[Romans 12] Verse 19: Avenge not yourselves, beloved; but give place unto the [coming] wrath [of God]
—Believers are here seen sorely tempted to seek to bring about by their own hand that righting of matters which belongs to God only. The motto of Scotland, “Nemo me impune lacessit”—“No one treads on me unpunished!”—applies to man in the flesh throughout the world. Note Paul’s word, “Give place unto the Wrath,”—to the coming wrath of God in the day of wrath, of Chapter 2:5. As for “the wrath of man,” we know it “worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Oh, how hard, yea, how impossible, for those who have not yielded their bodies a living sacrifice to God, to leave the visitation of wrath wholly in God’s hand!
For it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto Me; I will recompense, saith the Lord—Let us not dare seek to steal from God what He so distinctly asserts to be His province alone,—vengeance,—the dealing out just desert to evil action.
God’s “vengeance” must require that infinite knowledge of conditions, of motives, of results upon others, which God, the just Judge, alone possesses. And He has faithfully promised to “recompense.” The Greek of this word is startling: it means to pay back, personally and accurately. Both Romans 12:19 and Heb 10:30 quote the passage in Deuteronomy 32:35 which prophesies the coming vengeance of God. The word is also used in II Thessalonians 1:6. In these shallow, sinful days, men have forgotten that there is a day of reckoning; but the saints must not forget. “Forestall not God’s wrath,” says Meyer, “by personal revenge, but let it have its course and its sway. The morality of this precept is based on the holiness of God. Hence, so far as wrath and love are the two poles of holiness, it does not exclude the blessing of our adversaries and intercession for them.”
William R. Newell
Excerpt from Romans Verse By Verse, Chapter Twelve
