If you’ll turn with me to our first scripture passage in the book of Genesis, beginning at chapter nine. Moses writes, ‘And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. And for you and for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning. From every beast, I will require it and from man. From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. For whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. And you be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.
Next, if you’ll turn with me to Romans chapter 13, Paul writes, ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who’s in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is a servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed. Honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet. And any other commandments are summed up in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
And last, we turn to 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning at verse 11. Peter writes, ‘Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. So live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Lord, you’ve given us your word for our instruction, our correction, our reproof, and for our encouragement. Teach us to do as you will. Help us to be obedient children, obedient citizens of your kingdom, and obedient people living in this world by faith for your glory alone. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
So the next set of contemporary concerns that we shall apply using the lens of covenant theology relate to civic matters. And the first matter under consideration relates to the imposition or the establishment of governing authority and how Christians, how we should relate and engage with them. This application of authority is broad because governing authorities are found in all the many spheres of our life. But the most obvious and easiest sphere to use for identifying general principles to apply is the realm of civic governance.
The three questions which we will use to direct our practical application are: How should we obey and honor God, and how do we as human persons relate to our governing authorities, such as with the federal government, our parents, or our employers? How should we relate to governing authorities as the redeemed children of God, as Christians specifically? And how should we as the redeemed children of God engage with the world politically for the good benefit or welfare of everyone and God’s glory?
Now, the origin of humanity’s authority to govern is by God’s appointment and ordination. It’s grounded in the establishment of his covenant made through Adam when he gave the command to subdue the earth and exercise dominion upon it. This delegated authority was passed on to Adam’s heirs as the rulers of nations. And although the initial establishment of civic government is traced to the dominion mandate of Genesis 1:28-30, it was renewed and modified after the flood when Noah, Adam’s heir, received it again.
Now, the original substance of the mandate was to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and to subdue it and have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth. When God gave Adam this mandate, he formally appointed Adam to be his earthly regent, the first vassal king. And although Adam did transgress the covenant of works, this appointment was never revoked. And so, that authority passed on to his progeny.
Then, following the flood, after the earth had become filled with so much violence that it required a most extreme cleansing, the mandate to subdue it was amended. Now, every creature throughout creation would exist in a perpetual state of fear and be in dread of humanity. They were all delivered into our hand and were to be subjected to our ever-changing whims and desires, whether good or evil. Humanity was granted the authority to do with them whatever we will.
Then, Noah received specific instructions concerning how we are to exercise this dominion. The Lord commanded him that whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image.
See, God gave Noah the authority and responsibility to enforce justice in God’s name. The Lord commanded the application of ultimate sanction as a righteous response to the most grievous crime, murder. Because the intentional destruction of a human life of any human person deserved death in consequence. Murder is an act of willful violence against a person that is made in God’s own image. It is a personal offense against God’s regents on earth and so it is a personal offense and an attack upon the Lord.
Murder is the ultimate act of human rebellion against God’s omnipotent sovereignty. Murder is the usurpation of a right and privilege that belongs to the creator alone. The choice to execute justice or to grant mercy and grace belongs to the divine prerogative and will. And the right to kill or to command the death of a person belongs only to the person who is able to give life or to their designate, their regent. Therefore, the duty to enforce civic justice through the use of the sword has been entrusted to every governmental authority through Noah as humanity’s second universal mediator.
This duty needed to be commanded as a proactive response to prevent a repetition of the circumstances described in Genesis 6:11 that the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and the earth was filled with violence. See, it is reasonable to interpret that this excess of violence evolved from a lack of enforced justice, specifically the sanction of death. And this was not the consequence of an abundance of human mercy, but rather the lack of a rightful fear of the Lord and the exploitation of his divine mercy. Humanity took advantage of God’s grace and assumed that his mercy, such as was shown to Cain after he murdered Abel, was really the granting of license to engage in greater and ever-increasing acts of wickedness, sin, and depravity.
Where before no one possessed the commanded duty to punish sin and defend righteousness, now justice was enforceable and obligatory for those granted authority. And Noah received this duty as the ruler of all humanity, being the head of his household and as humanity’s federal mediator. So the obligation to enforce justice was then next entrusted through his sons to the governments of all the nations that they established and their successors.
