Romans 13: Unlimited Obedience?

Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 in the Context of Church and State

You may be seated. You'll take your Bibles, please, and turn with me to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13, our study today will be derived from this text and, of course, 1 Peter chapter 2. I intend to expand upon a point that was made by Pastor Jeff last week, obviously, in looking at the larger topic of a biblical view of life and the sinfulness of abortion.

There was the mention made of Romans chapter 13 and the issue of prescriptive and descriptive interpretation that could not be expanded greatly at that time. And in the course of this past week, as much was going on here, and as I was asked to bring the message, I want to look at this text.

I will let you know, for those of you who are interested in such things, it is my intention, it is our intention on Tuesday to, on the Dividing Line webcast, to utilize our brand new studio that we've been putting together for quite some time for the first time, to go more in depth into the original languages in these texts.

So, you can sort of put those two together. It'll be a little bit easier in that context to be able to bring these particular texts up on the screen to be able to illustrate things, because I think it is very important that we look very carefully at what these texts are saying.

But my goal today is a simpler one, and that is to lay out a key understanding of both of these texts in regards to what they say to Christians in regards to our relationship to the state and the issue of what is good and what is evil.

That is really my only task today. It is not as complicated as a lot of people try to make it, so hopefully we'll all be able to get there together and have an understanding. I think it is especially important right now in the life of our body that we have a clear understanding of this, because all of us right now need to understand that as the issue, first of all, of HB 2650, and then the continuing issue of the fact that we have on the national level a regime in power now.

I do not use the term administration. Administration assumes a continuing body of law that is simply being administered. The regime in charge has made it very clear that it is their intention to fundamentally change the understanding that this nation has of its founding documents and the worldview that it obtains.

And when you understand the concept of the Equality Act that has been said to be one of the primary legislative priorities of the first hundred days, when you understand what that will mean in the enshrining in law of a fundamentally anti-Christian worldview, its impact upon churches, religious freedom, your children, education, every aspect within our society, then you understand why it's very important that we as believers have a deep seat in the saddle.

And when opportunity arises, and opportunity will arise regularly for us to give testimony, and when opportunity comes up, when that testimony is a part of persecution of believers, then we want to be prepared.

We want to be clear in our understanding and clear in what we say to the world around us. We want to be consistent in our handling of the text of Scripture. We don't want to be like the people who over the past number of months were saying weird and odd things in the name of the Lord concerning the second inauguration of Donald Trump and have brought, obviously, great disrepute upon themselves and upon the gospel of Jesus Christ and prophesying things that did not come to pass.

We want to be biblically sound and accurate in everything that we say and do. But what that means is that especially for people such as myself, who have lived most of their lives in a land of freedom and liberty, I was raised within a context where the church really was under no pressure as to regards to what it said in the culture.

That didn't mean that there was not compromise. There was. It doesn't mean that we were not influenced by the culture. We were. We just didn't see it as clearly as we do now. But it was very common in my generation for there to be a connection between the church and the government in such a way that these passages were understood as basically saying that we were under the authority of the governing authorities in such a way that there could be no questioning of the morality and goodness of the legal system itself, that they were linked together in our minds.

And of course, historically, when we look at the history of the church, during those periods of time when something called sacralism was prominent in the world. What is sacralism? Sacralism is that joining together of church and state that begins in a very small way at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

And then it takes another big step under the Emperor Theodosius when he proclaims the Roman Empire to be a Christian empire. And then that continues and develops down through the centuries until you have that situation that develops in the medieval period where the church and the state become intermingled.

The church begins to proclaim in the position of the Bishop of Rome that the authority of the church is the sun and the authority of the state is the moon simply reflecting that light and there is conflict that takes place.

And of course, the Reformation then grows out of a period of sacralism so that the men that we respect greatly, such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, are sacralists. And so we have those difficult situations where you have individuals who read Martin Luther's translation of the New Testament, they come convinced that baptism is for believers.

