Mar 26 2023 Romans 13 - God and Government

Romans 13:1 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. 2 Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 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; 4 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 the one who practices evil. 5 Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience ' sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 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.

This just happens to come up right before your taxes are due! Ha – I didn’t even think about that!

It is really important to read this passage in context. Out of context, some disturbing questions arise. If we just pull this out, you could ask – Did God establish Hitler as an authority? Some Christians would say yes to that! For others – I feel that our president is ungodly – where does that leave us?

I think the context will shed light on these opinions.

Paul is writing to whom? Christians – who are in Rome, living under Nero. Some are already being persecuted.
Paul is writing a pastoral letter to real people with real concerns. Here is what he is not doing – He is not writing a complete systematic theology. This is not everything there is to be said about governing authority in the Bible.

I am jumping ahead of myself – but this needs to be read with other passages on governing authorities – 2 of which are in Revelation – and John calls Rome BABYLON –

Those are very different from this passage. Then there are numerous other passages that talk about our understanding of authority and government.

Remember, too, that he is writing about the conflict between weak (those living under Torah – being justified by Torah) – and the strong – who understand our freedom in Christ and each group believes it is superior to the other. And THAT is what this passage is about!

We can learn from their situation – there are principles that teach us how to live in our world under our government – and there is also practical application – but our situation is significantly different from that in Rome.

We need to understand this – the Bible was not written to US! It sounds weird – but to whom was Romans written? The church in Rome. It was written FOR us – and that is really different.

Like Romans was written to the Church in Rome, unless we understand that, we will not understand how it was written FOR (not TO) us.

The Christians in Rome have zero political power. They can’t vote, protest, or do anything. They have zero power and influence. Some of those are already being persecuted for their faith – and we will talk about that in Romans 16 – and soon, under Nero, there will be many Christian martyrs, including Paul himself.

Here is who else this is NOT written to – Caesar or the Roman authorities. He is not concerned about them – and it is not about them.

Michael Bird – “The book of Romans is not written to people who have power to use this passage to protect their power.”

Governments are not to use this passage to protect their power.

Think about slavery – Passages that talk about authority were used to tell slaves WHY they had to obey.

Ephesians 6 – in the Middle Ages – the Roman Catholic church was all connected as government – and some of the more evil leaders used it to do evil things.

Ephesians 6 – be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Now, who is this written to? For ME, to put yourself under you – not for me to put you under me!

Wives submit to your husbands. Is he telling the husbands to make their wives submit? NO! I’ve heard it used that way! It is never that way.

In the context – let’s start again at the beginning:

Romans 1: 1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Paul is called an apostle of the gospel of God – in opposition – and in contrast to the gospel of Rome. Rome’s gospel was eerily similar – and the language – I bring you good news of great joy for the whole world – Augustus our savior has won a great victory… there are carvings of this in Rome and Greece!

And Romans is drawing a sharp contrast between the Roman Empire and the kingdom of God.

And demonstrating the victory of God over the powers of this world.

We have the gospel of God vs. the gospel of Rome – David vs. Caesar – this is not hidden – Paul is setting up this conflict –

Jesus the true Son of God over Caesar the son of God.

When you say Jesus is Lord, you were saying Caesar is NOT!

Romans 10 – if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord – this means much more when you read it in context.

Romans 12: 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not.

They will be persecuted…

17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

How to be at peace with all when you are being persecuted:

19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

And THEN he says:

Romans 13: 1 Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities.

By being in subjection to Roman authority – the Christians in Rome were participating in the victory of Jesus over those authorities. By being in subjection, you defeat! You bring them down! But that is what Paul is saying here.

Notice – we do not participate in Jesus’ victory when we speak evil of them – or repay evil for evil – or try to take revenge – or fail to pursue peace. At those times, we step out of our role of

CS Lewis – The Church is to do benevolent sabotage! I love that phrase.

Maybe you noticed when you read – some of the language here:

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 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; 4 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 the one who practices evil.

He is not saying that the governing authorities are the authority – he is saying – like Jesus said to Pilate – you have no authority except what the Father grants you.

Then he goes to talk about taxes.

History shows there may have been a tax revolt across the Empire – and history shows that one of the groups was a group of Jewish people – and there were probably Jewish Christians who were engaged in this revolt against the tax system – and Paul is saying – look – this is a simple way to be at peace with all men.

There are practical ways to be subject to the authorities that will keep you at peace (and under their radar) – and the government was probably beginning to require things of you that you cannot in good conscience do – so the things that you can do – you probably should do. For them – it will come to the point where they must worship Caesar. There are all kinds of things the government may ask you to do that you cannot do – but the things that you can do – you should do, without doing something evil.

You can honor the king, and yet call Jesus Lord and not him. So do it.

NT Wright – speaking of the church and Paul – “Paul was not a traveling evangelist offering people a religious experience, but of an ambassador for a king in waiting, establishing cells of people loyal ot this new king and ordering their lives according to His story, His symbols and His praxis, and their minds according to His truth.”

We are a community loyal to a king – and nothing else. Our loyalty and allegiance are to king Jesus – fully and wholly.

5 Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience ' sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 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.

8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;

Love.

for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

He comes full circle back to Torah!

Somehow this tax issue is affecting the church – that is his concern – dividing the church.

You have to love one another – and here is a simple way to do that.

9 For this, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

All of the commandments – you cannot break them if you are loving your neighbor as Jesus loved.

10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. (Torah)

11 And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.

For them, Paul is convinced that the time is at hand – and if the time is at hand – all this other stuff – revolting, etc. – is irrelevant. We are to always live as if the time is at hand. And we must view our engagement with the world – voting, etc. – and Paul is saying – the time is at hand – so it is not that big of a deal.

Now he comes back to chapter 1:

Romans 13: 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality (Right back to Romans 1 - And then to Chapter 2: ), not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

A couple practical things – on putting on the Lord Jesus Christ – Clothing yourself in Jesus – wrapping yourself up in Jesus – and this takes us to Chapter 6 – baptism – resurrection – filled up – consuming who we are

Some ways it might look like –

First – We have some unlearning to do! We need to – “do not be conformed to this world” – we have all conformed – and we must recognize and unlearn that!

Every generation of Christian has learned things about faith and discipleship – incorrectly – through the lens of the world they live in – and they have mixed that in with the gospel – so that it becomes ‘part of the gospel’ but it was never there. We need to unlearn those things. Things have entered the church and church thinking that must be unlearned.

Second – we need to live into God’s love and acceptance. We cannot clothe ourself with Christ – nor will we want to – if we think He doesn’t like us or is holding us guilty for something. We will just not go there unless we are covered in His love and acceptance. We will stay away. It happens to all of us – because we are not filled with an understanding of that.

The foundation of our identity is that we are made in the image of God – and are his beloved children.

There is a good news context that we must cling to – and the one of our age that we must reject.
Paul said he was not ashamed of the gospel – that it is different from every age in this world.

The church is a public performance of the gospel of King Jesus.

The church in Cuyahoga Falls is to be a public performance of the gospel of the good news of King Jesus.

It is a presentation that shows the superiority of the nature of God beyond all others. But is the Church performing this, or other things?

We must learn to live a cruciformed life – Phil 2 – Laying aside our privilege and advantage

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave…

DO you love the world? Sure, it is evil. I think sometimes we hate the world. Yes, we are to not conform, give in, or be like the world – but if GOD loved the world – the world should know that Christians love them! Do they?

Let’s pray.