No Room for Personal Vengeance

Jo open your Bibles please to Romans chapter twelve. We've come to the end of Romans chapter twelve. We'll look at the last few verses there in Romans chapter twelve, the last three verses in Romans chapter twelve. We'll back up a little bit to put that in context. Romans chapter twelve. Last week looked at the beginning of this paragraph that starts in verse fourteen, which lays out for us a picture of how we interact with one another, the kind of endurance that is required by God's grace, the kind of attitude that is required, the kind of responses that are required of us, and that sort of builds to a crescendo in these last three verses. And so let's back up the verse fourteen so that we can read this in context. And remember we're starting today with verse nineteen. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in this sight of all if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men beloved. Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. That is completely and utterly counterintuitive. That is not the way we think. That is not the way we are conditioned to react. That is not the way we are conditioned to respond. We are a people and a culture like all peoples and cultures who delight in the concept of revenge. We delight in it. Our films are songs, our stories, our legends are filled with the idea of revenge. There are famous lines in movies that ring in our ears. Go ahead, make my day. We delight in that. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue. We delight in that, and we say yes, and we sit and we watch as characters are portrayed in this flat, two dimensional way where the bad guy is all bad all the time, not complex, has nothing redeemable about him, so that in the end, when a human life is taken, you can sit there and rejoice in the revenge. All around us there are men coming home from war who can't sleep at night. And many of those men fought that they could go halfway around the world, take human lives and never see their faces in their dreams at night. And they learn very quickly. And we weren't created like that. And so we have this fantasy of that dish that is best served cold, this fantasy of avenging ourselves and finally having all things be right, because in the end they got what they deserved, and more importantly than that, we gave it to them. And yet here Paul says clearly and unambiguously, do not avenge yourselves. There's no wiggle room there. Do not avenge yourselves. Now, let me hastily clarify something. Here's what Paul didn't say. Paul didn't say, do not defend yourselves. This is not a call to pacifism. Paul doesn't say do not defend yourselves. Do not defend your loved ones. Do not defend your borders, do not defend your that's not biblical Christianity. That's not wise, that's not required of us. In fact, quite the opposite is required of us. We do defend ourselves and our loved ones and our borders, and so on and so forth. He also does not defend vengeance on the whole. This is very important because there are those out there who just despise the idea of vengeance on the whole, that there should be no retribution whatsoever. In fact, the reason that many in our day and in our culture despise the doctrine of hell is because we despise the idea of God exacting vengeance upon the wicked. Ironically, if you slap those people, their immediate knee jerk reaction will be to slap you back, if they're big enough. But they don't want God to have vengeance against the wicked. God has placed institutions on this world that bring about retribution. In fact, all three institutions that God has created have a function of retribution against wickedness. In the home, there is the rod. In the state, as we'll look at next week, there is the sword, And in the church are the keys, a spanking, an execution, and an excommunication. Each of the three institutions that God has given us have a retributive function. So Paul is not saying here that all vengeance and all retribution is wrong all the time. He's saying something very specific. And that very specific thing that he's saying has to do with you and me avenging ourselves, not acting in our institutional capacity to carry out the justice that is required, but determining that someone has wronged me, and because they've wronged me and I'm the center of the universe, they have to pay for what they did to me. That's different. Listen to the definition here in Webster's eighteen twenty eight Dictionary of vengeance, the infliction of pain on another in return for an injury or offense. Such infliction, when it proceeds from malice or mere retribution or mere resentment I'm sorry, and is not necessarily required for the purposes of justice, is revenge and a most heinous crime. When such infliction proceeds from a mere love of justice and the necessity of punishing offenders for the support of the laws, it is vengeance and is warrantable and just. In this case, vengeance is a just retribution, recompense, or punishment. In this latter sense, the word is used in scripture and frequently applied to the punishment inflicted by God on sinners. So what Paul is getting at here is not the idea that vengeance in and of itself is sinful, but the idea that you avenging yourself is sinful. Vengeance in its right sense is the vindication of God's righteousness. It is the vindication of God's justice. It is necessary, it is required, it is holy, it is righteous, and it is good. In fact, if you turn with me to the right, look with me, if you will. In the Book of Revelation, Revelation chapter let's see chapter twenty, go back to nineteen. How did y'all know? I was gonna have to go back to nineteen? Any chance I get to read this passage, I will Revelation nineteen, beginning in verse eleven, and let's read about lowly Jesus, meek and mild. Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true and righteousness. He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. The armies of Heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Go over to chapter twenty Live beginning verse and thousand years are into Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth. Gog and Magog to gather them for battle. The number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plane of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the Saints and the beloved City. