The Divine Purpose for Human
Government
Romans 13.1-7
It might seem to us at first that
this passage does not fit well in the epistle. Why would Paul suddenly start
talking about the government? It might seem like a complete digression, unless
you are familiar with Paul’s writings. In most of Paul’s epistles, including
Romans, there is a section on doctrine and then a section of practical
application.
The beginning of chapter 12 is the
beginning of the practical section in Romans where we are told to offer our
very bodies as living sacrifices to God (12.1). And then, at the end of chapter
12, Paul says that Christians are to be at peace with all men, refuse to take
vengeance against those who do us wrong, and to love our enemies and do them
good (12.17-21). The paragraph on human government and its role immediately
follows this instruction. The paragraph following this section on the
government is also a clue as to Paul’s purpose. Above all, the Christian is to
live a life of love. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, which
is the fulfillment of the entire Law of God. Love is the point of the Christian
life.
What Paul is teaching in this whole
section, beginning in chapter 12, is how Christians are to relate to other
people, both inside and outside of the fellowship of the Church. Paul wants to
emphasize that becoming a Christian gives a person some new relationships, but
it does not necessarily remove some old relationships we had in the world. The
problem then and a problem with Christians now is that some tend to think that
because we are now in the Kingdom of God, and everything is made new in Christ,
that this completely negates our worldly relationships.
This problem is especially acute
when it comes to relationships in which we find it necessary to submit
ourselves to some kind of authority. For example, some argue that in Christ
there is no male and female distinctions and we are all equals. And yet, while
we are still in this world, Paul commanded wives to submit to their husbands.
Likewise, he commanded children to submit to their parents, and even slaves to
submit to their masters. (There is no time here to explain all of the
difficulties of the slave/master relationship and how this applies to our
modern world.) Being in Christ did not remove these worldly relationships.
Now the same is true of the
Christian and his relationship to the authority of human government. Being a
part of the Kingdom of God does not negate the Christian’s responsibility to
the authority of the State.
This teaching would have been
especially hard for Paul’s fellow Jews who had become Christians. The Jews were
always conscious of the fact that they had been conquered and were under the
authority of pagan, Gentile government. The Jews never got used to this and
were always known for their rebelliousness. They thought they should only serve
God, not Caesar. You remember that they even tried to trap Jesus with a
question about paying taxes to Caesar. And Jesus’ answer fits perfectly with
what Paul is saying here in Romans.
As Paul took the Gospel to the
Gentile world this issue of how the Church should relate to the power of the
State became an important issue. Paul himself was a Roman citizen, and he often
used this advantage in his missionary travels. There is never even a hint from
the Apostles that Christianity was a direct threat to the power of the State.
All of the animosity against the early Christians came from religious Jews and
not from the secular Romans. And so in this section of Romans Paul explains the
Divine purpose for human government and the relationship that Christians are to
have with that earthly authority.
Human government is Divinely
appointed and established. Government is not something that humans invented on
their own, the very idea comes from God and flows from the Divine nature. God
Himself is a King. But God has delegated some of His authority to men on earth.
Human government is meant to be a
blessing, especially to the people of God. God is always thinking primarily
about His children in the world and He wants to give us every advantage and
benefit while we make our pilgrimage through the world. This world is not our
home, and it is not God’s purpose to make us completely comfortable here, but
while we are here God intends to help us to do His will. God is for us, not
against us. So God has set up earthly government as a way of helping the saints
in the world and as a way of controlling the spread of evil. Earthly
government, when it is at its best, actually sets the Church free to do what
God has put it in the world to do.
What Paul is teaching in Romans is
especially necessary for the Church at the present time. There is a lot of
confusion in the Church about the purpose of human government and how believers
are to relate to the authority of secular States.
It seems that there are two extreme
positions in the Church concerning the role of earthly government:
1. Because
Christians are members of the Kingdom of God and strangers and aliens here in
the world, Christians have no concern or involvement with earthly government.
2. Christians
should take control of the government and use its power and authority to
enforce Biblical principles on society to facilitate the spread of the Kingdom
of God on earth and a Christianized society.
Now, understand that both of those
extreme positions are wrong and cannot be supported from the example of Jesus
or the Apostles. But the second extreme position has become very popular in
many Christian circles in the United States.
Paul’s words in Romans about
earthly government is especially hard for Western people to accept because of a
philosophical movement called the Enlightenment and the development of
democracy as a major form of government. Enlightenment thinkers exalted the
importance of the individual and individual rights and liberties. The American
form of government was built on these principles. We elect our leaders. If we
don’t like them then we simply elect new ones. This idea was completely foreign
in the time of Paul when the Roman Caesars ruled the civilized world.
