Justice And Immigration, Part 2

In our previous post we introduced the topic of justice and immigration and then looked at the first area in which we must listen to the wisdom of the Bible, what it has to say about immigration itself, as well as the historical contexts behind its teaching on immigration.

Now, in this post we turn to the remaining two areas of biblical wisdom we must discuss.

2. We Must Understand What Wisdom The Bible Gives On Rule Of Law, Borders, And Border Walls

Here we have three main sub-topics to examine.

Rule Of Law

God’s law in the Bible is not a bad thing, but a good thing, for this revelation of what is right and wrong shows people they are sinners who fall short of God and so are in need of his salvation (Rom. 3:23; 7:7; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21). What is more, God’s teaching on what is right and wrong, i.e. his standards, guides the Christian for how he is to live (Rom. 13:8-10; Eph. 4:29-5:4). In addition to this, God ordains governments to bring order and safety to societies and this happens, in part, by the passing of laws—including penalties for breaking them (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pt. 2:13-14). There is also an implication in Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-14 that government officials should also be under or submit to the standards for right and wrong themselves.

Given this understanding of divine and human law, we should see that for a society to be governed by laws as opposed to characterized by anarchy is good for the following reasons: 

• The presence of law and order can form a backdrop (pre-evangelism) for the church to teach others about God’s standards of right and wrong and thus to teach the gospel as the only way of salvation, a salvation that is needed because we all are sinners. 

• The presence of law and order can help the Christian in how to live out his new life in Christ in positive ways within the society. 

• The presence of law and order benefits all in a society (including immigrants) as it encourages order and safety. 

Though there are times when governments must be disobeyed (Acts 5:29: when they command disobedience to God), the starting point and general rule of thumb is that it is best for all involved to be encouraged to obey laws and to keep order. When, therefore, we encourage those coming into our country to disobey laws by either suggesting it is fine to come across the border illegally, or by serving in the capacity of a sanctuary city, we actually are hurting all citizens, including those who have come into the country. In such lawbreaking we are furthering the narrative that right and wrong doesn’t matter (which can also further a narrative that it doesn’t matter before God, which is a distortion of his righteousness) and we are creating a culture in which law and order are not valued and preserved and so it potentially becomes more dangerous and harsh for all.

There is at least one more reason we should encourage the rule of law in society. This was captured in the 17^th century book by the Scottish Presbyterian pastor, Samuel Rutherford, Lex Rex (Latin for The Law Is King). The law needs to rule in a society because typically when it does not, the ruler(s) end up becoming the law. When that happens and the rulers (government) are not under the law but above it, they make decisions and govern in a way that benefits them, harms the citizens, and prohibits society from flourishing.[1]

When it comes to immigration and helping refugees coming into our country, we should desire to help them and we should have laws that enable us to help as many as we can. However, at the same time, the just position, the one best for all involved, is that we do this in ways that preserve the rule of law and do not encourage law-breaking. When we see this principle in light of our previous treatment of immigration in the Bible, namely that it distinguishes between legal and illegal immigration and did not encourage the latter, we conclude that our pursuit of justice must also include the pursuit of the rule of law in society, including the keeping of immigration laws.

Borders

One of the specifics of the rule of law that those coming into a country must acknowledge is the presence of borders. Once a person crosses a border into another country, then they must be subject to their laws. In that country is found a God-ordained government that ideally is there to further order, safety, and to enable citizens to flourish (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pt. 2:13-14). It is right for things to be this way, as we just saw.

But, some might ask the question, “Why not do away with borders in our country in particular or throughout the world in general? Wouldn’t this be the fairest way for all to operate?” The answer is, “No.” This is not what would be fairest or best for the following reasons:

• Without borders we do not know whose jurisdiction we are in and so whose laws we must follow. The Bible is clear that we must “be subject to governing authorities” (Rom. 13:1). However, if we are in the United States, we do not have to be subject to the laws of Vietnam and vice-versa. Each of these countries have different cultures, backgrounds, and situations that necessitate some laws that will be different. Of course, if a citizen of the United States travels to Vietnam, then they must be subject to those laws and the Vietnamese must be subject to U.S. laws, if they come this way. The presence of distinctions between governments (including borders) was not only implied in our above discussion about immigration in the Bible, it is implied by the need to know which governing authorities we are to obey. 

