God's Purposes for Government-God-Pleasing Society

[Read Proverbs 8:15-16, Proverbs 29:2]

For the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the boundaries and limits God has placed on the government. We’ve talked a little about what they are supposed to do—punish evildoers and praise and protect the good—but we haven’t talked about the goal of what they are doing or some of the other specific tasks that have been given to the government. The next couple weeks we’re going to be getting into these things a little deeper.

And I realize that as we get into this a little deeper, we’re beginning to walk on thin ice a little bit, or even may be treading into places that may begin to make people uncomfortable. That’s especially true lately. There’s a TON of conversation about some of this stuff lately. The conversations about the concept of the separation of church and state are being talked about a lot lately. There’s also a lot of conversation about what is being called Christian Nationalism, that is beginning to get a bunch of people worked up. And as we begin to dive into these things further, I want to encourage us not to get so caught up in all of the buzzwords—either positively or negatively. It’s easy to get caught up in labeling things and either being for or against those things without actually understanding what those things are about OR what people mean when they say those things.

The portion of the Belgic Confession we’re looking at today says this about the government, “And being called in this manner to contribute to the advancement of a society that is pleasing to God…” (Belgic Article 36). That is the goal of the government. This should be the overarching vision of the government, to advance a society that is pleasing to God. And the question is, “What does that mean?” or “What does that look like?”

In order to answer these questions first from God’s Word, I decided to take us into the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs has a TON of stuff to say about governments and rules. So, I could have chosen a number of passages to make this point, but I decided on these two because I think they give us a good overview.

The first passage is Proverbs 8:15-16 which says, “By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly.” (Proverbs 8:15–16, ESV). As we begin to understand this passage, it’s really important to understand the context this is in, especially in order to answer the question, “Who is ‘ME’ in this passage?” If we took this passage out of context, it would be easy to assume this is God speaking (and many people have made that assumption over the years). However, in this instance Wisdom is speaking. Chapter eight of Proverbs begins by saying, “Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?” (Proverbs 8:1, ESV). So, this is wisdom speaking to the world, crying out, making sure they understand her. So, on a basic level this passage is saying that if kings desire to rule and reign and make decrees and policies with justice, they need to do it with wisdom and understanding. Without wisdom, there is no justice.

Yet, we also know there’s more to this than simply talking about wisdom. I mean, what is wisdom? Where does one get wisdom? Proverbs tells us this right away at the beginning of the book: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7, ESV). So, in order to have wisdom, you need to have the fear of the Lord. If you don’t fear the Lord, you don’t have wisdom.

When we take this and apply it to our other verse, things begin to connect: “By [wisdom] kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by [wisdom] princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly.” (Proverbs 8:15–16, ESV). Like I already said, there is not justice where there is no wisdom, but we can also say that there is no justice where there is no fear of God because where there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom. This helps us understand one portion of the answer to the question we asked, “What is a God-pleasing society?”—a society where there is justice—true justice that flows from a fear of God and wisdom.

Our other passage in Proverbs helps us understand the other aspect of this question: “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” (Proverbs 29:2, ESV). This sentiment is mentioned at least three other times throughout the book of Proverbs. When a society has wicked rulers the people under them groan. Take a guess as to one of the reasons for this? There’s no justice because wicked rulers don’t fear God and govern accordingly. However, when the righteous increase (and we’re not just talking about rulers) the people rejoice. So, we’re not even talking about the importance of righteous leaders in this passage (although there’s an obvious connection) but we’re talking about a society where righteousness is increasing. When that is happening, it’s like a burden lifts off the people and they rejoice. That helps add to the definition of a God-pleasing society—a society of justice and righteousness.

Now incorporate that understanding into what we just said and something we’ve already talked about earlier. Earlier in the Belgic we read this statement, “God wants the world to be governed by laws and policies so that human lawlessness may be restrained and that everything may be conducted in good order among human beings.” (Article 36). What types of laws and policies does God desire governments to put into place? Laws and policies that restrain lawlessness, evil, and wickedness, but also laws that are just and righteous according to God’s Wisdom. God has given them the sword to enforce those laws and policies: to promote justice by protecting the good and punishing those who do evil. When this happens more and more, the people rejoice because justice and righteousness are increasing. You could also say that when this is happening we are seeing the advancement of a God-pleasing society. So, you could easily say that a God-pleasing society is one of Justice and Righteousness, and that the government’s role is to rule and make laws and policies that are in accord with this justice and righteousness so that lawlessness is restrained and righteousness increases.

