I Do Not Hope My “Enemies” Get a Taste of Their Own Medicine

Tensions are high right now in the United States. People are taking up sides, and some are taking up arms, and many are scared, worried, and responding to the world with knee-jerk reactions. Some people, gleefully, when someone (even justly) is arrested and jailed for their crimes, I honestly hope that if they’re guilty, they receive what is due. However, I never do so gleefully. Some will say “they are getting what they deserve,” or “they are getting a taste of their own medicine.” I will never say that. I am a law-and-order person, I support the death penalty if it is deserved, and I believe if people will not fear God, then they must fear the Law. Yet, if we were all going to get what we deserve, every one of us would be utterly and absolutely lost.

Before you say “how can a New Testament Christian believe in the death penalty?” that is not what this is about, so we can talk about that another time. The focus here is that every one of us is deserving of death because we are all fallen creatures. We are, if we’re honest, all creatures in rebellion against our perfect Creator, we do not and cannot keep His standard, which is perfection, and since He cannot abide in sin, we are all destined and doomed for death. We ALL deserve the death penalty. And Death is far worse than an electric chair or firing squad. It is the wrath of God, justly poured out for all eternity on Satan, his angels, and those who are in rebellion against Him. If I got even a taste of my own medicine, I would be lost.

But God. These are two of the greatest words in all the world, aren’t they? Here’s what I mean:And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. -Ephesians 2:1-10

We were dead, but God through Christ, while we were yet sinners, while we were His enemies, sent His Son, who is also and always has been God, to die in our place, taking the wrath of God on His perfect self. In rising from the grave on the third day, Jesus proved that death has no power over everyone He purchased with His blood. This is the only salvation issue: we are sinners lost by our own actions, and God, rich in mercy offers us salvation through His Son. Not a one of us is deserving, we can’t earn it, we can’t offer enough sacrifices, we can’t create the perfect mode or style of worship. We are lost because of SIN, and Jesus is the only way to reconciliation with the Father. Through Him, we don’t get what we deserve (that’s called mercy), and we get favor we didn’t earn (that’s called grace), because of the great forgiveness granted to us through Jesus Christ. Live accordingly.

Romans 5

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.