Make Jesus Lord

“Dad, we got Osama bin Laden!” shouted my son as he awakened me from sleep. I said little and rolled back over to continue my Sunday night rest.

The next morning, like a lot of Americans, the reality sunk in. The number one criminal in the world had been executed in a daring, heroic raid. I watched the President’s announcement from the previous night and, like most other people in the world, sighed in relief that this perpetrator of evil was gone.

And yet, at the same time, I sensed sadness. The sadness that such a person would misuse his life so horribly, becoming a hardened killer. When one considers the wealth, intelligence, organizational and leadership skills of Osama bin Laden, it makes you wonder how much good he could have done, if only Quranic teaching had not warped his mind. There are two things for which we can thank Osama bin Laden: he taught the world what a fully committed follower of Muhammad acts like practicing jihad, which Sunni Muslims refer to as “the sixth pillar of Islam.” Osama also taught us that justice always prevails in the end. You just can not do wrong and get away with it.

Romans 13 has something to say about the role of government in fulfilling natural law (God’s law) on earth. “(The government) is a minister of God to you for good. 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 upon the one who practices evil” (verse 4). There are other verses that say the equivalent, promising that God will use human agents (government, military, law enforcement) to bring justice to bear against those who practice evil.

No one, regardless of how wealthy, clever or charismatic he may be, can perpetrate evil against others and last. Those whose names are remembered with respect are those who understand natural law and, even if they do not acknowledge Jesus as the source, practice the ethical and moral teachings of Jesus (Mohandas Gandhi, for example, who used Jesus as an example of how to live, but did not acknowledge Jesus as his personal Savior). The names we remember with pain and disgust include Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Timothy McVeigh, Lenin, and now you may include the name Osama bin Laden.

God establishes government. A major purpose of government is to prevent and punish evil (violation of natural law). The government that chooses instead to perpetrate evil, thus defying God’s natural law, will crumble. As for me, I commend the Navy SEALs who fulfilled our government’s role in seeing that an evil man was eliminated and justice was done. I am proud to be an American, proud of our military, our intelligence service and of our President and his staff in seeing this operation through to completion.

But in another vein I consider the lost potential of bin Laden’s life. A lot of “what if’s” cross my mind. What if someone had presented Osama with the truth claims of Jesus when he was younger? What if he had used his wealth and personal magnetism for good? What if he had not become so proud that he had chosen to bow before Christ and acknowledge Him as Lord? What if his arrogance had not led him to become a law unto himself? What if he had chosen to honor natural law rather than violate it? What if he had desired to treat others by the Golden Rule rather than murdering them? What if he had chosen God’s grace and mercy rather than God’s justice (and the instrument of government that delivered this justice)? What if…

Today I view the justice that has prevailed as regards Osama bin Laden. I remember that justice always wins in the end. I know that government is to be respected as an instrument of natural law and justice. I pray that those in government will know this and practice it. I remind myself that the teachings of Jesus show me the way to live.

Most of all, I celebrate the grace and mercy of God that is freely bestowed upon any person willing to acknowledge the pride and vanity that are latent within the heart, and who turns away from such to make Jesus Lord.