But then the Belgic steps into another hornet’s nest by saying, “And being called in this manner to contribute to the advancement of a society that is pleasing to God, the civil rulers have the task, subject to God’s law…” (Article 36). The government is subject to God’s Law. What does that mean? How is the government subject to God’s Law? Does that mean the government is supposed to implement all of the laws from the Old Testament? Does this mean that the Belgic Confession is promoting Christian Nationalism? Does this mean that governments are called to be theocracies or we’re supposed to promote theonomy? There are all of these terms.

In order to understand all of this, I think it’s really important to understand God’s Law properly and how it applies to us today. Some people say that Christ has abolished the law and it no longer has a place in our lives. But we know that’s not correct because Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17, ESV). So, we know that Jesus didn’t abolish the Law of God, but we also know that many of the laws from the Old Testament seem to no longer be in place in the New Testament: many of the eating and purification rituals are no longer in place. So, what’s that all about?

Throughout history the church has had a common way of understanding this. As you read through the Law of God in the Old Testament, there seems to be three categories of laws in place: Moral Laws, Ceremonial Laws, and Judicial Laws. The Moral Laws are those that are baked right into creation and are commonly known: no murdering, no adultery, etc. The Ceremonial Laws were those that surrounded worship in the temple: sacrifices, purification, etc. The Judicial Laws are the laws that applied to Israel as a nation in particular: parapets around rooftops, penalties for bulls that gore people, etc. In light of these three distinctions, this quote is very helpful, “In the Reformed Protestant tradition, Christians have sought to answer this question by distinguishing between three types of law: moral, ceremonial, and judicial. According to this view, the moral law is forever binding, the ceremonial law was intended to point to Christ and is thereby abrogated since his death and resurrection, and the judicial law is binding on non-Israelite nations only insofar as its general equity reflects the natural law.” (From 3 Parts of the Law: A Case for Continuity of the Moral Law).

So, the Ceremonial Law has been fulfilled in Christ. Since he has already purified us with the shedding of his blood and his perfect sacrifice, we no longer need the sacrificial and purification ceremonies. They were only shadows that pointed us to Jesus Christ, as Hebrews said. However, it makes sense that the Moral Law would be forever binding because it was baked right into creation. It’s based on the way God designed the world and humanity. So, it’s not going anywhere (it will always be wrong to murder someone). I think both of those are easy to understand.

However, the final principle get’s a little tricky and there’s a lot of leeway in understanding the outworking of this principle. The quote uses the term “general equity” which comes from The Westminster Confession, which isn’t a confession of our denomination, but is definitely in line with what we believe. Another way of understanding “general equity” is basically the fundamental principles of a law. So, the fundamental principles of the Judicial Law still apply and are relevant to non-Israelite nations.

The most basic way of explaining this principle is to talk about parapets around the roof of a house. For Israel, it was a common thing to hang out on the rooftop of a house. The law stated that you needed a parapet around the roof of your house to protect people from falling off the room and being injured. If you didn’t have a parapet and someone fell off, you were responsible for that accident. Now, of course we don’t need parapets because we don’t walk around on the roof of our houses, but you can easily apply the fundamental principle (the general equity) of this law to something today—like second story decks. If you have a second story deck and someone falls off and gets hurt because you don’t have a railing around it, you should be liable.

I think that’s fairly easy to understand the concept, but it’s much more difficult to apply these principles in different times and places. That’s why I said there needs to be some leeway in understanding these things. Not everything translates clearly from one culture into the next and it’s not always clear HOW to apply those fundamental principles in ways that make sense in our current cultural moment.

