“For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Romans 13:1b
What’s the ultimate authority in the world? When we get right down to it, this is the central question, the question of questions that answers the rest of them and yet, it’s the last thing we ever bother to seriously discuss. The question is ignored for the very reason that it’s the thing that most exposes our sin. It cuts to the bone. And it clearly and unambiguously identifies what we think is the main thing in life. To study the subject of authority, not only who is in charge, but where the very principle of authority has its origin, and how it has real power over men and women, puts us on a collision course with the truth.
Too many of us see a little Jesus, a meager God, a small one who stops at the threshold of the church door; He doesn’t go to the city, to work, to the store; if He goes, we must smuggle Him in. We have a god that owns Sunday morning but he’s ambivalent about the rest of the week. Where this false belief started should be known by all. It wasn’t in the university or in the mind of man. It flowed from the putrid and foul waters of hell itself. Tragically, Christians take great draughts of it, swishing it around in their mouth, swallowing it whole. No wonder the church is sick.
Take a look at this verse again. Do it. Our eternal lives and souls depend on this. So many see Jesus Christ as Savior but not Lord. They see “authorities” operating in government, in education, in finance, in marketing, and in the family, and see them as free agents. The thought that these authorities (institutions) should be called to repentance seems literally crazy even to Christians. They cower. They scatter and fear being called “fundamentalists” or whatever other illogical pejorative the world uses rather than offer real argumentation. In all, the church appears to fear man more than God because they’ve been convinced that God’s authority is shallow and small.
In Acts 17, Paul went to the philosophers in Athens and told them, “the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed…”. In all, Paul asserted God’s authority. He didn’t slow walk the issue; he didn’t speak of wants, of material prosperity. He went with the Great Commission from Matthew: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Paul believed this through and through and the church will regain her power, and so will individual Christian, when Christ’s authority is again rightly understood and believed.
So, you see, we’re hearing Romans 13 all wrong. To speak of obeying the civil authorities we must first recognize that the Scripture tells us the key to the whole thing and that is, unequivocally, unalterably, gloriously, that there are no authorities separate from God. With the risk of seeming flippant, this is what it means to be God, after all. This vomitous rot that dares to suggest that ultimacy is found “in the will of the people” is the serpent talking in the Garden. Follow that premise through and we discover, at bottom, that sinful men and women want to rewrite good and evil, that is, ethics, on their own terms without reference to God.
The civil magistrate, whether his name is Congress, President, Governor or Mayor, has no authority that’s not granted to him by God. He may not ever usurp the right to define good and evil on his own terms. Haven’t we seen enough of the bloodshed, slavery and starvation caused by socialism in the last 100 years to understand the issue? Ah, but we miss the obvious because we’ve been convinced (because we don’t know the Scripture) that God’s word is null and void when it reaches the public square. But, again, this is logically impossible because for God to be God He must have no competing authority. Ethics (the good) and logic flow forth from Him. They are not entities that exist outside of Him to which He must conform or else He isn’t God.
So, the question, “by what authority?” should be the central query of human life lest we be a law/authority unto ourselves.
Romans 13 goes on to define the parameters of the state – that it’s His minister, a form of common grace upon all – that is to punish crime. God gives the government no other mandate. It may not pass the line which the Almighty has drawn. It’s God that places the authorities of church, family and state within clearly defined limits but it’s man’s madness that keeps him trying to take the sword of the state to remake society after his own image. Christians should declare openly and boldly that no authority may make its own rules but must abide by those put down in principle by Scripture. That many won’t heed this call is irrelevant to the task because it’s the Great Commission. Paul, for instance, wasn’t dismayed that many at the Areopagus mocked his gospel message.
Why is America falling into greater and greater sin? Why has tyranny and suppression of free speech risen on our watch? Is it not because the church has accepted the fallacy of “dual authorities”, not wanting to confront the secular world’s claim to autonomy for fear of offense? Do we dare worry more about offending man rather than God? Do we not listen when our Lord says in Matthew 10:24 that if they called Him Beelzebul, how much more will they malign His servants?
We wish for revival but reject the terms through which the Lord will bring it. Take the gospel truth to the world for there are no authorities except God. It’s for this reason that Jesus praised the Roman centurion (Matthew 8) above and beyond all others. He, the centurion, understood both the nature of sin (“Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof”) and authority (“For I too am a man under authority”), its logical consequences and application and, therefore, the power of Jesus. “Greater faith have I found nowhere else in all Israel,” the Lord said of him. Oh! We should marvel at that exchange and yearn for the secret to the source of that commendable faith.
The root of it, planted deep in the richest soil of all, was in that Roman’s recognition of our Lord’s righteousness and authority. It’s marvelously obvious and yet the church today is prone to consider the issues of faith and authority as contradictory to one another rather than as they really are, which is inextricably linked. We miss this when we preach the gospel. We shy away from speaking of judgment because it’s the very thing that challenges the claim of authority that props up the whole fetid façade of sin. In Daniel 6, after Daniel had been delivered from the lions, he praised God (verse 21) and honored the king’s rightful authority (“Oh king, live forever!”). We note carefully, as we should be especially circumspect on the issue, that Daniel didn’t revile the authority even though, by worldly standards he certainly had a right to. What he did do, however, is point out that the king had exceeded his authority when he said, “…O king, I have committed no crime.”
This episode, Daniel in the lion’s den, is often taught as a great picture of faith and God’s remarkable power to deliver His saints. It is this, of course, but it also shows the proper context for government power. Darius clearly sinned by demanding worship (the state trying to be the God and/or the church) and Daniel rightly and openly disobeyed (Daniel 6:10). We also note that the king then had Daniel’s accusers thrown to the lions. And their wives. And their children. There’s no record of what Daniel thought about this but it’s a classic example of how the kings of the world (and our elected leaders) assume power to themselves without reference to God’s word. Even after the miraculous deliverance of Daniel, and even praising God (Daniel 6:20) there’s no evidence that he inquired of Him.
This shows also that even in the Old Testament there was to be separation of church and state. We remember that it was Nathan that confronted David just as here Daniel rebukes the king by reminding him that not worshipping him (Darius) wasn’t a crime. Catch that? The king had no right to redefine God’s order and declare, ex nihilo, that something was a crime when it wasn’t. The rest of Romans 13 will provide more context of the point but the principle is now clear and we must understand and obey it.
What should you do if you’ve been “worshipping” the state by granting it in your mind the power to declare right and wrong, to pretend at being sovereign over ethics, and feign the ability to create heaven on earth? Ah, what a glorious place to be, Christian! Repent of this sin and ask the Lord, who gives so richly to those who ask Him humbly, to open your eyes to the true sovereignty, which is His alone. And rejoice in this knowledge because the Lord is good and His will and word are perfect. And pray contemplatively over the subject of what it will be like in the age to come when His word is followed fully and completely!
We cannot serve two masters. We will love and obey the one and only one. Jesus Christ died for our sins, was raised for our justification, and now reigns as King. He has no rival. He has no counselor. There is nothing to which He must be conformed; it’s us, our will, our homes and governments, that must be changed.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
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