Romans 12:19 // The Song of Justice and Grace
The Song of Justice and Grace was Pastor Lisa’s banner over the morning
She named the text straight away, Romans 12:19, and set the tone with our core value to Commit to Stretch. Then she reached back to a childhood summer in Pearl, Mississippi. On Nolan Circle there were little kids on Big Wheels and the regular sweep of exterminators. There were the tadpoles. She admitted she went a little past her boundaries to try to take justice into her own hands, only to realize quickly that true vengeance and vindication were out of her grasp, and she did not even have the ability to make things truly right for the poor little tadpoles. It landed as both a tender memory and an early confession of human limits. From there she widened the frame: that childhood problem is nothing compared to the weight of injustice and offense represented in a room like ours.
The Tadpoles
Pastor Lisa lingered on the scene just long enough to make the point. Nolan Circle in summer. Little kids. Big Wheels. Exterminators. Tadpoles in a puddle. A child’s urge to fix what felt wrong. And then the moment of realizing that even when you cross a line to try to make things right, real justice keeps slipping through your fingers. She used it as a parable of the human condition. Since the moment sin entered the world, there has been a brokenness within us that brings selfishness and pride into our hearts, leading decision after decision down a path that hurts others and allows evil to thrive.
Our Chapter
She turned to the text itself and read it slowly. Romans 12:19 (NLT) says, "Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, 'I will take revenge; I will pay them back,' says the Lord."
Then she prayed before continuing.
A Heart Change
Pastor Lisa noted that the chapter around this verse is filled with grace and Christlike living. Paul talks about unity, working together as a body of believers, perfect love, mercy, forgiveness. Just before this verse he spoke about seeking peace and living in peace with others, which is possible, as Pastor Annie said last week, only in the context of grace. Peace with others is only possible because of the grace of Jesus. But she did not dodge the obvious questions. What about living with the knowledge that there are those who have harmed us or others. What about when we see something unjust. What about the evil all around us. Shouldn’t people who have hurt someone pay for what they have done.
She made her boundary lines clear. This was not going to be a message about laws or politics, protests or campaigns. It was the place to talk about heart change, about the goodness of God and the glory of His name, about grace and God’s justice. Paul was writing to believers in an empire marked by hierarchy, inequality and abusive power. If you have not listened to Pastor Tom’s message from two weeks ago, she encouraged you to do that to get a picture of what they would face as greater persecution came their way. She said she could imagine this chapter becoming more precious as those events unfolded. Then she made a turn: the verse in Romans is a quote from Deuteronomy. Paul quotes that chapter several times in Romans. She wanted to look at it a little this morning, because of where it sits at the end of Deuteronomy, at the end of Moses’ life, as he hands leadership to Joshua. The children of Israel had wandered for forty years after being delivered from Egypt. Now they were about to enter the land God had promised them. Moses gathered the people and spoke the words of a song over all of them.
Listen, O Heavens
She read from the opening of that song. Deuteronomy 32:1-4 (NLT) says, "Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say! Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!"
Moses begins by reminding the people that God is perfect, just and fair. He reminds them of God’s faithfulness. Then Pastor Lisa rewound the story through the wilderness years. The people demanded to go back to Egypt. They complained about their conditions more than once. They made a golden calf and worshiped it. This chosen people, she said with a raised eyebrow, is not a perfect little gang of sweeties. The song continues.
Not Sweeties
She read the next section. Deuteronomy 32:5-6 (NLT) says, "But they have acted corruptly toward him; when they act so perversely, are they really his children. They are a deceitful and twisted generation. Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people. Isn’t he your Father who created you. Has he not made you and established you."
Then she paused over the tension. This is a new group of people. The original wilderness wanderers had mostly died. Yet the song says they acted corruptly and perversely. Why say that. She answered by going back one chapter. In Deuteronomy 31, God tells Moses that after the Israelites enter the land He promised and become prosperous, they will turn to other gods and break their covenant. God tells Moses to write this song and teach it to the people so that when consequences come, the song will remain as a witness, a reminder that God had known what was in their hearts all along. Deuteronomy 31:21 (NLT) says, "I know the intentions of these people, even now before they have entered the land I swore to give them."
