Tonight we continue our study in the book of Romans. We come to chapter 13, and tonight we are in submission to the authorities, and we will be reading and considering together verses 1 through 7 of Romans 13, found on page 1127. found on page 1127 Let's give our attention tonight to the holy Word of the Lord.
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."
And there will end tonight the reading of God's Word.
Well, in a way, tonight we sort of pick up from where we left off this morning, where Jesus was tested and they tried to catch him in a trap over the issue of paying taxes. And so tonight we come to fill this out a little bit more by looking at Romans chapter 13.
And I said things have always been challenging living in this world in light of the governments of this world. It has never been easy. There has never been a time where you look out throughout history and it's just been an easy go. There's always been turbulence. There has always been struggle. But here we have the positive dimension captured for us tonight. It may not answer every single question that you have, but we're looking at the big picture and general principles of what God has put in place that God established governing authorities for our good. That is the clear teaching here.
And even though it is temporary, these authorities they are temporary, and they are at times subject to being abusive. The big picture is God has established them. In the big picture, for our good. And I believe that, just as we are fallen creatures ourselves if we look at the comparison of that of just our own lives and our own fall and our own struggle with sin then we should understand that that same sort of thing will happen in the government. It is intended to remind us that we have something much better to come. We don't can never create a perfect utopia in this life. And God has so wired things and ordained things for good, but we have to remember that still these are fallen individuals in fallen institutions.
The Christians in the first century really struggled with this. I raised that because they were suffering, and they were actually being persecuted in the first century. They were hurting. Many of them were feeling like giving up, and they were asking questions about how to relate to Caesar. How do we relate to Caesar now as Christians?
Uh, clearly we were not anymore many of them understood in a theocracy. We'll come back to that. Caesar was emperor. They were subject to him. Uh, they were to show respect to him. They are called to here. But that's the great question tonight: What did the Lord expect of Christians in this present age with regard to the governments of this world? What has God said about that? Are these governments legitimate?
And Jesus taught that they are legitimate. "Give to Caesar what is his." That was a direct affirmation this morning when we looked at that text. That Jesus was clearly affirming that some kind of temporary, unlimited as it is, authority under Christ was given for the purpose of good. And Paul helps us with that tonight. Paul helps us with that to understand why these institutions are set up for our good. And tonight we have an explanation of what our response should be to civil government and what God designed it to be, to help us to understand that. And hopefully this will help us to understand the larger question of how we carry forward in hostile times when a government can become hostile to Christianity and to the church. And while all those questions won't be answered, we have some general principles here and things that help us with that.
But before us this really simple truth tonight: that the Lord is giving to us under the inspiration of the Spirit. He is telling us as Christians how to respond to governing authorities, and then he gives us the reasons for doing this. That's a very simple outline of this tonight, and I think you can follow that. He tells us how Christians are to respond to governing authorities, and then he gives a few reasons to support that.
Now, I have to say up front, before we really jump into this, this is the gratitude section. There is nothing easy about living the Christian life. I sometimes, when people say, "Well, we just want practical application," I want to say, "Do you really want the application that Scripture gives you?" Because this is pressing application. This kind of application is not for the faint of heart. There is nothing easy about this. It really is the kind of sacrificial living that the whole section has called us to, that continues into chapter 13.
Remember how chapter 12 begin "In light of this glorious gospel, in light of you being justified by faith, in light of God's love, in light of all these things that he's done for you, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."
None of this is disconnected from that. Chapter 12 has outlined for us living as a response of gratitude, having been justified by faith, having received the grace of God in Jesus Christ, having peace with God. We are now to sacrificially, chapter 12 told us, love with brotherly love and affection. And then, not only that, God expects the same kind of beneficent love to be shown to our enemies. That was the shocking thing that was said last time. Even to those who are in active, hostile pursuit against us. "Love your enemies." That was the end of chapter 12. That is very important for tonight. There's a reason this was put together like this.
He has just called us to love even enemies. And it's important that said that because the one place Christians throughout history have excused this love is with who? Political. Political leaders. Authorities. That's the one place we have said, "No, love stops." And that's the challenge, I think, tonight. How do we love those who don't share our values and Christian convictions?
And then the reminder is: How do we then transfer that love over to civil authorities who actively pursue us?
There is a connection there. The call to love our enemies and the call to love our neighbor is saturated in this section. In fact, love comes up again right after this, doesn't it? Where he says, "Oh, verse 8: No one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves has fulfilled the law."
Love brackets the whole section on addressing civil authorities. So that's not how we operate, is it? As I said this morning, you want to get anyone worked up? Talk government or president. And this is here rooted and surrounded and bracketed by the call to love.
