God and the Nations

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 50^th 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.