romans 13:1-7

To compliment our teaching “The Church: His Model” we have released a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) follow-up to assist in offering additional clarity on this complicated and controversial subject. In this presentation we are going to respond to a large number of questions surrounding this topic that we did not get covered in the main teaching. Some of these questions include:

• Does the Moses Model work?
• What about Paul appointing elders? Does this mean Paul had more authority?
• What about Hebrews 13:7 and 13:17?
• What is the Hebraic difference in the usage of elder, shepherd, or pastor?
• and more!!!

Before you proceed with the rest of this teaching, we ask that you watch the teaching titled, “The Church: His Model” first.

Should we be subjecting ourselves to the governing authorities even if they go against the Torah? What did Paul mean by his statements in Romans 13:1-7? 

Romans 13:1-7

Introduction: The Man Without a Country

I'd like to ask that you take your Bibles and look at Romans chapter 13. This is the third part of three in this series on the Christian and Government. Really, it's just one sermon in three parts. And as we come now, having understood already, the first two parts in Romans 13:1-7, we're coming to some ethical questions about how Christians relate to government.

Now, it's difficult to find a tale charged with stronger patriotism than that written by Edward Everett Hale in 1863, entitled "The man without a country." It was written at the height of the civil war and Hale's passion for the United States of America breathes in every line. The story is a compelling one about a man named Philip Nolan, who was unjustly charged with treason in 1807. And during that trial, he cried out, "Curse the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again."

The court was shocked, since many of those sitting in the court martial had fought and risked their lives and their possessions for the American Revolution. And so the judge icily granted Nolan's request, and exiled him to sail for the rest of his life on a series of naval vessels. The sailors having been commanded never to mention the United States to him, or give him any news of his former home country. Though defiant at first, Nolan eventually, bitterly regretted his rash words. A painful moment occurred for him when he overheard someone reading Sir Walter Scott's famous lines,

Breathes there the man with soul so dead

Who never to himself hath said

‘This is my own, my native land!’

Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,

As home his footsteps he hath turned,

From wandering on a foreign strand

By the end of his life, Nolan was probably the strongest patriot in the history of the country. Even though he had never been permitted to hear the name of the United States again, he had an estate room, a shrine with an American flag draped around a picture of George Washington. And he said to a sailor, "For your country boy, and for that flag", as he pointed to the ship's flag, "Never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids you, though the service carries you through a thousand hells. No matter what happens to you, no matter who flatters you, or abuses you, never look at another flag. Never let a night pass by, but you pray God to bless that flag. Remember boy, that behind all these men... Behind the officers and government, and people even there is the country, herself. Your country. And that you belong to her as you belong to your own mother, stand by her boy, as you would stand by your own mother."

Now, Hales intense patriotism is reflected in people all over the world. It's the same way that German people feel about the Fatherland, and Russian people feel about Mother Russia, and Chinese people feel about what they call the Middle Kingdom and what Japanese people feel about the land of the rising sun. It's their own, their native land. And if you've ever traveled and been abroad for a long period of time, I think you can relate to what Walter Scott said... "It feels good to be home."

The Call to Look to a Better Country

But I'm calling on us as Christians today to look to a better country. To a distant country that hasn't come to us yet, to embrace the words that the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:20. When he said, "Our citizenship is in Heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."

Our citizenship is in heaven and we're waiting for the time when we will be there, and we are homesick, at least I am homesick, for a place I have never seen. I'm homesick to come home to heaven, aren't you? And in the meantime while we can embrace patriotism at one level, and our native land and it's good to be home, those feelings, I believe are just a dim reflection of something that's going to be elevated to a much higher level, when at last, we see the Savior. When at last, we come into that new heaven and that new earth which is the home of righteousness.

And so understanding our relationship to our own, our native land, begins with properly understanding our status as aliens and strangers in this world... That we are just passing through. It starts even above that with understanding what it means that "Jesus is our king". He is ultimately our government.

It starts were living a life of faith that sees a future country. A better one, a heavenly one, as it says in Hebrews 11:13-16, of the faith-filled people. It says there, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised, they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, and they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things, show that they're looking for a country of their own, a heavenly one. Now, if they had been thinking about the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they are longing for a better country, a heavenly one, and therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them." The city of God, my friend... A better and heavenly country.

We are citizens of that if we're Christians. And what's so beautiful is that's true of people all over the world, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. One of the greatest evidences of the truth of our faith is, you can sit in an airport and find a man from Nigeria, or a woman from China, or a child even from Germany, and you can talk to them if you can get past the language issue. You can talk to them, and if they're Christians, you will have more in common with those people than you will with non-Christians from America, because that is our true home country.

I. Government in the Bible: Review of Basic Principles

Now, we've looked at Romans 13. And I just want to review what we've already learned about government, human government. We've seen that God is Lord of Heaven and Earth. He rules over all things, but that he delegates some of his sovereign power, his authority, he delegates to created beings. And he's going to judge those creative beings, governors, kings, rulers for what they do with their power, and he's going to judge those who are under their authority, about what they did with the relationship, as well.

We've also seen that although God has delegated his power, it doesn't mean he has released his sovereign control of the ebbs and flows of history. But God actively rules over the rise and fall of nations. We've seen that good government, as reflected in Romans 13, is a blessing from God. We've also touched on the fact that bad government, as revealed I think in Revelation 13, is a curse from the devil. And therein lies the problem. The pure and high picture of government in Romans 13 is not always the case. Seems to me that God has put human government... In history, he's put human government on display. And even the best governments have been tainted by human sin, have they not? And then there are the horrendous governments that have been openly embracing human sin. And so we've had our chance to rule, and Utopia has never come.

There's never been a perfect society in this world, but there will be some day when Jesus rules. Amen? And we're yearning for that day and looking forward to it. So we've seen that, and from these basic principles, we have two commands coming from Romans 13, one through seven. First, we are to submit to the governing authorities. And we saw that submission is a glad humbling of oneself below a God-ordained authority, for the sake of God and for his glory. We talked about that.

We've also talked about the need and the command that Paul gives to give to government, whatever we owe. Whether taxes or honor, respect, those things that are listed in Romans 13, we've already seen that.

II. Six Key Ethical Questions

Now, we began last week to look at some ethical questions that flow from Romans 13. Six ethical questions. Now, my purpose this week is to survey the terrain of the rest of these questions. That's right, to survey the terrain of the rest of these questions. Not finally to answer them. You all have the expectation to get out of here at a reasonable amount of time. Am I right? Okay. And we've got five more of these questions, and if I were to give suitable time to each one, we would be here for hours and hours. Books have been written about these things. What I want to do is, I want to lift up some of the main issues that come connected with these ethical questions, and try to show you how Christians have thought on both sides of some of these issues over the time. I'm trying to refrain from giving my own opinion on these matters. I'll try to share with you what I think as a Christian, but I tell you this... My word will not be the final word on these questions.

What I do want you to do is, I want you to understand how Christians have discussed these things. I want you to have respect for other Christians who disagree, and I'd like the discussions to continue. We live in a time when this country is at war. And these issues are majorly on people's thoughts and minds right now. The issue of the patriotism and of our responsibility to human government.

1) Limits to Obedience: Is submission to government absolute or are there limitations?

Now last week, we saw limits to human submission to government. We asked the question, is submission to government absolute or are there limitations? We answered yes, there are limitations. We saw the example of Peter and John, having been commanded by the Sanhedrin, not to speak or teach it all in the name of Jesus. This ran on direct contradiction to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. And so, the answer very clearly, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you, rather than God. We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." Now that's a key issue. When it comes down to this, judging for ourselves whether it's right to obey a human government rather than God, that word "rather" is key. And when we are brought to a place where we must choose, we must choose to obey God, and we saw therefore that our obedience to human government is limited.

2) Christians and War: Should a Christian fight for secular governments?

Now, let's look at this question of Christians and war. The question is, should a Christian fight for secular government? I want to bring before you two opposite case studies that have been in my mind over the last two weeks. Imagine, case study number one... You come upon a situation in which an innocent man is being bludgeoned to death along the road by some muggers. In effect, you've come on the scenario Jesus describes in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Only, he's not already lying by the side of the road bleeding, the mugging is actually going on. The question you have to ask is, "How could you rescue that helpless victim from the situation without using force?" And if you can't rescue the person without using force, are you obligated or allowed to use force to rescue him? And if the answer to that question is "yes," you're on the road to what we call a "just war approach." That Christians are obligated, in some cases, some will answer, or allowed to use force to rescue the innocent from human government.

Let me give you an opposite case. Imagine that you came upon two Christians who are arguing bitterly, and you knew them well and it seemed like they're very upset with each other. Would you make any effort to be a peacemaker in that situation? I would hope to think you would. You would make an effort to be a peacemaker. Suppose while it's going on, they got even more aggressive and started pulling out weapons and wanted to kill each other. Would your desire to be a peacemaker increase or decrease in that situation? Well, I would think it would increase except you have one thought, and that's you'd like to get out of it alive. But you would desire to bring peace between the two Christian brothers, who seem to have lost all perspective. And now want to kill each other. I assure you, Jesus did not have this in mind at the time of the foot-washing.

Is it okay, though if they're wearing uniforms of opposing countries during a time of war? Can you have one spirit-filled Christian sighting along a sniper rifle at another spirit-filled Christian also sighting along a rifle at you, at each other. Is this even possible? This is a logical absurdity. Is one of those two Christians failing to hear God correctly? And if you answer yes, you're along the road to pacifism. Herein lies the problem... Should Christians be involved in war? Now in World War I, this scenario that I described to you actually happened. There was a time in which British Christians and German Christians met in no man's land and celebrated Christmas.

And so they had a little celebration under a flag of truce, and they enjoyed that time of worship together, and the next day they went back to fighting again. What a strange scenario. How do we explain that? Are one or both of them hearing God wrongly?

Absurdity number one: The Good Samaritan stands idly by, waiting for the mugger to finish his work, so that he can begin his work of mercy. That's strange. Absurdity number two: The Spirit helping one Christian to kill another Christian while the same spirit is helping the other Christian to kill the first. That's an absurdity, and herein lies the problem... We're dealing with the tangled mess and irrationality of sin. And it leaves Christians literally not knowing what to do.

Three Different Positions: Activism, Pacifism, Selectivism

Now, there have been, in church history, three different views on this question. First, there's the view of activism. Basically, it's my country right or wrong. If the country says go to war, you need to go. Regardless of what you think about the cause, you go. That's called activism. Then there's pacifism, that basically a Christian should never be involved in war, for New Testament principles. Usually the arguments are made from the Sermon on the Mount, saying, We should not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, you should turn the other also. And then there's thirdly the view called selective-ism, the idea that Christians should get involved in the right wars for the right reasons, but not in the others. This is what you call The "just war" theory.

