Christianity 401: Vengeance Belongs to God, Part 2
Updated: Sep 28, 2020
Let’s continue to look more closely at vengeance. It’s something we’ve all grappled with from time to time.
The most important thing to know about vengeance is that it belongs to God (Romans 12:19). It is His possession. It is His to deliver. And He will do so justly as long as we obediently release it to Him.
Our desire for vengeance is natural. It’s part of the human condition. Of living in the flesh.
In our humanity, we want to hurt back - to hurt them more than they hurt us. It’s a “You did this to me, so I’m going to do this to you!” mentality. An eye for an eye – and then some.
Our problem is we don’t see the full picture. We aren’t omniscient. But God is. He alone knows people’s motives. Their hearts. Their wounds.
He alone is the Judge who oversees all. Only He judges perfectly. And because His ways are perfect - and ours aren’t - we will always be making a mistake if we take vengeance into our own hands.
Think of Jesus on the cross. While experiencing an excruciating death, Jesus didn’t deliver vengeance to His killers. Instead, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
What is forgiveness? It is releasing our offenders to God, and not wanting them to hurt as we’ve hurt. It’s letting go of the debt they owe us, because we know the huge debt God has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).
That’s what Jesus did on the cross. And His followers must follow His example on the cross by trusting God with vengeance.
Retribution solely belongs to God.