Vengance and Wrongdoers

[ProfessorJ]

Hello all! I've been reading Romans lately because of a study my youth group has been doing, and I found a verse that's confusing me.
Rom 13:4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

I know the verses about "Vengance is mine, saith the Lord.", and thats why the verse was puzzling. Who is it talking about? Is there some person that will execute divine killings if need be? Or is this some refernce to something in Biblical times that I can't find? Any help would be greatly appriciated.
In Christ, J​

 

[JJinNJ]

I believe if you read this in context to the surrounding verses, you can see that this is in reference to a Christian's relationship to the State.

We are to respect that it is God who established governments and the rulers and the state's laws. We need to do what is right while living under the existing government. If we do wrong under the existing government, the authority can and will exact the punishment on the wrongdoer.

But we should not do it simply to fear punishment, but because of our Christian conscience. If there is a point where government interfere's with Christian conscience, then we are to obey God. But if the law is right, we must obey to maintain a good conscience.

 

[ProfessorJ]

Thank you. I wasnt sure what it was talking of, and the commentary I read wasn't much help. It seems as though this would say capital punishment is OK, even if it is murder. I'm not going to take a side to that argument, but it would be interesting to hear responses to that.