Now, in the Old Testament, there's ample evidence that war and the involvement of the people of God in war, is not in itself evil. In Genesis 14, Abraham gets 318 of his trained men and rescues his nephew Lot in the war of the seven kings, king of Sodom, and all those others, you can read about it, that's the first war described, and Abraham is right in the middle of it. God clearly commands Israel to participate in war as an agent of his wrath during the time of Joshua, when they took over the land of Canaan and drove out seven nations and destroyed them. God actually judges King Saul for not finishing the conquest of the Amalekites by leaving King Agag alive, and Samuel kills him and it's clearly in the text, pleasing to God that Samuel did it and displeasing that Saul didn't do it.

God blesses David for killing Goliath who was defying the armies of the living God. And David celebrates God's training of his hands for war in Psalm 144, verse one. It says, "Praise be to the Lord, my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle." Nehemiah rebuilds the wall of Jerusalem with the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other. God blesses Israel by defeating their enemies again and again, in answer to prayer or with the courageous actions of godly men. From this, it is clear that the Old Testament at least, does not call participation by the people of God in war itself and evil or wicked thing.

Now in the New Testament, nowhere is this basic idea openly contradicted. There are no commands anywhere for Christians not to be involved in warfare. John the Baptist, when speaking to soldiers... Soldiers come to John the Baptist and say, "What should we do?" he doesn't say, "Resign in position... Stop being a soldier", but he urges him to act morally and with integrity, as soldiers. Jesus himself uses a military analogy, about counting the cost. If you want to become a Christian, you have to count the cost and he says in Luke 14, "Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king, will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000?" Jesus doesn't there say that the enterprise of war is evil or wicked, he shouldn't be doing that, what he's saying is he shouldn't do it, if he's going to lose.

And he should figure out whether he's going to lose and if he can't, he's going to sue for peace. And so also, you should decide ahead of time if you've got the commitment that it takes to follow Christ right to the end of your life. At the end of the Book of Revelation at the end of the world, Christ is portrayed as riding at the head of the armies of heaven, who are clothed in white linen and his robe is dipped in blood, and on him is written, "King of Kings and Lord of Lords", and he comes conquering.

Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, celebrates... Again, this is in the New Testament, giving these examples of faith... Celebrates Old Testament warriors. This is Hebrews 11:32-34. It says, "What more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, all of those were involved in warfare. They're all listed together. And the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies."

This is right in the New Testament a display of faith. The Apostle Paul uses a military analogy for the Christian life, being like the life of a soldier. He said in 2Timothy 2, "Endure hardship with us as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to please his commanding officer." And so there's that military analogy. However, there are some key changes as well, in the New Testament. Christ example as the Prince of Peace, he lived out the turn-the-other-cheek mentality. When he was about to be arrested in the garden, and Peter wanted to use the sword to deliver him from that, he said, "Put your sword away for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." And then he said, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he would at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? But how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?" he chose not to. Clearly, he had the power to do it but chose not to.

And even more significantly, is Christ's statement to Pontius Pilate, when he said, "So you are a king?" And he said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest from the Jews. As it is, my Kingdom is from another place." Therefore, Jesus said his kingdom's different than any other kingdom that's ever been. Those kingdoms advanced by conquest, military conquest. His kingdom advances differently, and you find out from his teaching and from church history, Christ's kingdom, his true kingdom advances, not by killing, but by being willing to die. By taking up the cross. Daily in following Jesus.

Christ commands on the Sermon of Mount have already been listed not to resist an evil person, to turn the other cheek. Paul makes a statement that our warfare is not earthly warfare, but heavenly. He says, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we're ready to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." He says openly in Ephesians six, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world."

And then there's the issue of the worldwide advance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, basically it was clearly an us versus them situation. If they're across that stretch of land, they are bad people who don't know anything about the living God. Very clear, the Philistines or whatever. But in the New Testament era, the Gospel is commanded to be preached to every creature under Heaven. That Jesus is making a claim on every nation and that the Gospel must be preached to every tribe and language and people and nation. That command, brothers and sisters, was not given last week. For 2000 years the gospel has been permeating the world. There is no political nation on earth where there are not churches worshipping Jesus Christ. And therefore it's not so clear anymore who's across that space. We don't know who's over there. And therefore that absurdity that I talk to you about actually has happened again and again. Not just in World War I, but in the Civil War and in other wars. Most European Wars that was very much the issue.

C.S. Lewis

Now C.S. Lewis in 1941 published a strong tract on the issue of Christians involvement in war. He said that the Christian faith has made two great contributions to the issue of war and participation in war. First, pacifism, and second chivalry. Pacifism, he says, is an honest theological mistake. Now, he's writing, having been a soldier in World War I and it was in the height of the struggle between Great Britain and Germany, Nazi Germany at the time. He says that pacifism is an honest mistake and he says so because it's leaving the dirty work to others, that's the way he argued.

Instead he argues for chivalry. Now what is chivalry? You might think of Sir Galahad or Sir Lancelot or something like that. The formation of a chivalrous knight who's going to fight what we call the just war in the just way. And so the chivalrous knight is going to learn how to display extreme fierceness and extreme meekness and will have extreme wisdom to know when to do either one. And so he argues for chivalry. The just war fought in the just way.

Now, I say to you, first of all, only a just society can produce a just warrior. Only the church ultimately can produce somebody who could fight a just war in just a way. If it's to be done at all, it has to be done by the church. This would include soldiers being willing to not get involved in a war because it's unjust or if they're in a just war, disobeying an unjust command in the middle of that. Being willing to be court martialed. Say, "I will not bomb a civilian target, I will not gun down those POWs? I will not violate the principles of chivalry." Well, then you're going to be court martialed. They would actually welcome it because in this way they could be salt and light in their own society and prevent their society from becoming corrupt as any pagan nation might. Thus the chivalrous soldier is willing to lay down his life in a different sense so that his society will not become corrupt.

Now my strongest argument for Christian involvement in warfare is the need for Christians to be precisely that. Salt and light to prevent immoral decisions and actions and war. Without Christians acting as Salt to retire the spread of corruption, the gung-ho blind patriotism of some Marines or bomber pilots or rangers or Navy Seals or covert operatives coupled with their overwhelming weapon systems and their natural violence and their pride and their desire to use those weapon systems, will bubble over into wickedness. Only if there are Christians they are to retard it, will a conscience be maintained in the Army, the Navy, Air Force and the Marines. My strongest argument for Christians not being involved in warfare is the ever-increasing complexity of the modern scene. Urban fighting against non-uniform terrorists who use women and children as shields or even participants, makes fighting with chivalry very difficult.

So you're saying, "What's the answer?" Well, I didn't tell you I was going to give you an answer. I respect pacifism, but I think in the end the Christian is called to fight for the helpless who can't fight for himself. He's called to defend his wife and his children, he's called to defend. In the end I think this is right. Just war. I'm just saying it's getting harder and harder and harder.

3) Limits to Opposition: Is armed opposition to government ever permissible?

Now what about the questions of limit to opposition? Is armed opposition to government ever permissible? Now we've already seen that Christians must disobey evil commands given by their government. That's already clear. But here we're arguing something else. Should we go beyond disobeying evil commands given by a government to organizing ourselves militarily to try to topple what we perceived to be an evil government?

That's a different question. And what bothers me is, any arguments or defense of revolution tend to start with an individual case like the Hebrew Midwives or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego or Peter and John in front of the Sanhedrin. And argue from that to complete revolution, overturning of the government. You can't draw that. The Hebrew Midwives continued submissive to Pharaoh, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego continued submissive to Nebuchadnezzar. So did Daniel submissive to King Darius. And Peter and John as they could be submissive to the Sanhedrin.

So you're saying, "Well, what about the American Revolution? It may be on your mind. Our country was started by people who felt it right to overthrow the power and authority of King George. I've had numerous people come to me over the last two weeks, say, "What are you going to say about the American Revolution?" Well, we're just about out of time here actually as we're moving along and...

I said at one point, it's not looking too good for the American Revolution at this point. I will say this, there was a saturation of pastors and religious leaders who were in the forefront of the revolutionary movement. And who made strong and elaborate arguments. And they understood English law and the relationship between the king and Parliament and the people better than I do. There are limits even for pastors on how much we want to study Political Science. Okay? So as I read, I say, "I can see the arguments." They basically said that the government had been set up so that the king's power was in check by the Parliament and he didn't have absolute authority. 1688, the Glorious Revolution, set that up. So the Parliament was strong. And thus they were making this argument, no taxation without representation, saying basically the king had broken the Covenant.

But does that argue that the King should therefore be toppled and no longer have authority? That's a big leap. It's a leap I'm not able to make, but others are and I can respect them for that. And I also think that God can bless something that isn't born according to his will, but then after that flourishes in a wonderful way. But others disagree and say, "No, they were... " They can make a very strong and elaborate case for the American Revolution. There are other issues like in the 20th century in Nazism, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, had wrestled with his sense of loyalty as a German citizen to the regime, but he realized the regime was satanic, was wicked. And he didn't know what to do at first, but it became clearer and clearer that he needed to oppose Hitler. And so he was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler.

He was caught, his involvement was uncovered and he was hanged three weeks before the end of the war in Europe. This has been an issue again and again. Now, to resolve this, I think the answers end up being similar to the answers on pacifism or just war. The argument is, should Christians band together to try to defend the defenseless militarily? Some will say, "No, we should be willing to let the sovereignty of God rule and we will preach the Gospel and we'll be willing to die." And I can respect that. But others say, "How do you interfere and help someone who's being destroyed if the destroyer is government? Some argue you should never get involved unless you think you can win. They actually go to Jesus’ statement in Luke 14 that I mentioned earlier, you've got to count the cost and see if you can win, other than that it's just slaughter.

But some argue they're saying they're willing to do it. Ultimately from just war views, some people argue in that sense that revolution should occur. The one question I would ask of those that argue in that way, why do we have no examples or commands or even hints in the New Testament that Christians should band together to throw off Caesar who was wicked and evil and ungodly. Actually, Paul's continually saying, even in Romans 13, we should submit to governing authorities and seek to do right while refusing to obey individual and wicked commands.

4) Capital Punishment: Does government have the right to take human life?

On the question of capital punishment, does Government have the right to take human life? Simply put, yes. It's very clearly taught right here in this verse. Look at the verse 3-4, "Rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you for he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant and agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer."

Recently my family and I were on a tour in Washington, DC and we came to the Rayburn Building which is the congressional office building. And on the cover of your bulletin there's a picture of the statue that's out there, it's called the Majesty of Law, that's what it says engraved in the block of granite on which the statue is seated and so it's this intimidating looking guy with a long beard and he's holding a huge sword. That sword is a symbol of government's authority and specifically it's right to take life following due process of law. In Genesis 9:6, after the flood, God spoke these words, "Whoever sheds man's blood by man's blood shall his be shed for in the image of God has God made man."

