Love Wins and Osama Bin Laden

I did not hear about the death of Bin Laden until this morning.  I turned on the television and saw video of people cheering about the news outside of the White House.  So I asked myself, should a Christian cheer the death of Bin Laden?  I definitely understand the feeling, after all this was the man who was the one who ultimately was responsible for 9/11 and the death of so many Americans.  Why would we not cheer?

But to cheer the death of Bin Laden without reflection is to miss the point.  We cheer because justice was served.  Human justice that is.  An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was met.  Bin Laden ordered the attacks that killed so many, and now he died from a bullet from an American Navy Seal.  Now, Bin Laden faces divine justice and love wins

 But what does love have to do with justice?  Love does not rejoice in wrong doing  but rejoices in the truth 1 Corinthians 13:6.  Ultimately love cannot allow wrong doing to go unpunished it must be judged.  And it will be Bin Laden and it will be for all of us.  But rejoice at Bin Laden's death without realizing that we will all face God's judgment one day is folly.

We must all realize that the hate that caused Bin Laden to kill so many, lives in each of our hearts.  We may not have taken someones life, but the anger, resentment, and contempt we show for others that leads to murder is in our hearts.  God's standard is perfection and we have all fallen short.  We will all meet God's judgment.

The good news is that God has provided us a way to stand in the judgments.  At the cross of Christ, God's love and justice meet.  God loved us enough to take the punishment that we deserve for our sin and place it upon His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.  In order to stand in the judgment, we must stand with Christ and we can do so by putting our faith and trust in Him today.  Have you trusted Christ, if you have not you will stand alone in the judgment and you will not rejoice on that day.

So should we rejoice at the death of Bin Laden, I don't know.  But I do know that I can rejoice, because God has provided grace.  Love wins, when you trust Christ alone for your salvation.