would please turn within your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2, beginning at the fourth verse.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord made the heavens and the earth, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up.
For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.
Then the Lord formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living creature.
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east. And there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers.
The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there.
The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.’
From there, we turn to Exodus 12 to hear the Lord’s instructions concerning the Passover, beginning at verse 43.
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘This is the statute of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.
All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you, and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, then he may come near and keep it. He shall be as a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.
From there we turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7, beginning at verse 13.
Jesus says, ‘Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
Lord, you have given us your word to instruct us and guide us in our lives. Help us to hear you speak through it and help us to apply what you say and help us to live in a way that is faithful and honoring to you in all that we do. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Now, the second contemporary issue related to civic matters that we will consider and apply using the lens of covenant theology concerns the establishment of borders and international boundaries.
And the three questions to guide our application are: What is the origin and purpose of borders and boundaries? How should Christians interact and engage with people in the world because of these borders and boundaries? And how should Christians respond to the idea of borders and boundaries spiritually?
Now, the subject of borders has become controversial and divisive in our present cultural moment, but that has not been the case throughout history. Established borders and boundaries have been a very ordinary and necessary feature of human society ever since the very beginning.
And although we rarely consider the question, the establishment of borders and boundaries is grounded in God’s work of creation. Remember, on the first day of creation, God separated the light from the darkness, establishing a border, separating the light from the dark.
And on the second day of creation, God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ See, God established heaven. He placed it to be a border, separating the waters above from the waters below.
And on the third day of creation, God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And so God established boundaries between the dry land and all the oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes.
So, while these borders are fixed naturally and they’re only penetrable as the Lord’s providence allows, we may not assume that the mere fact of them is enough to justify boundaries between nations or people.
But there is something often overlooked within the creation narrative of Genesis 2. Right in the midst of man’s creation, there are many details within this passage that get missed or are ignored in the retelling in our general familiarity with the story, details that may impact our interpretation significantly.
Trivia time. What is the name of the garden that the Lord placed Adam? If you answered Eden, please reread Genesis 2:8-10 because that’s not precisely correct. Moses writes, ‘And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.’
So it was the garden of Eden. The garden was not itself called Eden, but was a location within a land called Eden.
Furthermore, noting that this river flowed out of Eden into the garden implies that Eden was a limited territory with a definite external boundary. So neither Eden nor its garden really encompassed the whole of creation.
Next, whether it was somewhere within the garden or somewhere downstream, the river then became divided into four distinct rivers: the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates.
The Pishon flowed around the whole land of Havilah where it was a border defining the territory. The Gihon flowed around the whole land of Cush where it also defined that territory’s border.
And the Tigris flowed east of Assyria, where it was used as a territory’s border on one side. But the Euphrates was not mentioned as being used to define the borders of any particular nation or territory.
So, already here within the first two chapters of Genesis, we actually find four territories or lands named with established borders. And two of these territories become nations which are confidently identified by scholars as Assyria, which is Israel’s future oppressor, and Cush, which was a nation that encompassed modern Ethiopia and parts of Sudan.
So although there are also no rivers modern that are identified with the Pishon or Gihon, we are still confident because of the linguistic continuity between ancient Semitic languages in Hebrew that the biblical text refers to the modern rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates despite their course changing over the centuries.
This interpretation is supported as well by secular historical scholarship that names this region around these two rivers as the fertile crescent and is associated with the rise of human civilization, notably the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires.
Meanwhile, the Apostle Paul, when he engaged the pagan philosophers of Athens in religious debate, declared that the Lord, whom he identified as their unknown God, had made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.
Paul taught that during his work of creation, God sovereignly ordained and established borders and boundaries to separate one place from another and to distinguish between peoples and nations. God declared the historical rise and fall of nations, establishing them wherever he would for a time, and then he also removed them when their time was over.
Furthermore, after Adam plunged humanity into sin, when the Lord drove humanity into exile at the east of the Garden of Eden, God placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
The border of Eden was already established. But in response to human sinfulness, the Lord created the first border patrol, charged with enforcing that border’s sovereignty. The angelic cherubim defended the borders of Eden and its garden against incursion or invasion by sinful humanity.