What is capital punishment? Well, it's an execution of a criminal under legal authority, due process of law having been followed. Now, the Old Testament is filled with examples and laws concerning capital punishment. When the law of Moses was given on Mount Sinai there was a barrier put around the foot of the mountain and the law was given, if anyone jumps the barrier and goes up in the mountain, he will be put to death, no hand will be laid on him, but he'll be stoned or shot with arrows. Two chapters later, there is many capital crimes established in the Law of Moses, Exodus 21:12, "Anyone who strikes a man and kills them shall surely be put to death." Exodus 21:15, "Anyone who attacks his father or mother must be put to death." Verse 16, "Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells them or still has him when he is caught, must be put to death." "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death." And so clearly in the old testament, capital punishment is established.

Now, there are some arguments against capital punishment. They will say Israel was a unique nation of theocracy and its law is going to be reduplicated here. Some will say that Christ's death has forever displayed justice and therefore remove the need for capital punishment. Some say that Christ behavior toward the woman caught in adultery shows a pattern of mercy triumphing over judgment. Some Christians just simply point to the Ten Commandments and say, "You shall not kill." Which bothers me because I think the real command there is, "You shall not murder." Don't take it upon yourself not having been moved by God's command to take another human life, that's murder. But clearly there is killing commanded throughout the Bible that God commands people to do.

Also they say that capital punishment is frequently unjustly applied, perhaps to minorities or people who don't have means to hire a good lawyer. And they say therefore it should be removed because it's never being justly applied and then they will say, "There's no way to fix an error if a person is unjustly executed." And that is true, but still the Bible establishes this. Finally they will argue the capital punishment is no deterrent. Now, do you think that's true? That seems ridiculous to me.

Are you telling me in the midst of a fight somebody doesn't think, "If I do this, I might actually be executed." Of course it's in their mind. Besides with the Bible openly says that it's a deterrent. After commanding in Deuteronomy 13 that no Israelite should lead Israel to pursue other gods, this is what it says, "They shall be surely put to death." And it says "Then all Israel will hear and be afraid and no one among you will do such an evil thing again." To me that settles the issue of, is capital punishment a deterrent? Clear indication in scripture is that the government has a right to capital punishment, it's established and upheld by God.

5) Christians Participating in Government: How much and in what manner may a Christian participate in government?

Fifth, Christians participating in government. How much and in what manner may a Christian participate in government? Some Christians have openly embraced a union of church and state, direct role of Christians and secular government. A desire to see as much of the kingdom of God enacted in the laws of the state as possible. They generally come at it from an Old Testament point of view and they want to see Christ exercising dominion over every area of life and so they're going to argue for a complete union of church and state. They look to the Emperor Constantine who after he became a Christian just organized the church along the lines of the Roman Empire. Charlemagne, who created a unity between the Frankish Kingdom and the church that came to be known as Christendom. John Calvin who shaped Geneva as much like a theocracy as he could. And then the Puritans that followed him whether under Cromwell in England or in New England. They were not seeking a separation of church and state, but rather that God would be glorified in every area of human society, in government, in the church, in every area. In the marketplace they wanted Christ glorified.

Abraham Kuyper was a Dutch reformed scholar, professor and church leader. He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands in 1901 and 1905. He said this, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign overall, does not cry, 'Mine.'" And so Kuyper is arguing that Christ says all things are his and therefore Christians should exercise dominion over those things and be involved in government. However, there are Anabaptists and others, or Baptist forbearers, that argue very strongly for a separation of church and state. The first Anabaptist Confession, The Schleitheim Confession of 1527 basically argued that Christians should never participate in government at all for governments are armed with steel and iron but the Christians are armed with the armor of God and with truth, righteousness, peace, and faith.

You may not know this, but historically it was Baptists who argued for the separation of church and state during the time that the constitution was being founded and established in our country. Now, America is a Representative Democracy. We are able to influence things in our country. We are able to vote, we are able to lobby, we are able to influence decisions made by government, we can remove corrupt officials and presidents and we can impeach presidents. These things can happen. And so therefore Christians are asking different questions here. To what level should I be involved? Should I give my whole life to government issues? Should I be constantly writing letters? Should I be constantly picketing? What should I do?

It's a question of stewardship. There's been a rather unpleasant public debate between John MacArthur and James Dobson, two of the kind of stars in the Evangelical firmament in America. And they disagree on this issue. John MacArthur wrote a book entitled, Why Government Can't Save You. And basically he's saying that the best Christian response to abortion, homosexuality, drug abuse and other symptoms of moral decline in America is to preach the gospel. And what he said is, McArthur wrote this, "God does not call the church to influence the culture by promoting legislation." His theological basis for that is in Galatians 3:21. There it teaches that righteousness does not come by the law. It says, "For if a law had been given that could impart life then righteousness would certainly have come by the law." And what does government do but establish one law after another? Or argue the merits of a law. And what MacArthur is saying is righteousness doesn't come that way. So Christians should not be involved.

Dr. Dobson responded through Tom Minnery who wrote a book, Why You Can't Stay Silent. And he argued that Christians must speak out and get involved in the government process to the maximum amount because that's how we can be salt and light. There is a big problem with this complete involvement in politics. Take the issue of abortion or perhaps homosexuality or something like that. If you're going to get involved, you're going to try to build as big a coalition as you can. Because just Representative Democracy you're trying to get as many votes as you can, you're going to influence... Try to influence as many people as you can.

Phillip Johnson said, "This is a problem. When your political agenda involves forming alliances with Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Moonies and all kinds of humanistic moralists, you simply cannot afford to speak frankly about the exclusivity of Christ. It's an issue you can't bring up. You have to stifle the truth about justification by faith alone, because Roman Catholics who are your political allies reject that doctrine. You're better off in fact not to mention the name of Jesus Christ at all. Because Jewish people who are our political allies are sensitive about that. And so the Gospel is stifled as a consequence whenever people become political activists. They begin to trim away the offensive parts of the Gospel, it's the natural and inevitable consequence of moving to fight in the political arena. It happens all the time."

And so what I would urge as Christians, you should look to the issue of calling. I believe some Christians are called to get involved in lobbying the government. I think some Christians are called to be judges, policemen, congressmen, perhaps even presidents. I think each one of them should recognize the limitations of human government. It is only here to restrain evil until the Gospel can finish its work. If you don't understand that, you're gonna misunderstand. You're gonna think you're gonna go for utopian society that government can in the end save sinners and it cannot. So I think Christians should be involved as salt and light. But understand the limitations. And I think the rest of us should be faithful and preaching Gospel knowing that the issues of abortion and homosexuality and poverty and all the other issues that people try to address through legislation can only be solved by a transformation of the heart by the power of the Gospel and therefore that is the church's real power.

But I say to you, we should not judge someone else's servant. If God is calling that brother or that sister into an arena, you should support them and encourage them and not say, "they ought not to be involved in it."

6) Persecuted Christians: What should Christians do about governments who persecute Christians?

The final question is the question of persecuted Christians. Satan has had three greater attacks on the church over history. They are persecution, worldliness and false doctrine. Usually you get one of the first two, not both. Either the world surrounding the church is friendly toward the church and therefore lures it into softness and immorality and worldliness or the world surrounding the church is hostile to the church and persecute and attacks it. In both settings false doctrine can be involved. Do you perceive a shift in the relationship between the church and surrounding American culture over the last 30 years? I hope you do. If you trace it out, we are heading toward a hostile relationship with our surrounding culture and with the government. We have to be willing to be persecuted by our own government, not just the Christians in Sudan or in Persian Gulf states or in communist countries. Not just there, but even here.

And I say to you, this is the normal relationship of the church and government. All over the world and throughout most of time, the church has had a hostile relationship with the host government. And so Jesus said very, very plainly in Matthew 10, "Be on your guard against men. They will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account, you'll be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you'll be given what to say for it will not be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." Be ready to give a defense, be ready to stand for the exclusivity of Christ. Be ready to stand for righteousness. I think we're gonna have more and more opportunities as time goes on.

Now, what if the persecuting government is not our own government? What if it's another country like in Darfur or in a Muslim country or communist country? Well, first of all, recognize your limitations, how much can you do about that? Well, I think you can do a lot on your knees. And therefore it says in Hebrews 13:3, Remember those in prison," that means in prayer. "Remember in prayer those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." And remember them by supporting them financially, sending a help to them. As the apostle Paul said, when he was in prison people came to him and brought him food and clothing and supported him and were willing to risk their lives to do so. American Christians need to do that as well.

III. Summary and Application

Now, I have traced over these issues quickly. There's far more that we could say. My desire is that you would, having had a heightened awareness and needs to these issues, be able to talk to one another. The Scripture says, "As iron sharpen iron, so one man sharpens another." I'm in one sense glad that James Dobson and John MacArthur having this discussion because both of them have something valuable to say, frankly. And so they can sharpen one another. It's a very big temptation for someone involved in lobbying government to let go little by little on the salt and light of the Gospel itself and stop preaching Christ to their Jewish co-lobbyists or they're Muslim co-lobbyists. We need to share the Gospel boldly and stand for Christ. But all of this, you know what it's done? It's made me hungry and thirsty for Jesus to come back. These things are a mess. How can we finally resolve any of these things? It's too difficult for us.

And so I say, come Lord Jesus, set up your throne and rule over me and over all my brothers and sisters and over the world, that's what I say. I yearn for the day when Christ will come. Because Jesus shed his blood on the cross. Sinners like you and me can have our sins forgiven and we can enter a perfect kingdom where we won't have to wrestle with these seemingly insolvable problems. And so I'm going to finish with this quote from Isaiah. Chapter 9, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will rule on David's throne and over his kingdom from that time on and forever the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." Close with me in prayer.

Introduction: Life in Two Kingdoms

At the center of the universe, both visible and invisible, there is a throne, and seated on that throne is Almighty God. And if you had the privilege that the Apostle John did in Revelation 4, of hearing a command, "Come up here and I will show you," what you would see is you would see that throne with everything centered around that throne, and all of Heaven ordered around the will of the one seated on the throne. But we live in an Earth in which that fact, that central fact of the universe visible and invisible, is systematically obscured and denied by the father of all lies, Satan. The essence of his lie is rebellion against that thrown, that's the essence of it.

And we, the human race, joined in his rebellion through our ancestor Adam. And we have, as a race, been in rebellion ever since. And therefore the essence of the saving work of God is to take sinners like you and me, who are in essence, in rebellion against authority, in essence, in rebellion against God and restore us back into glad submission to that throne that I mentioned a moment ago. That's what he's doing. That is the saving work of Jesus Christ and therefore he began his Gospel ministry in Matthew 4:17, by preaching this "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And so I can't do any better than to say the same thing to you. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We have to repent. We have to come back under glad submission to the authority of God. That's the essence of our salvation and that's the joy of preaching that I actually could be instrumental through the power of the Spirit to help you and me do that very thing, repent and come gladly, under the yoke of Christ. Now, God, in His wisdom established human governments to help those who have not yet fully repented, who have not come back fully under the authority of that central throne to make it through this world without anarchy. And He has ordained human governments and He has ordained that we, His people, His adopted children should submit to those human governments.

