I want to talk about forgiveness, and bitterness, and our need or desire to hold on to the wrongs committed against us or those we love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More and more I am finding, as I study the scripture, that the answer to many of the troubles we face comes down to an issue of trust – in God. Trust in God is another definition for faith. And trust in God is something we must apply to all the facets of our life, including forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Romans 12:19 quotes Deuteronomy 32:35, saying, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deeper I dig on forgiveness, the more I keep coming back to this: the reason we often have the most difficulty with bitterness against others, is because of a failure to trust God with justice. To help make my point, I’m going to quote a large section of the context of Romans 12:19. Here is Romans 12:14-21 in the Berean Standard Bible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but enjoy the company of the lowly. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.”<\/strong> Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Verse 20 above quotes from Proverbs 25:21-22<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The part about heaping burning coals on your enemy’s head has been historically confusing to me. It seemed like a contradiction to the context. Are you telling me to punish my persecutors by blessing them? Isn’t that the opposite of what we were saying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this has started to make more sense to me as I have aged, I suppose. It’s one thing to “forgive” the person who cut you off in traffic because he was having a bad day, or the troubled teenager who broke into your car and stole something valuable, or even a loved one who treats you badly because their own emotions are out of control. But most of these examples are about undertanding more than they are about forgiving. We can make excuses for them so that we feel less wronged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then there are the things we cannot excuse, not with our best imaginations. I have met friends who have been through unspeakable aggression, who have lost loved ones to murder, who have lost children; I have friends who carry in their bodies the lasting physical injuries made by those who should have protected them. And what about the very large number of our population who was sexually victimized by their own families – children who were quietly tortured in secret. How do these dear ones deal with forgiveness? Or better, how does God expect His children to deal with forgiveness in these situations? This is a real question. And this question, I think, sheds light on the verses I quoted above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Verse 19 instructs us to leave room for God’s wrath<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nDo not avenge yourselves, but leave room for God’s wrath. (Romans 12:19a)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Is Paul suggesting that if we DO avenge ourselves, we don’t leave room for God’s wrath?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a friend shares about the deep pain and anger toward a relative who abused instead of protected his family, I agree with her that his actions were inexcusable. And I believe God does too. So when God asks us to forgive, to love our enemies, and to bless our persecutors, I don’t believe He does so lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bible tells us and shows us that God is just. The world only wants us to remember that God is love, but God is just. And I believe He is trying to remind us that when He says, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” those are some dangerous words. Because God IS love, and He IS just. And He has seen the things that were done in secret. And He also finds them inexcusable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Jesus taught us to believe in Him, the message was that belief meant to place our trust in Him – for eternal life, yes, but not just eternal life (as if that were a small thing), but I don’t think the belief He requires is limited to where we go when we die. It is also all the things on this earth that we don’t understand and cannot control. It’s all of those things – including justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When someone has harmed someone we believe we should have protected, there can be a sense of obligation to never exercise anything but hate against the person who did that harm. It seems like a thing we are morally required to do. And in that, bitterness grows. And because vengeance is God’s and not ours – meaning we are not equipped with the ability to exact vengeance without sin and without harming our own souls, God reminds and instructs us to bless those who curse us and leave vengeance up to Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But wait. We’re not done here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know the other thing that keeps people from being able to trust God with vengeance. It’s His love. What if that person who did that inexcusable thing asks God to forgive him? We know that Jesus offers His forgiveness to all who repent and turn to Him. He offers His Holy Spirit to regenerate them from the inside and to wash them white as snow. And while this is the whole good news of the Bible, this is also where trusting this loving God with justice gets really personal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the same vengeance that is owed to the person who did that inexcusable thing is exacted on Jesus on the cross; Jesus takes the penalty and covers it with His blood. And this, my dear friend, is the point at which we must remind ourselves that it is the same blood that is required to blot out what we believe to be our “excusable” sins, that is also required to cover our enemy’s inexcusable ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See, it’s hard because we can’t reconcile it in our minds, and we don’t have the capacity to understand it, and because of this, we MUST TRUST Jesus with the vengeance that is required. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On us and on them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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