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beasts and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever. That's just the revel and the beast, though right. Go with me, if you will, to the last paragraph in that chapter, beginning at verse thirteen. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. That is vengeance, that is retribution. It is holy, it is just, and it is right, and it ain't you. So what's wrong with avenging yourself? Because Paul makes it clear here, do not avenge yourselves. What is wrong with that? Let me give you at least three things that are wrong with that. Number one, avenging ourselves means viewing ourselves in the place of God. Avenging ourselves means viewing ourselves in the place of God. There is but one who is righteous and is to be vindicated and that is God. If I believe that I am to be vindicated, then I believe that I am righteous. And I don't believe with David, who says against you and you alone, I have sinned. There is a real sense in which you can only sin against God, not another human being. Your sin against God can involve another human being, and you can sin against God through your actions against another human being. But human beings are sinful creatures. And if I believe that I am one who is worthy of exacting vengeance upon another, then I am putting myself at the center of the universe, myself as the standard and myself as the one against whom people commit sins, so that I am right when I speak and justified when I judge, and that is blasphemy. Secondly, this act of avenging myself means that I am satisfied with a finite punishment, when an infinite one is what is deserved. Think about it. Someone sins, and even if they sin, let's say their action is against me. What I want and what I would be satisfied with, is if I get to punch them in the face, or if I get to take their life, or if I get to say harmful words, so that I feel as though they have received from me punishment significant enough and sufficient to satisfy the righteous requirement. When God says that sin is so oh heinous that that is not sufficient James one, nineteen and twenty. Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Your anger is insufficient, Your retribution is insufficient, Your vengeance is insufficient. Third problem is the hypocrisy of considering our sin worthy of forgiveness, and there's worthy of wrath. You sinned against me, and I can't believe you did that. I am going to exact justice because what you did deserves justice. As you stand there and speak, the anger in your response is worthy of death and hell. But you are such a hypocrite that you don't even see it. You're blind to your own sin. You're blind to the fact that you said and thought and did things last night that were worthy of God killing you in your sleep. And yet you look at what this person did to you, and immediately and on the spot, you want to fix them. You hypocrite, Who do you think you are? Listen to Calvin's words here. The evil which Paul corrects here is more grievous than the preceding which he has just stated. And yet both of them arise from the same fountain, even from an inordinate love of self and innate pride, which makes us very indulgent to our own faults and inexorable to those of others. As then this disease begets almost in all men a furious passion for revenge whenever they are in the least degree touched. He commands here that, however grievously we may be injured, we are not to seek revenge, but to commit it to the Lord. And inasmuch as they do not easily admit the bridle who are once seized with his wild passion, he lays, as it were, his hand upon us to restrain us by kindly addressing us as beloved, that beautiful. Paul knows this is hard to hear, Calvin says, He puts his hand on us, and gently says, beloved, do not avenge yourselves. So what should our response be as believers? Then if we are wrong, if we are not to vindicate ourselves, how am I to look at those actions against me by others. How am I, in light of what we've learned in Romans one through eleven, how am I now to respond, as one who has been purchased by the blood of Christ, when such a sin happens against me, first with a sober assessment of the fact that you're as guilty as your fellow man, and the fact that insisting on vengeance is a negation of the grace that you've received. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves. He's addressing Christians here, Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, those who are the recipients of the grace of God that I spent eleven chapters outlining for you, Remember who you are and the forgiveness that you have received because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and do not avenge yourself. Do not be so hypocritical as to look at the sin of another against you and forget the fact that you have sinned even more grievously against God. Don't do that. Remind yourself that you are walking around breathing borrowed air. Remind yourself that God has allowed you to live not just because you make him feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, but because he killed his son in your place. Secondly, know that God is serious about sin and he will make all things right. That will change your attitude toward vengeance. Know that God is serious about sin and he will make all things right. In nineteen ninety four April, I believe, plane carrying the president of Rwanda went down, and it was a spark that ignited a smoldering fire that had existed in that country since the early nineteen hundreds, and it had been brewing since nineteen sixty two in a more fierce way. After Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium. The Belgians had divided the Rwandan people into two groups. It was an artificial distinction of the Hutus and the Tutsis. When the president's plane went down, there was retribution and revenge going both ways over the next hundred days. And listened to this. Over the next one hundred days, eight hundred thousand Rwandans were slaughtered, more than were killed in the civil war in one hundred days of revenge and retribution. And you've had this coming for a long time. But here's the other thing that lay at the foundation of this kind of revenge and retribution. Brothers, and sisters. If you have no hope that there is a just God who is going to make things right at the end of the age, then your only hope is you've got to settle the score. But