Now in Romans 1-11, we saw 11 chapters of doctrine. And how it is that God has worked in history through Christ to take sinners, rebels like us and redeem us, save us, cover over our rebellion, transform us by the power of the Spirit into new creations and bring us into a whole new way of life. Romans 1-11 in about four seconds... Alright? A hundred sermons about four seconds of summary. That is what God is doing through the cross, he's taking sinners and bringing us back under the throne.

In chapters 12-16, He's explaining to us what our lives here in this world are going to look like as a result. Again, with Francis Schaeffer answering the question, "How then shall we live? How shall we live in light of Romans 1-11? And as we come to Romans 13:1-7, the issue is, how Shall a Christian, a spirit-filled Christian live with secular government? What is a godly way for us to live under secular government? In essence, the scripture is teaching that we are citizens of two different countries. And the fact that they are different makes for serious challenges.

Now, in the year 410 AD, the Western world was shocked to its foundation by a historical fact and that is that Alaric and the Goths sacked the city of Rome, burned it, they conquered the Western Roman Empire. It was shocking. Rome is burning, the eternal city under pagan boots, the Western Roman Empire conquered? And that was a little less than a 100 years after Constantine had declared himself to be a Christian. There were some critics, some pagans within the Western Roman Empire saying Christianity has weakened the Roman Empire. It did fine before Christianity became the official state religion. Now look, we're weak. And some wondered if with the fall of the so-called Eternal City, that Christianity would fall with it because the Roman Empire had been protecting Christianity, had been taking all of its might, and its political machinery and military strength, and protecting the Christian faith. So some people thought.

Well, there was a man at the time who knew better, and his name was Saint Augustine. And three years after the fall of Rome, he wrote one of the most greatest works, City of God. And what He says in the City of God is that basically Christians are members of an Eternal City but it isn't Rome. It's the Eternal City, the new Jerusalem which will come down out of heaven from God that we are citizens of the city of God but we are also citizens of another city, the city of man.

And the city of man is represented by the rise and fall of one human government after another. Characterized by wars and rumors of wars and good kings and bad kings and all kinds of politics and machinery and all of that, that's the city of man. The challenge is that we Christians are called to be good citizens of the city of God and the city of man at the same time, and that's a problem. Because the city of man is made up of sinners who rule and reign sometimes very unjustly. And we are led to a problem.

Now, this dual citizenship that we're talking about is clearly established in the life of the Apostle Paul. Paul was a Roman citizen and he claimed that status again and again consistently claimed to be a Roman citizen. For that's what he was. And he used it at a key times. For example, in Acts 22, he was being stretched out to be flogged by some Roman soldiers and he mentioned to one of them, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty?" Ahh. Shock? So they went and got the Roman commander and he hurried immediately to Paul and the commander went to Paul and says, "'Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?' 'Yes, I am,' he answered. Then the commander said, 'I had to pay a big price for my citizenship.' 'But I was born a citizen,' Paul replied," a Roman citizen.

But yet Paul says to the residents of Philippi who are Christians, who just by the fact that they were members of the city of Philippi, were also themselves Roman citizens. He said our citizenship, Philippians 3:20, is in heaven. "Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." We are citizens of whatever Rome we're under and we're also citizens of God. Citizens of the city of God.

Now, that dual citizenship is going to bring us into some problems. And those issues, those ethical questions have plagued and troubled brothers and sisters in Christ for 20 centuries. Now you have in your outline there six ethical questions. As I kept writing and writing and writing on this sermon and we passed the 20-page mark, I said, now, that's too much alright?

Because each one of those six ethical questions is the source of book after book, after book. And so therefore, we're going to have to do it in two weeks, not just this one week, but next week, and even then it will not be enough. We're going to talk about how we can be good citizens of the city of God and at the same time, good citizens of the city of man. We're going to ask some questions right in our text, we're going to ask questions. Is it lawful or right for Christians to pay taxes to a pagan government? Especially if we have a sense that that government is going to use our tax money for immoral things, what should we do about that? Right in our text, we'll look at that today. We're also going to start the first of those six ethical questions today, the others will remain till next week.

1. Are there limits to the obedience that Paul commands to secular government? Is submission to government absolute or are there limits to it? Next week, we're going to look at these.

2. Are there limits to opposition to secular government, for example, is armed revolt against a lawfully ordained government ever permissible?

3. We're going to talk about capital punishment, is it right for a human government to take human life?

4. We're going to talk about Christians participating in government, how much and in what manner, may Christians or ought Christian to participate in government?

5. And what about persecuted Christians, what should Christians do concerning the persecution of Christians by government either in our country or in other countries, what's our responsibility there?

6. And then this one question that has plagued so many, the issue of Christians in war, is it right for Christians to be involved in war? Should we follow the dictates of our government, if we're drafted or called to go fight for our country, etcetera, as citizens of a higher country are we to obey that call? We'll talk about that next week now.

We're not going to answer every single question. We're not going to solve every riddle that will rise in your mind. What then is our purpose? Well, to bring some clarity to these issues and specifically more than anything to make you yearn and long for the day when Jesus Christ himself will set up his throne and God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, Amen. And I'm yearning for that and yes, to try to bring some insight and some truth to each of these ethical questions.

My desire is that you would gladly happily submit to whatever authority God has established, to do it with delight and joy as far as you are able, but to have the wisdom to know when you are no longer able, when government for example, has crossed the line and is now compelling you to do something that will violate scripture or forbidding you to do something that God has commanded you to do, to know how to say no.

I. Government in the Bible: Basic Principles

Now, last time that we looked at this, we looked at some basic principles of human government in the Bible. First we established as I already did at the beginning of my sermon that God is Lord of Heaven and Earth. He rules over all things. Secondly, we talked about how God has delegated some of his authority to created beings. A third, we said that God will judge both the rulers and the subjects by how they handle the relationship. The rulers will be judged and the subjects, the citizens will be judged by what they do with it. Fourth, we said that God, actively, sovereignly rules over the ebbs and flows of history. He hasn't just let it go, he hasn't just delegated authority and then said, "Don't bother me with the details." God is intensely involved in the details and rules over all things.

And we talked about how good government is a blessing from God for which we should be grateful. That it restrains chaos and evil. That it promotes and demonstrates God's passion for justice. It promotes order and peace and this order and peace is essential to the spread of the Gospel and to the ability we have to lead productive and godly lives in quietness as it says in one passage. And that good government encourages love and good deeds. And the key passage for a government as a good thing is Romans 13, as we've seen.

We also said there's another theme and that is that bad government is a work of the devil, that bad government is a curse from the devil and the key passage on that is Revelation 13. It's easy to remember. There's a certain parallelism. Romans 13, government a good gift from God. Revelation 13, bad government a beast from the sea under the influence of the dragon, and that's what you have and therein lies the problem.

II. Command #1: Submit to Human Government

Now, the key passage for what we should do, Romans 13:1-7, Paul gives essentially, two basic commands. Command number one is submit for the Lord's sake, to every authority instituted among men. Submit to human government. And secondly, what we're going to look at this morning, give to the human government whatever it deserves, whatever you owe it, whether taxes or revenue, respect, honor whatever. And we'll talk about that today.

Now, the command to submit, verse one, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities." We talked about that. It means a glad submission, gladly accepting a subordinate position, because it is glorifying to God. Submission we saw it was not demeaning or insulting in any way, and this command was given to everybody. Every soul literally must submit himself to the governing authorities, but especially to Christians. We listed... Paul listed seven reasons in verse one through five, I'm not going to go through them again.

You can get the message and listen to it again. But, basically, Paul is saying Christians are not in the business of overthrowing Nero. We're not gonna be organizing to throw off the Roman government, that's not what we're about. We have another calling. And so, submit. That's what he says.

III. Command #2: Support Human Government

But he says here in the second command, they're to go beyond merely submitting, they're to actively support human government by paying taxes and revenue and respect and honor, look at verse six and seven. "This is also why you pay taxes for the authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue then revenue, if respect then respect, if honor then honor."

Was it shocking to you to see the cover photo there on the bulletin, that nasty 1040? You thought you were done with that a few weeks ago and here it is right on the cover of your worship bulletin of all things. What were they thinking? But that's how we pay taxes to the federal government. So it seemed appropriate to put the 1040 on there. This is what Paul is commanding. He's commanding that we should pay taxes. Now, resentment over the payment of taxes is not a new thing. Don't think it began with you when you finally started making enough money to have to pay a federal tax and file a 1040, it didn't start with You. Benjamin Franklin said "Nothing is certain but death and taxes." Do you think he spoke it gladly?

Was he speaking as an act of gladness and worship? I am so glad about those taxes we get to pay. It's an old thing. I think about the revolution itself, "taxation without representation." That was the issue. They did not think it was right for them to be taxed without having representation at parliament. Recently I was driving to the District of Columbia and I noticed that all of the license plates say the same thing, "Taxation Without Representation" at the bottom, why? Because DC's not the member of any state and so there's no senators from that city and so they're arguing for DC statehood as a result, taxation without representation. Got me to thinking I thought it was interesting.

Resentment over Taxes is an Ancient Issue

But it's an issue. And many people have expressed to me how much they hate filing their 1040. It's not a happy time, it's not something they look on as an act of worship but you know, resentment over taxes goes further back than that. Even to Bible times, taxes were a big issue of Jesus' life. If you think about where he was born in fulfillment of prophecy Bethlehem.

We know that it was because of the census that Caesar Augustus took of the entire Roman world, and behind that census (scholars are right in telling us) were taxes, so that the people would pay the tax and also so that they would have a sense of the population mass in each area, so they'd know how many troops to put, the legions... Where... How to distribute the legions. But it was about taxes. And so, because of taxes, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea.

But then in Jesus' ministry was a major feature. Tax collectors were among the most hated people that Jesus ever ministered to. Everybody hated the tax collectors. Tax collectors were Jews who had gone over to the Roman side and were benefiting from the Roman occupation by collecting taxes and with the might of the Roman authority and military strength behind them, sometimes, read every day, collecting more taxes than they really needed to collect. And so they were filthy rich and very hated by the people. Moreover, they were in constant conversation with Gentiles, eating and drinking with them and going in their houses and breaking all the kosher rules and all this kind of thing. They were just ritually unclean all the time, and so tax collectors were the epitome of evil people to most Jews.