I’m saying this because I want to make sure we don’t fall into one ditch or the other. Some people want to say that these laws have no bearing on the laws we create today and other people want to say that it’s black and white and clear as to how those laws need to be applied today. The reality is, neither one is correct. The laws apply in some ways to today, but it’s not always clear how. So, we need to have conversations about it and keep trying to figure it out, without automatically assuming that we’ve got it all figured out and know exactly how this all needs to work. This all requires humility.

I realize you’re getting a lot of information in this sermon, but I want to add one more thing that I think is very helpful in regards to the Law of God. Not only has the church understood there to be three different types of laws, but also three different uses of the law. The first use is to convict us of our sin. We see this from Paul in Romans 7: “Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”” (Romans 7:7, ESV). So, the law reveals and convicts us of our sin.

The second use is to restrain evil. We see this in 1 Timothy: “The law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane…” (1 Timothy 1:9, ESV). There’s a sense in which the law is there not only to convict of sin, but also to warn and threaten those who are breaking the law. Those threats and warnings are there to restrain lawlessness and evil to some degree.

The final use of the law is what is very relevant to this morning’s sermon, it’s to reveal what is pleasing to God. Paul says, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” (Romans 7:12, ESV). Remember, Jesus also said that he came to fulfill the law, which means he came to live that law out perfectly on earth. Jesus perfectly lived and spoke and thought according to the law of God and that was a good thing that pleased God. It’s a reminder to us that God’s law is not capricious and random. He doesn’t make laws willy-nilly. Rather, God gave us laws to understand how he’s created us to live in this world and to prosper and to please Him.

Now, here’s how all of this applies to governments. If the goal of the government is to create laws and policies, and to rule and reign with justice and righteousness, how do they know what is just and what is righteous? If the government is supposed to punish those who do evil and to praise and protect the good, how do they know what is evil and what is good? What standard is used? I think it’s pretty clear: If the law of God shows us what is pleasing to God, and the government is told to “contribute toward the advancement of a society that is pleasing to God,” it also makes sense that they would be “subject to God’s Law…” (with all of the caveats I’ve already mentioned).

Now, I realize there are a million different ways to apply some of these truths, and likely there will be disagreements in this congregation about how to apply some of these truths, but we cannot ignore or discard God’s Word. We know that God appoints governments. As we’ve talked about today, we know from God’s Word that he expects them to govern with wisdom, justice, and righteousness that is revealed to us in his law. We’ve also been reminded from God’s Word that when the righteous increase, the people rejoice—and that pleases God. I think it’s fairly obvious, on a basic level, that the best society to live in would be a society that is pleasing to God, right? Would anybody argue with that statement? That means living in a society being governed and advanced according to God’s Wisdom, God’s Justice, and God’s righteousness.

Guess what that also means? It means we also have a role to play in this, and I’m not talking about speaking to the government about how it’s failing. This is going to hit much closer to home. I’m talking about how pleasing your life is to God. It’s easy to be frustrated and angry and complain about all of the unrighteousness out in the world, and to ignore the unrighteousness in our own hearts. It’s easy to complain about how our society is no longer pleasing to God while being fine with living a life that is not pleasing to God. That is why it’s important to know how the Law of God applies to us personally.

Here’s what the Heidelberg Catechism says, “Since no one in this life can obey the Ten Commandments perfectly, why does God want them preached so pointedly? First, so that the longer we live the more we may come to know our sinfulness and the more eagerly look to Christ for forgiveness of sins and righteousness. Second, so that we may never stop striving, and never stop praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed more and more after God’s image, until after this life we reach our goal: perfection.” (HC Q115). The law convicts us of our sin and points us to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and righteousness. The law is not for “those out there” but for each one of us. And when we’re convicted of our sins, we don’t just sit there feeling guilty and shameful for them. Rather, we run to the one who can forgive us and cleanse us. We embrace Jesus Christ by faith.

From there, we continue to look at the law of God, not to be justified, but to understand what it looks like to live a life that is pleasing to God, and we keep striving by the power of the Holy Spirit to live that life. The more we live that life, the more pleasing our life is to God and righteousness increases. When righteousness increases, guess what happens? “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice” (Proverbs 29:2, ESV).