if you believe that a day is coming when God will exact vengeance, then you do not have to live with this overwhelming desire and responsibility in your heart that says, I have to make this right, because you can't. Eight hundred thousand people dead in one hundred days, and not one person at the end of that hundred days looked at the skulls that were stacked sometimes several feet high, or rivers that were filled with bodies flowing down them and said, now it's right. The only thing people had left were sleepless nights and overwhelming senses of guilt. You and I don't live like that because we serve a God who is serious about sin. Paul says. Listen to his words again, it never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Do you believe that, because when you avenge yourself you testify that. You don't believe that when you avenge yourself. Here's your testimony. I do not believe that God is going to make this right, or I do not believe that the punishment that God would inflicted upon you is sufficient. And what justice in this world really requires is for me to spit in your face, or punch you in your face, or take your life. That's what justice in this world really requires, because I don't believe that there's going to come a day when God will make all things right. Listen to this from Thomas Kelly's Him that we love so much. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted. Ye who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly. Here its guilt may estimate mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful Lord tis the word, the Lord's anointed, son of man and son of God. How seriously does God take sin so seriously that he crushed and killed his only begotten son as the only means by which you could be forgiven? That's how seriously God will make all things right? And his son was crucified as evidence of that. We are not the hat Feels and the McCoys. We are not the Hutoos and the tutsis. We are those who have been redeemed by the death of the second person of the Trinity. We are those who know that our God is righteous and just and holy. We are those who know that He will return, and that He will judge the living and the dead. And we are those who know that we do not have to make things right, nor can we, nor do we need to. God will do that. Do not avenge yours, never avenge yourself. You leave it to the wrath of God. God knows how to settle this. Thirdly, you must have a desire to see your fellow man experience the forgiveness that is available as a result of Christ's death for sin. There are two waves that that sin can be paid for this person can pay for that sin in an eternity under the wrath and punishment of God, or that sin could be paid at the cross. Our desire, as those redeemed by God who see His image in our fellow man, ought always to be to see that sin taken care of at the cross. What kind of a Christian would I be if I look to myself and say, yes, Christ died and his death is sufficient for my and I will spend eternity with him and glory because of the goodness of God. And God will be glorified by that. God has been glorified by that. God will demonstrate his glory in that. But you, no, you go straight to hell. That's what I want having been redeemed from that. I want you to experience that. Really, are you sure you've been redeemed. I don't want you to hear the gospel. I don't want your sin washed in the blood of Christ. Want you to pay an eternal price or even worse. I want to speak words that hurt you. Because the death of Christ is not enough, My painful words need to be added. I want to spit in your face, punch you in the face, take your life. Because the death of Christ was not enough, I want to add your death to the mix. Then, then, though God is already satisfied in the death of his son, I'm not worried about God's satisfaction. This is all about me. Can you consider the cross of your savior and say that look at what Paul says here to the contrary as opposed to vengeance. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him, If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For my so doing, you will keep burning coals on his head. This is counterintuitive. Why is it counterintuitive? Because I want to be avenged. What's the intuitive response? Your enemy is hungry. Good for him. I hope he starts to death because he deserves it for what he did to me. That is not Christ in us the hope of glory. This is quoted from Proverbs twenty five, twenty one, and twenty two. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he's thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will keep burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you by the way that heaping burning coals on his head. That is not another form of retribution. You are blessing your enemy with kindness in hopes that the kindness, the kindness, the kindness that you are showing will lead them to repentance. That kindness will bring them to repentance. That's what is meant here. There is no suggestion that the wrath of God will be visited upon the wrong doer immediately. On the contrary, Everett Harrison writes that wrath is the last resort for the immediate future lies the possibility that the one who has perpetrated the wrong will have a change of heart and will be convicted of his sin and won over by the refusal of the Christian to retaliate. That's our goal. You wronged me. I know why you wronged me. You wronged me because you are a sinful human being. You wronged me because that's who you are in your wicked heart. You wronged me, and ultimately you didn't even wrong me. You wronged God. And I know what it means to wrong God. I wronged God, and yet in his mercy, God gave his only begotten son to die for my sin. And instead of retribution, God showed me mercy. And my prayer for you is that you would experience that sain mercy. Listen to me, Brothers and sisters, do you know what would happen in that case? Follow the logical steps here with me. For just a moment, you wronged me. You sind against God in your actions toward me. Now what you deserve is death, hell and the grave. But later on in your life, God, by his mercy, brings you to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that you are forgiven for all of your sins, including that which you did against me, So that watch this while I am standing here thinking about what you deserve because of what you did to me, and