, for the damage he had caused. If a man accidentally caused someone's death, he could flee to a sanctuary city from the wrath of any kinsmen out for (legal) revenge. If someone did something that might bear disease among the people, then he had to either be cut off for a time (like a quarantine), or in some cases even exiled to prevent the spread of plague. The worst crimes were those of immorality or mixing the worship of God with that of the pagans. For these, someone could be cut off from the people, lose their family (if they married a foreign wife who worshipped a pagan god) or even put to death.

For general sins and crimes of the people, sacrifices and offerings were made to cover the sin so that the punishment was not required.

The New Testament/New Covenant: It expounds upon the incompleteness of the old legal system - not in that the laws themselves were flawed, but that a legal code itself has no power to save [it can only condemn/point out sin]. In addition, no matter how many sacrifices the people made, they always had to make more, as they would always sin again, and need another sacrifice - the covering of sin offered by the blood of goats and rams and lambs was insufficient.

Thereby, God revealed his new covenant, which the Bible had hinted at in the Old Testament frequently. God Himself would provide the sacrifice and a perfect covering of sin for all eternity, so that no crime would be counted against anyone who accepted the substitution of His own Son's blood in place of their own required death.

Jesus, in the Bible, does state that men are still required to follow earthly laws, and are such still subject to the earthly penalties of crime. However, the eternal penalty for sin/crime is removed in Christ, and thereby there is no second death, but eternal life, and a judgement of 'not guilty' for those that accept the new covenant where Christ takes their place as the one condemned to die.

Jesus only died once in the Bible, and the death is said to be all sufficient, and that he cannot die again. The Bible states that if we commit a sin after accepting Jesus's sacrifice, then if we confess the sin to Christ he will forgive it, as Jesus has now taken on the role of High priest.** If a crime is commited against a fellow chritian, the Bible states it is to be settled, in love, outside of secular courts. If a crime is commited against the civil authorities, the Bible states that the christian should be subject to the authorities, even if he believes the authority tyrannical.

* The first five books of the Bible are referred to specifically as the Penteteuch, Books of Moses, or Books of the Law, because they contain the specific Codes of Conduct and laws that God gave to Moses to give the Hebrew people

** The High Priest was a role set up by God and Moses (Moses' brother Aaron was the first one) who was in charge of all the other priests, head of the temple of God, in charge of the sacrifices of the people, and in charge of interceding with God. Once a year he was the only man ever allowed to enter the 'Holy of Holies', and enter the very presence of the spirit of God in the innermost temple. In the Bible, the veil was torn between the holy of holies and the rest of the temple upon Jesus's death, signifying that the way between God and man is now open through Jesus Christ interceding as High Priest.

I suppose that depends on what religion you are. For Catholics, the Rite of Confession provides the path for absolution. In it we find God's unconditional forgiveness, and as a result we are called to forgive others.