Chapters 1-11 of Romans deal with
theology, specifically soteriology (regarding our salvation). Then chapters
12-16 deal with “therefore”: since the Lord’s done so much for us, this should
affect how we think and act, towards ourselves, towards other believers, and
towards nonbelievers.
Today’s passage deals with a really
thorny subject. At its best, Christianity has always had an uneasy relationship
with the State (referring to the government). The State is not the Church, and
the Church is not the State. The Church was established by the Lord Jesus, and her
function in this world is to worship her Savior, witness to the lost, disciple
believers, and provide charity to those in need (when the needy person’s family
is unwilling/unable to help). The Church might work in conjunction with the State
in (very) limited areas, but her relationship with the State throughout history
has ranged from hostility (on the State’s part) to a very uneasy partnership.
According to today’s passage, the
State also is an institution created by God, no less than the Church. But its
purposes are very different, and there’s little overlap between the two.
The
State’s purpose, as near I read from here, is to preserve basic order in
society. Whenever order breaks down, the result is never pretty. Just as nature
abhors a vacuum, so do power and authority. If the legitimate state—for whatever
reason—doesn’t perform this basic function, then someone else will step in to
fill that power vacuum, and it’s usually whoever happens to have the most guns.
Instead of rule by law, you have rule by thugs. Instead of the physically weak
being protected by the law, you have the strong taking what they want from
them. Look at what normally happens when soldiers loot an enemy city, and
you see what I mean.
How
does the State preserve order? Well the Lord has put something in its hand: A
sword. A sword is not persuasion, unless you count “Do what I say or I’ll kill
you!” to be persuasion in the normal sense of the world. A sword is lethal force, or
at least the threat of lethal force. This is what Paul means that the State is there
to terrorize bad people, not good people. If you do what the State says, you
have no fear (or at least shouldn’t).
This
is common sense. Even nonbelievers know enough to be afraid of a State holding
its sword over their head. But there’s something that they don’t know, an extra
motivation for us to obey.
God
created the State. Paul very explicitly tells us here that “whoever rebels
against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those
who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” This isn’t talking about judgment
from the State. It’s talking judgment from the God who created the State
That
means that, unless the State tells you to do something that conflicts with God’s
word, then you need to obey it. Paul here goes so far as to call it God’s “servant.”
So you need to obey it, “not only because of possible punishment but also as a
matter of conscience.”
What
does this mean in practical terms? Let me a make a few observations:
·
We have even less of an excuse for disobedience in
this matter of conscience than the original readers. The original
readers were under a government in which they had little to no voice. Even if a
few of them were Roman citizens (like Paul), they had nothing like a Constitution
like we do. They had no enshrined freedom of speech, or press, or religion. The
relationship of the Church to Rome ranged from ignorant apathy to open and
violent hostility. We have a voice in our government. We vote for our leaders,
and if we don’t like how they do their job, we can fire them. We have freedom of
religion, speech, the press, etc. So how can we try to justify breaking its
laws? If they didn’t like a law, they
had no choice but to live with it. But we have a voice in our government. We
can work to elect leaders in line with what we believe. We can express our
support or opposition to a piece of legislation, and work to get it overturned
either by the legislature or in the courts if we have a strong case. The
one option I do not see here as a legitimate strategy is disobeying laws that
you don’t personally like.
·
Most law-breaking has nothing to do with conscience
and everything to do with convenience. Why do I speed? Because I took
much time getting ready and don’t want to be late. When I’m in trouble with the
law, it’s usually because I did something wrong, not because I’m taking some
sort of stand for Christ.
·
We really overuse the term “persecution.” If you look hard
enough, you can find Christians who are being harassed by local government
officials for exercising their faith. For example, you might make a good case
that it’s wrong or even unconstitutional for a school principal to tell a
student he can’t read from the Bible during study hall. But to call that
persecution? Oh, please. Tell you what, when they’re rounding up Christians for being Christians and putting them
into camps, then you can talk to me about persecution. If someone tells you
that you can’t read your Bible on school grounds, that doesn’t qualify.
·
Disobeying the law without legitimate reason is a
really poor witness. Have you ever been pulled over for a traffic violation
and the officer finds out you’re a Christian? Do you feel embarrassed? Please don’t laugh it off. This is not a
laughing matter. You’re being disobedient to a command from Scripture. And you’re
hurting the cause of the Message of Jesus Christ.
Can I claim complete innocence in
this matter? I wish I could. But by God’s grace, I’m making a sincere and
consistent effort to actually be obedient in this matter. How about you?
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