So how do we integrate this
teaching into our Western mindset? Why should we think of our government as
being established by God when it is “of the people, by the people, for the
people”? We must first get rid of the idea that democracy is the best and only
legitimate form of government. That is simply Western arrogance. The ancient
people knew about democracy and most of the great thinkers rejected it, at
least a pure democracy, as the best form of governing nations. Aristotle said
that democracy was equivalent to mob rule.
We must understand that no form of
earthly government is without fault. Human beings are not perfect. If you want
perfect government you must look to the Kingdom of God and put your hope in
God’s government. But, until the Kingdom of God comes in all its fullness, we
must live with human government. It will be better if we learn what God’s
purpose for human government really is and then submit ourselves to that
purpose.
Looking at Paul’s teaching here in
Romans, we can learn the following principles about God’s purpose for human
government:
Human
Government Exists to Serve God
We must remember the background and
the situation in which Paul wrote these words. What was Paul doing? Paul was a
preacher of the Gospel. He was, specifically, the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Paul’s ministry and calling was to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Paul sent this letter to the city
of Rome because there were already Christians there and Paul wanted to go there
himself. He sends this letter ahead of his visit to Rome to familiarize the
Christians in Rome with the Gospel that he was preaching. At that time the city
of Rome literally ruled the civilized world. It was perfectly logical that the
Apostle to the Gentiles should go to Rome, which was the capital of the Gentile
world, just as Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish world. Paul had been in
Jerusalem and he was determined to testify about the Gospel in Rome. This was
not just Paul’s idea it was the will of God.
Paul’s whole life was devoted to
the Gospel. Everything that Paul said, including these instructions about the
government, must be seen in the context of his ministry of preaching the
Gospel. Paul was sent by Jesus Himself to preach the Gospel. This tells us that
the main work of God in the world is that the Gospel be preached to all the
nations.
Now what is the connection between
the spread of the Gospel and Paul’s instruction about earthly government? Just
think about what would have happened at the very beginning of the Church when
the Gospel was first being preached to the Gentiles if, in the city of Rome
itself, it became evident that Christians were in rebellion against the
government? This would have been a severe hindrance to Paul and to the spread
of the Gospel.
Paul used the government of Rome to
spread the Gospel. He travelled on Roman roads. He took advantage of the
protection of Rome: it was they who protected Paul from the wrath of the Jews.
He appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen. In a sense Paul used the Roman
government as an ally in his mission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.
And so, in some sense, Paul is
saying to the believers in Rome that it is to their advantage to have the
governmental powers as their friends and not as their enemies. Having Rome as
an enemy would hinder the Gospel. And the same principle holds today. The
Church should not make enemies of the State by being rebellious. This would not
serve to further the cause of the Gospel. It is God’s purpose that the Gospel
be preached to all the nations. Do nothing to hinder that purpose by
unnecessarily making enemies of the governments of those very nations that need
to hear the preaching of the Gospel.
Take note here that God’s primary
purpose is for people to hear the Gospel and be saved from their sins, not that
people have happy lives in this world. God did not establish government to make
sure that everyone is happy and prosperous in an earthly sense.
God’s purposes for human government
and the goals of those earthly governments may actually not be the same at all.
At one time men came together and wanted to build a city with a tower that
reached to heaven. That was the purpose of men not the purpose of God for man. It
is the purpose of God that is primary, not the hopes and dreams of men. God is
not in the business of underwriting the secular agendas of any particular
nation. But God is ruling the nations with His purpose in mind, which is the
salvation of those who believe the Gospel of Christ.
Man was made to serve God and to do
His will. We know that because of sin man is in rebellion against God. But
there is still a sense in which all men DO actually serve God’s purpose, even
unwillingly and unwittingly. The Roman government did not even know the God of
Israel or claim to serve Him. Yet, Paul says that they DID serve God.
When God created man He made him in
the image of God and gave mankind dominion over the earth. Even after the Fall
of man and the entrance of sin this statement was never obviated. Men are to be
God’s representatives on earth. And God has given man the faculties necessary
to rule this created order. Of course, ultimately, all men are accountable to
God for their stewardship. Every earthly government and every individual ruler
is under the authority of heaven, whether they know it or not.
Human
Government Exists to Suppress Evil
Jesus told a very important parable
about the Kingdom of God and this present world. He said the world is like a
field in which a man planted seed. Then an enemy came in during the night and
planted weeds. Then the two crops began to grow up together. The wheat were the
children of God and the weeds were the children of the Devil.
