Biblical/Confessional Understanding of Government

[Read Romans 13:1-7]

It's been over ten years since I changed the way I drove a vehicle. I grew up riding dirt-bikes and loving racing, and I drove a vehicle the same way. It was always a race, trying to figure out how to get to the next place fastest, or at least faster than the other people. I got my license in Montana the year they decided to remove the speed limit and told everyone they were expected to drive reasonable and prudent. Let's be honest, reasonable and prudent for a fifteen year old is very different than reasonable and prudent for a thirty or forty year old.

Eventually, God convicted me about it all. Now, this isn't the point of my sermon, but I was convicted that I was breaking the law by speeding all of the time. I no longer felt I could do that with a good conscience because I believed it was dishonoring to God. So, I stopped and started following the speed limit. I immediately noticed how that changed everything about my experience of driving a car. It was no longer a race. I would get there when I got there, which made my driving way more relaxed. Also, since it wasn't a race, I was WAY less angry and frustrated as I drove, because I didn't see everyone as getting in my way, or slowing me down.

Those were pretty big changes, but the biggest change I noticed was in relation to the police. I no longer drove with a level of fear and anxiety about getting pulled over, because I knew I wasn't breaking the law. Prior to this, every time I saw a cop car, a wave of guilt and anxiety would flow over me, and I would anxiously watch to see if I slowed down fast enough for them not to notice or if they weren't paying attention to me. Now, I didn't have any of that because I wasn't breaking the law. I didn't have to worry about the police officers. I was able to drive without fear. And since I was able to drive without fear, I was able to relax and enjoy the drive more than I had ever been able to do before.

Fear is one of those things that can taint any good thing. Right now, we see a lot of fear surrounding our political situation. Because of the polarization we're experiencing throughout the United States right now, people are afraid to even talk about politics. We're afraid that we're going to get into a fight with someone. We're afraid we're going to lose friends. We're afraid of the possible fallout that might happen. I'm sure many of you saw the title to this sermon in the bulletin and felt a tinge of fear yourself, didn't you? Oh no, what is pastor doing? These are things we're not supposed to talk about!

People are afraid of the future of our country right now. This isn't limited to anyone's support of a particular party either. Everyone is worried about the direction we're heading as a country. Part of the problem behind all of this is that both political parties have figured out that they can get results by using fear. If they make people afraid enough, they will get the votes. You could see it in the midterm elections, as every ad used very somber, scary music and had red painted all over them, trying to make you more afraid of the other party than their own. They are using fear as a motivator.

I just listened to this again a couple days ago as I listened to a few different interviews where people argued about how people in the other party are "threats to our democracy". That's coming from both sides. That's serious language, isn't it? Threats to our democracy are threats to the foundations of our country, to our freedoms, to our livelihoods. It's a fearful thing to consider that someone may be threatening all of those things. That's the goal. The goal is to make you so afraid of someone else that you vote for the other person. Yet, in Romans 13, we're reminded that fear is not a helpful motivator for understanding and relating to a government.

I'm not going to dive too deeply into this passage this morning because this entire series will be diving deeply into many of the truths in this passage. This passage is one of the best overviews of a biblical understanding of government in the bible. So, you would do well to continue to study and read this passage throughout our entire series. This morning I want to focus on two of the three main points in this passage. The three main points of this passage are: 1) Everyone must submit to, honor, and respect our governmental leaders, 2) God has given authority to and appointed our governmental leaders, and 3) God has given us governmental leaders to punish the wicked and not the good. Now, because I'm going to spend a couple of sermons at the end of this series focusing on the first point about submission and honor and respect of our governmental leaders, I'm not going to focus on that this morning.

The first part that I want to focus on is the fact that God has appointed and given authority to our governmental leaders. We read this: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” (Romans 13:1–2, ESV). This is very clear in this passage. There is no authority except from God AND those that exist in authority have been placed there by God. I think this is an extremely important reminder for us, especially in the midst of all of the fear-mongering from our political parties. Ultimately, God is the one who will decide who governs and rules over a nation. They have no authority apart from him and he will be the one who puts them in place over a nation. This isn't explicitly connected in this passage, but I think this is a reminder for us not to be afraid. Don't be afraid about the future of our democracy, God is in control. Don't be afraid about the outcome of the next election, God is in control and they can do nothing apart from what He has ordained. Why live in fear? Why allow people to manipulate you by fear? Don't be afraid, God is in control.

The second point I want to talk about this morning is this part of the passage: “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.” (Romans 13:3–4, ESV). Here Paul says that we should not be afraid of our government, but rather should be law-abiding citizens. If we're doing wrong and breaking the law, then we should be afraid and cautious and worried and fearful. However, if we're law-abiding citizens and doing good, we have nothing to fear.

In the midst of this, Paul lays out a purpose of the government. The government's role is to be a terror to bad conduct, not to good conduct. The government's role is to punish the wicked, not the good. Another way Paul says this is that the government is to be “God’s servant for your good...For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:4, ESV). So, the government is a servant of God, carrying out punishments on those who do wrong, but working for the good of those who are doing good.