Zealots hated the Romans, hated the tax collectors, hated the payment of tax and would have at any moment organized themselves and actually frequently did around that time, organize themselves to fight the Romans. Isn't it amazing how one of Jesus' disciples was Matthew the tax collector and another was Simon the zealot? And how both of them came to realize that allegiance to the city of God, the kingdom of Christ was higher than any of their earthly political callings and they became brothers and friends and loved each other deeply from the heart. Isn't it magnificent how God did that, how Christ brought them together. Now, Christ taught twice directly about taxes.

Taxes and Christ

Once was about the temple tax, the money that you would have to pay to go worship. And Jesus asked Peter, a principle, said, "'From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes, from their own sons or from others?' 'From others,' Peter said. 'Then the sons are exempt.'" Jesus said. What an interesting statement. In other words, should a son have to pay money to get in his own home? Now, before you parents get any ideas as a fundraising measure and all that, it will not work because the money they're giving you, for the most part, it'll be your own money anyway, and you'd just be building up resentment, charging your kids to get in the door, alright don't do it.

Jesus said, No, They're free to come and go. Why should we have to pay money to be in my Father's house? "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line fishermen and take the first fish you catch, and open its mouth, and there inside the mouth, you'll find what you need to pay the tax four drachma coin. Take it and use it for my tax and yours."

You're thinking. "Oh, Lord, do it for me, do it for me." I'm wondering what would be in a fish's mouth that would be enough to pay the federal government at this point. Any check in there is long since disgusting, and you can't cash it. So I'm not sure what it would be. Federal government took in $2.1 trillion in tax money last year, spent 2.4 trillion. We'll get to that next time. But $2.1 trillion, that's a lot of money. But the more direct teaching on taxes came in Matthew 22 when some of Jesus' enemies came to try to get him in trouble concerning the tax money paid to the Romans. And they came to trap Him and said, "Is it right?" They come to Him, the Pharisees come with Herodians and they say, "Teacher, we know that you're a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, since you pay no attention to who they are," that is all fluff.

You can just cut that and throw it in the garbage that is flattery, and Jesus knew it. "Tell us… is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Now we get to it, let's not waste time on the flatter. Let's get to the point, Jesus said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?" Now, what is the trap? If Jesus says it is unlawful for us to have to pay money to stay in our own Promised Land, God promises to Abraham and we should not be paying taxes to the Romans as a result, what do you think is going to happen to Jesus. Next day, Romans come and they get him, and they kill him. But suppose he says "Or yes, we do need to pay taxes to the Romans. Romans are our rightful overlords," then the zealots are going to get him. Either way, they get rid of Jesus. And that was their goal.

So he said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax." Oh, the brilliance of Jesus. We're playing Tiddlywinks, he's playing 80 million level chess, at the higher level. You think you can trap Jesus, the mind that created the universe? You think you can put him where he doesn't want to be and he can't get out? "'Show me the coin used for paying the tax.' They brought Him a Denarius. 'Whose portrait is this, and whose inscription?' 'Caesars,' they replied. Then he said to them, 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God's."

They were amazed. What are we going to do with that? We can't do anything with that. He openly said we should pay taxes to Caesar, we can't get him but then he says we should give to God what is God's. And what are the zealots going to say about that, other than hopefully to be humbled to know they're not giving to God everything he deserves. Oh, what an answer. That is the backdrop of Paul's command here in Romans 13:6-7. Yes, you should pay taxes. And Paul's reasoning, here in verse six, he said, this is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants. Do you see that word servants in verse six? The authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing.

Literally, God's ministers, like a minister of the gospel, Paul uses the exact same word in Romans 15:16, Paul there calls himself a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God. He uses the exact same word for the Governor Official. He's a minister of God with the priestly duty of keeping society together. It's just a different calling, he says. Very high view here. And therefore, the taxes you pay as you render to Caesar what's Caesar's enables that servant of God to do His work. They must be supported financially, because they give their full time to governing and so they have to be supported, so pay them the taxes.

Taxes to a Pagan Empire?

Now, some Christians might have objected to paying taxes to a pagan empire and a wicked ruler like Nero. They might say, "Why should we take God's money and give it in support to a wicked empire like that to help advance a wicked anti-Christian Empire?" they might have struggled with that. Does God really expect us to contribute financially to that? His answer is, Yes, that's your responsibility, it's his responsibility what he does with it and he'll stand accountable for what he does. But you must pay that tax. Christians struggle with that, I might say is it right for me to pay taxes to a federal government whose goal is to keep abortion safe, legal, and funded?

Do you want your money going for that? I don't. I was thinking of another idea. You know how in some churches, you can designate giving? Why don't we do that with the federal government, we designate our taxes. I'd like it going to bridges and roads. Well, I favor educational programs. I'm into famine relief, relief for the poor, whatever. Well, can you imagine what society would look like, the things that would be super over-funded, and the other things that would not even be touched? It would be kind of interesting. I don't think that my plan is going to be adopted designated giving to the federal government, I don't think so.

They will decide what they do with the taxes, and they're responsible for their decisions, aren't they? But you must pay taxes.

Paul Goes Beyond Taxes

But Paul goes beyond the basic level of paying taxes. He says in verse seven, "Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes. Yes. But if revenue then revenue, if respect then respect, if honor then honor." There's a sense of obligation and debt here. We owe these people more than just the taxes. Yes, the taxes, the tribute, the word taxes, this is usually collected from all individual citizens as a tribute to the Roman overlord just to keep the government going. But then there's this other word revenues. These are fees and taxes more like a sales tax or a poll tax for using... Bringing a ship into a port of entry or using a bridge or some of these other things like a toll road.

When I was in Japan, my wife and I, we crossed over one of the longest bridges in the world, the Seto Ohashi bridge, and it's actually a series of long bridges that connects the Island of Shikoku to the main land... Main island of Honshu, and it was an incredible bridge but it cost as almost actually over $100, the equivalent of $100 to drive it. I thought what a tax! I'd rather swim, of course, I wouldn't have made it. $100 to cross a bridge? Wow!

Yeah. Pay taxes, whatever it is. But go beyond just the payment. There's the issue of fear and honor, a sense of respect. Every society has its way of showing respect to leaders. If you were going to meet the Queen of England, you might first have an interview with the protocol officer who'd tell you what you as a commoner would be required to do and you better do it if you ever hope to have another audience which you probably won't get anyway. But the point is that you are going to show respect to the Queen of England in a certain way. And what Paul's saying here is, that's appropriate. Do it. Do it. Whatever it takes.

When I was in Kenya, on another mission trip, I saw the President of the country, Daniel Arap Moi. He was driving through a little town named after him called Moi's Bridge, and I was standing there surrounded my Kenyan friends, and for some reason I stood out. I don't know why, but I just did, and he saw me and pointed and waved. So I was wondering why but at any rate, maybe he just knew I was a guest in his home town. But he carried a Maasai stick, an older man's or an elder of the tribe stick as a symbol of his authority in the government.

I asked one of my friends, I said, "If somebody came and kinda grabbed that stick, what would happen to him?" He said, "He wouldn't get two steps. He'd be cut down. It's a symbol of his presidential authority." And so it is also these protocols. In our country, we say to the President, Mr. President. Yes sir and no sir, that's what you do, and what Paul's saying is it's appropriate.

When you're in a court of law, you say Yes, your honor, no your Honor. You just do, and that's appropriate. It's right. And these things are taught in families to begin with, aren't they? Children should address their parents reverentially. There should be titles of respect. Some families say yes or no sir, others. Yes mom, no mom, something like that but not just, Yeah, or whatever, as though the person you're talking to is a Yeah or whatever kind of person.

Those people that we're referring to are referred to in the 10 Commandments. Written with the finger of God, Honor your father and mother, there it says, and so therefore you honor them by a show of honor, by speaking title of respect, and from then the parents should be saying any other governmental authority, whatever show respect, speak with respect to them from the very beginning. So therefore, how should Christians live with government?

Well, we should understand that in so doing all of this submission, paying taxes, titles of honor, we are really worshiping God, aren't we? It's all flowing down from God's throne. It is a gift of the wise and loving God. And so therefore, every way that we show honor and that we submit, we're really worshiping God, aren't we? We're doing it because He established. And we're doing it in hope looking forward to the day when it will be Christ and Christ alone, directly and we will worship Him. It's an act of worship.

IV. Six Key Ethical Questions

Now, six key ethical questions in the two hours we have left. Why are you laughing? No, we'll just do one of them.

Limits to Obedience: Is submission to government absolute or are there limitations?

And the first is, okay, you've given the command, we should submit. The question is, is that absolute? Is it absolute? Does Government have the right to command any and everything it will to us and we must obey? That is an important question.

Some Christians have taken Romans 13 as a requirement for unquestioning submission to human government. Others have taken the submission quite far. For example, Martin Luther did, German reformer. During the peasant Revolt of 1525, when the peasants who had legitimate grievances against their medieval overlords and who were legitimately right in bringing these grievances to the attention of their lords were not receiving any proper response and decided to revolt, the peasant Revolt of 1525, they thought that they would get support from Luther. Oh, how bitterly disappointed they were when Luther wrote one of his most vicious tracks ever, 1525 against the murderous and thieving hoards of peasants. That's not looking good, if you're a peasant reading that saying I don't think it's looking good. You open it up and you read. And he says to the princes and Nobles that they should crush kill and destroy these rebellious peasants. And his basic argumentation was they were rebelling against what God had ordained, God-ordained authority.

The German sense of duty and submission to authority is a very strong national trait. They have a very strong sense of a chain of command. And we saw in the time of Hitler and the Nazis, the extreme form of this. As the Nazis took over the Protestant church in Germany, and made it its whipped pup with the exception of some courageous pastors who formed the Confessing Church and Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of those and were willing to pay the price for rebellion against Nazi domination over the church. But they argued Romans 13, Romans 13, Romans 13.

This question of the limits of Christian submission to government is really an old one and the Bible has much to say about it. Peter and John were commanded by the Sanhedrin. They were given a very clear command by the Sanhedrin to stop preaching Christ and His resurrection. And their answer, Peter and John's answer in my opinion, stands for all time as a limit to Christian submission to government, a limit to it. In Acts 4:18-19, they called them in again, and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus, but Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God for we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Alright, now what's the key though? Judge for yourselves whether it's right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. Now that "rather than" is huge, isn't it? You have to discern, are you forced to disobey God by this government injunction? Are you being forced to do something that violates your conscience? Are you being forbidden to do something that God's commanded you to do? Now, that's the issue.

Later on in Acts the same issue comes up again. They call them back in. Say we noticed you're not obeying the command we gave you earlier. Well, they could say we already told you, and they did tell them again in Acts Chapter five, having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "'We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.' Peter and the other apostles, replied, 'We must obey God rather than men.'" Again, "rather than". When the government forces you to violate your conscience, compelling you to do something that you know will break one of God's commandments or when the government forbids you to do something God has commanded you to do, you must say no. There's a limit to obedience, a limit to what the government can do with us.