Only.

And they are then imprisoned and eventually die in prison. And Luther knows they're there because he sees what they're doing as a crime against the state because that sacralism still continues to exist.

The church thinks it needs the princes and the tax rolls of the state are the baptismal rolls of the church are the same thing. And so if you don't baptize infants, then you are taking individuals away from the tax rolls of the state and I can guarantee you the state does not like this and will act in accordance with that.

And so down through history, Romans 13 and 1 Peter chapter 2 have been interpreted in intriguingly different ways depending on the current situation that existed between the church and the state. And yet, as we know, those first centuries and indeed during the very period of the apostles, you had the persecution of the church by the state.

And so how could you have people who were writing at that time period in the inspired scriptures saying what they were saying and then yet only a hundred years later, their disciples are being thrown to lions and their disciples are not ceasing to meet together as the church.

The apostles themselves are commanded by the authorities not to preach any longer in the name of this Jesus, but they don't. And yet you've got Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2. How do we understand these things?

And one thing is for certain, our day is forcing us to think these things through with much deeper clarity than in my generation. When I was in Bible college, this was not really considered to be a major issue.

And I heard very few sermons on this particular subject. And yet here we are, and we all know why we're here. Let's read these texts together, Romans chapter 13. Again, always remember where a text is in the argument of a book.

You have had the great theology of what God is doing in the world. In the first few chapters, you have the doctrine of sin being laid out, the great need coming to a climax in Romans chapter 3, and then God's meeting that need in the halfway point of chapter 3, and then explicating that in the relationship of grace and faith in Romans 4, into Romans 5, and then the federal headship of Adam, and how we live in light of that in Romans 6 and 7, reaching the crescendo in Romans chapter 8, and the great section there that leads to the golden chain of redemption.

And then the question of the Jews comes up. Well, what about them? Does their unfaithfulness then make God's faithfulness unfaithfulness? And so you have the discussion in Romans 9 and 10 and 11, and then once the great theology is finished in chapter 12, you now have application.

The application of what all this means as to how we live in this world. And so chapter 12 begins that, and then chapter 13, how in these first few verses do we live in light of the fact that we live in this world where God has ordained government, but all sorts of different kinds of government.

Romans chapter 13, verse 1, let everyone or every person be in subjection to the authorities.

Above.

Literally. Now, I will mention something. I'm not going to get into a bunch of the Greek and grammar today. I want to try to stay away from that, leave that till Tuesday, to be honest with you. But translated by the New American Standard as governing authorities, but I do want to mention another possible understanding of that as we get into that.

But let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For it is a minister of God to you for good, but if you do what is evil, be afraid.

For it does not bear the sword for nothing, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon those who practice evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sake.

For because of this you also pay taxes for rulers or servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them, tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

And then please note something. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this you should not commit adultery, you should not murder, you should not steal, you should not covet.

And if there is any other commandment it is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, love does no wrong to a neighbor, love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. This comes immediately after an almost full repetition of what the law says as to how we are to be related to one another is placed before us by the apostle in verses 9 and following.

Keep that in mind, it will become important to us. Turn with me over to 1 Peter chapter 2, similar issue here. Peter is addressing believers as to how they are to live this life in this world. Normally an examination begin in chapter 2 verse 13, I want to back us up one verse.

Verse 12, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers, they may on account of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation.

So please notice that Peter is well aware that there is external opposition, there is in fact slander of believers as evil doers. But we are to keep our behavior excellent among them, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers, they may on account of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation.

That may not be immediately, but in the day of visitation, that's the context. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors as sent by him, for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men, act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

Don't stop there. Servants, and that is the term douloi, which in the Roman Empire meant slaves. Slaves be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

For this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated you endure it with patience, but if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

The Roman Empire, Sacralism, and the Meaning of Romans 13

Always reading the text in its context, especially remembering the context of the ancient church. So let us turn back to Romans chapter 13. How are we to understand these words? And especially as we live in a day that in some ways is bringing us back to where the church was when these words were first written.