• Doing away with borders in the long run would not be a good thing as it would move authority and ownership of lands far away from where people are at, which would not only oppose the best and most just situations economically for people but would eventually encourage a more centralized government in the world which would reduce freedom. Though this will not be the case when our Lord rules over the world solely and outwardly in the future, it is the likely outcome when sinful humans would be given the opportunity to rule in a centralized fashion. The closer to people that those in authority can be, the more likely they can be kept in check and accountable, and so freedom can be preserved. 

• Similar to the previous point, when people are in authority who are close enough to the people over whom they are governing to know life situations and needs, this provides for the best and most just form of government. It also means that the government that has jurisdiction is more motivated to defend its citizens and enable them to flourish through law and order (key purposes of government: Rom. 13:1-7), than if the governance was from a distance.

• If all borders were removed and the entire world was placed under one authority and one set of laws, this would necessitate taking an approach in which the least common denominator of laws and ideology would have to be adopted—in other words, something upon which all can agree. Given the sinfulness of humans, this would likely mean that it would be even that much more likely God’s wisdom would not be following in governance. This same principle would be true if the point was not to bring all the world under one human governance, but let’s say, all of North and South America. 

• Finally, it is hard enough to pass laws that all can agree upon among sinful humans when we are dealing with one country or even one state or county. Think how much harder it would be to enlarge that scope and to seek to bring law and order for multiple continents or the entire world, with all the cultural difference, worldviews, and various needs. It is not very realistic apart from the kind of complete moral transformation we will see in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21-22). 

Given all these reasons, we conclude that it is best for individual countries to have borders and for those borders to be part of each country’s rule of law. This means it is best for prospective immigrants into each country to abide by that country’s laws, including their immigration laws. In other words, it is right for Christians both to advocate compassion shown to those seeking to come into the country and those who have come into the country, but it is also right for Christians to advocate for the rule of law in regard to the country’s borders.

What is more, this can include seeking more just immigration laws, but should not include encouraging people to break immigration laws. Such lawbreaking is not a pursuit of biblical justice.

Border Walls[2]

It follows from our discussion on immigration from the Bible and our discussions about rule of law and borders that having walls or barriers at the borders of the United States to prevent people from entering illegally is a good thing.

Additionally, we can also make the following points from the Bible about why walls are good. 

• “Walls gave peace and security. In the world of the Old Testament, people built walls around cities to protect themselves from thieves, murderers, and other criminals, and from foreign invaders who would seek to destroy the city. People could still enter the city, but they had to do so by the gate, so that city officials would have some control over who was coming in and going out. Today’s debate is about a larger area – a national border, not a city – but the principles are the same. A strong wall gave peace and security to the city, and one prayer of blessing for a city was, ‘Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!’” (Psalm 122:7). 

o   “The pathetic shame of a city without walls is also evident in this proverb: ‘A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls’ (Proverbs 25:28). The implication is that such a man and such a city are both headed for destruction.”

o   “Then Nehemiah needed laborers for the massive task of rebuilding the wall. He challenged the people, ‘Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision’ (Nehemiah 2:17).”

o   “There is another wall in the Bible – at the very end of the New Testament. The apostle John has a vision of the New Jerusalem, a great city that comes down from heaven, and it includes a wall: ‘It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels’ (Revelation 21:12). Whether this is literal or simply part of a symbolic prophetic vision (I don’t know), it is clear that the wall protects the peace and security of those who are within.”

o   “My conclusion from this overview is that the Bible views border walls as a morally good thing, something for which to thank God. Walls on a border are a major deterrent to evil and they provide clear visible evidence that a city or nation has control over who enters it, something absolutely essential if a government is going to prevent a nation from devolving into more and more anarchy.”

