I don’t consider myself a vengeful person but I do have a tendency to want to see justice. When a wrong is done I want to the person suffer the consequences of their actions. After all, “a tooth for a tooth” or “an eye for an eye” is a good OT principle. A friend points out that we will end up with with a lot of blind and toothless people.
However, grace of course, means that I will not have to suffer the eternal consequences of my sin. My divorce, or murder or embezzlement may have temporal consequences – a broken and confused family or a gaol sentence but it will not see me separated from God for eternity if I have come to Him in faith.
So the people I admire are those who have been affected by serious consequences due to the sin/unlawful actions of others but their first response is not revenge, or even justice but have a concern for the eternal salvation of the wrong doer.
I admire them because I am not a person who immediately thinks that way. I have an understanding of grace and our own brokenness yet there are aspects that I haven’t fully grasped yet. The enormity of what Christ did for me on the cross is a fact that I acknowledge but there is an a key truth to his sacrifice that I still struggle to comprehend. Otherwise, why is it that I want to see others get their just desserts. It is just that I don’t want to suffer my own!
Travels from Ur 