The man standing in my office doorway assured me that Christians would, one day soon, go to war with the United States government and that it is grossly unbiblical for followers of Christ to submit to any government outside of God’s kingship.
I asked him if Romans 13 was in his Bible, and he assured me that Romans 13 was a “government insertion” into my Bible. “Ever since King James, the government controls the Bible,” he said.
I was strongly tempted to call him a nut, but decided it was probably not exactly a Christlike response. I did think it.
This was 1996 — days before a hotly contested presidential election that would result in Bill Clinton defeating George H.W. Bush in what many conservatives still refer to as the “Ross Perot election” because the Texas billionaire was able to siphon off 8 percent of the vote from Bush to put Clinton in the White House.
The man visiting my office led a “Christian” paramilitary group, and I was a journalist in North Carolina listening to him tell me that everything I knew about Christianity and politics was state rigged. His interpretation of Christianity was, to put it mildly, unique in the way heresies are usually unique. I’m glad I knew Romans 13 because he was clearly recruiting me. I did admire his love for our country, but really.
Of course, many of his views — the one about Romans in particular — were outrageous and untrue. However, in the years I served as a pastor, I often heard some evangelicals — all of whom believed Romans 13 and its author to be Spirit-inspired — make the same arguments, practically, about Christian citizenship.
But what does Scripture teach about government? Romans 13:1–7, and the Bible overall, address God and government directly and unambiguously. What does it teach us? At least three things:
1. Government is God’s idea.
Fundamentally, the Bible is a political book. The Old Testament tells us about God’s ethnic people, Israel, called to live under God’s kingship by His laws. In the New Testament, King Jesus rules both the city of God and the city of man (see this month’s Grace and Truth, page 5), yet Paul gives Christians clear instruction as to what their posture is to be toward government: “Let every person be subject to governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (13:1).
The mandate for civil obedience is important to Paul. He literally says here “every soul” is called to obey the governing authorities because they have been raised up by God. So long as the government does not call Christians to obey sinful policies or disobey Scriptures, the call is to obey.
Paul furnishes two reasons why this is so:
(1) “For there is no authority except from God”; government has authority, but it is delegated by God; and (2) “those (authorities) that exist have been instituted by God,” which is clear enough.
Is there a time to disobey leaders and laws? Of course. Government is fallen like the rest of the world and sometimes behaves like it. Most Christians believe abortion is murder, and that God’s Word defines marriage and gender. Thus, we oppose pro-abortion laws, and we refuse to celebrate Pride Month.
And there have been leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, men who are evil and whose policies are evil. We must peacefully resist them. But to resist just authorities as a matter of sheer rebellion — as the man in my office that day encouraged — is to resist God. First Peter 2:13–14 affirms this same truth.
2. Government is God’s agent to bear the sword of steel (and not the Sword of the Spirit).
By nature, people are afraid of the rulers and powers over them. What happens when you see a state trooper’s car sitting on the roadside of I-85? You reflexively hit the brakes, even if you’re going the speed limit. When the boss visits your desk when you’re not busy, what do you do? You look busy. If an IRS agent visits your house, you’d probably be very nervous when you learned his identity. Paul helps us by saying there is no need for this: “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” Paul is saying, “Don’t be afraid of them. They are not against you if you do not put yourself against them.” If you obey the law, you’ll be praised by them, they will help you, and it will be all to your advantage.
Here’s an important idea recovered during, and especially following, the Reformation when church and state began to separate: The government wields the sword of steel; that is, it punishes wrongdoers. That’s the government’s domain. But the church wields the Sword of the Spirit; it is called to preach God’s Word. Church and state occupy different domains, work out of different divine callings.
The idea of the sword’s being used to enforce the law was established in Eden. After Adam and Eve rebelled, sin and death entered the world. God ejected them from the garden. God placed a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life and keep them out of the garden. God ordains government to use physical force to restrain evil. This is why we have law enforcement. Recent cries to “defund the police” are sinfully rebellious and grossly unbiblical.
This role of the government also entails, I believe, carrying out capital punishment. According to Romans 13:4b and Genesis 9:6, the ultimate crime — murder — demands the ultimate punishment. I do not believe this is contrary to the pro-life position. It also gives the state warrant to defend itself militarily against invasion or attack and to prosecute just wars.
3. Government is ordained to receive taxes and respect (6–7).
The Roman government was oppressive in terms of taxation and tribute policies. Still, Paul said the people were to pay taxes. God has given the civil magistrate the right to levy taxes to keep the state and its functions going. In Mark 12, Jesus answered the Herodians’ attempt to trap Him as a tax evader by saying, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” And He has the disciples go pay the tax. We honor God when we pay just and fair taxes.
Paul also demands that we respect/honor government leaders who are worthy of respect/honor (“to whom honor is owed”).
I’ll admit that I’m convicted by the command to give respect. I often need to repent for saying sinful things about leaders whose policies I don’t like (often for good reason, but I should still treat them respectfully). If Jesus calls us to love our enemies, then we should also honor our leaders in appropriate ways. Honor is due the king, even if he is not honorable — in the same way a measure of honor is due to father and mother, even if they aren’t worthy of honor.
Be True to the True King
R.C. Sproul sums it up well:
“As we look at the newspapers every day and watch our televisions, we see and hear all sorts of concern about the presidential election in these United States. We’re electing a president, a vice president, senators, and congressmen. In a proximate sense, it’s very important who sits in the White House. But ultimately, the most important matter is not who sits in the White House, but who sits over the White House. The One who sits over the White House is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and our Savior.”