So having this specific responsibility explained prompts us to really ask what is the purpose of government? Since our governmental authority was granted before the fall into sin, government is something both needful and good. Civic governance was instituted for the benefit of humanity. It is not a product of sin, nor was it intended to be a vehicle for abuse or oppression. Instead, the purpose of government is to defend morality and enforce justice through judicial application. This is clearly expressed by Romans 13:3 saying, ‘For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.’
But the principle idea is sourced in those original duties and obligations that God imposed upon Adam in the garden. We don’t often think about it, but the relationship between Adam and Eve was not just one of marriage as husband and wife. They also had a governmental relationship of Adam as king and Eve as his queen. And this civic relationship was by nature hierarchical because you can only have one head of state. While they did receive the dominion mandate together, equally sharing in this responsibility to govern creation, Adam was Eve’s civil superior because he was created first.
Since he alone received God’s first command, he had authority over her because he was responsible for her. And when Adam received the command to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he became responsible to defend and enforce God’s law. He was responsible to instruct Eve and explain to her the divine command because of his authority as God’s regent. So, he should have rebuked her for eating the forbidden fruit. He should have encouraged her to repent and ask God for mercy and forgiveness, but he failed to do so.
Then, when he ate of the fruit as well, he joined her in her transgression, failing to perform his moral duty and obligation. So even this first human government was corrupted by Adam’s sin since it failed to support morality, the imperative of perfect obedience to God’s law, or enforce God’s justice.
Knowing that the purpose of government is to defend morality and enforce justice for the good benefit of all humanity, how should human persons obey and honor God in how we relate to our governing authorities? Since everyone, all of us are under someone else’s authority and since all authority is delegated by the Lord to promote the moral good from before the fall, then obeying the lawful commands and instructions of those with authority over us is a moral requirement that’s imposed by the covenant of works.
That is why the apostle Paul universally commands, ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.’ There is no authority except from God. Every human person is morally obligated to obey the authorities that have been set up over us, just as we are morally obligated to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Obeying the lawful authorities that God has established is as obeying God himself.
So, we should obey them faithfully and quickly. We should assume that those in authority have the best intentions, the goal of some advantage or benefit for us in all of their decisions and commands. But that does not prohibit us from questioning them.
We may rightly and fairly ask them why. We can request an explanation for their reasons, but they are not obligated to answer us. However, answering does help to build up our trust and confidence in them. We may also even try to convince them to change a decision or reverse their orders. We may even rightly express our disagreement by protesting.
But we are still obligated to respect them, honor them, and ultimately obey them. Even when we do not agree with an authority figure’s choice or order, since their authority is established and is derived from God’s appointment, we do not have the right to ignore them, disobey them, or rebel against the exercise of their lawful authority any more than we possess the right to rebel against God.
Every earthly and temporal rebellion against the lawful human authority is also a heavenly and spiritual rebellion against the eternally sovereign God. While faithful obedience to lawful human authority is as faithful obedience to Christ, because of our human sinfulness and the inherent corruption that exists within every government, their authority is limited in scope and power.
Although every lawful authority is established by God and derives their power from him, the exercise of that authority still requires the consent of the governed. Before that authority may be exercised, those under that authority must assent and willingly submit ourselves to that authority.
God chose Saul, but Saul was not king until Israel had accepted and proclaimed him as king. God chose David to replace Saul as king, but he was still not king until Israel had accepted and proclaimed him to be king. And God chose Jesus Christ, his son, to be king, the king. While he reigns now as the sovereign God, the world will not recognize him as such until it is subjected to his authority. Yet because he is the eternal king, our regenerate hearts do accept and proclaim him as our king. And so we gladly submit to his beneficent authority.