So while the Lord originally established these borders as passive boundary markers, because of our sin, they now require active, forceful defense to ensure that they are respected and not transgressed. This defense of boundaries applies likewise in every sphere of life, in our personal lives, between nations, and in the spiritual realm.
See, there is a grievous theological error that’s often assumed by people in our modern culture. It’s called functional universalism. Culture has adopted these various ecumenical heresies and promoted certain popular lies, like that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God or that all paths lead to God in heaven, that all people are born naturally and morally good or at least neutral, and that a good and loving God would not send anyone to hell.
See, these lies promote the common disbelief in the biblical consequence and reality of hell for the reprobate, and they deny the sinfulness of sin. Instead of affirming biblical truth, our culture teaches us that sin is egalitarian, asserting that all sins are equally bad.
But then it contradicts itself by teaching that individuals can be compared against one another and even ranked as being better or worse because of the quantity or severity of their publicly known sins. ‘At least I’m not as bad as so-and-so.’
See, these heresies, these comfortable lies, deny the biblical witness that teaches us about God’s justice and grace, his love and mercy.
Now, the spiritual reality taught in scripture is that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the domain of the devil. And although Satan’s power may be great, he remains subordinate to Christ and will be utterly defeated one day and cast into the lake of fire.
And despite the fantasies of non-canonical and extra-biblical sources that describe satanic attempts to invade heaven, the true reality is that when the Son of God became incarnate, when Christ came down, heaven invaded Satan’s realm to reclaim territory that Adam had surrendered.
Now, this may sound shocking, but even if it sounds intolerant, it’s true. The plain testimony of scripture really teaches that hell has open borders. It is inclusive and tolerant of everything that is in rebellion against the authority of Christ.
Meanwhile, heaven has a closed border, an impenetrable wall. It has the most strict and exclusive immigration policy: by invitation only. But that invitation is also the most inclusive because it’s extended to all the nations, every tribe and tongue, through the proclamation of the gospel.
Jesus declared, ‘Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.’
Jesus describes the gate to the devil’s domain as being wide and offering an easy path to self-destruction. And many people will enter hell through this gate because it is so easy to find, being broadly inclusive and wide open.
But alternately, Jesus describes the gate into heaven as being narrow and promising a hard and challenging path to reach life in the kingdom of God, where few people will find this gate and fewer still will enter through it because of its strict and exclusive requirement for entrance: faith in Christ Jesus alone.
Now, although this can be interpreted as a spiritual allegory, the presence of a gate still implies the presence of a wall or other barrier that prevents the illicit crossing of a border.
Furthermore, elsewhere within Matthew’s gospel, Jesus emphasized the difficulty in crossing that border, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God,’ prompting his disciples to ask, ‘Who then can be saved?’
And Jesus answered, ‘With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’
So, how does someone enter through this narrow gate? How does God make our entrance possible? By us placing our faith in Jesus Christ alone. If you desire to cross the threshold to get into heaven, then trust Jesus Christ and obey his commandments.
We must do as Peter proclaimed on Pentecost: ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’
But if even heaven has a border wall keeping the holy separate from the profane and a regulated method controlling entry, then should we be surprised to find a similarity in the world? Because don’t we often pray on earth as it is in heaven?
Few people would argue that the establishment and preservation of boundaries is not a good thing. Everybody establishes boundaries in their lives. We establish healthy boundaries with our employers to prevent their abuse of our personal lives.
We establish healthy boundaries with our family members to preserve our relationships. Our home’s walls create a border that separates our family from the external world, both from people who do not belong to our family and from the natural elements like weather.
Like our homes, nations also have borders. And since they are the divinely ordained defenders of justice, our federal government is morally obligated to enforce the borders in our defense, in defense of the eighth commandment and the whole second table of the law.
But borders are not meant to be absolute barriers preventing any and all crossings. They should be semi-permeable, allowing regulated crossing. Locks help to keep strangers out of our home, but doors may be opened to welcome in our friends and family.
