The Divine Mandates For Government According To Romans 13:1-7, Part 1

 This coming Sunday I will preach a sermon based on Romans 13:1-7 that is titled, “Six Directives For The 2020 Election.” Since I am preaching only one sermon on this passage that is pregnant with significant points that Paul makes, there is much I must leave untouched. Because of that, I want to blog on the passage this week to give greater understanding as we go into Sunday’s sermon.

We will start by looking at the context.

1. CONTEXT.

Paul has just called upon Christians not to see themselves as the avengers against those who wrong them. In Romans 12:19a he writes: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves….” Instead, as Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:35, he teaches Christians should recognize vengeance belongs to God: “…but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom. 12:19b-c). 

What Paul does in Romans 13:1-7, then, is to turn to a specific example of how God carries out vengeance in this world and so he is explaining to Christians they should not become vigilantes. This is seen with greater clarity when we zero in on verse 4 that speaks of government leaders: “For he is God’s servant…an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”. The word for “avenger” is ekdikos, a related word to “vengeance” (ekdikēsis) in 12:19. The avenger is the one who brings or accomplishes vengeance.

So, what we have in Romans 13:1-7 is an example of how God has ordered things in the world to function such that he carries out vengeance in the civil or political sphere through government leaders who are his servants. Paul is saying, then, that if we are to present our entire being to God in worship (12:1-2) and if we are to love those who are hard to love, when they are opposed to us (12:9-21) and in the way God desires, then we must place ourselves under the authority and leadership of government leaders and leave vengeance to them as God’s servants.

We should not miss from a look at the context that an implication is that advocating for godly and just government is an act of love toward others.

It is also helpful before moving on to highlight from the context of all Scripture that since God’s justice is his righteousness (his moral character) applied to the public arena (e.g. Ps. 82:3), those who represent him are to seek to carry out his justice, his righteousness applied to the public arena, as well. Such justice is to be “blind,” i.e. equitably applied no matter the person’s status in life and in light of what is true about the person (Ex. 23:1-4; Lev. 19:15; Prov. 24:23). In Proverbs 17:26 we learn that to punish the righteous is not good.

There would be an implied obligation for Christians to seek this kind of government as part of our righteousness lived out in love for others.

Now we will turn our attention to the main command in the passage. 

2. THE MAIN COMMAND. 13:1a

Paul writes: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” In other words, the citizen, especially the Christian citizen, is to place him/herself underneath the government, that is, as we see in verse three below, those authorities (and their laws and structures, as seen in 1 Peter 2:13) who are part of the government (cf. Lk. 12:58; 24:20; Acts 4:5, 8, 26; 1 Cor. 2:6, 8).

Note what Paul does not write. “The Bible never tells people always to obey every command of a secular civil government…. To ‘be subject’ to a government in general does not mean that one always must obey every command of that government.” (Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: An Introduction To Biblical Moral Reasoning, 189)  This will become much more apparent as we go on. In essence we learn here a similar principle to the sixth commandment: “You shall not murder.” The Bible teaches that we are not to take another human life unless we have just cause (defense, capital punishment, self-defense). The same is true with government submission. We are to submit unless we have just cause not to submit and thus to oppose and even remove a government or government leaders. 

Once Paul covers the main command, he turns in the bulk of his teaching to address the rationale for the command. We will turn to consider that rationale in our next post.

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO GOD (New City Catechism #2)

 Cooked carrots, hot dogs, Sweet Tarts, cats, Hallmark movies, novels, children, grandchildren, and contentment. What do these have in common? They all describe my wife. As a child she did not like cooked carrots, she has never liked hot dogs, she loves Sweet Tarts, cats, Hallmark movies, and novels. She is a wonderful mom and grandma to her children and grandchildren. Finally, she is one of the most content people I know.  Just because you now know these facts about her does not mean you know her. And yet, part of knowing her is knowing things about her. In fact, if I were to say to someone who never met her, “Let me introduce you to my wife,” most likely what would follow is a conversation in which facts like the above would come to the surface. Getting to know about others is part of getting to know them.

The same is true of God. If someone were to ask you, “Who is God?” how would you respond? Would you be able to answer?  This is what the second question in The New City Catechism, “What is God?” is designed to address. The answer it gives is this: “God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will.”

Let me introduce you to God by unpacking the answer this catechism gives.

God is the creator of everyone and everything

Psalm 33:6 teaches, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” John 1:3 adds: “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”

God is the…sustainer of everyone and everything

God not only created all, but he keeps all things existing and functioning. Colossians 1:17 reads: “In him all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3 adds: “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.”

He is eternal

God has always been and always will be. He has no beginning or end. Psalm 90:2 reveals it this way: “From everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

He is infinite

This means that God is without limits and/or boundaries. In 1 Kings 8:27 we find: “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you….”

He is unchangeable in his power

God is all powerful and nothing will change this. It is put this way in Psalm 115:3: “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” Jesus also affirms (Mt. 19:26): “With God all things are possible.” And finally, for the fact he does not change, we read in Malachi 3:6: “For I, the LORD, do not change....”

He is unchangeable in his perfection

Jesus makes the point (Mt. 5:48): “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

He is unchangeable in his goodness

We should agree with the psalm writer (Psalm 106:1): “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

He is unchangeable in his glory

In Exodus we read:

Moses said [to God], “Please show me your glory.” …5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 33:18; 34:5-7)

He is unchangeable in his wisdom

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33)

He is unchangeable in his justice

The "LORD...exercises...justice, and righteousness on earth." (Jeremiah 9:24)

He is unchangeable in his truth

Paul writes in Titus 1:2, “God, who never lies….”