That is, we are moving away from the commonly called Judeo-Christian heritage of the West. We are moving back toward the paganism of early Rome. What do I mean by that? Well, you need to understand that the Roman system under which these words were written, the Roman system was one of a massive empire that at that time controlled the entire Mediterranean basin.

And very often when the New Testament writers use the term, the whole world, that's what they're talking about. They're not talking about the globe, they're talking about the whole world that is the entire Roman empire.

Out at the fringes you had the barbarians, the people who did not speak the languages of the empire, the high language of the empire, Latin, or the common language, Koine Greek. They spoke other languages and so they were called the barbarians and their references made to them a number of times in the New Testament.

But this Roman empire had conquered literally hundreds of different nations, nation states, small kingdoms, fiefdoms, languages, and religions. And so to hold all of this together, the genius of the Roman system was that it did not attempt to enforce a singular religious concept upon everyone, a singular set of gods upon everyone.

There was an element of religious freedom, but it had to be a religious freedom that would allow Rome to maintain the unity that existed within her own borders. So how do you do that? Well, you allow anyone to worship whatever God they want to worship, as long as your God does not try to wipe out everybody else's gods.

And so as long as there was a sense of plurality, and as long as your God allowed you to offer the pinch of incense upon the altar to Caesar, so you had to acknowledge the supreme authority in governmental issues of Caesar, and then you could do what you wanted in regards to the worship of your God, as long as it did not involve killing your neighbors and starting wars and doing things like that.

You could build your altars, you could have your sacrifices, you could have your temples, and that was just fine. And let's be honest, for hundreds of years, that worked. For literally hundreds of years, far longer than our nation has existed, Rome brought relative peace.

Now, it was not perfect. There were rebellions here and rebellions there, and there were people that would get followers to follow after them, but in general, especially in some areas, there was peace and prosperity for century after century after century.

And a lot of people could probably come up with the argument, man, if you stop wars and you stop famines, oh sure, there would still be a famine. Remember there was a famine in Jerusalem, and it wasn't perfect, but in general, Rome saved more lives than they took over that time period.

Someone could make the argument, that's showing love for your brother. Maybe that offering of the pinch of incense isn't all that bad of a thing if you're saving lives, right? Well, now, I don't want to give you a bad impression, or better to put, a wrong impression.

There was tremendous degradation in the morality of Rome, even at its height. The Romans would expose children they did not want to keep, so they had their own form of abortion, and so if your wife had a son or a daughter and your plans were otherwise and that didn't fit your plans, they would simply take that infant, I can't imagine how the mothers dealt with this, but they would simply take that infant and leave it out in the garbage pile overnight, and the roving bands of dogs in Rome would take care of all the rest.

Christians became known as those weird people who would go out at night to the garbage piles and would rescue babies and raise them as their own even though they were poor, and it only made it more difficult for them to have enough food.

And so there was much in the way of degradation, and you have the Nero's and the Caligula's that come about at those times. But in general, Rome provided peace as long as you would say Caesar is Lord and acknowledge him as one of your authorities.

You just could not have this monotheistic, crazy idea that there is only one God and one way of properly worshiping him, which is why you had the period of persecution for centuries of the Christian people.

And so did Paul just simply miss it here? Did he just simply write something? There would be those. You could probably go to a quote-unquote Christian bookstore, if any of them exist anymore, and buy a commentary where someone would probably take the view, well, you know, Paul wrote this at such a point in time before persecution really became bad, I'm certain that in later times he would want to amend what he said to the Romans, because there are many people that write books, write commentaries, that don't really believe that what we have here is theanustos, it is God-breathed.

So, you'd probably find that in various commentaries that, well, Paul probably would like to have changed this, but it was a little bit late once you, you know, you send the letter and people start copying it, it's sort of hard to take it back.