wanting to give you more that punishment accrued to Christ on the cross. So, in essence, my desire for retribution is a desire to add to the punishment that Christ endured for sin. Is that really what you want? Is that really what you believe? Not death on the cross, but death on the cross and my slap in the face. Finally, we ought to have a desire to see God purge the visceral response to a wrong suffered, since that response is essentially a sinful one. When you wrong me and I have that immediate visceral response and that desire for retribution, that is merely a reminder that I think too much of myself. That is merely a reminder that I don't think that God's justice is enough. That is merely a reminder that I do not want Christ to have the full reward for which he died. By proclaiming the Gospel and seeing this one come to faith, it is a reminder of my own sinfulness. So when I am wronged and I have that visceral response, What ought to happen is that I ought to stop right there in my tracks and recognize that that response and that desire is a sin for which Christ died. So I do not embrace it. Instead, I repent of it. Even the desire to avenge myself is a sin for which Christ died, having to lay it down every time it rises up. Do not overcome? Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. There's verse twenty one. Do not be overcome by evil? What's being overcome by evil? That visceral response that desire for retribution. Do not be overcome by evil? But yet, on the other hand, what do you do overcome evil with good? What overcomes evil? I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God under salvation to all those who believe, even this one who has wronged me, forgive me Lord. For that natural knee jerk visceral response that in that moment, desired to avenge myself because I think too much of myself. I think that my justice sits at the center of the universe and not yours. My natural desire is not for Christ to have the full reward for which he died. But it is potentially to add to the suffering by treating one for whom he died as though he did not forgive me. Lord, and you use me to make the gospel clear to this one. See, there are passages in the Bible that we either don't like or don't understand because we don't get this principle. Listen, Matthew five thirty eight to forty two. You've heard that it was said an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Do you understand that this is about you and personal retribution Here this doesn't negate the rod, the sword, the keys, and those institutions. Is that God has placed in this world who serve a purpose. But this is about you and how you respond to people. One Thessalonians five point fifteen see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another, end to everyone one Peter three nine. Do not repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless for this. For to this, I'm sorry you were called that you may obtain a blessing again. Calvin puts a fine point on it. The precept, then, is that we are not to revenge. Excuse me, that we are not to revenge nor seek to revenge injuries done to us is added, A place is to be given to wrath. To give place to wrath is to commit to the Lord the right of judging, which they take away from him who attempt revenge. Hence, as it is not lawful to usurp the office of God, it is not lawful to revenge, for we thus anticipate the judgment of God, who will have this office reserved for himself. He at the same time intimates that they shall have God as their defender, who patiently wait for his help, but that those who anticipate him leave no place for the help of God. What is this boiled down to do? You believe that God is just? Or do you not believe that God is just? Do not anticipate his judgment. I love that phrase. What Cavin means there is don't jump the gun and try to do in the here and the now what God will do at the end of the age. Again, this is not about self defense, and this is not about the proper use of the authority that God gives to institutions. We'll talk about that on next week. And you can only understand what Paul says in chapter thirteen about the state wielding the sword when you understand this in its context, and you can only hold these things in balance when you understand God is the judge, God is the avenger, and that God has institutions and authorities who have a responsibility to act temporally. But even those temporal acts are not the ultimate vindication of the righteousness of God. They are merely foreshadowings of the justice that is to come. Beloved, never avenge yourself. There are people who have done wrong to you, and you must not avenge yourself. You don't have the right to avenge yourself because vengeance belongs to God and not to you. Don't avenge yourself don't be that arrogant and hypocritical. Don't avenge yourself. Don't forget that Christ must have the full reward for which he laid down his life, and that that sinful action against you was evidence of the desperate need of repentance and faith in the life of the offender. Don't avenge yourself, but instead, always remember that even that desire for revenge that rises up in you is a sin for which Christ laid down his life. So do not embrace it, but repent of it. You were not mean to be an avenger. You were bought with a price. And I assure you that you will not rest well, and you will not rest peacefully. As a Christian who avenges himself, who avenges herself, you can't do it. The only thing you will be left with is a replay in your mind, over and over and over again of the sin that you committed in the name of justice. Don't do it. Don't think so much of yourself, don't think so little of the blood of Christ, and don't trust so little and the God who will make all things right on that day. You just remember that when that day comes and Christ exact revenge on sinners, your posture will not be of one with a raised, clenched fist saying get them, get them, get them. But instead your response will be of one who falls to his knees as you see Christ exact revenge on others that He should have exacted from you, and you will recognize that the one who is exacting the justice is the one who is stricken, smitten, and afflicted because of your sin. You will not You will not, in that moment rejoice in your own vindication, but you will only rejoice in the vindication of God. Never avenge yourself