Now verse 1, then, with those initial thoughts and reflections, gives us this great address and command where it's where Paul, here under the inspiration of the Spirit, says: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." What a commandment from our Lord that is! A command that is not something up for grabs or option to pursue. This is a solemn command of our Lord, for he even mentions here that when it's avoided we can face God's wrath. So it's a very serious, serious command.
And "let every soul be actively subject bringing what the meaning here is to bring oneself under firm control to be submissive to obey the higher authorities" let everyone be submissive to the governing authorities is what he is saying. And that's a solemn command from our Lord.
Because he is here looking at civil government, but biblical authors have always understood this as applying to and the Heidelberg does the same every sort of authority structure that is put over us.
The striking thing here is is the direct, without exception way the commandment comes. He doesn't sort of stand back and do what we do: "Well, I know so and so over here is going to say, well what about this and so and so over here is going to say, well what about this No, he doesn't. He doesn't do any of that. He says, "Let every soul, let every person be subject to the governing authorities."
And then he follows up with this: "For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God, appointed by God."
And you sort of have to stop and let that set in for a minute, because that is just a remarkable statement, isn't it? There is no authority that has not been ever appointed and not in God's sovereign will and determination. There is no authority except from God. In whatever form of authority from president to police officer to boss to elder all of them were appointed. And the Lord wants us to recognize how we are to honor them.
Now, before we answer all of this, there's a lot of swirling i'm sure thoughts going on in people's head when you hear something like that. I know my wife told me, "Stop laughing so much in my sermon." So, sorry if I'm doing that too much. You get these habits and you just got to work on them. So forgive me. But, um I shouldn't have done that to my wife. Sorry.
Notice here tonight: In whatever form of authority, he's calling us that to this.
The jews this would have been a very difficult command to the Jews. This would have been a very difficult command. They were looking for the reinstatement of the theocracy. Remember, this is why every Jew was looking for a political messiah to break down Roman rule. Remember, we looked at that this morning, and they were absolutely repulsed that some Gentile dog would rule over them. They had a hard time with that. That's what they sat around and debated. And they wanted theocracy back. They wanted that direct government stayed in church directly under god's direct government of Old Covenant law.
That's what they deep down wanted. So when Israel was constituted a nation in the land, remember in the Old Testament, they had moral laws, they had ceremonial laws, they had civil laws. And this theocracy would never have been under a pagan king. So this troubled them to the bone. This troubled them to the root. And there are Jews in this church in Rome.
Now, that's the first sort of shockwave here. But then you have Gentiles sitting there, and you have Gentiles who just come out of all this idolatry of Roman worship, of the pantheon of gods. Of the true God of heaven and earth, they've now bowed down. to how in the world do we submit to someone like that you see the challenge of this. This is this is hard, and it's been hard for us since. There's nobody here that this is not difficult to wrestle through. That's the setting in which this comes.
Now, let me make the setting a little more graphic for you. In that day, when this epistle was written, who was emperor? Nero. At one point, he's going to hang Christians on lamp posts and light them on fire with tar. And then he would blame the Christians for the fire of Rome. It's true. Everyone expects here what we expect in office is that of a man of strong moral character, but history has shown God has worked through some of the most questionable characters under the sun. And I think he does that clearly to remind us all that whoever is in office is not a savior.
Before this, Caligula was no better. He was known for extravagant living, sexual perversity, under and living under promoting tyranny in his leadership. He attempted to set up a statue in Jerusalem. And emperor cult worship was prevailing worship of the day. Emperors were treated as gods.
Nero even erected a statue in Rome's temple of Mars of himself. No president I know has ever done that.
Tacitus, a historian, wrote in his Annals that Augustus and Tiberius, emperor from 14 to 37, had each allowed a single temple to be erected in their honor during their lifetimes. Such a temple would not only contain a statue of the ruling emperor that could be venerated in godlike fashion, but the temples were dedicated to the Roman people.
What I'm saying here, and what I'm trying to emphasize here, where this commandment comes to us. It comes in a culture where Paul is writing when sexual immorality is rampant, pedophilia was common in the Roman culture, emperors and the peoples worship themselves as gods. And in this Greco-Roman environment, Paul is writing to the church in Rome when Nero is the governing authority, who's soon going to persecute them.
I'm trying to imagine American hearing this. You see, we understand submission to moral, upstanding, good leaders. You can't mean the godless. And the question must have been: How do we acknowledge them even as legitimate if they don't recognize the Lord, right? Should we submit to a godless leader?
These are the questions that all arise. And Paul gives this commandment under inspiration of the Spirit: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities."
Not only does he say submit to them, but it's God who put those governing authorities in place. It's always been that way. Even Nebuchadnezzar was raised up for a purpose, wasn't he? Even Nebuchadnezzar! Who put Nebuchadnezzar into power? Who took him out of power?