And it goes even into the Old Testament. The Hebrew midwives were blessed by God by disobeying, after disobeying Pharaoh's command to kill all the boy babies, they were blessed by God for that. And the Book of Daniel gives us actually repeated examples of godly people who refuse to obey an ungodly command and yet maintained a stance of submission to the government. Daniel and his friends would not eat the defiled food in chapter one, but they asked permission not to eat the defiled food. In Daniel Chapter three, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego will not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's gold statue. They're thrown in a fiery furnace but God rescues them. And then Nebuchadnezzar comes and gives them a lawful command. "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out, come here."

Now, I've thought before they should said, "Come in and get us. Deal with that right now." Of course that's me speaking because I'm kind of rebellious at heart and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not. They said, "Yes, King." And they came out. They did what they were told, it was a lawful command. Come out. Alright, that doesn't violate my conscience, bowing down does. You see the distinction? There's a difference.

And then later, Daniel refused to obey the unjust command of prohibition against prayer. He was prohibited from praying to God. He could pray to king Darius but he was not allowed to pray to the true God. He went ahead and bowed down and was thrown in the lion's den. And he says, when he's brought out, he says, "I was found innocent in his [God's] sight nor have I done anything against you, O King." He was submissive to the king's authority but not on that point. And so he refused to obey.

Christians suffering persecution under the Romans were forced to burn a pinch of incense to the deity of the Roman Emperor. They refused to do it, that would violate their conscience and many of them suffered as martyrs, as a result. Now, I tell you and be ready for it, be ready for it. So I don't know what the future holds. But in the future when human government gets as evil as it can be under the reign of the anti-Christ, the government at that time will try to compel you to receive the mark of the beast without which you will not be able to buy or sell. And you will need to discern and have the wisdom, it says, to know what the mark of the beast is and not receive it. You will need to stand firm. And apparently, anyone who does not receive the mark of the beast is going to be beheaded. You will need to resist the government at this point, because the command is evil, and wicked.

And so it says in Revelation 13:16-17, "He [the anti-Christ] also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." What's so bad about that? Well, Revelation 14, "A third angel followed them, said in a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he too will drink the cup of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest, day or night for those who worship the beast and his image."

In other words, in that era, if you don't defy human government, you will lose your soul. And this is the horns of the dilemma of living in two kingdoms. Do you see it? God has said No, the government will say yes, and you'll be forced. Be ready, be ready for that time. God will give you courage what to say. Why would you want to keep living under anti-Christ reign, anyway, when you could live under the reign of Christ, when you can be freed from this world by martyrdom, and go into the very presence of Christ. Why would you refuse to do that? And you won't if you're the elect of God, not one of you will. Just be ready, be aware it could happen in your lifetime or mine. Romans 13 says we must gladly as an act of worship submit to lawfully ordained authority. We must do that but there are limits to it.

V. Summary and Application

Now, what application can we take from this? Well, I would urge you to find the points inside you in which you are chafing under human authority and government and work on them. Humble yourself. I had an experience this past week, I went to Louisville to a great conference, had a great time, until I got to the Louisville Airport. And here I am. You preach on something and within a week or two, you're facing it. And there I was at the checkpoint thing again, taking my shoes off, dumping out my bag, spilling stuff on the ground, getting out my laptop, taking my belt off, hoping that I didn't need it for the next minute or so. I didn't. Everything was fine but it's very disturbing fluttering time. And you've got 10 people behind you, and I'm kind of a people pleaser. I want to just get through it as quickly as possible.

And there on the other side is a guy who looked like he'd come straight from the Marines or something, 6'2", crew cut, looking kind of beyond me, over my shoulder. "Step forward, sir." It was kind of disturbing. Well, I had put my boarding pass and my driver's license in my breast pocket here for safekeeping. Have you ever put something for safe keeping and then you can't find it? Now, that document had already been checked four times. I do not exaggerate. But I stepped through the metal detector clean as a whistle, with pure intention in my heart. And he said, "Boarding pass." and so I went down here where I usually put it and it wasn't there. I thought I probably has dumped it on top. So I took a step forward toward the other side of the metal detector... Or the scanner thing. And he barked at me to freeze my blood, "Sir, not another step." "Ooooh boy, I am not a terrorist."

So what it says in 1 John 3, The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. I'm not a terrorist. I'm a nice guy, really I am. The way it burned inside of me. I didn't want to be under a barked command of judgment. I just stood there kind of seething, actually, a little bit until I remembered, "Thank you, Lord. Oh yes, here it is." Showed it to him, he didn't say a word, just handed it back. Imagine if I said, "I want another connection with him. I wanted to have coffee with him or something, sit down and talk to him." But instead I felt something boiling inside me. And I have been working on it now ever since. And some of it, I think, is righteous in that I don't think we want to be barked at as an act of condemnation and all that. And if he knew me, if I were his brother or friend, he wouldn't talk to me like that, etcetera, but there's a reason he talks like that. And that's because of the evil in the world and he doesn't know me.

And so for me, I have to pitch all those negative feelings and say, "Thank you, God, for people like that, who are standing at the post and doing their job. And if I'm so dunce headed as to not keep the thing in my hand, then that's my problem, next time I'll do better." As an act of worship, be glad of these people that are manning these posts while there's a need.

But let me tell you something, yearn for the day when they won't be needed anymore. Yearn for it. And if I can say to you, with all the love of my heart, if you're here today and you have never bowed the knee to Jesus as Savior and Lord, the barked command of that guard, that border guard, will be nothing compared to the statement that Jesus will make, "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Oh, dread and fear that day if you don't know Jesus.

Jesus came and shed his blood so that now while you have time, you can believe in Him, you can bow your knee to him as your King, as your savior and accept him and yearn for the day when he will openly reign. You won't need faith then but you need it now. And if you do, your sins will be forgiven you, all of them. And he will take you into his eternal kingdom and you will reign with Him forever and ever. Close with me in prayer.

Introduction: Spartacus and Christ... Two Different Approaches to the Roman Empire

This morning, we're going to be looking at Romans 13:1-7 and talking the Christian and government. In 73 BC, a slave from Thrace named Spartacus was being trained at the gladiatorial school in Capua. He escaped with 70 or 80 other gladiators, men who are being trained to fight with the sword in the Coliseum in Rome. They seized knives from the cook shop, and they captured also a cartload of weapons and they camped on Mount Vesuvius and were joined by other rural slaves in open rebellion against the Roman Empire. Over two years, Spartacus led this rebellion, an astonishing uprising of slaves right in the heartland of the Roman Empire. At its height, the revolt included 120,000 escaped slaves who are in open defiance and rebellion against the authority of the Roman Empire.

Initially, the Roman government took Spartacus too lightly. But eventually, they realized the threat and they recalled all of their strongest commanders from the field and brought them back to the Italian Peninsula, from the distant shores where they are fighting. For example, Pompey and his legions marched overland from Spain and came down that way. Lucullus and his legions landed at Brundisium, on the Italian heel, and they trapped Spartacus and his slave army and converging, they crushed him totally. And as a reprisal and as an example to other slaves, they crucified 6000 of them along the Appian Way leading all the way to Rome. And there, ended Spartacus' open rebellion against the Roman Empire.

Almost exactly a hundred years later, Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem being proclaimed as the coming Savior, the Messiah, the King with palm branches but then he was arrested later that week and arraigned before the Roman governor, the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate. The interview between the two of them is recorded in John 18:

"Pilate went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. As it is, my kingdom is from another place.' 'You are a king then,' said Pilate. Jesus said, 'You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this, I came into the world: To testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.' 'What is truth?' said Pilate. And then he went back outside and said to the Jews, I find no basis for a charge against him."

Now, Jesus spoke the truth, he was and is a king. But he also said, "My kingdom is not of this world," it doesn't derive its origin from this world, it's not coming from this world, it doesn't follow the world's patterns. "If it were," Jesus said, "my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews." Now, as providence and the sovereignty of God and his zeal for the glory of his Son would have it, Jesus' kingdom advanced over the next three centuries and spiritually conquered the Roman Empire, to the glory of God. But it would not advance in the ordinary way, it would not advance by killing but by dying. It would not advance by hatred but by love for enemies.

Spartacus' revolt is man's way. Jesus' kingdom is God's way. And part of that is the command in Romans 13 for Christians to be in happy, glad subjection, submission to God-ordained authority, to government. And in this, Paul is giving us another aspect of that supernatural Christian life that we've been talking about, the life that results from the doctrine that we studied over many years, Romans 1-11, that explains the gospel of Jesus Christ, the foundation of our right relationship with God. And then answers that great question, "How then shall we live?" Part of that is Paul's answer here in Romans 13, "How shall we live in reference to secular governments?" And Paul here in Romans 13:1-7 gives two basic commands. We're going to look at one of them today and another with some implications the next time we look at this text.

The first command is basically submit. The second command is give to government what you owe it, whether taxes or honor or respect. That is what Paul commands.

I. Government in the Bible: Basic Principles

God Actively Rules Heaven and Earth

Now, let's talk first of all about basic principles from Scripture about government. We start with this one, God actively rules heaven and earth. He reigns over all things. Acts 17:24, it says, "The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth," the Apostle Paul says. Also in Psalm 103:19, it says, "The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all." He is sovereign, he is king, he rules over this earth.

God Delegates Some of His Authority to Created Beings

Secondly, and this is not in your outline, somehow it got deleted, but the second principle I want to give you is that God delegates some of his authority to created beings. He gives his authority to created beings and they are to use that authority. Genesis 1:16, it says that God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, that's the sun; the lesser light to govern the moon. In like manner then he creates human beings in the image of God. In Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule…" "Let them rule, over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God delegates to created beings some of his authority. This is true also in the heavenly realms, which we cannot see, we cannot perceive it by five senses, but we know of archangels, ruler angels who ruled over other angels. There is order in the heavenly realms, and this is reflected even in terms of Satan's kingdom, which is spoken of in terms of rulers and authorities, and powers, and dominions. There is order in the heavenly realms, though we cannot see it. So also, there is order here on earth. Ephesians 6:1-3 says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." So, God delegates some of his authority to created beings.

God Will Judge Both Governors and Subjects

Thirdly, God will judge both governors and citizens, both governors and the subjects of their reign for how they carry themselves. God holds created beings accountable for their actions. He will judge kings for how they govern. He will judge their subjects or citizens for how they respond to the government. A clear example of this is in Ephesians 6:9 where it says, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him." In other words, masters, you're going to stand before your master some day and give an account for how you treated your slaves, and so therefore, handle it properly. God will bring to judgment both kings and subjects based on how they handle the relationship.

