Christians & Osama: Irrational Exuberance & Morose Mourning

Sunday night I learned of the news of the death of Osama bin Laden and said “thank you Jesus.” Judging from a lot of the stuff floating around in the blogosphere, I should repent. But ever the contrarian, I must respectfully disagree. A great deal has been said about what a Christian reaction to this event ought to be. These reactions range from dancing in the streets to crying on our knees. There seems to be a couple of common questions that surface through all of this that I want to briefly address.

Question- Isn't killing wrong?

The answer in Scripture is it depends. The sixth commandment does not prohibit killing, but murder. Jesus made clear on the Sermon on the Mount that our motives were also to be controlled by that command.  But murder is only one subset of killing. After the flood in Genesis 6-8, God gives humanity new instructions for how to exercise their role as God’s image bearers in creation. In Genesis 9:5-6 we read this:

Genesis 9:5–6- And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed,  for God made man in his own image.

Here God endows humanity with carrying out a portion of His divine judicial authority as His image bearers in a fallen world. That judicial authority involves taking the life of another human being who has committed murder. Both the Mosaic law through illustration and the apostle Paul by command locates this authority specifically within the human structure of government. In Romans 13:1-4 we read the following:

Romans 13:1–4- Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

Human governments exist by the authority and under the authority of God whether they recognize God’s authority or not! They are commanded to serve His purposes of justice and that includes retributive justice (the meaning of “avenge” in v.4). That retributive justice is not only the enforcement of laws by threat of physical punishment but the carrying out of retributive punishments including the retributive taking of the life of a murderer. In doing so, they are partially implementing God’s own perfect retributive justice.

So was it wrong to kill a mass murderer like Osama bin Laden? No, it was right and just in God’s sight.

Question- Doesn't God hate the sin, but love the sinner?

This is a very common sentiment that is simply not biblical. It’s roots lie more in Greek stoic philosophy than Christianity. Consider the following:

Psalm 5:4–6-  For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. 5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

Psalm 11:5  The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

The Bible is clear that you can’t separate sin from the sinner who commits it! Each act is the willful act of cosmic rebels against the good and righteous Ruler of the universe. God takes appropriate offense at such rebellion and does not separate “us” from our “actions.”  Did God hate Osama bin Laden? Yes. Just as he hated me before I took refuge in Christ! The mind-bending gospel reality is that God moves towards certain ones of His enemies called “the elect” in Scripture and turns rebels into reconciled family! But outside of Christ or before we flee to Christ in faith, God’s disposition towards us is a settled hatred of us due to His right and good opposition to everything evil.

Some then ask, “since we still sin after becoming Christians, wouldn’t this mean that God hates us even while we are Christians?” Something that Scripture clearly teaches isn’t so. This brings us back to gospel mind-blowing again. God doesn’t just accept us in Jesus, He actually bears His own just punishment and opposition to evil!

At the cross, God the Father placed all the sin of the elect upon Jesus who then underwent the wrath of God and the punishment of death that we were due. This included all the sins of God’s elect past, present, and future. With the punishment for our sins meted out in full, we can now rejoice with Paul that  “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1) Though we sin, it is already punished in Christ! Though we owe God a life without sin, by faith the perfect life of Christ is credited to us as 2 Cor 5:21 puts it,  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So God’s just hatred of evil and the punishment it was due falls on the willing substitute- God Himself in Christ! This is why though we continue to sin, God’s anger no longer rests upon us- and that’s mind-blowing good news!

Question- What should our response be then?

Some folks have more thoughtfully wrestled with what our reaction ought to be as believers in this situation. In other words, how does the gospel change our response? There are three gospel responses that must be controlling in this situation:

1st- Gospel Worship leads us to rejoice in justice.

Consider the following emotional expressions of joy over the execution of justice:

Proverbs 21:15 -When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

Proverbs 11:10 -When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness.

Psalm 9:19–20 - Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! 20 Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men!

These are but a smattering of Biblical examples and more than sufficient to show that the execution of justice is good and praiseworthy. We should praise God that He will not allow evil to triumph and victims to go unavenged. He will set right what is wrong and overthrow evil.

This is really the gospel in action. God came to overthrow our evil and punish it justly and fairly. The utterly amazing thing is that He does that by taking our place, receiving our punishment, and so freeing us from evil’s tyranny in our lives! This is grace in action and it is the gospel, but it is also justice in action and the overthrow of evil by God. To be sure, governmental retributive justice is not an act of grace, but it is to be an act reflective of God’s just and holy character and for that we should give praise when it is done right.

2nd - Gospel Love leads us to love our enemies

Many who learned of bin Laden death need to listen carefully to this second response for rejoicing and dancing in the streets even over the death of an evil mass murderer has failed to practice gospel love. It’s not our natural reaction, but rejoicing in justice goes hand-in-hand with loving our enemies! Listen to the following Scriptures again:

Proverbs 24:17 - Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

Matthew 5:43–46 - “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

There are reasons to dance in the streets- the Red Sox winning the world series after starting 2-11 comes to mind… But the just retributive killing of a mass murder like Bin Laden isn’t one of them. The gospel leads us to the very counter-cultural response of loving even those committed to our deaths simply because we are Jesus’ disciples. That’s not the way of the world, but it is the way of the gospel.

Gospel love moves us to pray for the conversion of our enemies including radical Islamic terrorists. It does so because of the third gospel and final gospel response we’ll look at…

3rd- Gospel Humility empowers a Kingdom response

“There but for the grace of God go I.” No, I may not have ever come near embracing radical Islamic fundamentalism, but I am as guilty of cosmic terrorism against God’s rule as Osama. I haven’t plotted the murder of humanity on a mass scale, but I am still liable to God’s judgment:

Matthew 5:21–22 - “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

While human retributive judgment is limited to our actions and not our attitudes, God’s judgment is not and I am guilty. That kind of honest self-evaluation can only come through gospel humility- an honest admission of my sheer helplessness apart from Christ and His complete sufficiency and willingness to save me.

When that experience of the gospel by repentance and faith is a regular occurrence in my heart, then I will experience a change of mind, emotions, desires, and choices that leads me to pray for my enemies and seek their conversion. It will lead me to be dissatisfied with a world where evil and murder exist and human retributive judgment is even needed! It will compel me to stand against evil now, and to live and pray for both the justice and peace of the eternal Kingdom of God to be realized more and more in my community and around the world. It leads me to give of my time, talent, and treasure to make the gospel message known to the ends of the earth so that Shalom rather than Sharia becomes the dominant experience of all humanity! It makes me thankful that what the prophet Isaiah wrote of nearly 3 millennia ago has begun to be realized, but it also makes me eagerly long for the full realization of the Kingdom he describes:

Isaiah 2:2–5 - It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

One day, the SEAL’s are gonna be out of a job and that day can’t come soon enough. But till then, we rejoice in justice, love our enemies, and live in gospel humility recognizing by grace alone have we been rescued from our own cosmic terrorism and graciously brought into the family of the just and good King.