While resistance and rebellion against the authorities is ordinarily prohibited and is naturally sinful, there are some occasions, reasons, and causes which may require civil disobedience. Such circumstances arise when people with authority try to command you to sin, to engage in wickedness, or to do something that is evil. Remember during the apostolic age when the Jewish leadership tried to prohibit the apostles from preaching and teaching in Jesus’s name, they responded to this unlawful demand by declaring, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’
This was not a denial or rejection of the Sanhedrin’s authority, but it was a reputation against the wrongful exercise of their authority. The apostles refused to submit themselves to this unlawful authority. They refused to submit to the authority of evil. Likewise, John Knox, the Scottish reformer, taught that Christians have a duty and obligation to rebel against unjust, tyrannical, idolatrous, and wicked rulers.
He developed this doctrine from the examples of social passivity concerning sin and wickedness that were prevalent in the world before the flood, from the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, and from first-century Jerusalem’s response to Jesus. He argued that each example was utterly destroyed as an act of God’s judgment and wrath against the ungodly, including those who refused to resist evil or to flee from it. He warned that as innocent as a person might believe themselves to be in relation to the sins of their federal authority, if they do not actively resist them, then they would be judged equally culpable. Knox warned, ‘Sleep not in sin, for vengeance is prepared against all inobient. Fly from Babylon if ye will not be partakers of her plagues,’ echoing the heavenly warning from Revelation 18:4.
Knox’s doctrine influenced the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and through them helped provide religious justification for colonial rebellion in North America and the establishment of the new republic. But the church has also never quickly countenanced, encouraged, or endorsed rebellion against any lawful and legitimate authority, even when such authority is confirmed as being wicked.
Remember, Moses did not lead the sons of Israel in rebellion against Pharaoh, but instead they trusted that God would fight for them. David refused to engage in active rebellion against King Saul, choosing to flee into exile instead, despite Saul having directed so much wickedness against him because Saul was the Lord’s anointed king.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not rebel against King Nebuchadnezzar when he mandated the worship of his golden image. But they did refuse to obey his unlawful command. Similarly, Daniel resisted when King Darius prohibited the worship of any god or man excepting himself. Likewise, the apostles Paul and Peter, despite all of the persecutions that they suffered at the direction of Roman authorities, even death by execution, they never abandoned this ideal that the Roman emperor, including Nero, wicked and evil that he was, must still be honored and obeyed as legitimate.
But also, the Lord did command that the Israelite kingdom be divided in rebellion against the unjust rule of Rehoboam. And God commanded Elijah and Elisha to appoint Jehu as king of Israel and encouraged him to rebel against the wicked house of Omri. So while obedience and giving honor to our governing authorities is the biblical norm and our moral duty, this rule may be accepted to avoid persisting in allegiance to evil.
Bearing those admonitions and warnings against unlawful rebellion in mind, we transition to our second question: How should Christians, how should we relate to our governing authorities as the redeemed children of God? Paul and Peter closely agreed on this issue. Both men declared that Christians should willingly subject themselves to the rule of lawful human authorities because they are appointed to defend morality and enforce justice, to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. They agreed that such governance is a divinely appointed good.
Paul affirms that we should obey them to avoid God’s wrath and also for our sake of conscience. He reminds us that such obedience is our duty according to God’s moral law. Therefore, Christians are to obey the lawful authorities because it is morally correct. He also commands us to pay our taxes, echoing Christ’s command.
But beyond being just the proper thing to do, paying the authorities everything that they are owed, Paul explains that we do this for their support and maintenance because the authorities, they are ministers of God working for our benefit. He explains that the law these authorities are obligated to defend is really the second table of the moral law. While we are positively commanded as Christians to love our neighbors, he argues that while the government defends the law, Christians fulfill the law by our love of others.
Lastly, Paul exhorts us to pray for kings and other authorities. Meanwhile, Peter, building upon Paul’s foundation, commanding obedience, explains why, saying that for this is the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. He argues that because our willful and glad obedience to those in authority is a moral good that results in a civic good, our example of faithfulness becomes a spiritual good because of how it shames and rebukes the ignorance and foolishness of the wicked and reprobate.
Peter commands us to live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. He reminds us that by the grace we’ve received in Christ, we’re not given license to sin. Instead, we are released from bondage to sinfulness. So Christians are now free to obey God and live lives of justice, holiness, and goodness.
Now Christians may exercise our freedom by obeying God and the earthly authorities for God’s glory and honor.