Nothing happens except through him and by his will

God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” (Eph. 1:11)

This is only just the beginning in our knowledge of God, but a good start it is. Memorize this question and answer and it will provide some wonderful hooks upon which we can hang all our other knowledge of God.

Growing In The Knowledge Of God With You,

Tom

GOD’S COMMITMENT TO US (New City Catechism #1)

 We have a very different relationship to things we own than we do to things we do not. For example, if I throw some meat on the grill to cook for supper, that is not that unusual, that is, if it is my grill that sits behind our house. However, if I were to go into the backyard of my next-door neighbor and put a couple steaks on his grill without his permission, that would be something very different.

It is not only the right or lack thereof to use things that differs between what belongs to us and does not. We also tend to take better care of our belongings. I don’t mow my neighbor’s yard or wash his truck. But I do those things with my yard and truck. Why?  Because they belong to me. I am, therefore, committed to them and their maintenance.

Similarly, we need to see that Christians belong to God in two different ways and this means he is committed to us and we should be to him.

 We Belong To God Because He Created Us

In Psalm 100:1-3 we read, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Note in this short psalm that “all the earth” has an obligation to praise and serve the Lord since he created us. Elsewhere we see that God plainly reveals his “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” to the world (Rom. 1:19-20), that we might know him and he even works among us so we experience his “kindness [which] is meant to lead [us] to repentance” (Rom. 2:4). It is as if God had committed himself to those he created, to show he is “not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27) and that we have all we need to come to know him.

We Belong To God Because He Saved Us

Those who have received and rested upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation belong to God in an additional and even more important way. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 of true followers of Christ: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” Romans 14:7-8 puts it this way: “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s."

God has made a solemn bond and agreement with his people, those who belong to him, that for all eternity he will be their God and they will be his people (Jeremiah 31:33; Rev. 21:3, 7). This means he will always be with them to care for them and “to show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness” (Eph. 2:7; 1 Peter 5:7). God only makes this promise to those “in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). It is this reality that leads to the eternal joy and blessedness Christians experience when they die (1 Peter 1:8-9; Rev. 14:13).

The fact that we belong to God leads to a commitment we are to make to him, namely, because we belong to him, we are to “glorify God in [our] body” (1 Cor. 6:20).

The fact that we belong to God also leads to the certain hope we have that God will bring us into our eternal glory and reward (Rom. 5:1-5; 8:28-30).

When we bring all this together, we should find great joy and hope in the reality that we belong to God, body and soul, both in this life and the coming life. This is what the first question and answer of The New City Catechism address: “What is our only hope in life and death?”  Answer: “That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.”  

 

Follow Up Questions For: Jesus Christ: Raised To Pour Out The Spirit (Acts 2:32-33)

1. Why did Jesus have to be resurrected in order to pour out the Holy Spirit more permanently, penetratingly, and powerfully upon his church?

2. We listed several reasons why the gift of the Holy Spirit is so important. Which ones made the most impact upon you and why?

3. What are some of the different ways you need to respond to this sermon and what are your plans to do so?

4. Spend some time praising the Holy Spirit and asking for his help to respond to this message.

Jesus Christ: Crucified To Pour Out The Spirit (Acts 2:14-23)

Here are questions to help process and apply the April 5 sermon:

1. In what ways does the crucifixion of Jesus Christ lead to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in this New Covenant era?

2. In what ways does the Holy Spirit's work among believers now differ from the Old Testament era?

3. In what ways were you encouraged by the work of the Holy Spirit among us now?

4. What difference does the Holy Spirit in us make for living on mission?

5. In what ways should you tap into the work of the Holy Spirit in you?

6. What about the Holy Spirit should we teach to the next generation of believers (those whom we are discipling to make disciples)?

"Joyful Followers In A Pandemic," 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

1. Often we assume that suffering is simply something we must endure. In what ways did you change in your view of suffering based on this passage (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)?

2. Why does suffering provide such a temptation to become angry at God and conclude he is not good? How do we counter this?

3. Most events we experience have multiple causes or influences (such as us, sin, evil spirits, and/or God). Why is this so important to grasp?

4. Why did Jesus Christ not answer Paul’s repeated prayers for relief from suffering? Why is this significant for us?

5. This passage strongly implies that valuing the glory of Christ above all else is crucial in our handling of suffering well. Explain why this is true.

6. Summarize what you learned about facing this pandemic as a joyful follower of Jesus Christ.

Looking For God's Goodness While Facing A Pandemic: Sermon Follow-up Questions

1. Read the main passage of Scripture for today:  Genesis 50:15-21. In what ways do you find comfort and peace from this passage?  What about from the sermon as a whole?
2. What did you learn about God in the sermon that you believe is important to remember?
3. What did you learn about the world, others, and yourself that is important to remember?
4. What from this sermon is the most helpful to share with the next generation of believers?
5. What is at least one thing you take away from the sermon that you can share with someone else this week that will encourage them to look to Jesus during the coronavirus pandemic?
*Spend time praying for each other, family, friends, and our faith family that we can find peace and comfort in the application of this message. Also, thank and praise God for who he is, what he has done, and what he is doing.