Sort of like any time you send anything on Facebook, once it's sent, it's sent, there ain't no one sending anything, right? Is that what's going on here? I would suggest to you, of course, that that is not the way to understand this at all.

Let every person be a subjection to the governing authorities. Now, I mentioned when we started reading this that there is an interesting interpretation that I'll present it to you. I think we end up coming to the same conclusion one way or the other, but there is an interesting interpretation of the Greek here that would indicate that the descriptive term, you have ruling authorities.

It's literally those that are above, and you can demonstrate outside the New Testament the utilization of this particular term to refer to those which excel in moral authority and goodness. And if that's the way to understand this, and there are some commentators who have made this argument and would say, this is how to understand it.

What he's saying is let every person be a subjection to those authorities that have demonstrated their moral consistency and supremacy. Well, that's an interesting way of seeing it, because it's very plain.

Paul's going to say it's a minister to God for your good. If you do what is evil, be afraid. These rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior. All these things come later and are consistent with this understanding.

So, I'm not saying that I think it's impossible that we understand it this way, that it may well be the correct way of understanding it. I'm just saying I don't know that we have to insist upon it, because the rest of the text tells us very clearly that the governing authorities that are being referred to here function in a particular fashion.

They're being described to us both here, and you'll notice in 1 Peter chapter 2, they do certain things, and it's the things that they are doing that is most important. It's interesting that in the periods of the history of the church, when state and church have gotten a little bit too cozy, a little bit too connected to one another, this text and 1 Peter 2 have been understood as preaching an absolute subjugation to kings in particular.

For example, as I was doing some reading on this, and by the way, the stuff in the bulletin, a couple of those quotes came from, you all call him Uncle Gary, Uncle Gary DeMar, but I can't do that, because we're pretty much in the same age group, so.

But Brother Gary DeMar, and I can tell you some fun stories of things that Gary and I have gotten to do in the past on ships bobbing around the ocean that was a lot of fun with R .C. Sproul, but we won't go into that right now.

That's more for man camp, right? Yeah, there you go, there you go. The girls are going, we'd like to hear that too. Well, we'll find some way of doing that. But those citations, and it was Gary that pointed out, and I verified it, that it's very interesting that King James detested the Geneva Bible of 1559.

He detested it. Now, it happens to be a great translation, despite what my daughter thinks about the Christmas story, and only my family gets that particular story. There's another one that we can tell sometime.

Maybe she'll tell that on Sheologian sometime, but it's an excellent translation, but it had all sorts of footnotes in it. It had commentary. Yes, it was the early Ryrie Study Bible, the Schofield Study Bible, whatever else it might.

Be.

I'm telling you what I was raised with right there. And in those notes, there were all sorts of notes that talked about tyrants, tyrants, and how kings can become tyrants if they do not remain subject to the law of God and see themselves as ministers of God's justice.

And so, for example, in commenting in the book of Daniel, there was the statement about the king and about how God basically defied the king's authority in the life of Daniel, and these were things that King James did not like at all.

That was one of the reasons for the creation of the King James translation, is the Geneva Bible just didn't fit his purposes. And you know what's interesting? I didn't know this. If you look up the word tyrant, you all have your phones there.

Don't do it right now. Where's Elliot?

Okay.

There he is.

Okay.

He's hiding over the corner. Okay, good. I scared him to death a few weeks ago, and he's still got the shakes. If you look it up sometime in your King James Bible on your phone, put in the word tyrant, and it'll just stare at you because it doesn't appear in the King James Bible.

King James wouldn't allow it. There are a number of terms that the king sort of suggested might not appear in his translation. Very interesting. The problem is there are tyrants. There were tyrants in the Roman Empire.

And does Romans chapter 13 tell us that we are simply to be in subjection to tyrants? That we are to do whatever they say. And there is no authority except from God. That means all tyrants come from God.