But the question of how Christians relate to civic authority has another directional focus to consider. How should those with authority relate back to Christians? Building upon the same principles that we’ve laid, and understanding how negative commands also reasonably imply their positive, the Westminster divines and early American Presbyterian Church crafted a concise explanation answering both sides of this question in chapter 23 of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
The American Presbyterians agreed that the federal government does not possess the right to regulate the preaching of the word or the administration of the sacraments, that the federal government could not exercise the keys of the kingdom of heaven or any other spiritual authority, and they agreed that the federal government could not interfere in any matters of the Christian faith or the church’s work. They also agreed and believed that the divinely appointed defender of morality, the federal government, has a responsibility to protect the church of our common Lord without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest, in such a manner that all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions without violence or danger.
So while they believe that the federal government has the duty to defend and preserve the practice of Orthodox Christian religion, they denied that the government has any authority to establish or give preferential treatment to any one Christian denomination over another. They rejected the European practice of state-supported national religions, where such nations were identified as Christian nations, either Roman Catholic or Protestant, and the state supported the church there through their civil mandates and by financial support.
To summarize the relationship between Christians and the government, Christians are expected to show those in authority the honor and respect due them as persons made in the image of God and the respect due to their position. We are expected to pray for them. We are expected to faithfully obey their lawful commands and requirements. We’re expected to pay our taxes like every citizen.
But we do not expect financial support or establishment from the government in return. We are expected to submit to their authority as to Christ. But if they try to impel us to engage in wickedness or sin, or when they are engaged in wickedness and sin as our federal representative, then we are obligated to resist their tyranny and refuse to obey unlawful dictates.
Lastly, how should we as the redeemed children of God engage with the world politically for the good benefit and welfare of everyone and for God’s glory? There is no prohibition or objection against a Christian person exercising authority over others, whether as an employer or as a government official. Instead, Christian engagement in the civic sphere of life ought to be encouraged, but not for the establishment or imposition of our Christian faith upon civil society.
We should be engaged civically so that we can work to serve the cause of justice, perhaps as law enforcement, as legislators, or as members of the judiciary. We should be engaged civically so that we can help to produce and pass laws that improve everyone’s social welfare. We should be engaged civically so that we may elect leaders whom we expect will act with integrity and good morality.
If a Christian who should already be living a moral life is appointed to a position of authority, then they should strive to be above reproach in all of their affairs, public and private, just like church elders. When a Christian holds power and authority over others, then they should remember to act as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with the good will as to the Lord and not to man.
When a Christian holds power and authority, they must not seek to be people pleasers, but rather they should do whatever is right and good. When a Christian holds power and authority, they must not engage in the sin of partiality, whether on the basis of creed and color, race and religion, wealth and poverty, strength and weakness, or any basis whereupon people show favoritism.
Finally, when a Christian holds power and authority, they should work for the improvement of public morality, using their position to direct others towards the truth and the life that is found only in Christ Jesus, yet without compulsion. Christians with authority should work for the preservation of life, the improvement of health, fairness in the application of justice, promote human equality, the maintenance of our natural and inalienable rights, defend the rights of private property ownership, establish reasonable rates of taxation, promote human liberty and social freedom, and especially defend our own right to worship Jesus Christ according to regenerate conscience, even if we must, in order to defend our rights, also defend the rights of the probate to worship their idols without granting them our affirmation or approval.
So finally, let us live subject to the governing authorities as to God because he has appointed and established them. He has ordained them in their position from of old before our fall into sin as a help in the administration of the covenant of works. Let us humbly and faithfully obey the various authorities we find ourselves subject to, not only to avoid God’s wrath, but also for the sake of conscience, doing so because it is right and in response to the grace that we’ve been given by the highest authority of all.
We have been redeemed. Therefore, let us work towards the redemption of our relationship with those who hold authority, giving them grace and making their work easier rather than more difficult. Let us engage with our governing authorities and even enter into their political sphere to act like Daniel and his friends, and heed the advice of Jeremiah to the Babylonian exiles to seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Lastly, let us obey our lawful authorities and love our neighbors by being moral exemplars and through our civic service, all for the glory of God. Amen.