• “Objection: ‘We should be a nation that welcomes immigrants.’ I agree wholeheartedly – if they come legally. But it is no kindness to them if the lack of a wall tempts them to risk death by walking across miles of parched desert, at the mercy of violent gangs, and then come into the US without legal documentation, only to live here as a permanent legal underclass, easily exploited, living in constant fear of discovery. In addition, it diminishes respect for the law and destabilizes the nation when millions of people exist in the shadows, living outside the legal recordkeeping functions of the nation.”

o   “The US currently admits over 1,000,000 immigrants per year who come legally and stay permanently – far more than any other nation. If you think that number should be even higher (as I do), then suggest a higher number to your congressman and talk to your fellow citizens. Persuade people to agree with you, and work for a change in the law. But don’t oppose a border wall, for that is just promoting more lawlessness.”

• “Objection: ‘The Bible tells us to care for the sojourner.’ I agree – but we still must have some means of regulating how many “sojourners” we allow into the country and who can qualify to enter – and a wall is the most effective way to do this. When the Bible says, ‘Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt’ (Deuteronomy 10:19), Old Testament professor James Hoffmeier has demonstrated that these ‘sojourners’ (or ‘resident foreigners’ in one translation; the Hebrew term is ger) were people who had entered another country legally, with the permission and knowledge of the country that admitted them. (The unmodified term ‘foreigner’ in some translations is not specific enough to translate Hebrew ger.) A foreigner who had entered a country by stealth and did not have recognized standing as a resident alien was not considered a  ‘sojourner’ (Hebrew ger) but simply a ‘foreigner’ (Hebrew nekar or zar).”

• “Objection: ‘These are good people who are just seeking a better life.’ Yes, many of them are, and we should welcome them – if they come legally. But we can’t ignore the fact that many others will not become ‘good neighbors’ – some are drug runners, gang members, and even terrorists. A wall makes it possible to screen out the people who have previously been deported for felonies and others who are most likely to commit crimes or simply become a drain on the economy rather than getting a productive job.

o   “An effective border wall would also be the best way to keep children together with their parents. Under the present system, families (1) enter the US illegally and (2) are caught, then (3) they plead for asylum, and (4) they are incarcerated until their asylum petition can be evaluated. But if we had a completed wall, such requests for asylum would be decided at the border, before they ever entered the US. We would never have to detain either parents or children on US soil in the first place.”

• “Objection: ‘Walls don’t work.’ That objection is not true. Sections of high, effective walls and fences have already transformed whole regions of San Diego and El Paso from high-crime zones into peaceful, much safer cities.

o   “A high, double wall with modern electronic equipment to detect tunneling would stop perhaps 90-95 percent or even more of illegal border crossings. Once such a wall is complete, most Americans would feel that the border is finally under control, and the remaining questions about immigration could be resolved in an atmosphere of far less tension and animosity.”

o   “Walls that already work: In fact, we already have a highly effective system of ‘border walls’ that nobody argues about – in our airports. Every time I return to the US from a foreign country, I have to go through customs at the airport, and so does everybody else. The room where people wait in line to see a customs officer has walls to make sure that all arriving passengers have to go through passport control. I’ve never seen anyone protesting the existence of walls in the customs area or demanding that a section of the wall be removed so that people who don’t want to go through passport control can simply walk into the country whenever they want. That would be an open invitation to terrorists and other criminals, and it would make it impossible for the US to place any limits at all on the number of people who came into the country and stayed without legal documentation.”

o   “Yet demanding “no passport controls at airports” is, it seems to me, exactly parallel to saying that we should not build a wall on our southern border. Why should airports be any different from other border entry points? Yes, we are a nation of immigrants, and we should eagerly welcome numerous immigrants into the US every year, but they must come in legally, through the gates in the wall, not illegally and dangerously across an open desert.”

I agree with Wayne Grudem that walls at the borders of the U.S. are good and should be there.

3. We Must Understand That The Bible Calls Us To Compassion Toward All Kinds Of People. 

This third and final area of biblical wisdom that helps us put together a just approach to immigration has already been alluded to in this and the previous post. However, it is important enough to look at it more fully.

The kind of compassion to which the Bible calls us toward all kinds of people includes both helping people flourish in regard to their relationships to creation, self, and other people (which could include helping them overcome resource poverty, be re-united with family members where possible, and helping them overcome safety and security poverty), but also helping them flourish in regard to their relationship to God (doing the gospel work of helping them know and follow Jesus Christ).

