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Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God\u2019s wrath, for it is written: \u201cIt is mine to avenge; I will repay,\u201d says the Lord. On the contrary: \u201cIf your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.\u201d Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

For the past number of years preceding Tim Keller\u2019s death this past May (and even since), there was much controversy over his approach to being a Christian in a secular culture. \xa0Keller\u2019s detractors all seemed to agree that he was a good and kind man who, \u201cas far as it depended on him, lived at peace with everyone.\u201d \xa0In fact, that was part of the problem that both the conservative and liberal ends of the spectrum had with him. \xa0His kindness covered up the injustice of his conservative positions according to liberals, and it was just plainly too weak and accommodating for conservatives. \xa0

The reaction of both ends against him suggests that Keller walked in the middle\u2014an increasingly lonely place to be in a polarized world. \xa0But there\u2019s more to this middle than staking out a position. \xa0Whatever ones\u2019 agreement or disagreement with Keller on various matters, what I\u2019m getting at here is something different. \xa0Jesus is not only the fulness of life, and not only the embodiment of truth\u2014Jesus is also the way. \xa0It is this way of Jesus that Paul speaks to here across these verses of Romans 12 and it is this way of Jesus that Keller so beautifully attempted to imitate himself. \xa0

In a world that continues to deepen and harden in its polarization, such a Christian witness to the way of the Prince of Peace is hard to come by. \xa0In order to live in this counter-cultural way of the Kingdom, a few things are required of us that this Romans 12 passage speaks to.

The first is a submission to God. \xa0Paul tells us not to take revenge, but to leave that to God. \xa0There is a strong undercurrent in current evangelical conversation that suggests that we can no longer be nice\u2014we need to take the gloves off and fight, using whatever means necessary to achieve the ends we seek for the sake of Christ and the church. \xa0Paul speaks against such notions by reminding us that God, as God, can take care of himself just fine without us. \xa0Not only that, but he can take care of us too. \xa0We are to wait in submission on God to do the judging and avenging. \xa0Our work is to submit and so live in a posture of peace.

The second thing we are called to do is perhaps less obvious in this text: we are called on to suffer. \xa0If we are not permitted to fight back by \u201crepaying evil for evil,\u201d then what we are invited to do instead is to bear that evil as we wait for God to do the repaying. \xa0This is the way of Jesus on the cross. \xa0He does not fight back, nor he does not call forth a legion of angels. \xa0Instead, he submits himself to God the Father and bears the suffering of the world in the form of all its sin and evil as it\u2019s pounded into his hands and feet. \xa0\u201cIf they persecuted me, they will persecute you also,\u201d Jesus said. \xa0Why should we get up in arms as if this is a strange thing? \xa0We are called to bear the sin, evil, and suffering of the world as we take up our cross and follow Jesus.

Thirdly, however, a strange thing happens as we submit ourselves to God and bear the suffering of this world by taking up our cross. \xa0In the cross of Jesus\u2014the suffering, sin, and evil we bear begins to die and a strange new life begins to appear. \xa0A new, Spirit-fired life arises that enables us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, even to feed, refresh, and forgive them as we serve them with kindness. \xa0And in this way\u2014the way of Jesus\u2014the world is slowly transformed from death to life, from evil to good, from sin to forgiveness. \xa0

It is through the cross of Christ\u2014through this way of Jesus\u2014that we are able to overcome evil with good rather than being overcome by it. \xa0This is what we see in the lives of those Christian saints, like Keller and so many others, who have imitated the way of Jesus well. \xa0

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