God knew. Before He ever brought them into the Promised Land, He knew they would turn away, He knew they would break covenant, and He gave them this song so that when they did, they would remember His words. As the song unfolds, God reminds the people that they belong to Him, how He found them and gathered them, how He led them through the desert and into beautiful lands. He reminds them of His love, even though they turned away and worshiped other gods, forgetting Him and grieving Him deeply. He speaks of anger, of pouring out wrath and punishment, and then remembers His name, His character, His reputation. He calls out those who come against His people and His heart becomes protective of them once again.
I Will Pay Them Back
Here, Pastor Lisa said, is the piece we find in Romans 12:19. Deuteronomy 32:35-36 (a) says, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them.’" Then she kept reading the next line that stands beside it as a promise. "Indeed, the Lord will give justice to his people, and he will change his mind about his servants,"
She named what is happening there. Even though God was aware of the sinful heart of His people, He was gracious toward them. Even though He knew they would turn against Him, His heart was one of protection toward them. And because His character is good, fair and right, His promise was that He would handle vengeance and justice on their behalf toward those who harmed them. Pastor Lisa said it struck her that this tiny piece of Moses’ song finds its way into Romans 12, a chapter about the grace of God and Christlike living. Reading the entire song of Moses alongside the grace of Jesus left her with a few takeaways. The first was simple and searching.
Not Us vs. Them
"The song is not 'us vs. them.'" Pastor Lisa said Paul’s reminder of grace, and the song of Moses, tell us that when we try to take revenge into our own hands we are looking at justice through a sin filled lens. Just like the children of Israel, we have hearts that are prone to turn from the God who is perfect and loving, and because of that we cannot be trusted with perfect justice. Only He is truly capable of administering true justice. Romans 3:23 says, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard."
She brought in a voice she trusts. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones says, " Our judgment is inadequate. …As the result of sin, we are all self centered, always on the defensive, always shielding ourselves. We see a fault in another person and denounce it, but will always explain away the same sin in ourselves:" She located the quote in his exposition of Romans 12 on Christian conduct, and nodded to a picture she had in mind all morning, the smudgy glasses we all wear. The song of Moses allowed Israel to know that even though they were fallible and prone to sin, they were loved and chosen and God would judge the evil done to them, even as they were accountable for their own sin and would be judged for it by that same fair and gracious God. God knows the truth about us. He sees our struggle with sin, and He sees every wound we carry. Because He created us and loves us beyond measure, He refuses to ignore either.
He Sees Us
Pastor Lisa stated it plainly. God sees what was done to us, and He also sees us. Knowing that we are sin filled and imperfect does not minimize the evil in the world, or the possibility that some listening have carried deep damage. You are seen by the God who loves you and who does not tolerate evil. He sees and knows what you cannot. He is good and fair and just. He cares about the innocent, the marginalized, the oppressed. He cares about the weighty offense you may be carrying and the harm it has done. He does not deny the offense, minimize it, or try to explain it away. Because God is love, He hates evil. And because God is love, He provides for healing as well as justice. He makes a way for reconciliation and wholeness when possible, and He is protective of the vulnerable.
Here she got very pastoral. Please hear me today, she said. Healthy boundaries are ok and necessary in all relationships, and just as Pastor Annie talked about last week, God never expects you to place yourself in harm’s way. Jesus loves others, and He loves, sees, and protects you too. He has a vested interest in you, just as He did in His children in the song of Moses. He protects, loves and cares for the vulnerable, oppressed and wounded. The weight of the offense and injustice we carry is something we can give to Him because of His care for us. He is fair and kind. He is gracious and just.
Flows From Holiness
Her next takeaway was about who God is. God’s justice flows from His holy character. God’s Word shows us His true character. He is good, merciful, kind, faithful, loving, holy. In the song of Moses, one of the themes is the name of a holy God. Not only does He choose to execute justice against the enemies of Israel, He also defends and protects Israel for the honor of His own name. He will not, and cannot, go against His Word. His covenants are true and sure. We can depend on Him because who He is does not change. And He is just in a way we cannot be, because He will honor His character, the very essence of who He is.