Well, we understand in God's sovereignty that God raises up tyrants. But what are tyrants to a people? An act of judgment. They're an act of judgment upon a people. And so as we look at the description, what I want you to do is in your mind, I want you to be thinking about 1 Peter 2 here in Romans chapter 13.

What was the foundational concept in the mind of both apostles? And then remember just a few weeks ago in our study behind this pulpit, we looked at Acts chapter 13, remember? And what happened in Acts chapter 13?

God delivered Peter from prison, remember? And he did so miraculously. And when Peter was let out of that prison, remember he went to the gathered church. Remember the humorous incident? It's probably why we don't have a lot of girls named Rhoda in the church.

Because Rhoda hears Peter's voice and instead of letting the poor guy in who just got let out of prison, she leaves him standing out there and goes running inside. And his spirit, his angels outside, and finally they let poor Peter in.

And what does he do? Does Peter go, I need to be in subjection to the governing authorities. And so even though an angel has released me, I need to go back and allow myself to be destroyed by Herod.

What did he do?

He left a message for James and got out of Dodge, or in this case, Jerusalem. And then what happened? The poor soldiers who were guarding him, who are kept asleep or kept from seeing what happens or whatever supernaturally, what happened to them?

They died.

They were executed. Because if you're a Roman soldier and you're guarding someone, what are you supposed to do? Say an angel took him? That's not going to fly real well, even if it was true, which it happened to be.

Not only were they executed, and you might stop, and remember we pointed out, justly, they were involved in the wrongful, unjust persecution of one of God's followers. What did the meek and mild Lord Jesus say during His earthly ministry?

It would be better if a millstone were tied around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea than you were to offend one of these little ones. We need to go back to Revelation chapter 1 and see the picture of the risen Jesus and be reminded, He will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

The picture of Jesus with the little lamb, there's an element of truth to that, but it's only a partial truth. And the world is perfectly fine with the Jesus in the manger, as long as He's not the Jesus on the throne.

And so what happens at the end of Acts chapter 13? Herod, who thinks he's going to get political points by killing Peter, he's frustrated in that, and then he goes up to Tyre and Sidon, he allows himself basically to be worshipped, and God cuts him down in the most public of ways and kills him.

But Herod represented the state, yeah, and look what God did. So let's look at these words, therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed receive condemnation upon themselves, okay?

So we can't have anarchy, there is to be submission to governing authorities, what governing authorities? For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Stop right there. Stop right there.

Don't miss that. Rulers are not a cause of fear. What rulers are we talking about? This is, these are the ones that we're to be in subjection to. We are to be in a subjection to rulers who are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.

Rulers who would encourage good, rulers who punish evil, that's what this is about. For he was to say, do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good. And you will have praise from the same.

What must the ruling authority understand and know? They must know what's good. If they're going to punish evil, what must they know? That which is evil. Who gets to determine that? There's the issue.

There's the issue. These words are written for the church in all ages. And remember what Peter does in 1 Peter chapter 2, after he likewise says, be in subjection to these people, what's the next thing he quotes?

The second half of the Ten Commandments, God's law. When it says it is a minister of God to you for good, then it must understand what good.

Is.

And so when you have a state, when you have a government that is given over by God in judgment, and that state begins to punish the good and promote the evil, is this what we have in Paul's mind in Romans chapter 13?

Let me give you a very, very current example, a very current example. This morning, a friend of mine in Alpha and Omega's private, highly encrypted chat channel, boy, we're all learning about encryption, aren't we?

Yeah, we are.

Posted an image, it's an image I've seen before, maybe you've seen it. It is of an individual who is six foot two and weighs 220 pounds. This individual looks a little bit like the bear, but this individual is playing women's rugby in Australia.

And so here is this picture of this individual, and there's a number of pictures, you can.

Go online.

The number of pictures, one of them is during play, and you see these women simply bouncing.

Off this guy.

They look like little children. He is a head taller than the biggest woman out there, and he's 75 pounds heavier than the biggest woman out there. And they're just, it's like a truck just driving through a bunch of little Volkswagens.