Here are two different orders
existing in the same world side-by-side, growing together. Eventually the time
of harvest will come and the two crops will be separated. But, clearly this
time has not come yet. (Jesus’ culture thought that the Christ would
immediately rip evil out of the world when the Kingdom of God came. Jesus is
teaching against that notion.)
There is an important lesson to
learn from that parable that applies to Paul’s discussion of the purpose of
human government. This present Age and this present world order is evil. The
Kingdom of God has come, but the old order is still here. Until the time of the
End when the Kingdom comes in its fullness, and all evil is removed, the
children of God must learn how to live in an evil Age. There is no way to
escape this Age unless we leave the world. We do not have the power or the
right to uproot evil completely from the world, that is something only God can
do in His own good time.
We must not give into unrealistic
dreams of making the Kingdom of God come to this world in some kind of utopian
society. As long as this world stands, evil will always be present with us. This
means that there are evil men in the world. These are sons of the Wicked One,
the Devil. The Bible has much to say about the wicked, especially in the
Psalms. And we must be clear about who the wicked really are. The Bible says
that all have sinned and even that all have been ungodly, or unlike God.
But the Bible does not say that
everyone is wicked or a child of the Wicked One. It is possible even for
Christians to do something that is ungodly, but that does not mean that a
Christian can become wicked. So who are the wicked? These are people who are
complete and total rebellion against God. They are at war with God, just as
Satan has been. The wicked are Satan’s children.
The wicked are those who say to God
and to His Christ: “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords
from us” (Psalm 2:3). In other words, these are men who want to do away with
even the memory of God so that they do not have to submit to Him.
These are the kind of men who are
the children of Cain. These are violent, uncaring, insensitive men who would
kill other men. These are the kind of men who existed before God sent the flood
in Noah’s day. “Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was
filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11). These are men like Lamech, who bragged
about how many men he had killed and that he was worse than even Cain had been
(Gen. 4.23-24). There are men in the world who will kill other men either
because they hate them or because those men keep them from getting what they
want. Wicked men are violent because of their lusts and their greed. All men
have lusts. But not all men will kill to gratify those lusts. Some men will
kill and have no conscience about doing so.
What will protect the world from
such men? God has given government the power to protect the world from wicked
men. After the Flood God said: “From his fellow man I will require a reckoning
for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:5-6). God has given the
power of the sword to human government. This sword represents the power of
capital punishment, or the just taking of a life. There are some men who must
be killed to stop them from killing or hurting other people. The use of force
belongs to the State, not to the citizen. There is to be no vigilante justice.
Sometimes the rulers of one State
must stop the evil intentions of the rulers of other States. Just as wicked men
kill other men, some States seek to oppress other States. And so most Christian
interpreters since Augustine have taken the position that Paul is giving the
State the right to wage a just war. One of the functions of the State is to so
instill a sense of fear in the hearts of wicked men that their wickedness is
restrained. Evil gains power when it is unafraid.
Of course, those who want to do good
should have nothing to fear from the State, only those who want to harm other
people should fear the power of the State. And so God uses earthly government
to suppress the power of evil and the intentions of wicked men in the world.
And this is a blessing for the saints and every other person who wants to do
good and live in peace.
Human
Government Exists to Secure Peace
The Biblical account of creation
shows us God bringing order out of chaos. The earth was formless and void but
God made something out of it. Not only did God form the raw materials of
creation, He also put those raw materials together to actually make something.
Anything that is useful must have structure and order. We see the glory of God
in the order and structure of the creation.
In the same way the government is
also a reflection of a God who brings order and structure. God does not endorse
or give birth to chaos. God is a God of order, not of disorder. If there is
disorder and chaos that is a work of evil not of God. (The exception may be
when God sends some kind of judgement.)
Sometimes it seems like the world
is a chaotic mess. But actually there is more order than chaos and God uses
human government to provide that order in the world. We have to understand that
the media reports only the bad news, the exceptions to the norm. You have never
heard a reporter say “yesterday in New York, at the intersection of 50th
and Park Avenue, absolutely nothing happened.” But actually, on most street
corners throughout the world, on any given day, that is exactly what happened:
nothing. And that is a good thing! And we can thank the effectiveness of human
government for the fact that, most of the time, nothing happens except the
comings and goings of normal life. This is a blessing from God.