Spiritually, if hope for illegal means to enter and cross heaven’s border were impossible, if heavenly immigration was utterly prohibited, then God would not have set the cherubim to defend the border of Eden’s garden. Instead, he would have removed Eden entirely, denying humanity hope of regaining access.
Therefore, we believe that facilitating lawful immigration in the world is a morally good thing because, by God’s grace, Christians have the confident hope of crossing that spiritual border to immigrate into the heavenly paradise first promised by Eden.
So the answer to the question about the origin and purpose of borders and boundaries is that they are established by God as a providential means to lawfully divide and distinguish between all of the nations and people who would ever arise in history.
And since every kind of border or boundary has been ordained and is decreed by God from before humanity’s fall into sin, the preservation and defense of all of our different and many boundaries is a moral obligation governed under the covenant of works.
Under that covenant, we are obligated to defend all of our boundaries and to respect and keep and not violate the established boundaries of people around us. Therefore, every governing authority, every kind of authority has a moral duty to protect and defend our respective borders to fulfill their obligation of enforcing justice within their sphere of influence.
But unfortunately, vigilance to defend our many boundaries is necessary because of our human sinfulness. There are countless wicked and immoral people who want to transgress them to steal and to destroy.
So we must defend our social boundaries to prevent things like gossip or interference in our affairs. We must defend our workplace boundaries to avoid the appearances of favoritism and to preserve a healthy work-life home-life balance.
And so we may affirm that establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries in life is a spiritual good for us.
Our second question for applying our faith in relation to this issue asks us how should Christians interact and engage with the world because of the presence of all of these different borders and boundaries.
We must first remember that boundaries between nations are something divinely ordained for our good benefit and that the government has the moral obligation to defend them to protect everyone that they are responsible for and responsible to.
And after we understand this divine purpose for borders and boundaries, then we can look at it and discern three categories of people within any kind of discrete territory: citizens, resident aliens, and invaders.
Citizens are those that belong inside the territory. They may be naturally native to the territory or they may be immigrants who have become naturalized. Resident aliens do not naturally belong within the territory, but they do possess a lawful right to be there.
They may have been admitted to work or to attend school, but their stay is regulated by terms and conditions that are imposed by the government. Their expected length of stay is limited. And while they’re here, they’re required to submit to the authority of the local government.
But invaders, invaders are anyone who does not have a lawful right to be present with them or to gain admittance to the territory. Their unlawful presence is a natural act of defiance against the governing authority and so a moral transgression against divinely established order.
Furthermore, invaders never transgress a border with good and positive intentions towards the citizens or resident aliens, only their own selfish intent.
Now, while these terms may be used broadly in regards to international borders, the same concepts can be used and applied fairly on smaller scales to similar sets of borders like those that are around our home.
A homeowner and their family are citizens, while an immigrant eligible to become a naturalized citizen might be someone like a girlfriend who becomes a fiancé and then a wife. Friends and visiting guests are resident aliens. They are people who are invited in and welcome to stay for a limited duration, and they are subject to the rules of the house.
Or another example of a resident alien would be a mother-in-law who comes to stay to be taken care of. Meanwhile, burglars or robbers are invaders. They have no lawful right to be on the property and they clearly have bad intentions towards the property owner and their property.
Or we can take these three categories and apply them as universal principles at any scale in creation, even within the borders of our own human bodies. All types of blood cells, for instance, red blood cells, platelets, white blood cells, would be citizens of our body, and beneficial probiotic bacteria that live within our gastrointestinal tract, those would be resident aliens, while viruses or other harmful bacteria are invaders.
See, these categories and labels are abstract ideas and principles. And when they’re being used to describe people, we must remember that those people are made in the image of God and they are also our neighbors.
So we must be careful to not devalue their humanity. But these categories are drawn from scripture, and scripture is what defines the relationship between them.
When God gave Moses the instructions for the Passover in Exodus 12, he said, ‘No foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that’s bought for money may eat of it after you’ve circumcised him. No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
And if a stranger who sojourns with you would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, then he may come near and keep it. He shall be as a native of the land.’