God Sovereignly Rules Over Both Governors and Subjects

Fourthly, God actively and sovereignly rules over governments day-to-day. He doesn't just delegate to them and then lets it go. But he is actively guiding human history, ruling over all things. Jesus is the King of Kings, isn't that marvelous? To know that he is actively reigning over governments, no matter how wicked they may seem to us, and they are wicked, still Christ reigns. It says in Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, he directs it like a watercourse whichever way he chooses." And I like this in Daniel chapter 7, a great chapter, Daniel. Daniel has a vision of the sea and up out of the sea come beasts one after the other, four beasts. Each of these beasts represents a human government, a human empire one after the other, the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire coming up out of the sea, one after the other. They are beasts, and he looks at it.

And it says, concerning that fourth beast, interpreted to be Rome, it says this, in Daniel 7:23-26, "The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on the earth, it will be different from all the other kingdoms and it will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The 10 horns or 10 kings who will come from this kingdom, after them another king will rise different from the earlier ones and he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and he will oppress his saints, and he will try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time. But, then the court will sit and his power will be taken away and he will be completely destroyed forever." You see the active rule of heaven over these evil kingdoms. The best example of this is in the death of Christ.

In Acts chapter 4, the church met together to consider the escalating persecution by the Jews, the Sanhedrin, and by the Romans. And they prayed about it, and in their prayer they quote Scripture. Psalm 2, "The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Indeed, they say Herod and Pontius Pilate met together in the city with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus. [Listen] They did what your power and will had determined ahead of time should happen." God actively rules over human governments day-to-day.

Good Government is a Blessing

Fifth, good government is a blessing from God. That's the basic idea of Romans 13, good government is a blessing from God. Listen to the preamble of the Constitution, it says there, "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America." Well, that's a list of blessings. Those are good things. All of them can be supported in Scripture. That's why the Constitution was written, that's what the government was for. Good government is a blessing from God.

Government restrains chaos and evil

Well, how so? Well, first, it restrains chaos and evil. Do you know that today is the three-year anniversary of the conquest of Baghdad by the troops, the American troops? Today, April 9, 2003, Saddam's statue was pulled down, perhaps the most visible symbol of the toppling of his regime. But even a wicked government has this good effect, it restrains evil and chaos. Do you remember what happened after the government was toppled, the anarchy that ruled in Baghdad? While the military was still pursuing military targets and there really was no police force in Baghdad, Washington Post wrote a story about a month later, May 13, 2003, and this is what it said, "The reports of carjackings, assaults, and forced evictions grew today, adding to an impression that recent improvements and security were evaporating. Fires burned anew and several Iraqi government buildings and looting resumed at one of former President Saddam Hussein's palaces. The sound of gunfire, rattled during the night, many residents said they were keeping their children home from school during the day. Even traffic was affected as drivers ignored rules in the absence of Iraqi police, only to crash and cause tie-ups."

"Police officers, prohibited by US forces from carrying anything other than a side arm, are wary of confronting antagonists who can outgun them. The overall situation is further complicated by a disabled court system and a lack of functioning jails. Carjackings have been particularly frequent. A furniture salesman, Abdul Salam Hussein, [probably no family relation, I would hope anyway] said he watched through the picture window of his store as gunmen chased down a Peugeot sedan on a busy square, ordered the occupants into the street and sped away. They had weapons, he said. No one could do anything to help."

Now, the government of Saddam Hussein's was a wicked government, evil. It's better that it's not there, but in the absence even of that evil government, look what happens. People's wickedness floats to the surface, people take advantage of the situation. We saw the same in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As you see pictures or reports of looters going all over the place, and then private citizens guarding their possessions with weapons and willing to gun down anybody who steps on their property. It's anarchy. So even bad government restrains evil and chaos. Without government, might makes right and anarchy rules.

1 John 3:4, it says, "Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness." Without government, you'll see that all over the place, sin is lawlessness. Now, some intellectuals in the West have openly espoused anarchy based on a utopian view of society and an overly optimistic view of human nature. "We can get along without government," they say. Well, the problem is Romans 3:10-18 has already diagnosed the human heart. "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit, the poison of vipers is on their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now you take government away and this is what you have. You'll see it lived out right in front of you.

Without government, people's sin nature runs wild and loss of life, liberty, and property, without due process of law occurs constantly. Without government, we Christians who are basically sheep-like, peace-loving kind of people would have to hide in the hills, as in the days of the Book of Judges with Gideon and just venture forth to see what's left in the streets to eat and then go back up in the hills. It would be a very dangerous place to live.

Government demonstrates God’s passion for justice

Secondly, government also demonstrates God's passion for justice. Governments, police, court systems give daily picture of judgment day. Every night, on the local news, you can see somebody getting arrested, or somebody being arraigned, or somebody being convicted, or somebody being brought off to prison and these images are in our minds all the time. They are a picture of judgment day, aren't they? We see it everyday, it's just a display of God's basic nature to bring things to justice, to deal with things. The court was seated and the books were opened, it says in Revelation 20. Well, we have a picture of that because of government.

Government promotes order and peace

Thirdly, government promotes order and peace. With the natural tendency of humans to evil being checked and restrained, then a basic level of peace and order can be established, and this enables people to live orderly and peaceful lives.

Order and peace is essential to the spread of the gospel

Fourthly, this order and peace is essential to the gospel advance. How can we preach the gospel if there's rioting and looting in the streets? If you're cowering up in the hills and you're not sure where your next meal is going to come from, how are you going to share the gospel with your neighbor? It's going to be hard. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, he says, "I urge then, first of all that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and for all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness, this is good and pleases God our Savior who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." Do you see how Paul connects government and the orderliness of society with the advance of the gospel? God's desire is to get people saved, and so you got to pray for governments that they would do their job well so that we can advance the gospel. So we need the quiet orderliness that government provides so that we can share.

Order and peace is also essential to general productivity

Now, fifth, order and peace is also essential to general productivity. Governments maintain infrastructure, like roads and bridges and ports and emergency things like 911, hospitals, ambulances, fire departments; these things come from government. Good governments also manage economic opportunities in a way conducive to the general welfare. Now this enables Christians to obey Paul's command in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, where he says, "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." Without government keeping everything under control, you can't do this. God can't put your daily quiet life on display, your hard work with your hands. Instead, again, you'd be running and cowering and trying to survive the day. And so as a result, good things happen with the order of government.

And government encourages love and good deeds. It says in Romans 13:4, "The ruler is God's servant to do you good." So, good government is a blessing from God.

Bad Government is a Curse

Bad government is a curse from the devil. He's a governor, he's a king, he's a ruler, and he rebelled against God, not God-ordained authority, he rebelled against God. And so bad government is in the image of the devil. And it is essentially rebellious, it promotes evil and chaos.

I was reading a book about the history of the civil rights recently and a civil right leader quoted Saint Augustine and he said, "Without justice, government is nothing more than a band of armed robbers." In other words, without justice, a government itself becomes a lot like anarchy. Look at, for example, Nazi Germany in 1938, October 9th and 10th, what's called Kristallnacht in which government permission was given to anti-Semites to roam the streets, destroy Jewish businesses, arrest Jewish people without any charges, hold them, bring them to concentration camps and they were executed without a trial. How is that different than the anarchy I was just describing? Very little different.

And so, bad government is a curse from the devil. The key passage on good government being a blessing from God is Romans 13, we're looking at this morning. The key passage on bad government being a curse from the devil is Revelation 13. It's a good kind of parallelism there. Romans 13, government is a blessing from God. Revelation 13, evil government is a curse from the devil. There it shows in Revelation 13:1-2, the dragon stands on the shore of the sea. The sea in Daniel 7 represents the churning of the nations and up out of the sea come these beasts in Daniel 7. Well, Revelation 13 picks up on the image, and there the dragon, Satan, is standing by the sea, and he looks out over the churning sea and up out of the sea, comes a beast. It has 10 horns and seven heads with 10 crowns on its horns and on each head a blasphemous name. "The beast I saw resembled the leopard but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and throne and great authority." That's government, but it's wicked government, it's from the devil, Revelation 13.

Now, the future of bad human government is the reign of anti-Christ. Anti-Christ will reign over this beast, this wicked human government. He is the man of sin mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2. He sets himself above all things, even wanting to be worshipped himself and he will be destroyed by the breath of Christ and by the splendor of his second coming. Amen and amen. And at last, human government will be finished. But that's the future. We have yet a future of bad human government.

So summary, Romans 13, government is established by God, the government official is God's servant to do you good. Revelation 13, government usurped by the devil is wicked. The wicked government is the beast from the sea. The final form of wicked human government is that of the anti-Christ whom Christ will destroy.

II. Command #1: Submit to Human Government

Now, the question before us is, How shall a Christian live in all this? What are we to do? And that's what Romans 13:1-7 is about. Two commands: 1) Submit to human government and 2) Give to human government whatever you owe it whether taxes, or respect, or honor.

Now let's look at this first command, submit to human government. What is the command? Well, everyone, it says, must submit himself to the governing authorities. Now, what is submission? What do we mean by submit? Well, it means willingly and gladly to accept a subordinate position because it is pleasing to God. That's what it means. Willingly gladly to accept a subordinate position because it's pleasing to God. It's the order of God's universe. Gladly to accept it. It means to yield, to put yourself under, to bend the neck under the yoke as it were, and to do it gladly.

The basic concept then in Romans 13 is that Christianity and good citizenship actually go together. Christians were not like Spartacus, a subversive threat to the Roman Empire nor are we a subversive threat to any earthly government. That's not our means, our goal, we're not trying to overthrow government, rather submit. Now, as we'll see later, it means more than just grudgingly acquiescing to laws. It means more than that. It means being glad about it, gladly submitting. It has a gladness, a realization that to submit to God-ordained authority is an act of worship to God himself.

Now, I've seen bumper stickers around like, "Question authority." We have an attitude in our country of questioning and perhaps, even mocking government leaders. There's a whole industry, the political cartoon industry, that openly mocks whoever's in charge: Republican, Democrat, it doesn't matter. There's a whole industry of mocking of whoever's in-charge. And you've laughed at some of those comics, I have too. Alright, because you got politics, so do I. And you're like, "Yeah, that's right." But at the heart of it, there's a disrespect. Alright?

Now, maybe you're not ready to organize armed revolt against the United States government. Not ready for the rest of your life to do that. But yet in your heart and mind is there not some murmuring about authority? I see it, for example, at the airport when you have to take off your shoes and your belts and take your laptop out of your bag and open it up and your personal things fall out on the floor, maybe they don't. I mean, by now you should know where to put those and that won't happen, but I see in facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, open attitudes, rolling of eyes, sighing, comments, even accusations, how little we like to submit to God-ordained authority. We don't like to be told what to do. And one thing I've noticed is how Romans 13 just takes place, rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. You give those people a hard time, they will give you a hard time. And so, "Would you step over here, ma'am? Thank you. We'll get to you in a minute. Or maybe 30."

