“For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is 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 the 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.”
Romans 13:3–6 ESV
A week into President Trump’s second term it appears that the woke movement is taking some heavy body shots. They’re reeling.
Good.
Make no mistake: the woke, DEI movement is demonic and anti-Christ. The born-again Christian is brought to repentance by the Spirit over their own sin. The woke are brought to the realization, by demonic spirits within the academic, media, and entertainment Beast, of the alleged sins of others. My pastor, Rick Phillips, once wrote, “what we save them with, we save them to.” The woke and DEI movement sees the sins of others as their oppressor and, therefore, seeks remedy in Washington. The Christian sees their own personal sins – their lust, their envy, their lack of trust in God’s provision, their anger – as their oppressor. It is by the grace of God that they come to this realization. They see their remedy at the cross with Jesus hanging there for sin. The wokester is forever busy trying to remake society; the Christian, in the Spirit, works to remake himself in the image of the One who saved him. Both are revolutionaries. The former will sacrifice any and all who disagree and collateral damage is everywhere. The latter sacrifices his own sinful flesh because the true sacrifice was on the cross by God’s Son and there is no collateral damage…just joy and peace in the Spirit.
A common error to make is to see the cross as though Christ died for you because He loves you. That’s true, certainly, but not the whole story. He died because of sin. Sin leads to death. In the cross our finite minds glimpse the great subject of the enormity of God’s love for us and the wages of sin both. We always know false gospels because they refuse to mention sin and repentance.
To this end we note that the woke/DEI movement is a false gospel – the type of 666 that promises salvation in some other way than through the cross. Man’s central problem isn’t economic or social, it’s the heart problem of sin. The foundational issue of fallen man is that he insists on interpreting the facts of reality according to his own standards rather than God’s. Thus, in those areas in which the woke/DEI ideologies would “have a point” their solution is always anti-Christ in that it insists on Washington, not God. This is why President Trump’s slashing of the federal workforce and spending is causing heads to spin.
The issue is, plain and simple, idolatry.
Imagine a president who started closing churches. What we truly worship is seen in what we fight for and defend. Right now, self-deceived professing Christians are caterwauling about border-immigration enforcement and federal cutbacks because they have bought into the lies of the messianic state. “Our father, who art in Washington…” is their true prayer and it shows in how they’re angry not at the anarchy of tens of millions of illegal immigrants over the last administration, but the enforcement of the law. Sin always deceives and makes fools of us.
As the passage from Romans 13 decisively shows, it is God who is God over the civil magistrate. Shaeffer once said that if there is no God over the state then the state is God. Exactly! The thing for Christians to know is that as the new administration moves forward, the church should and must see all things theologically rather than merely politically.
Our local dog-catcher may or may not be a Bible-believing Christian in order to execute his office well. It certainly helps that he’s epistemically self-consistent, but the world is, by the common grace of God, full of theological half-wits who nevertheless perform their vocational duties well. The goal of the church is to spread and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its glorious implications and manifestations. We are to know through and through that trying to develop a society to our liking is both unfaithful to God and a fool’s errand. We are to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ! What we save them with we save them to. Every single soul we meet is an eternal being going either to the judgment of hell or the bliss of eternity in God’s grace. The only question that matters, therefore, is whether they know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
That said, our evaluation of the performance of the local dog-catcher is not how well he knows his Scripture. He’s not an elder or pastor. It’s how many dangerous stray dogs I see around the neighborhood. If I can’t go for a walk without fear of loose dogs attacking me, my dog-catcher stinks at his job and needs to be fired. It doesn’t matter if he’s a heckuva good guy. Categorically, no one honors God by being terrible at their job. Each person’s office is important under the Lord.
Do your job. Do it well. This is also God’s decree (Colossians 3:17).
It’s the same with former President Biden. His job, defined by God, was to keep the citizens of his nation safe by enforcing God’s law as His avenger. The U.S. Constitution, like all government compacts, can be seen only as specific applications to a direct time and place of those principles clearly stated in Romans 13. The Constitution and all other man-made laws can merely articulate the particular application of Romans 13 and may not define law on their own standards. Any attempt to do so is to play God. Categorically, man cannot make law, only apply it in principle and action. If man or his governments can make law then they are God (see Psalm 2 and what the Lord has to say about that enterprise).