So the Israelites were the citizens of the Old Testament. Soldiers, which would be friendly Gentiles who lived and worked within Israel’s territory, were resident aliens, and foreigners or hostile Gentiles who lived outside of Israel’s borders and were working to destroy, enslave or oppress the Israelites were invaders.
Similarly, we would understand the Jews as being citizens in the New Testament. God-fearers, like the centurion Cornelius, were resident aliens, while the Romans were invaders.
But while the categories of citizen and invader are relatively simple and straightforward to understand, we must be careful to rightly understand what scripture means by the term sojourner.
The Hebrew word that gets translated as sojourner describes a non-native person who lives, works, and resides temporarily within a territory in submission to the local authorities. Sojourner is not synonymous with immigrant.
Abraham was a sojourner in Canaan. He did not become a Canaanite. Moses was a sojourner in Midian. He did not become a Midianite. The Hebrews were sojourners in Egypt. They did not become Egyptians.
See, sojourners retain their own unique identity while they live and work in a territory not their own. They maintained their own customs and religion, refusing to become integrated into the dominant culture.
However, they were in submission to local authority, following all the local laws and customs so long as they were not contrary to their own. And while sojourners may have been included with the whole, they remained distinct.
And the same system of law governed both the native and the sojourner. It shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. They may have been within, but they were also outside, and they kept themselves apart.
But ultimately, it was obedience to the local law that distinguished a sojourner from an invader. But also, sojourners could become as the native. Sojourners and resident aliens could become citizens through a defined immigration process if they desired.
They only had to surrender their old identity and be transformed, conformed, and assimilated into the majority and dominant culture. So a sojourner could become an immigrant temporarily because an immigrant was a sojourner who did whatever was required to become a citizen.
So just as lawful obedience distinguishes a sojourner from an invader, the intent to become a citizen distinguishes an immigrant from being just a mere sojourner.
And God explained to Moses that only his covenant people could eat the Passover. Only citizens of the kingdom of God. Celebrating and eating the Passover required the sign of membership in the old covenant of grace: circumcision.
And while only citizens could eat the meal, sojourners still enjoyed some secondary civil benefits by their obedient submission to God’s law. But if a sojourner wanted to enjoy the whole benefit of God’s covenant, then they had to become circumcised and become a citizen in Israel.
‘Then they may come near and eat it. He shall be as a native of the land.’
When a person joined Israel, their old identity and allegiance was stripped away. They were no longer who or what they once were. Instead, they were like a native-born Israelite or Hebrew.
There were no Philistine Israelites, nor were there Moabite Hebrews. They were only Israelites, Hebrews, or Jews. And after a sojourner was naturalized, they were no longer an immigrant or resident alien, but a citizen who possessed all the same benefits, rights, and responsibilities as the native-born.
So thinking through these three biblical categories and their definitions is helpful and needful before we try to use them to interpret our present cultural moment.
After thinking through them biblically, we realize something important: we need to reexamine all of the terms commonly used within the immigration conversation.
First off, citizens are everyone who is native-born or who has become naturalized through the lawful immigration process.
Second, sojourers or resident aliens are citizens of foreign nations that have been granted lawful entry by the federal government and are approved to live, work, or attend school here. And many resident aliens are also immigrants because they are engaged in the immigration process, patiently waiting for citizenship.
Third, the term illegal immigrant is inappropriate and a logical misnomer because immigration assumes a person’s submission to the authorities and their active participation in the lawful process. A person cannot immigrate illegally. Violation of the relevant laws and circumvention of the due process is a clear rejection of the lawful requirement for conformity and assimilation as an immigrant.
Fourth, while the term illegal alien may be appropriate and is technically correct, it is frequently misused and may be considered offensive because of how it dehumanizes. But it does describe a foreign citizen that is present within our territory without the government’s permission or approval.
They are persons who are unlawfully or illegally present within our borders. They are invaders by definition because they have not respected our national border, nor are they respecting or submitting to the government’s authority and responsibility to defend the border.
Their disobedience is an act of rebellion against the lawful authority that God has ordained and established. But we, as faithful Christians, are obligated to be subject to the governing authorities.
