This is the topic that triggered me to write this series. It was a comment made by my church’s teaching elder that the Gospel is not merely for the repentant sinner but also for those who have been sinned against. Understand first that every single person has sinned and therefore every single one of us does, in fact, deserve to suffer the effects of that sin. So let me get it on the table here that there are no such people as “innocent victims.” No one is innocent. Bad things only happened to one good person and His name was Jesus of Nazareth. Every one of us has sinned, and most of what we deal with and face is usually a result of our own sin and our own stupidity. We need the Gospel to deal with that.
However, this post is particularly for those who have been sinned against. Again, to reiterate, every single one of us has sinned and every single one of us has sinned against others. This is why the Gospel is the only valid solution to all of it, not mere vengeance. What kind of sins are we dealing with? We have all dealt with people lying to us, not keeping promises, stealing things from us, ignoring us, mocking, slander, etc. It is to the point where we mostly brush those things off our backs because it happens so frequently.
But for this post, I want to talk about the really deep wounds. I want to address those wrongs that are so painful and grievous that we really do want to see that person dead for justice reasons, not mere anger. The rape victim is violated for life and their body will always recall what happened to it. A murder victim is a lost life, and those attached to that victim will bear those scars for life. A kidnapping victim, especially one that endures physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse during that captivity, will always remember. It is bad enough when a stranger does these things. It is so far worse when this is done by a trusted person, either in the family or worse than that, a pastor. When those closest to you and those whom you trust the most betray you, it is the deepest and most brutal wound that a person could receive. They would endure years of the brutality of strangers rather than face such betrayal and deception.
I am not a counselor. I am not a victim of such horrific experiences. So, I truly cannot emotionally relate to those who have such experiences, nor will I try. But first, this is the wrong way to address it. A few years ago, an author sought to deal with such things, and he did so via a book titled The Shack. I applaud William Paul Young for being willing to tackle such things, but that is where my praise for him ends. This book, coming from an “Emergent Church/Progressive Christian” worldview in which universalism is a key unwritten doctrine, completely butchers the nature of sin, the character of God, and how righteousness and justice would win in the end. Those who have been severely wounded, like the character Mack had been when his daughter was kidnapped and murdered, would have a difficult time with Young’s solution, because all it boiled down to was, “You can’t say he did wrong, and he will be saved anyway.”
The solution to such severe wounds is not handwaving off the sin and letting it go. It is not “everyone gets to heaven.” It is the Gospel that will heal such wounds. Getting revenge will not heal such wounds. Even God executing justice will not heal such wounds; it only deals with the bad guy. The Gospel heals such wounds. We cheer the hero’s victory over the villain, however the wounds are often still there. It takes the healing power of the Gospel to close those wounds, disinfect them, and heal them. There will be scars, at least for this life, but there will be healing. One of the biggest problems we have are people who don’t want healing because their gaping wounds give them an excuse for their anger and their problems, so they can play the victim. God does not want us to play the victim but the victor, and we can only have victory by walking in the victory that comes from the cross and the resurrection.
It is Jesus who heals these wounds. Let me emphasize here that Jesus is the only one who truly understands the suffering of an innocent victim. Because He shed His innocent blood for us, who are not innocent, He is able to heal us. Isaiah said that by His stripes we are healed. Each of us has sinned, and God has allowed sinful people to act sinfully. It is not the victim’s fault that someone sinned against them; it is the sinner’s fault they sinned. But if God were to prevent the child rapist from raping, in His righteous justice He’d have to stop the victim of child rape from his or her own sin, too. It is not wrong to want justice when someone commits a crime. But we have to remember that each of us is guilty, too. While most reading this will not have murdered or raped or betrayed, actually we have. We have all broken each of the commandments either in deed or in the heart. Just because God has restrained our sin more than He has restrained others’ sin does not mean we are better people. Each of us deserves the death of the rapist, the murderer, or the traitor. And the Gospel is the only answer for both the culprit and the victim. We have all been victims of grievous sins in some way, shape, or form, and we have all been the culprits of such sins. None are innocent. If God were to deal with us “fairly,” we’d all be in Hell.
If God can save a lying, stealing, cussing, murderer and adulterer at heart like me, he can save those who do such things to me as well. I know our sinful tendency is to seek revenge. But it is also the tendency of those we betrayed to want revenge against us as well. For many, they do not know what they are doing, and only the Gospel can solve that problem. The very people whom Paul betrayed and murdered would be the first to welcome him into heaven. But those who commit such sins and do not repent, well, the Gospel has a message for them and it will not be a message of comfort. Yes, the Gospel reaches out to the hardened reprobate sinner and accomplishes its work in them, too. That is for next week.
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