When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers. Proverbs 21:15
After ten long years of chasing down the world’s number one terrorist, Osama bin Laden, United States military forces killed him at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. As the news stations broadcasted the report many Americans celebrated publicly. This “celebration of death”, as some labeled it, stirred up controversy in our nation. The controversy escalated when many Americans started to demand that the photos of a dead bin Laden be released for viewing.
Let me ask you a question: What do you feel like doing when you think about United States military forces killing Osama bin Laden? That is an easy question for many people to answer. They feel like celebrating.
Why do people feel so happy about the thought of someone dying? I’m convinced that more people despise the thought of someone dying than enjoy it. I don’t like the thought of someone being killed. Gosh, I don’t even like horror movies and ultimate fighting contests. So, what makes so many people thrilled about the death of Osama bin Laden?
The reason so many people are celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden is because justice was served. Is it okay to celebrate justice? Absolutely! In fact, it would be unnatural to not celebrate justice. When justice is not served it causes people to be hard- hearted and cynical.
Psalm 50:4-6 says: “4God summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people: 5 “Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” 6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.”
One of the main attributes of God is that He is just. The greatest demonstration of God’s justice was when He sent His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. The Bible teaches us that we have all sinned, and the wages of our sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 3:23, 6:23).
Because God is just, someone had to die for our sins. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that He became our substitute for the consequences of our sins. That is why every Sunday, all throughout the world in millions of churches, people praise the name of Jesus Christ. Christians remember Jesus’ death and celebrate God’s demonstration of justice.
There are certain deaths we celebrate. We celebrate the death of Jesus because He gave His life as a ransom so that people could be saved from their sins and eternal death. We celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden because he used his life to murder innocent people.
Both deaths remind us of two simple facts: God is our Judge who loves justice, and when justice is served people will celebrate!
3 comments:
Thanks for posting this! When Cindy mentioned Bin Laden's capture in her sermon yesterday, you could have heard a pin drop from the apprehension of whether or not we were "allowed" to rejoice at the victory, for fear of offending those who felt Christians should *never* be able to rejoice when someone is killed.
Romans 13:4-5 states, "For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience." It drives home the reminder that Christ calls us to operate in more than one sphere of life. As individuals to individuals, we are to extend Christ's grace and forgiveness, but we are also responsible to extend His justice and uphold moral and ethical laws when we are put in places of such authority. Thanks for "freeing us" to rejoice openly about this.
Do you believe it was biblical for our nation to murder someone? Would the men who pulled the trigger and killed him be sinning, because they murdered him? 10 Commandments, Thou shall not Murder? Love one another? Pray for your enemies? Turn the other cheek? Do you think any of this applies to what we should have done?
Shouldn't we leave the justice up to God? When he judges the enemy on judgment day?
There is a difference between murdering someone and killing someone. Ecclesiastes 3:3 says, "There is a time to kill". We should never murder an innocent person. However, a correct Biblical worldview teaches us that there is a need for capital punishment to maintain order and justice in society. The greatest demonstration of this was Jesus being executed on a cross for the sins of humanity. Their are crimes heinous enough, like murder, that deserve capital punishment. There is also a need to kill when our safety is in jeopardy. This is called self-defense and is one of the major reasons God delegates his authority to execute justice, and provide protection, to the institution of government. Government possesses the delegated authority to punish the evil people (wrongdoers) and protect the righteous. They can even legally use the "sword" or any other weapon necessary to maintain justice and protect people (Read Romans 13). Yes, we are instructed to turn the other cheek when slapped, but we are not instructed to allow our enemies who are bent on evil to terrorize us and murder us without a response. You are correct that we should pray for our enemies. We should also evangelize them by going on mission trips to nations and people groups that do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Lord is our Judge, and He delegates His authority on earth to government to execute judgment on evil people (wrongdoers). Specifically, these servants of God are our military. So, when they are acting on behalf of our nation in regards to justice and self-defense, they are not sinning when they pull the trigger and kill an evil doer like bin Laden. If they murdered an innocent civilian, they would be sinning and violating and abusing their delegated authority. Killing the world's number one terrorist who has murdered a multitude of innocent people is well within their jurisdiction of service and duty.
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