Some people think of the Bible as a
book full of fiery judgments from God. And there is no doubt that God does
send some chaos at times as a judgement. But God is actually the source of true
peace. It is God’s will to make peace, not war, with the world of men. The Gospel
is a message of peace: in Christ God has reconciled the world to Himself.
Peace on earth is not just wishful
thinking in the minds of a few political dreamers. Peace is a reality. The only
problem is that there are still many people who will not receive the peace that
God offers the world in His Son. And so, because we are still living in an evil
Age, there has to be a mechanism in place in the world to bring some order and
peace. That mechanism is human government.
Someone might wonder why God
Himself does not simply intervene and just rip the evil out of the world. That
is going to happen. But the time has not yet come. In the meantime, God has
given us human government to keep the peace on earth.
And since God is the source of peace,
it makes sense that His sons are also peacemakers. And when God does finally
rip the evil out of the world, it will be His sons, the peacemakers, who will
inherit the new world. God’s people are never to be a source of chaos and
disorder in the world because that does not advance the Gospel of peace.
Christians should be peacemakers, not troublemakers.
Nothing productive happens when
there is an environment of chaos and conflict. God works where there is peace.
It is no surprise that the Gospel began to spread throughout the world at the
beginning during the Pax Romana, the famous peace of Rome. I am not saying that
we want peace on earth just so we can get comfortable and prosperous here and
now. We want peace so that the Gospel can spread and so that we can live godly
lives as we prepare for the eternal Kingdom to come. And this is why Paul said
that Christians should pray for those who are in authority “that we may lead a
peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it
is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2.1-4).
I know that secular leaders often
talk about peace on earth and they promise to bring it if you support them and
their policies. There is such a thing as a false peace. Ultimately we do not
trust in men but in God. And there will come a time when everyone is talking
about peace and safety and then sudden destruction will come upon them, at the
Lord’s return.
But as we look to the Lord as our
source of peace and safety in an evil Age, we must understand that the idea or
the role of government was established by God. The rulers are ministers of God.
Their job is to make sure there is order and peace. When they do their jobs they
are doing God’s work, even if they don’t know that.
Someone has said that evil will
succeed when good men do nothing. And that is absolutely true! If evil gains in
power, it is because no one is opposing it. We all remember lessons from grade
school and the presence of the bully. There was always some kid who pushed the
other kids around. Sometimes it would stop when someone, or even a whole group
of kids, stood up to the bully. When you become an adult you realize that
bullies are not just kids on the playground. Some bullies grow up into
criminals, gangsters, dictators, and warlords. I know there are some bleeding
hearts who try to get us to feel sorry for these evil men and to try to
understand them and where they are coming from. But unless evil men change they
must be opposed or they will take over and make everyone else serve their
wishes.
But who should oppose evil men?
Should we all become members of the NRA and get concealed-carry permits so that
we can go hunt down the bad guys like bounty hunters? If we did that we would
have little time for anything else, and we would probably end up dead
ourselves. No. There is a better way that God Himself has designed for opposing
evil men.
It is the God-given function of the
State to use deadly force when necessary and to systematically oppose
evildoers. This is why we have police officers, courts of law, and judges. We
also have military because some of the evildoers are in other countries! This
is why we have legislative bodies that pass laws in order to make it harder for
evil men to succeed in doing their will and oppressing other people. (There is
nothing in the Bible that forbids Christians from being employed by the
government in jobs such as a police officer, soldier, public official, etc.)
Is it a perfect system? No. There
are no perfect men so there is no perfect system of government. Mistakes will
be made. But can you imagine the alternative? Can you imagine a world without
any government at all? Would you like to go back to a time when “there was no
king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes”? There can be
no anarchy in God’s world. The imperative in Paul’s teaching about human
government is for Christians to be in a position of submission.
That does not mean unconditional
obedience to the government. There will be times when the government and its
leaders are in rebellion against God and we must refuse to bow to the golden
statue and we say “we must obey God rather than man.” It would be an
interesting study to compare Romans 13 with Revelation 13 where the same Roman
government that Paul says Christians should submit to becomes a Beast that is
animated by the great Serpent and begins to persecute the Saints. But that
situation is the exception, not the norm. Paul is describing the normal
situation and the relationship that should exist between Christians and the
State.
Do you know who was ruling the
Roman government at the time of Paul’s writing? It was Nero! He was arguably
one of the most immoral rulers of that period. Paul did not tell the Christians
to submit to Nero. Nero is not even mentioned by name. We submit to the office
or to the institution, not to the men or women who occupy those positions of
power. The men and women who move through the halls of power may themselves be
morally corrupt. But the institutions of government were established by God
Himself.