It's just, it's just absurd. There's another shot that I saw. It's between plays, and this big dude is walking past, and they just happen to catch this one poor girl who's looking at him just going, because it's like, how is this happening?

Why is this? How is this fair? We can't stop this person. But what are we told today? Let me tell you something. When I graduated from high school, when I graduated from high school, there wouldn't have been anyone who would have honored this guy for beating up on a bunch of girls.

That would have been the type of thing that would have appeared on Saturday Night Live as a joke, but there would have been shame involved with any man who thought that he was being something big by playing on the girls' team and beating them all up.

If you're wondering, I graduated in 1981, and evidently there's at least one other person in the audience that graduated in 1981. It's hard for me to believe that was a long time ago now. I remember it like yesterday.

But now, quite literally, brothers and sisters, we are facing a situation where the newly sworn in, yes, he placed his hand on a Bible. I'm really surprised it didn't explode. President of the United States has said, he said in 2019, the human rights issue of our day is transgender rights.

The human rights issue globally is making sure that that six-foot-two, 220-pound man can bowl over every girl in his way on the way to the end zone. That is the most important human rights issue in the world.

That is depravity on a level I will never understand. I will never understand. And yet, he didn't hide this. There is a law already passed by the House, which was kept from becoming law by the Senate, which is now in the control of the same party, by whatever means that took place.

There is a law called the Equality Act. And every person in this room, including the babies in the back, will be impacted by this legislative depravity. There's no other word for it. There is no other word for it.

And when a nation takes an act of rebellion, because that's what that man is. See, we live in a day where everything's got to be therapy. Oh, well, he has gender dysphoria. There might be a few people like that.

And by the way, I'm not talking about people who have true, honest, actual genetic abnormalities. XXY, XYY, the various issues that can come up in that situation. That's a very tiny, small percentage of the human population.

Very small. This man is genetically unambiguous. And when a nation can so enshrine the rebellion against God's good, creative decree,.

XXY.

So as to cause confusion on the most basic level of male and female. This MUST be the judgment of God upon a people. Don't be confused. This isn't what brings judgment. This is judgment. The pagan people of antiquity weren't that confused.

The people who offered their children to Moloch still knew who males and females were. And so I ask you a question. In light of the text, it is a minister of God to you for good. Is the state that tells your 11-year-old daughter that she has to put up with the biological male in her restroom, at the mall, at the library, notice I'm not saying at school because most of us have already figured this part out.

Is that state a minister of God to you for good? No it is not. No it is not. That is a state that is saying to God, we care nothing for your law. We rebel against your law, what are you going to do about it?

But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon those who do what? The one who practices evil. This is the connection between here and 1 Peter, because in 1 Peter you have doing good and doing evil.

Here it is in Romans 13, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Now I know what's going through most everyone's mind, let me address it immediately. Doesn't this just mean then that we can just do whatever we want and not worry about how a society has common values or anything like that?

And I think, I think as I've been struggling with these issues, I've realized something. I know that I will be misquoted here, I know I'll be misrepresented here, doesn't matter, I need to say what I need to say.

Evangelicalism in the United States, especially since the days of Charles Finney, but through much of the revivalism and much, going to get in trouble here, of the Arminianism that marks fundamentalism in the United States, has a extremely low view of the law of God.

Part of it is because, and I've said this before, we are canonically challenged. We only have 27 books in the New Testament, the 39 books of the Old Testament are basically good stories for the kids in Sunday school, or back in my day, the flannel graph, oh that.

Was so good.

I wonder if they still make flannel graph, I may do a sermon, no? Eric is saying no, are you saying no I shouldn't, or no they don't? I am sure I could find some churches that still have flannel graph, I, I would, maybe we need to do a sermon using flannel graph, I think that would be awesome, I really, some of you are going, I have no idea what you're talking about, but you'll find out, I'm going to find a way to do a flannel graph sermon right here at Apologia.