We know that this includes being kind to and seeking to love and reach all kinds of sinners (which is all of us, Rom. 3:23; 5:8), including those who have been law-breakers, for the following reasons:

• God gave to humans a commission in Gen. 1:28, to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over…every living thing that moves on the earth,” in other words, humans from the beginning were to bring order to the earth such that it and those in it could flourish, and they were to fill the earth with God-glorifiers and God-worshipers. Once sin entered into the world, this commission became a mandate to help others come back to God. 

• In Mt. 28:19-20 Jesus gave to the New Testament church a whole-world-focused commission that was even clearer about reaching all kinds of people in the world, for he said, “While going, make disciples of all ethnic groups” (my translation). 

• In Is. 25:3 the prophet looks forward to a time of future salvation, when God will do a great work among the nations, especially among those who have done horrible things. He is addressing God about what he will do: “Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; a city of fear-inspiring nations will fear you” (my translation). He presents the world as such a unified system that it is like one city and it is full of people who do horrible things and cause others to fear. Yet, many of these very people will be subdued and brought to worship and reverence the true God. Reading it in light of Isaiah 59:19-62:12, this will happen when the Spirit-led redeemer comes, fills his people with his glory, and they draw the nations to God. By implication, God is promising here that he will bring lawless peoples to him. The church, then, should be focused upon discipling all kinds of people, including the lawless.

• In Acts 9:1-19 we read of Jesus Christ saving Paul, the persecutor and terrorist against the church. Though before he trusted in Christ he was acting in ways he thought were lawful and in ways not opposed by most in Israel, nevertheless he was committing great sin (cf. 1 Tim. 1:15). Here was a very lawless individual that Jesus saved. In fact, this is true of all that our Lord saves: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). We must follow his example (Jn 20:21; Phil. 2:1-11).

• In Acts 16:25-34 we see Paul and Silas going the extra mile to save the life of the jailer who was keeping them unjustly in chains. When there was a great earthquake that loosed the chains of Paul and Silas and the other prisoners, not only did they not run away, but they kept other prisoners from running away so the jailer’s life could be spared. The result was that the jailer and his family received and rested upon Christ alone for salvation. Here we see a pattern that we also should seek to disciple unrighteous people, including lawbreakers. 

• In Luke 6:27-36 Jesus instructs his followers to love, do good to, bless, pray for, help, and even meet physical needs of those who hurt, hate, oppose us, and who can’t (or won’t) return anything to us. To do so is to “be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (v. 36). This would include, in some cases, those who are lawless. 

• Finally, every person we meet is created in the image of God and so to mistreat them is to mistreat one who is part of the crowning creation of God and bears his reflection, whether they realize it or not (Gen. 9:6; Jm. 3:9).

The church in the United States must see that God, in his providence, is bringing much of the world to us—through international students coming here, through legal immigrants coming here, and even through illegal immigrants coming here. Though we never encourage any of these people to be lawbreakers and even while we are advocating for the placement of border walls and the enforcement of border laws, we are called to reflect the mercy of God shown to us as we turn around and extend mercy to all kinds of people, including those who have come illegally (Lk. 6:36). This is what people who are directed by God’s love and the gospel and who are living for the gospel do!

We are called to live for a great cause, not just a great comfort, as we move toward need in this world. We do this as justice pursuers who are directed by the gospel, as gospel people who pursue the gospel’s outcome—justice!  In other words, those of us who know and follow Jesus Christ should pursue justice in regard to immigration, in the ways we have set forth in these two posts.

Joyfully Pursuing Justice With You,

Tom

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[1] Deuteronomy 17:14-20 seems to acknowledge this tendency for rulers to place themselves above the law when it set forth for future kings the need for restraints on them and the importance of their being under God’s law.

[2] Unless otherwise noted, the material for this section comes from Wayne Grudem, “Why Building A Border Wall is A Morally Good Action,” a July 2, 2018 post at townhall.com/columnists/waynegrudem/2018/07/02/why-building-a-border-wall-is-a-morally-good-action-n2496574, accessed July 10, 2018.