More On God’s Purpose For Human Civil Government
Good Morning,
If protection from wicked men is the main reason God has ordained that civil government should exist we need to ask the question how best are our elected officials to go about accomplishing this goal. The passage that normally is brought up when we discuss anything around public justice is Romans 13. In a later Tuesday prayer and worship help I’ll talk some more about what that chapter means to this whole subject.
For our purposes today the reason Paul gives there for why we should fear the civil magistrate is the sword. When we think about that word and the image it lays out for us to image we often conjure up in our mind the executioner and the person with their head on the chopping block, and we would be right to do so. It’s a basic truth of reality that civil punishment follows breaking the civil law.
Jesus in giving warning to those who would act in a way that violates the first commandment says that we should fear more the one that is able to send both body and soul to Hell, rather than the man who can just kill the body. There is some spiritual hope in that statement as it reminds us of the power that God alone has. However, for our purposes we see Christ confirming that the civil authority does have the right to put people to death, what we today call capital punishment. Genesis 9:6 being another place we would point to in order to enshrine that truth. As an aside part of the problem we have today with capital punishment comes from the fact our government tries to act like that is not what we are doing when we inject them with chemicals that cause their heart to stop. It’s all so clean and antiseptic.
Yet when we talk about power and the fear of the sword there is a clear testimony in the Romans 13 text that the sword is only to be used in relation to the civil magistrate’s responsibility to be a terror unto evil and a promoter of that which is good. By the way, who gets to decide that which is good and that which is evil? Is that some amorphous natural law that no one can seem to define and which changes from culture to culture? No, it is told to us clearly and openly in the word of God as being the summary of the moral law found in the Ten Commandments. Men know that it is wrong to steal because the statutes of God tells them it is. The law of God is written on the heart of human beings, and as the apostle also witnesses to us in helping us to understand the relation of the Gentiles to the law in Romans 2 we see that the civil magistrate should know what is right and wrong and should then use his authority from the Lord to enforce it in order that the society they oversee is blessed.
When I say bless I am speaking not in the same sense as we do when we look at Moses’ telling of the Deuteronomy 28 blessings and curses of the covenant. I don’t mean to keep saying we’ll talk more about this later, but we’ll talk more later about the way that government is called to covenant with God, but to do so now would confuse the point. Part of the issue we have today in the weird world where all things seem to be out of order is that things are out of order. Our culture is cursed due to seeking to organize everyone’s lives by encouraging evil rather than good. We’ve flipped the script. We see this practically in that we have leaders who intentionally make rules and regulations that are not in keeping with the way Jehovah has defined what is worthy for all men. That is why we have no peace and harmony with one another. If God is telling us that to do x is wise then necessarily if someone, or some government, pushes a contradictory idea it will only result in trouble for all involved. It’s like reading a recipe and thinking that if you exchange tires for eggs that you’ll still get a cake.
Here we see the reason why the Church should be encouraging all civil leaders in its purview to seek that which the Lord has provided so that all within their care would benefit. There are times in the Bible where God refers to leaders in government as lower-case g gods (Ps. 82:6, John 10:34). In these situations the responsibility of the king, president, prime minister whatever is akin to the Glory of Heaven. They are to oversee the care of those under their rule. It is part of the reason why they are to be held to a higher account. In the Mosaic law it was required that every time a new king was crowned in Israel that he had to write out the whole of the commandments, all 613 of them. The reasoning was so that they could never say they didn’t know the Lord’s requirements as they reigned. Think how much different the world would be if our leaders today just acknowledged God was real, let alone typed out what He has declared to be right and good? They have no excuse for their wickedness and we are called out of love for them to warn them away from the wrath to come for their peevishness against the Lord. It is a duty granted to all believers to be in prayer.
To quote Johnny Carson, Wild Stuff.
In closing, as we continue open up our minds to the purpose in God’s providence and His plan for our civil government we’ve touched on how some of the things that their failure to remember their calling, to protect, has led to disaster for the body politic. Life is so much easier when people do what they are supposed to and do so in joy and thanksgiving. Far too many of our leaders have failed to consider the bigger picture of their reason for being and we all suffer for it. If the doctor’s first calling is to do no harm, then the civil magistrate’s job should be seen in a similar light. Being responsible for the goodness of a town, city, village, or on a grander scale, a state or a nation is a heavy burden. In our prayers for those in authority over us Paul encourages us to perform this work of love so that we can live peaceable lives as we fulfill the reasons for why God made both man and the church. The only way that happens is if our elected officials are made aware of and submit themselves to their calling as ministers, as gods, and as humans tasked with shielding and providing for all of the Lord’s creation. We cannot have change in society without it.
Here’s a last word:
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church
