Victims for life?

Victims for life?

A person I know suffered childhood abuse and has struggled to deal with. Even as a later-life adult he bears inner scars and the topic appears regularly in his words. He was, and remains, a victim.

Let’s think about that.

Were we all victims?

We all have times of hardship, or disabilities of heart, soul, mind or body. We have all been treated unfairly and perhaps been victims of pride and prejudice. We are all victims at the hands of others in some way and to some degree.

In a Christian view, we are all victims of Adam. He took one big dumb decision to defy God and life changed (Gen 3). He was tossed out of the garden of Edenic perfection, was too ashamed to meet with God, started squabbling with his wife and faced a work world that was all thorns and thistles instead of a bed of roses. Okay, Adam got what he deserved. Trouble is, we all got what he deserved. As Romans 5:12-14 puts in, we all became victims of his folly because we are all ‘in Adam’.

And so we all were victims. We were victims of Adam’s action and we were also the victims of other’s actions such as the abuse suffered by the acquaintance mentioned above.

However, must we remain victims?

For starters, we don’t have to remain victims of Adam. As Romans 5 explains, Jesus is the second Adam who undoes the work of the first. One brought curse and death. Jesus brought blessing and life. When we reconnect to God through faith in Jesus we are victims no more for the penalty and power of Adam are lifted (Rom 5:15-21). If you like, when we are ‘in Christ’ we are no longer just ‘in Adam’.

But what about our other victimhoods to the people who treated us with injustice, exploitation, abuse, bullying, pride, prejudice and such like?

There are people who seemed trapped in their victimhood and almost wear it like a badge. Their identity and life is defined by the evil done against them.

Then there are others who rise above victimhood.

Old Testament Joseph was a victim of his brother’s jealousy when they left him for dead in a well then on-sold him as a slave (Gen 37). He was also a victim of Potiphar’s wife who falsely accused him of rape (Gen 39) and a victim of Pharaoh’s cupbearer who forget his promise  (Gen 40:23). Joseph did not wallow in victimhood but accepted his circumstances as being from God and rose above it.

What was Joseph’s secret? He mentions it in a scene when the tables were turned and his brother’s fate was in his hands. The feared that their victim would seize this moment for revenge. Instead he commented on their actions in these words: you meant evil against me, but God meant for good (Gen 50:20). This is not fatalism, but rather faithism. Joseph knew God and trusted that he had worked for good even in the wicked actions that made him a victim.

Get the point? God is sovereign and moves everything to his purposes (Eph 1:11). If we are victims of some injustice etc it is because God allows it. And, just as with Joseph, God means it for good and uses it for our personal good … God works all things for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28).

Of course, the supreme example of all this is in the death of Jesus. He was a victim of evil deeds, yet it was his path to resurrection glory and the path to our redemptive hope – the victim became the victor in a most profound way.

This does not mean that we deny the evil in the abuse etc. Nor does it excuse those who perpetrated it. Where possible, it is just that they are called to account and dealt with under due process. However, the Christian does not need to take personal vengeance, for it is the business of God to deal with those who made us their victims (Rom 12:14-21).

In the bigger picture, the Christian can see victimhood as something not only allowed in the sovereign will of God, but also, as noted above, something that God uses for our good. The Bible elsewhere speaks of the discipline which seems hard at the time but which our sovereign and good God uses to lovingly discipline, mature and train us (Heb 12:7-11).

Let’s put this together.

We are all victims of Adam and of others.

Through Christ, we can cease being Adam’s victims.

The evil perpetuated against us by others remains evil and the Christian need not deny or minimise it or pretend that it does not hurt. Nor do we need to ignore the ongoing scars in heart, soul, body and mind.

But nor does the Christian need to seek personal redress, for that is in the hands of God who sees all and who ultimately upholds righteousness in his perfect justice.

Neither does the Christian need to live as a lifelong victim of other’s wrong. Rather, by faith we understand to have been allowed by God and used for our personal good.

The Christian does not have to stay a victim. Like Joseph in Egypt or Daniel in Babylon or Esther in Persia we can accept our circumstances, (with all their evil, pain and injustice) and look to thrive with them, knowing that God is in this place. Is God any less in our victimhood than he was present on the dark afternoon when the only one who never deserved to be a victim became a victim that we might live?