Injustice
Injustice is unbearable. We were not designed to handle it and we prove it every time it happens to us. It’s why children instinctively cry “that’s not fair!” from the moment they can form the words. It’s the reason why metal detectors are placed at the entrance of every courtroom. It’s the explanation for the inexplicable acts of hideous violence and shooting massacres that occur far too often.
“Vengeance is mine says The Lord, ” tells us why we can’t handle it. It’s because it’s not our responsibility. At the same time, this well known passage from Romans 12:19 gives the solution to the challenge of injustice. “Never take your own revenge… but leave room for the wrath of God… I will repay says The Lord,” NAS.
God is committed to take care of all pay back, but only if we get out of the way and let Him.
Despicable me!
When Nathan the prophet confronted King David with his crimes of murder and adultery, he used the story of a rich man’s dealings with a poor man to tactfully illustrate his point. The cunning prophet veiled the accusation without revealing the accused by subtly pinpointing the essence of the transgression only.
The rich man had slaughtered the one and only beloved pet lamb of his poor neighbor to supply his feast. The evil of the account was aggravated into outrage by the fact that the rich man owned many sheep of his own which he could have taken. Instead, he simply violated someone else’s rights and feelings to satisfy his own selfish appetites.
Upon hearing the case, The King was infuriated with indignation and wrath. He ordered the immediate execution of whoever had committed such a glaring injustice. When Nathan said, “you’re the man,” David was crushed. He hadn’t perceived the true substance of what he had done. He had molested innocence and defenselessness. It was hideously unfaceable injustice.
We tend to be preoccupied with the obvious when it comes to transgressions, especially the more sensational ones like sex and violence. But God looks on the heart, the ugly heart of the offender as well as the ruins of it’s victims. The damages and losses of injustice’s can be immeasurable, unbearable if not for God who sees them and promises justice.
With the nature of his act now vividly revealed to his own conscience, the King despised himself. It was seeing the unthinkable unfairness of what he had done that broke him.
Injustice is at the core of all sin. We cannot bear it, neither as its victims, nor as its perpetrators.
Thank God for Forgiveness
Forgiveness is our “out,” as David demonstrates in Psalm 51. There he humbles himself before God crying out for His salvation. By the end of the Psalm he is free, cleansed and testifying to others of God’s great mercy.
But that’s not fair! It’s not even right. The apparent wrong of the perpetrator being let off the hook seems even more unfair than the offense itself. But forgiveness doesn’t let the offender off the hook. It just let’s him off “your” hook. The wonderful thing about forgiveness is it’s what gets the “offended” off the hook. For the victim, the hook is the inner torment of having been wronged. Vengeance can combust your insides.
Forgiveness is not letting the offender go, it’s letting yourself go. We forgive for our own sake as much as anything. The crime is only multiplied if you allow it to consume you further by unresolved resentment.
Fairness
As for the fairness part, it’s by forgiving someone that God’s hand is released to fulfill His promise, “I will repay, says the Lord.” He’s more concerned with the injustice than we are. It’s His world after all.
Once you release all “payback” to God (” leave room for vengeance “), the responsibility of dealing with the wrong is fully transferred to Him. You are free. That’s the power of forgiveness.
Example
Saul killed, imprisoned and persecuted innocent, defenseless Christians. His zeal was tyrannical. Obviously the church would have prayed intensely for their enemy as Christ instructed, obediently leaving the execution of their justice in God’s hands. The supernatural “slap down” of Saul on the road to Damascus dramatically demonstrated the way God’s vengeance works. The tyrant was not only reduced to a crumpled heap of repentance, but was turned into a bondservant for life, to serve the cause and the people he had oppressed. That’s God’s kind of pay-back. No human vengeance could ever have accomplished that.
What about our Losses?
As for the losses we suffer from injustice, Christ is defined as “our consolation.” He’s what we get for our trouble. 2Cor.1:5 “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ.”
Obedience in forgiving injustices mortifies something of ourselves. Forgiving is painful, but it is the kind of Godly suffering that’s never in vain. In exchange we gain something of Christ in ourselves for all eternity.
Forgiving injustice is an intimate fellowship with The Cross of Christ. We become a little more like Him each time we take up that cross and follow His lead in forgiving others and leaving our vindication to God. The sweetness of the trade is not worthy to compare with its cost. There is no greater gain in life than to become like Jesus. This is what it means to be conformed into the image of Christ. It’s permanent, undiminishable and ours for all eternity. “Christ in you, the hope of Glory,” Col.1:27.
As seen in the case of Job, God’s positive “payback” compensated Job’s natural losses as well. He ended up with twice as much in the end. and his children awaited him in heaven. At the same time reproof was executed upon those who had afflicted him.
Some payback awaits us in eternity as in the case of the beggar in Abrahams bosom, Lk16:22. But in all cases we cannot lose if the loss is for His sake.
God keeps close account of our losses costs and expenses in His service. “no man ever serves in the army and pays his own salary” 1Cor9:7 ICB. He and enables us to tear up all IOU’s by promising, “I will repay.”
Collecting
Forgiveness means tearing up the “IOU.” Unless we forgive, we are left to collect the debt ourselves. In a sense unforgiveness lets the offender off the hook of God’s vengeance, and sets them apart to drastically inferior self-generated consequences. God does not participate in double jeopardy.
There is something militant involved in forgiveness. Rom.12:20 ” in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. ” Sociology miss calls this “passive aggressive.” Christ called it being like God. Matt.5:48
The Cost of Vengeance
Trying to execute vengeance will kill you. The caustic levels of stress hormones it releases in the blood stream will literally dissolve you internally. The human constitution is not made for this. Vengeance is like shooting yourself with a shotgun to hurt someone else with the kick of the recoil. Unforgiveness is always, totally, counter-productive. Vengeance is God’s. We are not God. He can! We can’t!
Who pays the bill?
As for the wrath that King David deserved, that’s where Christ steps in. The Old Contract clearly called for certain death to any committing adultery or murder. But David lived for many years and died in his bed. Why? Because Christ died in our place. If not for Jesus sacrifice, David’s absolution would be outrageously unfair to the victims, Uriah and Bathsheba.
So would ours if not for Christ taking our place and bearing the punishment we deserved, we’d all be rightly condemned otherwise. Just letting the human race off the hook would be unjust so Jesus not only bore our sin, He bore the wrath and vengeance in punishment for our sin as well. Thank you Jesus.
Follow
When we forgive and release all vengeance, Christ reinforces us. He immediately begins imparting His Peace and health reversing the stress and the effects of its toxins. He also imparts supernatural strength because letting go isn’t easy. It’s unnatural. The truth is, it’s impossible without Him. His life becomes our GPS for navigating through bitterness. “Father forgive them,” is our point of departure and Resurrection Life our sure destination. Covet His Resurrection.
Whatever injustice we suffer, He has already gone through it before us suffering and overcoming that and much worse.
When we encounter injustice, Jesus says, “ follow my lead, I can handle this.”