“O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.” Psalm 7:1-2
Without God we will murder and enslave each other. Why? The principle of sin is radical human freedom or, if you will, self-law. With no higher authority but our sin-riddled will, we’ll seek to rewrite moral law. Doing this means that we willy-nilly place moral and legal obligations upon each other. And for moral law to be, in fact, law, it must be backed by authority and force. Thus, if we claim for ourselves the right to make moral law, we claim the right to authority and, if/when possible or necessary, the right to use violence. For a law to be a law it must be backed by violence. We don’t like to admit this for the simple reason that we’re guilty of usurping God’s righteous authority and playing god over our neighbors.
If peace can be achieved without Jesus Christ that must mean that mankind doesn’t need a savior and that he can achieve righteousness without reference to God’s moral law/word. Since it’s sin that causes death and chaos, including all conflict, only righteousness can produce peace. Therefore, if man can achieve peace through politics or secular philosophy, those things must be god and not Jesus Christ. But Christ is the end of the law for righteousness (Romans 10:4) so only through faith can mankind find peace with his neighbor.
Conflict and violence are the result of man placing obligations upon their neighbors that God didn’t give them. All authorities have been established by God (Romans 13:1). No authority exists outside of His law/word. Conflicts and violence occur when sinful man usurps God’s prerogative and makes others “owe” him something, which is a clear violation of Romans 13:8. If one is owed something, what is owed can be extracted by force if the person won’t pay it. Thus, the answer to all conflicts and violence on earth is settled when men and women submit to God’s law/word and repent of going outside of it. No person has the authority to issue ethical obligations to their neighbor. Only God has this authority.
The Scripture tells us that “if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God…” (Romans 12:18-19. This presumes, of course, that we may use force if necessary to defend ourselves. But if we’re a victim of a crime, we aren’t to avenge ourselves by using the violence we could have used in the first place. We’re to leave justice to the wrath of God. What is this? Is it karma? No! “But if you do wrong (according to God’s standard), be afraid, for he (the civil magistrate) does not bear the sword in vain. For he (the government…police and courts) is the servant of God, and avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Romans 13:4)”. This keeps us from guessing. Violence can only be used for self-defense – either by the individual directly or by the state on his/her behalf as God’s avenger.
No person has the authority to write moral law. That’s the whole context of Scripture and certainly Romans 12-13. All authorities on earth are, therefore, subordinate to the Lord – even the state. No authority can act outside its mandate lest it become lawless. The sin of America is to think that “democracy” or government or anything else is operating within moral rules outside of God’s law/word. The sin of the church today is that it’s become polytheistic. It grants that God has authority but limits it by the state’s or the culture’s. This means that some authorities have been instituted by man, which is to throw Romans 11:36 and 13:1 out the window!
We do well to remember what the Scripture says.
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Jesus, who we like to portray these days as a hippie-pacifist, said this in Luke 12:4-7:
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
All throughout Scripture, God’s radical sovereignty is presupposed and/or plainly stated. Unbelief bristles at this. Sinful mankind wants to be a free agent. He wants to escape moral accountability and live as his/her own god, the judge of right and wrong. This can only have staggering and bloody consequences. The God who says that He will judge all men and who commands us to follow Him is the God who says “thou shalt not murder.” He’s the God who says, “thou shalt not steal.” He’s the reason, in other words, that you are to be safe from the aggression of your neighbor. The God who says these things is life’s final authority. There is no court past Him. There can be no ethical law or commandment outside of Him. At death we will give an account (Hebrews 9:27). If He’s not there, there is literally no ethical reason that a man or group can’t enslave, murder, or rape. The only limit is power, no matter how it’s derived – whether through brute force, majority vote, or any other method. If God’s moral righteousness isn’t the final arbiter of life, man’s brute power is. If the unchanging moral righteousness of God doesn’t have the final say in the affairs of men, weapons will.
We need protection from our criminal neighbors because they’re operating according to the principles of the flesh (Romans 8;7). We won’t have peace until and unless we all stop “doing what’s right in our own eyes” (Judges 21:25). We must repent of playing god and take refuge in Him, the Lord of glory, the King. We will not find peace on earth without Christ because for there to be peace there must be righteousness. And Christians must know that the righteous live by faith (Romans 1:17). This faith will bring us to the realization that we are not the end of the law, nor the beginning. It will teach us humility. It will teach us to love our neighbor and never, never, place obligations upon him that the Lord has not decreed from within His perfect and life-giving word/law.
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