11:35 pm. As we are first hearing the news that echoes around the world, we have yet a profound opportunity to consider our own lives. Osama Bin Laden is dead. Nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attack, the most wanted terrorist is wanted no more. When sharing the gospel, so many of us have said things like, “I didn’t deserve salvation. Left to myself, apart from Christ, I’m no better than Osama Bin Laden.” Suddenly, it’s much more difficult to remain sober-minded. Now that Bin Laden is dead, we are caught in quite a conundrum. If you are honest with yourself, you will likely admit that you are happy about his death. Even before the official announcement, Facebook and Twitter is already streaming with cheers and jeers over the death of a sinner. Elation. Celebration. Clapping and screaming. Flooding the streets. But, if we have believed what is true – that before the righteous face of God, we are no better than Bin Laden – our cheers are confounding. We are, in essence, cheering our own judgment had it not been for Christ.
In Ezekiel 33:11 we read, “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Though Bin Laden has brought about great suffering, torment, and terror, God is not delighting in his death. He is administering justice, but not celebrating condemnation.
What an appropriate parable for us, Christians, on this historic day:
And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” -Luke 18:9-14
My post is not about whether or not a terrorist should forfeit his life. I’m not a pacifist.1 My post is not about whether we should be thankful for perfect justice. I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.2 Instead, it is about how we should view ourselves on the backdrop of another’s condemnation.
Osama Bin Laden is facing the true and righteous God. And he is approaching a dreadful scenario that I would have faced, were it not for the abounding and electing grace of God. In light, I must conclude the appropriate response is awe. Awe of divine justice. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet (Nahum 1:3). Awe of divine grace. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (Ephesians 1:7-8). Christian, be silenced in the reality that God is just in His wrath and sobered in the joy that you are redeemed.
Tonight, scrutinize this question: Why is NBC, Facebook, and Twitter not announcing your assassination? Grace. 
*Another recommended article on the justice of Bin Laden. Grieving, Rejoicing that Osama bin Laden Is Dead by Christopher Morgan (TGC).
- Romans 13:4 – But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. [↩]
- Psalm 7:16-17 – His mischief will return upon his own head, And his violence will descend upon his own pate. [↩]
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