What is Reformed Anyway? Part 6
Introduction
One of the marks of the Reformed faith was a great political reformation. This is why it is sometimes called the “Magisterial Reformation.” The Pope and Roman church had slowly claimed political power, but the Reformers insisted that Scripture clearly taught that all power was given to Jesus Christ and therefore, He is the One who directly delegates it to magistrates, pastors, and parents for particular tasks by Him. Nations, churches, and families receive their authority directly from Christ, not any other earthly authority.
The Text: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’” (Mt. 28:18-20).
Summary of the Text
This text at the end of Matthew’s gospel is called the Great Commission because it was the final charge that Jesus gave the disciples before ascending into heaven. There is an indicative statement of fact which drives the command, followed by a final promise. The indicative statement is “all authority/power is given” to Jesus in heaven and on earth (Mt. 28:18). The same word for “power/authority” is used in Romans 13:1-2 to refer to political rulers and magistrates and again in Titus 3:1. His disciples are to “therefore” go (Mt. 28:19). The disciples of Christ are to go and disciple the “nations” because Christ has been given all authority in heaven and earth.
Some point out that “nations” (ethne) can simply refer to Gentiles/non-Jews and therefore dispute the political ramifications of this Great Commission, but the same word certainly also refers to specific nations (e.g. Acts 2:5, 10:35, 13:19, 17:26). When the apostles were persecuted by the Jewish authorities, they quoted Psalm 2 which describes the nations and their kings gathered against the Lord and His Christ, and they refer to Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel (Acts 4:25-27). The disciples were commanded to go and disciple those nations by two means: baptizing in the triune name and teaching everything Jesus has commanded (Mt. 28:20). And the promise is that Jesus will be with us until the whole mission is done.
The Regulative Principle of Power & Limited Government
Since all authority has been given to Jesus Christ, all earthly authority is delegated authority from Jesus Christ. This is why wherever Christians are urged to submit to and obey earthly authorities, it is always “in the Lord” or “as to Christ” (Eph. 5:22, 6:1, 6:6-9, 1 Pet. 2:13, Heb. 13:17). No earthly authority is absolute (e.g. Acts 5:29, Dan. 3, 6). This means that all righteous government is limited by God’s Word, which is the foundational argument for Lex Rex (“the law is king”).
Since the primary task God has given to the civil magistrate is a ministry of violence: the sword of justice to punish evildoers (Rom. 13:4), it is especially important that civil government be limited. Political rulers who reject the limits of God’s Word are arrogant and act like beasts and monsters (Dan. 4, 7). This is what happens when civil governments begin meddling for example in markets, healthcare, and education. Just outside the hospital, he looks like a nicely dressed man who just wants to help, but as soon as the magistrate disobeys and enters, he grows fangs and turns into a monster. You can’t disobey God and not turn into a monster — we let the magistrate run our schools and now children are having healthy body parts cut off (the same is true of the other governments: disobedient pastors turn into wolves, etc.). A righteous ruler really is like rain coming down upon mown grass and delivers the poor and needy, but he does this by establishing equal weights and measures and punishing true criminals (Ps. 72).
Covenant Theology and Civil Government
The Reformers noticed that in addition to the great Covenants of Grace, there were also political covenants in Scripture: Abraham made a “covenant” with Abimelech (Gen. 21:27), Isaac did the same (Gen. 26:28), and Jacob made a covenant with Laban (Gen. 31:44). Later, Jonathan and David made a covenant (1 Sam. 20:16, 23:18), as did Ben-Hadad and King Ahab (1 Kgs. 20:34). Therefore, the Reformers reasoned that nations exist as covenant entities before God, established on particular constitutions or customs between rulers and people. It was on this basis that Christians generally teach submission and honor to civil authorities, and at the same time, as may occasionally happen in a marriage covenant, certain high-handed abuses may warrant the people dissolving the covenant and forming a new one.
The rudimentary elements of this system of government were worked out in the feudal arrangements of the Middle Ages, with increasing formality, as seen in the signing of the Magna Charta in 1215 and the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, claiming independence from England. The Scottish Presbyterians under John Knox worked this covenant theology out in the 16th and 17th centuries to the point of being called “covenanters.” It was many of these Scots-Irish who colonized America, and took issue with King George breaking his covenant-charters with the colonies, resulting in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution of 1789.
Conclusions
America was founded as a distinctly Protestant Christian Republic. When the War for Independence broke out, King George referred to it as the “presbyterian revolt.” The prime minister of England, Horace Walpole said in Parliament that “Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson,” apparently referring to John Witherspoon, presbyterian minister, signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of the presbyterian college Princeton.
A republic is a representative form of government with constitutional checks and balances – or what you might call a civil form of presbyterianism. This goes back to the nation of Israel which chose rulers over 1000s, 100s, 50s, and 10s (Ex. 18:21), and when the early Americans read the political theorists of Greece and Rome attempting various forms of “mixed government,” they saw the same thing in presbyterian polity: seeking to balance the tendency to veer between anarchy and tyranny.
Our mission remains the same as when Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven: disciple all of the nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. While we have fallen a long way from the broad Protestant consensus of early America, and we might wish for a more explicit acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus in our land, our Constitution is not as “godless” as many claim, since it does acknowledge Sunday as the Christian Sabbath and the birth of Jesus Christ, the “Lord” of these United States and all nations.
Jesus died and rose from the dead, and all authority was given to Him. Psalm 2 says: ask of me and I will give the nations as your inheritance, the ends of the earth as your possession. Christ did ask, and all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him. And we therefore go.
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