Rom. 13:1-2
Prayer: God, our Father, we live in a land that has experienced Your astonishing blessing, and we confess that in many ways we have thrown it all away. We know that this is fundamentally because we have not heeded Your Word, submitting to Your authority. But we are here now to hear and obey, so grant a great Reformation in our nation, beginning with us. In Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
Liberty is not the freedom to do whatever you want. Humanistic lusts always end in tyranny, slavery, and destruction. Liberty is the freedom to obey God, to live according to His law under His blessing. Liberty is doing what you were made for. This begins with conversion to Christ and the gift of self-government by the Holy Spirit. Which is why the tip of the spear when fighting for liberty in any nation is the preaching of the gospel, preaching conversion to Christ.
But when individuals are converted to Christ, they begin to build truly free societies based on the Word of God, which subvert the tyrannical tendencies of paganism. Therefore, the foundational governments that God has established of family, church, and state are the foundational checks and balances that limit human tyranny and truly set men free. It all begins with conversion to Christ and self-government, but apart from these institutions fully functioning, human power tends to consolidate and swallow up the others. Men tend toward Babel, apart from the Holy Spirit and these powers checking one another. In many respects, the 16th century Reformation was a restoration of the family and state to check the power of the Roman Church. In our day, we need a restoration of the family and church to check the power of the state.
The Text: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation” (Rom. 13:1-2).
Summary of the Text
Our text charges every soul to be subject to the higher authorities, which incidentally includes all higher authorities (Rom. 13:1). All authorities have their authority assigned by God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only One who has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth (Rom. 13:1, Mt. 28:18). Resisting lawful authority is therefore resisting God and therefore is asking for God’s judgment (Rom. 13:2). And again, this includes authorities themselves: they must not resist their assignments or the assignments God has given to other authorities — otherwise they are asking for damnation (Rom. 13:2).
Delegated & Limited Authority
Remember that the Apostle Paul was a deft theologian who had something of a rap sheet. What he is explaining here is nothing other than what he lived out in all his run-ins with religious and political authorities. While Romans 13 has sometimes been abused to justify tyrannical authority, it is actually an incredibly freeing text and is one of the great Biblical texts insisting on limited government.
God has established three primary “higher authorities” in the world: parents, elders, and magistrates, establishing the governments of family, church, and state. Because these governments have their power from God, they do not have the freedom to redefine their assignments or jurisdictions – that would be resisting God and asking for His judgment (Rom. 13:2). This also means that each government is required to respect the jurisdictions of the other governments: parents, elders, and magistrates must be subject to one another in their respective jurisdictions (Rom. 13:1). A church that meddles in family matters is being tyrannical just as a magistrate who meddles in church matters is being tyrannical. There are sometimes matters that fall on the line or necessarily involve multiple jurisdictions, and in those cases God requires wisdom, taking responsibility, and careful delineation of duties.
Family Government
God has assigned to parents and families the jurisdiction of education and discipleship of children as well as caring for the basic welfare of the family (food, clothing, housing) and health care provision and decisions (Dt. 6, Eph. 5-6, 1 Tim. 5). This is why it was tyrannical for magistrates (or pastors) to try to force health care decisions during COVID. This is fundamentally why we object to government schools, government funding of private schools, as well as all other socialized forms of welfare and health care. It is disobedience to God because God has not assigned that authority to the civil magistrate. It is also inefficient, ineffective, and will always ultimately trend violent. Remember that taxes always come with the threat of coercion. In Scripture, Samuel warned the people that if they demanded a king like the other nations he would tax them up to 10% (1 Sam. 8). The implication is that a magistrate who taxes as much as God’s tithe is setting himself up as a god. That level of taxation is also an inherent attack on the government of the family, stealing what God intends to build the wealth and power and influence of families.
The Church is to be the backup support for the family (1 Tim. 5). While we may be grateful for all the rumbling about “school choice,” the goal we have to keep our eyes on is true liberty, which is families using their own money to fund their own educational choices, and churches and local communities helping (freely), not government funded “choice” via coercive taxes and wealth redistribution. The recent Idaho legislation is a tax credit, which means it is taking other peoples’ money and giving it to other people. We can be thankful that some folks may be able to get out of government schools, but it’s not yet truly freedom in education.