One of the reasons I said that this passage is so foundational for our understanding of government is that it clearly lays out the foundational goodness of government. The government is given authority from God, put in place by God, and is a servant of God for our good. That's foundational for us to understand. Yet, I bet for some of you, you found yourself cringing a bit as I said those things, or raising a bunch of "Yeah, but..." questions in your mind. That's a result of a couple things, primarily our current cultural situation. We're living in a time when we've seen some very corrupt governments do some very corrupt things which have caused us to lose our trust in government. So, when we hear someone say that the government is God's servant for our good, we stiffen our neck a little bit and say, "I'm not sure about that." However, that's a direct quote from God's Word and we better not stiffen our necks against God's Word. This passage is telling us that there is a foundational goodness to government.

Yet, that doesn't mean it hasn't been or can't be abused, just like any other fundamentally good thing. I was reading Martin Luther this week and he used the example of money. Money is fundamentally a good thing and can be used for good purposes. However, the love of money is the root of all evil and money can be used for all sorts of evil. That doesn't take away the goodness of money. Food is a good thing. Yet, we all know how food can be abused and used in ways that do not reflect its goodness. Those abuses do not take away the goodness of food. It's the same with government. The abuses of government do not take away from the fact that God has given them authority, placed them in authority, and said that they are there for our good.

Yet, these foundational principles are not enough for us, are they? It's possible that some of what I've said already had answered some questions for you and provided clarification. However, for many of you, it's probably brought up even more questions. Questions like: What does it mean that the government is God's servant for our good? What does that look like? What does God have to say about government's role in the world? What limits does God place on the authority he has given them? If the government is supposed to be for our good, what is that good? If the government is supposed to punish the wicked, how do we know what wickedness is? What does it look like to properly punish the wicked and bear the sword? And a whole host of other questions, I'm sure.

Here's the big question: Where do we go to find all of those answers? That's the point of the series. I think many people are turning to unhelpful places to find the answers to many of those questions. They are turning to places like MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, or the Daily Wire to figure out what the government should be doing. Rather, we should be turning to the one who created government in the first place to find out how he has designed it to function and what our role is in that process as his people. We need to be answering these questions directly from God's Word.

We also need to be answering these questions from our confessions. We are a Christian Reformed Church, which means we are a confessional church. We hold to three confessions: The Heidelberg Catechism, The Canons of Dordt, and The Belgic Confession. We do not hold these confessions above the authority of God's Word but believe they accurately teach and explain God's Word for us. The beauty of being a confessional church is that it takes us outside of our cultural bubble. It helps us to hold to truths that have been passed down throughout the centuries. It forces us to talk about things that are not "popular" today, but are still important. It also helps us to see our own personal, cultural blind spots.

That's one of the reasons why I'm basing this series on Article 36 of the Belgic Confession. Not only is this the official teaching of the Christian Reformed Church on government, but it also was written 500 years ago. That's really important, especially in our current situation. It's a reminder that other Christians throughout history have wrestled with and studied God's Word to figure out what it has to say about government, and we should learn from them.

This is my goal in this series and I want to be very clear about that. My goal is to help us as a congregation understand what God has told us about government in a time when there is a lot of fear and confusion and frustration. I want to recenter us on God's Word. I will not be telling you how to vote this fall. I will not be picking one party over another. I will not be talking about official policy decisions or anything like that. That's not my job as your pastor. Rather, my job is to help you understand what God has to say about his design for government and how we should respond as his people.

I have one other goal, that I began to point out at the beginning of this sermon. I remember the look on my friend's face a few years ago, after one of the votes on a hot-button issue took a wrong turn. I was very unhappy with the way the vote turned out. I thought it was dishonoring to God and would destroy the lives of many people. Yet, when I looked in the face of my friend, I saw total despair and hopelessness. He was crushed that the vote went the wrong way. He was afraid. I remember talking to him and saying, "I know that vote didn't go the way we wanted it to go and it's going to cause a lot of problems, but our hope is not in our government or our voting, our hope is in our God. The votes may continue to go against us for the next decade, but we can still live with hope that our God is on the throne and we can continue to faithfully do the work He has called us to do in the world."

That's another one of my goals in this series. I want to make sure we are following this advice from the Psalms, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.” (Psalm 118:9, ESV). If you are putting your trust in princes or our government or the next election, everything will always feel like life and death are hanging in the balance. You will be afraid and anxious about everything. Every failure of our government will feel like the end, every vote that goes differently than you hoped will seem apocalyptic. That's a terrible way to live and doesn't give God the glory and honor due to his name.

Rather, it is much better to take refuge in the Lord and trust him. Doing this will have the same response as I had when changing my driving habits. Learning how to live each day while taking refuge in the Lord, and not in our government, will cause a peace to wash over you that will never come from trusting in a government. Not only that, but that peace will prevent you from being manipulated through guilt and fear. It won't work because you're taking refuge in our God.

You see, the Gospel doesn't use guilt and fear as motivators. The gospel does something so much better and more beautiful. The gospel says, by faith in Jesus Christ you've been cleansed and forgiven and set free. You no longer have guilt hanging over you. You no longer have to fear the wrath of God. By faith, Jesus Christ has taken care of those things. Then the Gospel shows you this beautiful life that God has designed for you and says, "Run toward that." Rather than trying to shame us into obedience or manipulate us with guilt or fear, the Gospel motivates us by beauty. Isn't that a better way to live? Isn't there something inside you that wants that? It begins by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, taking refuge in him, then living each day by that faith as we seek to follow him.