Pastor Lisa showed how Paul himself entrusted justice to God. In Philippians 1:15-18, when some believers preached Christ out of jealousy and tried to make things harder for Paul while he was in prison, he named their motives but refused to make his own vindication his biggest concern. Christ was being preached. Later, in 2 Timothy 4:14-16, at his first defense everyone abandoned him and he said, "I don’t want this counted against them." But when Alexander opposed the Gospel, Paul said, "The Lord will judge him for what he has done." Even then, Paul left judgment with the Lord. God will honor His Word and His name and the Gospel. Paul entrusted justice where it belongs, not in his own hands, but in the hands of the Lord. When we look at who He is and what He represents, we can be sure He will bring justice where there has been evil because He is holy. Human vengeance makes us want to make people hurt. His divine justice renders what is right.
Conquer With Good
Pastor Lisa pointed out that Paul does not end by simply telling us not to take revenge. He adds a call to action. Romans 12:21 says, "Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good." She was direct about what that does and does not mean. Surrendering vengeance is not passive. It does not mean calling evil good or returning to an unsafe situation. It frees us to resist evil without becoming like the evil that wounded us.
Justice And Grace
That is why, she said, we need both God’s justice and God’s grace. The song of Moses was written for a people God chose and loves, and also a people He knew would turn away from Him. It is a reminder that He is fair and just, and He is filled with mercy and grace. Allowing Him into the spaces where damage has been done, where there is the weight of offense, means we can release that offense to a fair judge, one who can see through a lens of holiness and goodness rather than a lens smeared by sin and human fault. He can see true situations for what they are, and grant us the ability to see with a new lens, the lens of grace. We need to trust God’s justice not only with the people who have wronged us. We must trust His justice and His grace with ourselves, because we are also sinners and need His help. The cross is where perfect grace and perfect justice meet.
Then she lifted our eyes. Evil can never have the final say because of the holiness and righteousness of the all powerful God who is on the throne. Yes, there is evil in this world where we live, between the perfect garden of Creation before sin entered the world, and our beautiful and perfect eternal home with Him. But it will not win. And that is because of Jesus. He is grace in the flesh. His perfect life and sacrifice for each and every one of us changed the game. Because He did not just die. He rose again and claimed victory over evil and death. That means sin and evil can never ultimately win, and that a holy and righteous God, a just God, will judge the source of all evil deeds. He will balance the books. He will take care of it. He will right what is wrong. He will wipe the tears from our eyes, make all things new, and He will ultimately win over all evil. Just like the children of Israel, God knew we would turn against Him. He knew we would need His grace.
She read the gospel promise in full. Romans 5:8-11 says, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God." Pastor Lisa said it clearly. God did not ignore sin’s weight. Jesus willingly bore our sin and its judgment so that God’s enemies could become His friends.
She invited anyone who had been trying to make things right with God on their own, or carry the weight of their sin alone, to receive help. That help comes from Jesus. She led the room in a prayer to follow Him, and then celebrated with those who responded as the prayer team came forward.
Stones In Our Hands
Before we returned to singing, Pastor Lisa created space for a very specific response. There were baskets at the front, alongside the prayer banner and markers. In the baskets were small stones, light enough to hold and take with you. This morning those stones represented the weight of an offense or an injustice, the weight of something wrong that was done to you or that you witnessed. If you are carrying the weight of an offense or injustice, she invited you to take a stone.
You could take it back to your seat and talk to God about it. You could take it with you and keep it as a reminder. You could pray at the front or with a member of the prayer team about the weight of the offense, and release that weight and that stone to God, trusting Him with justice for that harm, and leave it here. Or you could choose what happens to the stone later. There was no pressure to leave it. Taking it with you was not a failure of faith. She made one more thing clear. She was not asking anyone to reconcile with anyone today. This might be a small step in a personal healing journey, not the completion of a process. It was between you and the Lord. As the team led us back in a song, she invited us to come and bring that weight honestly before God. The offense had weight. Trust Him with it. He sees it.