Civil Government
The magistrate’s primary assignment is the executing of God’s wrath on evildoers with the sword of justice (Rom. 13:4). This is a ministry of violence, which is why Christians must always think in terms of “limited government.” This justice is to be blind and impartial (Dt. 1:17), and it is to be based on due process (two or three witnesses) and strict retribution without pity (“eye for eye”) (Dt. 19:21). Incidentally, this is why you don’t want the civil government running health care or education: it will always trend violent. In every nation where socialized medicine takes root, give it fifteen minutes, and they start talking about euthanasia.
This violent ministry establishes the biblical legitimacy of the death penalty, especially for murder (Gen. 9:6). What Jesus prohibits is personal vengeance, but elsewhere He upholds the legitimacy of the death penalty (Mk. 7:10). We see the same principle at work in Romans 12-13: if your enemy has broken into your shop and you caught him and he’s thirsty, give him something to drink and call the cops.
By the same token, the Bible prohibits families from carrying out civil penalties (Dt. 21:18-21), and therefore, neither may the church. The standard for good and evil is God’s moral law found in the Ten Commandments and in the way those principles are applied in Old Testament civil law – what the Westminster Confession calls, “the general equity.”
Church Government
The church is assigned the authority of preaching, administering the sacraments, and church discipline (Mt. 28:19-20, 16:18-19, 18:15-20). The center of this is Lord’s Day worship, and this is why churches must guard against multiplying too many ministries or programs. This means teaching the whole Bible and applying it to all of life – and that requires constant teaching, preaching, writing, explaining – which is why we have given ourselves to this work in our community, but this does not mean micro-managing politicians or families in the assignments God has given to them.
This is why we insist that the separation of church and state is actually a biblical and Christian idea, not the invention of humanists. What they want is a separation of God and state, but that is to resist God and invite His judgment (Rom. 13:2). There is a long and glorious prophetic tradition where God’s ministers declare to kings and magistrates “thus says the Lord,” and we fully intend to carry on that tradition (e.g. Nathan, Elijah, John the Baptist, etc.).
Sins vs. Crimes
An important distinction that Christians need to keep in mind is the difference between sins and crimes. The reason this distinction matters in the first instance is because it identifies whose jurisdiction we’re talking about. Moral and religious people have a bad habit wanting to turn every bad thing into a crime, but crimes are the jurisdiction of the civil government. However, not all bad things are the jurisdiction of the civil government and therefore not all bad things are crimes (or should be). When the problem is poor education or health care, Christians should not be looking to the civil government for solutions, except in so far as we are asking the state to get out of the way. Christian families and businesses should be looking to solve those problems.
For example, covetousness is a sin, but it is not a crime. Hate is a sin, but it is not a crime, until or unless it turns into murder, theft, etc. Drunkenness is a sin, but we should have never passed the 18th Amendment. Sins are the jurisdiction of individuals, families, and churches, generally depending on the severity of the sin. We see this distinction first introduced in the Mosaic law: crimes may be generally identified as requiring restitution or violent punishment (“eye for eye”). But there are a number of commands in the Mosaic law that have no penalty attached them and there are others that only require ceremonial rites (washing, sacrifice, etc.). In a godly land, all crimes would be defined by Scripture and would also be sins, but not all sins would be crimes.
Conclusion
The central claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus is Lord. He is Lord because He is God and because He died for our sins and rose from the dead, triumphing over sin, death, and the devil. To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that He is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. This means that all authority is derived and delegated and therefore limited by Him personally and covenantally – beginning with self-government.
In other words, no human government is absolute. All human authority answers to Christ, and all human authority is required to answer to the other human authorities in the jurisdictions Christ has assigned. Every soul is to be subject to the higher powers: family power, church power, and civil power. Why? Because Jesus Christ is Lord. And for the same reason, when powers overstep their authority, “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” The Lordship of Jesus Christ is the foundation of all true liberty.
Prayer: Father, teach us to fully submit to Christ so that we may live in true freedom. Grant us this liberty in our land, as we take up the responsibilities You have given to us. And we ask for this Reformation in the name of Christ…
Photo by Vinayak Sharma on Unsplash
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