Government is not by and of man, but by God and for man so as to diminish the impact of Cain’s spirit – that is, sinful aggression – while the gospel does its work.
That Mr. Biden and his ilk refused to enforce the law is evidence of their spirit of anarchy and sin. Claiming to be wise without God, they tried to act as God and used woke/DEI dogma as the church uses the gospel. The civil magistrate is to punish men for being law breakers; the church is to “make them good” via the gospel of faith in Christ alone. This is the true separation of church and state – and it’s God that has separated them!
Mr. Biden’s administration acted as a counterfeit god in that it refused to punish criminals crossing the border and falsified the gospel with its woke agenda. It tried to take the job of the church of “making men good” via means of DEI ideology. Wokesters are born-again to see themselves as victims and others as oppressors. Wokesters see the federal government (themselves in a way) as their liberator, not Christ. A “woke” Christian is another way of saying a false Christian.
No better issue awaits in these days of America than to shatter the stronghold of false-belief in the messianic state with the truth of the gospel. We don’t know or understand freedom because we don’t understand the Scriptures.
When people complain about cuts to federal spending and enforcement of the law they’re doing it from the foundation of idolatry. As Romans 13 clearly and unequivocally states: the government is established by God, not men, and is tasked with the clear job of being God’s avenger. The sole reason for the existence of the civil magistrate is to punish people who commit crimes.
Government has no other mandate and no Christian can be faithful that tries to redefine what God has declared.
Again, so that this sinks in: if you believe that the government has any job other than to punish criminals as defined by God as those who steal, assault, murder, rape, defraud, or trespass (Romans 12:18-19), you are not only wrong, but in sin. Repent.
President Trump’s ordering the eviction of any and all persons in the country illegally is clearly and obviously in harmony with God’s order to the civil magistrate. If you’re opposed to it, go back and read Romans 13 again. And repent. You’re very likely in danger of open idolatry if you think the federal government is authorized to define its own standards. If you think God’s word doesn’t have authority over the state, you are either biblically naive (wake up!) or in defiant sin. If you think that J6 trespassers should be in jail but that people who literally broke into the country are not criminals, your reasoning shows how sinful foundations lead to utter foolishness.
President Trump is, like so many of us, a complex and flawed man. That’s another issue altogether…much like the dog-catcher. What we must understand in the church is what the real issue is and that’s the supremacy of God’s word over the state. The world surely doesn’t understand it and that’s because the church doesn’t even know it! This is our true and generational chance to be salt and light. This is our fight. Right here and right now. Let’s know that the civil magistrate is God’s design for our good and to His glory. By preaching the true gospel we will also teach real and true freedom. But only then. And we’ll avoid the irrational extremes that idolatry leads to – of anarchy for some and tyranny for others.
Police cars say, “protect and serve” as a wishy-washy, feminized nod to the idolatrous cry-bullies. It should read, “God’s Avenger…be afraid if you do wrong!” God’s avenger should never apologize for its great strength to those who are offended by it. The demons trembled before Christ and so will sinners hate His righteous and true civil magistrate! If you wear a uniform and a badge, rejoice, because you are His avenger insofar as your earthly boss recognizes the Heavenly One. You owe no apologies for enforcing the law so long as you never dare think you’re a law unto yourself.
All are under God and accountable to Him. Any challenge to this simple statement of fact is made only by those who wish to be a false and puny fake god.
We have no right to re-create the state after our own image. It is God’s and all Christians should know this. Any law that redefines good and evil is itself tyrannical and evil. That’s why the previous administration would hire tens of thousands of IRS agents but leave the border open. It saw itself as god and wished to reverse the moral poles; anarchy for me, tyranny for thee.
We are to pay taxes so that God’s avenger is funded and ready to punish crime as defined by God alone. Now that the nation has a president that intends, at least in this issue, to enforce God’s moral law of property, Christians should rejoice. But we must join the battle theologically to explain to critics what the true stakes are. Our goal is Christ. Always Christ. Let’s use this as an opportunity to be the church and show the supremacy of Christ in all things!
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