Vengeance

 I am responsible for my own actions, not for what other people do. If I’m driving down the highway and my sole concern is how others are driving, at some point, I’ll crash into something because I’m not paying enough attention to where I’m going.

I grew up in Eastern Europe. Most of the roads are two lanes, if that, with potholes and craters so big one would think they’d just been air bombed the night before. If you’re not careful or constantly on guard, you just won’t be long for this world because even guardian angels have their limitations.

Between avoiding horse-drawn carriages, inebriated people who thought the middle of the road was the perfect place for a nap, and BMW drivers who woke up that morning thinking it was a good day to die, any trip longer than the grocery store across town will likely be a suicide run. What is it with BMW drivers? It’s like they have an aggression button built into their steering wheel. Thirty extra seconds aren’t worth your life. Then again, some people just like living dangerously. All fine and good until it’s at the expense of another’s existence, namely me or mine.

Living in a place where driving is deemed a full-contact sport does make one appreciate the need for prayers of protection when you leave and prayers of thanks when you return. Things have gotten better over the years, but unless you are a driver that’s used to making split-second, life-altering decisions every few minutes or so, Romania might not be the place you cut your driving teeth.

When it comes to what other drivers are doing, my only concern is that I don’t hit them, and they don’t run me off the road. Whether their hands are at the ten and two positions or they’re checking their mirrors before they turn are details they must contend with, and if they do something unlawful, that’s something they will have to answer for.

If, however, someone is a public hazard, and it’s clear that they will, in short order, cause someone great bodily harm or worse, then I will do what I can to sideline them, stop them, or slow them down because it’s the right thing to do.

We all have the same driving manual but are individually accountable for how much we study it and how we apply it to our daily driving. Some men read it and disregard it entirely, doing as they will until they run a red light and get t-boned by a semi. Others read it, apply it, and are aware of their surroundings making sure that, as far as they are concerned, they are not being slothful or sloppy.

God’s never busy setting up a speed trap, eating donuts, or taking a nap, so the chances of knowingly disobeying Him and getting away with it are zero. Rebellion has consequences. For some, the consequences are immediate; for others delayed, but there are always consequences.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-10, “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”

I’d give Universalism a chance if not for the Bible. That’s the thing. If the manual says you’re supposed to drive on the right side of the road and you start mowing down people’s fences and driving through their backyards, you can’t say you’re following the rules.

When He returns, it won’t be just to reward the righteous but to repay with tribulation those who trouble God’s people and take vengeance upon the wicked. There is no gentility in Paul’s description of what will occur on that Day, there is no sense of water under the bridge or bygones being bygones.

Perhaps our diminished collective view of who God is allows this generation to spit in His face and then have the temerity to tell Him it’s raining. Perhaps we’ve been feasting on a diet of love and infinite grace without an iota of individual accountability for so long that we see God as some shriveled thing under a mountain of blankets shaking a liver-spotted finger and rolling His eyes at our rebellion but nothing more.

Jesus is returning, and it’s not with a basket of freshly baked muffins and an invitation to parlay with the darkness. He is coming to give those who are troubled rest, but also to meet out vengeance on those who do not know or obey Him. This isn’t an opinion; it’s Scripture. Do with it what you will.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.