And although it’s not necessarily our duty as individuals to defend the border, we are morally obligated as citizens to support the lawful authorities who do have that responsibility. Therefore, we may not lawfully impede or obstruct the government’s efforts, nor may we encourage people to cross the border illegally because that is rebellion against lawful authority.
We may not support or aid them against lawful authority because by doing so, we would join them in their sin. But since we are also under the law of Christ, we work to fulfill the royal law of loving our neighbors.
This means that as our neighbor, we are morally obligated to help them to survive and lawfully thrive. We are morally obligated under the covenant of works to clothe them if they’re naked or feed them if they are hungry or even provide them with medical care to the extent of our own personal capability, just as we would for any other needful person.
And we should be glad to show them mercy and give them grace because of the mercy and grace that we have received from Christ. But we should also encourage and help them to do what is right and lawful.
We should encourage them to repent of their lawbreaking, to confess and surrender themselves to the lawful authorities or to willfully exit and then do whatever is required to return to our country lawfully. Ultimately, we should be encouraging them to stop being invaders and become sojourners or citizens instead.
But after considering how Christians should engage with the world and the effect of our borders, how do we respond to this idea spiritually? It’s important that we remember that this world is not our home. Although we live in the world, we do not belong to the world. This world has been under the authority and power of Satan ever since Adam transferred his allegiance to it.
And Satan is a fearsome invader. But despite humanity having turned traitor, Satan’s grip on temporal power is weak. Satan may well be the prince of the power of the air, and he may spiritually rule over the fallen cosmos through the cosmic powers over the present darkness using the spiritual forces of evil.
But Satan is not the Lord. He is not God, and his authority is stolen and unlawful. Christians are not beholden to him, and we do not need to fear him. We belong to Jesus Christ, whom we love and seek to obey in all things.
Christians are not citizens of the world, but rather scripture declares God’s people are sojourners in the world under both the old covenant and the new covenant. The psalmist declared, ‘I am a sojourner on the earth. Hide not your commandments from me.’
The Apostle Peter encouraged the church, ‘Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.’ We are all resident aliens. We’re not immigrants. Our time in this world is a short duration, but our time in the kingdom of God will be forever.
Paul reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven, and that’s where our ultimate allegiance must lie. The authority of Christ is the highest authority, and the text of scripture is the best most reliable revelation of his divine will and sovereign commandments.
So understanding this should guide and inform all of our worldly decisions and activities. This should encourage us because all of our near-term trials and tribulations, our problems and solutions, our causes and effects in the world are only temporary and are often of secondary importance or concern.
As sojourners and exiles, we should be doing as Jeremiah exhorted the Babylonian exiles to do while we are in the world. We should seek the positive welfare and good benefit of the world and for everyone around us.
And we do this through our submission to the lawful authorities and helping their efforts in support of the common good. We may do this by being good stewards of the environment and by responsibly using the resources which God has graciously provided us.
We may do this through expressions of love for our neighbors in service and charity, giving grace and mercy, forgiving others, and by mediating and facilitating reconciliation between people.
We should also do as Paul urges us that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
Therefore, we should pray for the world, for our nation, for our city and our towns, and for our home and family, just as importantly as doing good works of charity and prayer.
We should also always be working with Christ’s great commission at the forefront of our minds. Jesus has commanded his church to make disciples of all the nations by teaching them to follow and obey Christ.
Therefore, as our greatest expression of love for neighbor and obedience to that ultimate authority, we should work towards the conversion of Satan’s occupying army of people who are blinded and enslaved to their sin, converting them into sojourners like us.
We should warn them away from the wide gate to hell and redirect them towards the narrow gate of heaven. Instead, we should give them the hope of the gospel, sharing the good news about the great redemption which Christ has purchased for his people.
So, let us remember that borders and boundaries are a good thing and that God has established them for our good benefit. They help to preserve order and keep separate that which is needful to be kept apart.
Let us be careful to establish and defend our own borders and boundaries in preservation of our own health and well-being. Finally, let us, in willing subjection to our governing authorities, aid and not hinder those with the lawful authority and power in defending our borders to preserve morality and the cause of justice for the glory of God alone. Amen.