Vindicated Part 2 – Freeing Others!

In Part 1 of this series, I focused on what being vindicated from accusations of wrongdoing (true or false) means for our wrongdoing. In Part 2, I will dive into what we do when we have been sinned against and how God handles justice and vindication.

To review, God is a God of vindication. What does that mean? According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, vindication means:

• to free from allegation or blame (confirm or substantiate)
• to provide justification or defense for (justify)
• to protect from attack or encroachment (defend)
• to avenge (to maintain a right to)
• obsolete: to set free (deliver)

OK, think of some sin that has been done against you and that you are still struggling with.

To review, I define sin as missing the mark of who God created you to be and violating love toward others or ourselves. 

Romans 5:20b in the J.B. Phillips New Testament (Phillips) says:

…Yet, though sin is shown to be wide and deep, thank God his grace is wider and deeper still!…

In Part 1, we looked at this scripture through the lens of us doing the “sinning”. Let’s look at it again through the lens of someone sinning against us. When you have been reviled, persecuted, rejected, abandoned, abused, defiled, slandered, mocked, humiliated, stolen from, etc., grace for healing, freedom, and recompense is wider and deeper still!

Let’s explore another facet of vindication. The Latin verb vindicare means “to set free, avenge, or lay claim to.” So this is about the justice of God, which is yet another facet of Who He is as Love. Indeed, Love 

does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7 Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

8 Love never fails [it never fades nor ends].

        1 Cor. 14:6-8 (The Amplified Bible, emphasis added)

But this aspect of justice is not the fallen, earthly concept of vengeance. Faulty views of vengeance can be found in many Old Testament passages that reflect our fallen view of God. This is counter to how He is revealed accurately in Christ through the lens of Love Himself. Jesus points out the faultiness of vengeance and retaliation in His “but I say” scriptures with His Sermon on the Mount:

38“Your ancestors have also been taught, ‘Take an eye in exchange for an eye and a tooth in exchange for a tooth.’  39However, I say to you, don’t repay an evil act with another evil act. But whoever insults you by slapping you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. 

43“Your ancestors have also been taught ‘Love your neighbors and hate the one who hates you.’ 44However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, 45For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil.”

               Matthew 5:38-39, 43-45 

(The Passion Translation, emphasis added)

Brian Simmons, lead translator of The Passion Translation, comments: “In the cultural setting of the days of Jesus, to slap someone was the greatest insulting physical blow you could give a person. It is better to respond with kindness. This robs the oppressor of his ability to humiliate.”

Understand that this way of being requires supernatural empowerment. However, that is exactly how we are supposed to live. 

The concept of the vengeance of God is elaborated upon in Romans 12:17-20, which says:

17Never hold a grudge or try to get even, but plan your life around the noblest way to benefit others. 

18Do your best to live as everybody’s friend. 

19Beloved, don’t be obsessed with taking revenge, but leave that to God’s righteous justice (commentary: or wrath)

 For the Scriptures say:

“Vengeance is mine, and I will repay,” says the Lord. 

20And: If your enemy is hungry, buy him lunch! Win him over with kindness. 

For your surprising generosity will awaken his conscience,

and God will reward you with favor. 

21Never let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good. 

TPT (emphasis added)

Ok, there is a lot here. Brian Simmons comments about the more frequent verbiage in verse 20, “‘You will heap coals of fire on his head,’ an obvious figure of speech. It means that by demonstrating kindness to him, his heart will be moved and his shame exposed.”

I really love the alternative wording of verse 21: “Don’t be conquered by the evil one, but conquer evil through union with the good One.”

We can overcome evil supernaturally by resisting the temptation to retaliate and become like the evil we hate. We can do this because of our seamless union with the One Who is ultimate goodness. He is the One Who empowers us to do what we cannot do in our own strength, acting as if we are apart from Him (Phil. 2:13, John 15:5).

Forgiving our enemies and those who persecute us is not optional, and that requires supernatural empowerment. Ephesians 4:30-32 says:

So never grieve the Spirit of God or take for granted his holy influence in your life. 31Lay aside bitter words, temper tantrums, revenge, profanity, and insults. 32But instead be kind and affectionate toward one another. Has God graciously forgiven you? Then graciously forgive one another in the depths of Christ’s love.

TPT (emphasis added)

You gotta love Peter (there’s a Peter in all of us), who was trying to find the minimum requirement of forgiveness he had to do:

21Later Peter approached Jesus and said, “How many times do I have to forgive my fellow believer who keeps offending me? Seven times?” 

22Jesus answered, “Not seven times, Peter, but seventy times seven times!”

Matt. 18:21-22 (TPT, emphasis added)

This attitude of forgiveness is limitless. That is hard on our fallen flesh, but it is supposed to be. God is constantly conforming us into His image, so that puppy has to go—bit by bit. God will always help us do the hard things that are good for us; He’s a really good Dad!