There's always been enthusiasts in Christianity who say, "Unless civil government is removed, then the kingdom of God and of his Christ cannot truly be advanced." So in history, you had all of these movements that tried to overthrow government when they became like this.
In the days of the Reformation, the Anabaptists took over a city and turned it into a violent compound, executed anyone who did not abide by old theocratic laws.
In the days of Oliver Cromwell, the same mentality existed. They thought God had sent them by divine command to create a new utopian order for England.
I think we have to come to the question then: In the midst of all this struggle with governing authorities, why did God command government? Why did God put government in place?
And look at the bigger principles up front. Remember what happened when Cain killed Abel. Where did government even begin with? Where do we see the principles of government begin in the world?
And Cain cried out, remember, after he killed Abel. Because he said, "Anyone who sees me will kill me." So the Lord God said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
That word for "mark" was a word for an oath. God made a vow. He made a vow to Cain that anyone who lawlessly would come up and kill him would be punished. And there we have the beginnings of the origin of the state.
Post-flood, something very important happened with the covenant with Noah. The Lord said, "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God he made man."
Notice that. "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man." Not God. By man, his blood shall be shed. God has appointed a means, an instrument, to execute justice in the earth. Therefore, God chose to institute justice in the world by a man, and that's why we call that principle the lex talionis rule of government, that the punishment resembles the crime. That's always been how government has kind of worked throughout history, hasn't it? And even to this day, we still have baked into government the whole notion of capital punishment. Where did that come from? It came from the beginning: "By man's blood, whoever sheds man's blood, by man's shall his blood be shed."
There it is. So God arranged the state. And God did this as a great common blessing to all. We're not talking about the theocracy of Israel, but the principle of governance that we see before the fall. I mean, after the fall, and then post the flood, and in the time in which we live. He programmed government to combat evil and to judge wrongdoing, to promote justice.
And God expected even the pagan rulers of the nations. If you read the psalm, the Psalm, Psalm 82. to promote justice. To do what is right.
Paul's working from these principles. And he gives the first reason in verse 2, where he says, "Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment."
When we resist the authority, we resist God. Now, this is a very important verse. He goes on: "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good."
There's the basic principle. God designed authority structures, and he ordained them and he commissioned them and he programmed them for the good of society.
Now, I think this is a really important point. I think when we look at the great purpose of government to curb evil, I think, I do believe it's a very narrow-focused government here. I'm a big fan of small government in this regard, for these principles. This is its responsibility: to restrain wickedness, to stop violence, to promote justice.
We cannot forget that these appointed authority structures were for keeping society in order. What he's saying is God wired the government for this, that its greatest fear is not good, but evil. That's what he's saying. Its greatest fear wired into government is evil. He says that very clearly here. "It's not a terror to good conduct." It's not afraid of good conduct, is it? It's afraid of bad conduct.
That's why we have militaries. That's why we have police officers. Why we have firemen, why we have governing officials. They're in fear of all kinds of things. They're in fear of domestic terrorism. Wired into them is fear of thieves and crime and lawlessness. They don't want that.
And Paul is saying that the Christians should see, in general, that this is how God wired government. They are a dread to evil, not to good. It's a very important principle here.
Now, everyone says today, "I go out and I do it's amazing when I do sort of street witnessing. Numerous people will immediately come up to me and they'll say things like, "Don't trust the government. They're all out to get us. They're all evil. They don't care about you."
Now, I said this morning, "In terms of our eternal salvation," but they certainly care about the within those things that God wired them to care about. "They're all bad. They're all coming to get you."
I heard one Christian nationalist pastor just say very popular, likes all online stay strapped, head on a swivel. Nobody's going to rescue you."
Now, is that the way we look at government? Is that the way the Christians called to look at government?
God is telling us that the design of government, in its basic design, is a tear to evil works. You wouldn't have a society if this weren't so. You understand that we would not be able to function if this were not so. You couldn't walk outside tonight if this were not so. You couldn't live if this were not so. We don't even realize how much this is in place so that we don't kill each other. That's the whole point.
We have to put our trust in the Lord, that this is the purpose of government. So at the end of the day, if things become a mess in society or so that it's far gone and throws off its purpose, God will judge that nation. God will judge that nation. He will judge those rulers. But government is here for the good of the people, as our own Constitution states.
Calvin was right when he said, "Yes, governments can abuse their power. Oh, sure, they can. They all do throughout history. They all do, because we are sinners." And then he says, "There has never been a civil government that has not abused its power to some degree."
But then Calvin says this: "Leaders never so far abused their power by harassing the good and the innocent that they do not retain, even in their tyranny, some kind of just government."