But I've seen it happen. The ones that are really chafing, arguing, complaining get pulled aside and we'll deal with you in a minute, etcetera. And they have the right to do that. But at heart, we have a hard time with submission, we don't like it. Now, submission is not demeaning, not in any way. Jesus, in Luke 2, submitted to Joseph and Mary, his earthly parents. It doesn't mean that God loved Joseph and Mary more than Jesus, it means that Jesus honored the order that was set up. It's the same thing commanded of Christian wives to their husbands or of children to parents. It doesn't mean that God loves the one in authority more than he loves the one submitting. Not at all, it's just order. It's the way it's set up. That's the command.

Now, to whom is the command given? Well, literally in the Greek it says every soul. Every soul should be subject to the God-ordained authorities. Every soul, so that's everybody. It's comprehensive. Now, of course, Romans is written to Christians, so especially Paul has in mind, Christians should submit gladly to government.

Paul’s Seven Reasons Listed

Now, Paul gives us then seven reasons listed, we'll go through them quickly.

1. Government is by divine decree (vs. 1)

First, government is by divine decree. Look at verse 1, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. All authority originates from God." Or it's not authority at all. Right? I cannot boss around somebody else's kids. I have no authority, it's not been given by God. Alright? And they'll prove it if I try, right? If I try. You're not the boss of me. Well, that's true, I'm not. It's not been set up by God that way. But I am the boss of some kids and God has set that up. So, all true authority originates from God and that is true of government as well, no matter what form the government takes. Whether it's representative democracy, like the US or a constitutional monarchy, like in Great Britain or perhaps a dictatorship, like under Idi Amin in Uganda.

By the way, I looked up his title. You want to hear what Idi Amin's title was? This is amazing. "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin VC, DSO, MC... " I didn't take time to figure out what those are, some awards he had given himself, I think. "King of Scotland," the Scottish I don't think knew about that, but at any rate, "King of Scotland, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." What a long title. Perhaps the government is communism, perhaps it's fascism, perhaps socialism, perhaps an absolute dictator tyrant like Nebuchadnezzar. All these forms of human government can be, and have been perverted by human wickedness and sin, and yet God establishes authority.

Now, the scriptural support for this concept is you look at Nebuchadnezzar, he's an evil man, a bad king, bad ruler. But the angel spoke right before when he was warning, "If you don't change your ways and stop being oppressive to the poor, I'm going to judge you." He changed his mind into the mind of an animal, Daniel 4. Well, when the warning was given, the angel said this, in Daniel 4:17, "The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men." Including you, Nebuchadnezzar." And so, there is no king except that God established them in their position.

Psalm 75:6-7 says this, "No one from the east, or the west, or from the desert can exalt a man but it is God who judges." "He brings down one and he exalts another," Psalm 75. So the authorities that exist have been established by God. Now, what about wicked governments? Well, even they have been given authority. The beast from the sea, the one that's referring to the Greek Empire. It says in Daniel 7:6, "After that I looked and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard, and on its back, it had four wings, like those of a bird. This beast had four heads," Listen, "and it was given authority to rule." Who gave it authority? All authority comes from God.

Then even the devil leads Jesus up to a very high mountain and shows him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And what does the devil say to Jesus? "All these have been given to me and I can give them to anyone I want." Well, who gave them to the devil? Even Jesus, in the great commission, what does he say? "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Ask Jesus who gave it to him? It is his heavenly Father. And so Jesus has all authority, and it comes from God. It's all given.

2. Rebellion against government is rebellion against God’s institution (vs. 2)

Secondly, rebellion therefore against government is rebellion against what God has instituted, verse 2 teaches this. To rebel against government really is to rebel against God himself. The essence of sin is that we have joined Satan's general rebellion against God, and therefore, the essence of salvation is to come back under God's rule, come back under his reign. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Gladly, the angels obey all the way, right away with a happy spirit. And so also, we come back under that and are glad to submit to whatever God has instituted. We're not fighting against it anymore.

3. Those who rebel will be punished (vs. 2)

Thirdly, those who rebel will be punished. Verse 2, "Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves." At one simple level, this refers to the fact that if you take up rebellion against government, the government will make you pay, the government will come after you, the government will arrest you. If you park in a loading zone, you'll get your car towed and pay a $50 fine. That's at a low level. If, on the other hand, you smuggle concealed weapons onto an airplane, it could be 10 years in prison or a $5000 fine. So if you rebel against the authority, the authority will bring its judgement to you.

This is an obvious point the night that Jesus was arrested. You remember 600 soldiers with torches, lanterns, and weapons come out to arrest the Galilean carpenter. Jesus orchestrates in John 18 a safety net for his disciples to run away. He tells them that if they are looking for him, then let the others go. Everyone takes it except one person, Peter. And what does Peter do? Surrounded by 600 soldiers, he reaches for his sword and cuts off the high priest's servant's ear. This is a bad idea. Okay? I mean, let's just think pragmatically about it. Peter, if you want to survive the night, put your sword away for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you see them all?

Let's put it in modern language. Let's say there's a hostage crisis in an American city, and the entire city SWAT teams and special forces are all called out surrounding this building, 600 of them. You got snipers up on the rooftops, you got people behind cruiser cars, it's a horrible scene. They're calling through the bullhorn, "Come out!" And out staggers a guy with a trench coat, the chief of police screams at him to get down on his face immediately. Suppose that guy reaches inside his coat and pulls out a gun? What do you think's going to happen to him? Will he last even this far? He'll be riddled with bullets.

So, if you rebel against what God has instituted, you'll bring judgment on yourself simply even at the human government level. Let's speak at a higher level. Even if government never catches you, God sees all things. And if you rebel against what God has established, and government doesn't punish, God will punish, you will see what you have done. That's what Paul says.

4. Government serves to restrain evil (vs. 3)

Fourthly, government serves to restrain evil, so you shouldn't rebel against it. We've already talked about this. But look at verse 3, it says "Rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and he will commend you." Now, this is amazing, the Apostle Paul is speaking of the Roman Empire, hardly a virtuous government system. Hardly. And yet he says this, that he is God's servant. To do what is right and he will commend you. Paul himself was a victim of many injustices.

Do you know that Felix in Acts 24 said, basically, what was said about Paul, he's innocent. But because he wanted to do a favor to the Jews, he leaves him over, then Festus inherits it, and then Festus and Agrippa confer and said, "If this man hadn't appealed to Caesar, he could have been set free, he was doing nothing wrong." Therefore, he is the victim of injustice, and yet he's writing, submit to authority, submit, do what it says. He is saying, "If I have done anything deserving death I do not refuse to die, I will go to my death, if that's what you decide, but I still want to make my case." That's his attitude. So what he says is, rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.

I believe Paul is speaking here proverbially. Have you ever read Proverbs and you think you read something, you say, "Well, that's not always true." That's the way the Book of Proverbs is, you read it and you read something, it's not always true, it's just proverbially true. Like Proverbs 16:12 says "Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through righteousness." Well, is that always true? Do all kings always detest wrongdoing? No. And so, yes, in Nazi Germany, it isn't true that rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. That wasn't true, but it's generally true.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you're driving at night and you're coming around a bend, and this has happened to me within the last year. Suddenly, you're stopped by a road block. The police are there, they stop you, and they ask for license and registration. I hadn't had time to accelerate and start to speed. Not that I would do that. Ever. Okay? But at any rate, I was well under the speed limit and I was stopped, I had absolutely zero fear of that encounter. None. But if I had been hauling a $100,000 dollars' worth of cocaine and it was in the trunk and I come around, what do you think my heart rate's going to be doing at that moment? What am I going to feel as I see the surprise road block right around the bend? Rulers hold terror for those who do wrong, but no terror for those who do right. That's the point he makes.

5. Government serves to promote good (vs. 3-4)

Fifthly, government serves to promote good. "Do you want to be free," he says, "from the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you for he is God's servant to do you good." For example, there's the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it was given in 1996 to Rosa Parks for her part in the Civil Rights Movement. President Bush has given some out. It's a commendation from government for those who do right. Also, as we've noted that he is God's servant to do you good in the infrastructure, in creating peace, domestic tranquility, supporting an infrastructure for commerce, etcetera. He is God's servant to do you good as we've already mentioned.

6. Rulers are empowered by God to inflict punishment for disobedience (vs. 4)

Sixthly, rulers are empowered by God to inflict punishment for disobedience. Look at verse 4, "But if you do wrong," he says, "be afraid for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." Now, next time I preach on this, I'm going to talk about six difficult ethical questions about government. What is the extent of a Christian's submission to government? Should a Christian ever rebel against government? What about the American Revolution, what happened there? Alright? What about war? Should we fight or not? These kinds of questions, talk about it next time. I wanted an easy message this time. Is it okay? So, we'll deal with all the naughty, gnarly, difficult questions next time. Alright?

But the death penalty is one of them, and this is one of the major passages on the issue of the death penalty. He does not bear the sword for nothing. There's a threat and punishment here.

7. Conscience demands it (vs. 5

And then finally, conscience demands it. Verse 5, "Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities not only because of possible punishment, but also because of conscience." Conscience is that part inside you that tells you to do what's right and to avoid doing what's wrong. If this week, you cut corners on your taxes, don't do the right thing… You know, you're doing things that you should not do, your conscience is going to kind of spark up against you and tell you, "Wait a minute, don't do that."

Isn't it amazing the providence of God I'm preaching on taxes this week? But because of conscience, you should do what's right and not do what's wrong. Christians, Paul says, are to submit to the government even if it's the Roman Empire for seven reasons. Christians then are not looking to overthrow Nero or any other Roman emperor. They're not to agitate against the empire as a whole, they were to submit, they were to obey, they were to be good citizens, to fit in, they were to mind their own business and work hard with their hands, they were to advance the gospel by lifestyle and by witnessing. But they were to go beyond mere submitting, as we'll talk about next time. They were to be actually glad to pay taxes. They were actually to be glad to render honor to whom honor is due.

III. Application

Now, what application can we take from this? Well, first, as you're doing your return this week... Okay, you want me to get real practical? Look on it as an act of worship. Can you do that? You said, "Now we are in that section, we're talking about the supernatural life. I can't do it."

I was telling my son this week, I said, "Doing taxes is an unusual job. It's the only job I know we have to slave hard in order to pay money." How does that work? You know what I'm saying? So you're working so hard so that you get the privilege of paying the government. But basically, if Romans 13:1-7 is true, do your taxes as an act of worship to God, for him setting up this government that protects you from anarchy, praise him for it, but realize there is in this world the beast from the sea.

And look forward to the day when Christ will set up his kingdom, Lord of heaven and earth, openly ruling better than any government ever has. A perfect government. Worship Him and yearn for that day and submit to his rule now spiritually. If you're not a Christian, if you have never trusted in Christ, Jesus said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." "Submit to my government. Let me be king of your life, and you will find rest for your souls." Close with me in prayer.