OK, I assume you got it. We are not to retaliate or take vengeance. We are to forgive because we are forgiven children of a Father, Who has forgiven all of His kids. Forgiveness says the sin against us was not ok, but our abuser cannot repay us for what we have lost. We leave our abuser and justice to God and trust Him to recompense and restore us where our abuser can’t, even if they wanted to. First Peter 5:5b-7 says:

God resists you when you are proud but multiplies grace and favor when you are humble. 

6If you bow low in God’s awesome presence, he will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in his hands.

                                      TPT (emphasis added)

Pride refuses to let go of an offense and becomes bitter. This is when we get stuck. To get unstuck, we are to turn to God and yield, asking for His help to forgive and trusting Him to take care of us. That’s our part.

What about “God’s part” in vengeance or wrath? Scripture hints at it a lot, so let’s explore (without being dogmatic). 

To avenge (Greek, ekdikeō) means to vindicate one’s right, do one justice, to protect, defend one person from another, to avenge a thing, which can involve punishment or retaliation. However, would God be just if He punished the very kids He forgave? The answer is no! 

But what about all the evil that people have done and the evil personas they have taken on? God is truly wrathful against evil. He tells us to hate evil and cling to what is good (Rom. 12:9). Remember when I defined sin as missing the mark of who God created you to be and violating love toward others or ourselves? In his commentary on Romans 5:12 in the Mirror Bible, Francois DuToit brilliantly states: 

The word translated “sin”, is the word ”hamartia”, from “ha”, negative and “meros”, portion or form, thus to be without your allotted portion or without form, pointing to a disorientated, distorted identity;…Sin is to live out of context with the blueprint of one’s design; to behave out of tune with God’s original harmony.

God hates sin (not us) because its wages are death. Sin and death are enemies of God because they molest and destroy His kids. He hates whatever is described as satan, as that entity deceives, accuses, and leads God’s kids into destruction. 

Note, God has forgiven all sin for all time (Heb. 10:12 and 14, Luke 23:24, John 1:29, Gal. 1:4, and 1 John 2:2). So if humans who rebel and oppose God are not His enemies because we have been forgiven, who/what are His enemies? The answer is sin, death, hell/hades, and the devil (Rev. 20:10, 14). 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 says:

24Then the final stage of completion comes, when he will bring to an end every other rulership, authority, and power, and he will hand over his kingdom to Father God. 25Until then he is destined to reign as King until all hostility has been subdued and placed under his feet. 26And the last enemy to be subdued and eliminated is death itself.

Wrath is the Greek word orgē, which is translated as impulse, desire, any violent emotion, but especially anger and indignation. His white-hot wrath or violent passion is on behalf of His kids and against that which molests His kids: sin (false identities and the fallen behavior they produce), death, hell/hades, and the devil. 

Connected with this wrath are the fires of Love (lake of fire) that death, hell/hades, the devil are thrown into—subdued and eliminated (1 Cor. 15:24-26, Rev. 14:10, Rev. 20:10 and 14). There is the historical precedence for these references to refer to the destruction of the Jewish Temple and fires that set Jerusalem ablaze in 70 AD. There is also potential additional overlay for death, hell/hades to be subdued and eliminated. It is important not to read scripture in a flat, literal way here and not to get so dogmatic that we belie mystery. 

We do know that God is referred to as a consuming fire numerous times in the Old and New Testament (Ex. 24:17, Deut. 4:24, Is. 30:27, 30; and Heb.12:28-29). God is constantly conforming His kids into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:17-18, 29-30; Eph. 4:12-13). This involves purifying and cleansing. Specifically the Bible likens the purifying of God toward His kids as a consuming fire and washer’s (or fuller’s) soap (Mal. 3:2 and Mark 9:48-50).

All this is the fire of Love burning up that which is not of Christ. 

God is Love and a consuming fire. So, what does God burn up? The answer is everything that is not of His kind—not of Love’s kind. God will purify with His fires of Love all that is not of Love. ALL of His kids are made in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26, Acts 17:29). Our original design is of Love. What is of Love will be set ablaze with glorious, ecstatic joy of the sons/daughters of God—finally fully whole, freed, and at home in Love.  

What is NOT of the Spirit/Love will be consumed in His fires of Love. That may FEEL like punishment, but it is the healing of God. False parts of us that hate, rebel, serve the purposes of satan, cling to evil and faulty foundations and false works that say no to God/Love… when they encounter the fires of Love, they will be burnt up. Resisting and going against the grain of Love will feel like torment. Again, what is left is the eternal, purified, and glorified sons/daughters of Love—the original restored design of God’s precious kids. 

And God promises:

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

         Rev. 21:3-5 (New International Version, emphasis added)

Love vindicates. Love wins! Hallelujah!

I trust this has been enlightening and helpful for you. Spend as much time as you need engaging with God about this.

I’d love to hear how this has impacted you!

Much Love,

Catherine