Some kind. So in other words, even bad governments are still wired with this interest. And if a government ever gets to the point of totally abrogating that responsibility, history has told us God will put an end to that nation. God will put an end to that nation. He's the judge. He's the judge of the nations.
So the positive command: Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? This is so important for our day. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do good. It's so beautiful in that regard. It's everything Romans 12 has been calling us to. Do good by submitting and showing honor and behaving in a way that is honorable, that loves your enemies and that does good to enemies, and that trust the Lord, and that prays for them.
That's why we're called to pray for the magistrates, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness. But when we cast off restraint and we attack, that invites certain responses from government.
Paul says government is armed with the sword, and when everyone begins to rule by the dictates of their own hearts, what do you think government's going to do? Well, when you constantly attack leadership and attack authority, those leaders do not rule you well. The consequence is they're going to start ruling with harsh force.
You want to be unafraid? Do good. He says, "Do good. He he will praise you, for he's appointed for good."
There's the basic principle. He's appointed for good. And so verse 6 says, "For this reason you pay taxes, they're God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render, therefore, to all their due: taxes to whom taxes, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."
We do that because God calls us to be good citizens, for conscience sake and for his glory. And because, in general, in general I'm not going into all tax abuse and misuse of funds tonight. They are responsible to God for that, but I am saying, in general, those taxes are used for the betterment of society.
In general, our Lord's approach is interesting to sort of close this out tonight. In his actions before pilot remember the issue? pilot raised. pilot takes Jesus into the praetorium: "Are you the King of the Jews?" They said, "We found this fellow perverting the nation, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a King."
Now, he paid taxes, and he is indeed Christ, a King.
Then Pilate asked him, saying, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
Pilate's interested in one thing. "Are you claiming to be a rival to the Emperor? Are you claiming to be a rival to Caesar? A rebel against Caesar? I want to know. See, because Pilate has to put him out if that's so."
What Caesar put on the cross, when Jesus was being put on the cross, you think about all the things that were said. "You claim to be king over him?" They put, "King of the Jews."
"I want to know right now, Jesus. Remember what Jesus answered? My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. We would take up guns that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.
"I'm not a rebel against civil authority. If I wanted to make the kingdom of this world right now mine, I would. I'd fight and we'd win with sword. But the sword's in the sheath right now. The sword's in the sheath right now."
Remember Peter? "I have a whole different rule and kingdom that's not of this world. I didn't come to take over civil governments. They're in put in place temporarily all this is under my governance," says Jesus, "who rules in the hearts and the lives of his people from heaven. He's seated. These are temporary to do what Romans 13 describes."
Now, the sort of burning question that everyone has: "Are you saying we submit to governments when they go beyond their limits?"
Remember when Peter and John were beaten for preaching in the name of Jesus? They were brought before the council, and they were commanded never to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. "Whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge." And they went out and preached again, didn't they?
Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were commanded to bow down to the golden image? Who in the world thinks they should have done that? Of course not. They were asked and commanded to do something directly against the will of God. And we always disobey that.
When authorities constrain our conscience to do things against the moral law of God and the rule of our King, we cannot obey. And I would hope that if the government ever said, "You can no longer gather at the Escondido URC," this place would be full the next Sunday. Full. Because that directly violates the orders of the King.
But we must always remember the example of our Lord. "For to this you were called, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed."
Jesus is reigning. Jesus is King, and he put governments in place temporarily for our good. But he is coming again, and the kingdoms of this world revelation 7, I think it is have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This great day is coming where there will be no more oppression and sin and struggle.
Until that time, we are good citizens, and this text calls us to recognize the principles of government and to honor God, recognizing his authority through them. As the Heidelberg says, "Even through their failures, he chooses to rule us, and to honor them, for in doing that, we honor God."
Let's pray.
Gracious heavenly Father, thank you for this text tonight, and thank you for helping us to understand your will for us. We pray, Oh Lord, that you would give us the kind of hearts that is appropriate, for it is naturally our propensity to constantly speak out and to trash governing authorities. And we should pause and recognize you put them into place. And as has been said, if God wants to judge a nation, he can surely give wicked authorities. But we are so thankful, Oh Lord, that the big picture of this text is you put these in place for our good, and we can see that.
And so we pray for our governing authorities then, that they would honor the intention of their very magistrate calling, that they would be honorable, that they would fear God, that they would do what is just, that they would care and do what is right before you and honest, that they would be a terror to evil works in our society. We pray for that, and that all those things that that seek to disrupt and cause chaos and confusion by the evil one, she would use the magistrate to put down. Thank you for using these means. We recognize you are indeed Lord and King over all, in jesus name we pray, amen.