Sermon details
- Series
- The Christian and Government
- Speaker
- Ben Bullard
- Date
- 12 October 2022
- Length
- 32 minutes
Read the sermon
Guiding principles from Scripture
Well, good evening, everyone. So this is week six of this series on the Christian and the government. Now, at the beginning, I had said there were three main questions that I wanted to try to address. Those were number one, how should we respond to the government? Number two, what kind of government should we as Christians want? And then number three, what role should the church play in all this? And thus far, we've looked at just the first of those. We've thought about, you know, not really so much what kind of laws should we want or how should we try to change the government, but how should we respond to the government as it is and the laws that are there? Should we obey them? When might we disobey them? We've really focused on our posture. We've talked about some exceptions and when those might be valid or when maybe they would not be valid and hopefully given some clarity to that. Well, tonight we're going to try to embark on beginning to discuss, well, what kind of government should we as Christians want anyway? To the degree that we can actually exert some sort of influence on the government, how should we use it? Now, this is one of those series that could go on forever, and I'm going to try to prevent that. We spent like five weeks on the first question. I plan to do this one in like two weeks, so we're going to try to keep it a little shorter. That means it's going to have to be fairly high level. Also, just like when we were thinking about how to respond to the government, the goal wasn't so much to lay out, well, here's a bunch of laws. Should we obey this one or disobey that one? It was more to kind of lay out a framework. Well, similarly here, the goal is not really to say this is exactly the system and form of government we should have. These are the laws that we should all, you know, want specifically. It's more what are the guiding principles from Scripture that could sort of help us think about this well. So that's where we're going to try to go. Now, even before we sort of dive into wrestling with this, I think it's good for us to at least acknowledge that there is a long history for us to draw from here. You know, other Christians have had to wrestle with this for two millennia. So there's a lot we can glean. Ever since the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD, supposedly, okay. Ever since then, Christians throughout history have had significant opportunities to influence or shape the government. We can look to examples like John Calvin in Geneva, there's Abraham Kuyper in the Netherlands, Oliver Cromwell and other Puritans and Parliament. There's the Roman Catholic Church and the Crusades. There's also those on the other side like many Anabaptists who seem to have been fairly intentional about trying to avoid being intertwined with the state. And then there's our own nation. which was probably shaped by deists just as much as by Christians, but this is certainly an arena in which Christians have exerted significant influence. There's lots of historical examples, and while we're not going to look at all of those together in this context, I think it's pretty obvious that there are some positives. And there's also some negatives. Thinking about the relation of Christians and what kind of state we should seek is not something that's easy to do well. I don't think we see any perfect examples throughout history. Also, I think something that's striking to me is how differently Christians often evaluate the examples given. Just one example that stood out to me from a church history class in seminary was that in reflecting on Constantine's supposed conversion and subsequent reforms in Rome in which he was sort of trying to privilege Christians and the church in certain ways. Well, Jonathan Edwards looks back on this very positively. He says,
this was like Christ appearing in the clouds of heaven. It was a conquest of Satan in his strongest dominion.
Then you have John Wesley who says,
Constantine struck the greatest blow against the church.
You know, instead of initiating this golden age of the church, it was like an iron age. So here you have totally opposite evaluations of Constantine and his effect on the church and Christianity. And I think that that should signal to us at the least that there's some complexity to this. And one reason we need to approach this with some humility. Well, as I said, what I want to try to do is just sort of give some broad guiding principles to help us think about this well. And the first one, Lord, I think we'll just look at two tonight and we'll pick up with some more next time, but the first of these is this. We must always remember that the only perfect government is an absolute monarchy under Christ. It's really helpful to start there. Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Throughout the Old Testament, God promised a coming king. He promised a lion from the tribe of Judah. He promised a shoot from the stump of Jesse. He promised a son of David who would reign forever on David's throne. That there would be a king who would establish true and perfect righteousness and justice. A king who would establish a kingdom to which all the other kings and nations would stream in and bow down before. And then in fulfillment of that, Jesus came. And by raising him from the dead and exalting him to his right hand, God has appointed him as that king. So we should be looking forward to the day when Jesus returns and there's perfect justice. There's no longer rebellion and sin. But that also means that in the here and now, every earthly government is at best a temporary provisional thing. Just think, we are in the last days. Whatever systems of government there are, they will fade away when Christ returns. And while we wait for that, it's not like there's some ideal, sort of perfectly stable government that if we could just establish, well, then everything would be great. No, the reality is the nation's rage. In fact, we can read the book of Revelation and and see some of the outworking of that. We see even up to the end there that there's the kings of the earth allying together with Satan, gathering against the Lamb and his people. We see something of the political state and nations being like a beast, you know, both Daniel 7 and then in Revelation there's this beastly evil from these kingdoms of this world that Christ will ultimately vanquish. You know, right now we live in a world in which, for the most part, the nations don't even acknowledge the true King. It's our mission to go and tell them about Christ, to make disciples of all nations. And that means that we as Christians should expect to regularly find ourselves in nations surrounded by many non-Christians. Our mission isn't to go sort of start our own separate Christian nation away from the world, away from all the non-Christians, but Jesus, as he prayed, that God wouldn't take us out of the world, that we would live as faithful shining lights in the midst of this unbelieving world for the glory of God. And so what that means is when we think about this question, well, what kind of government should we as Christians want? Well, we shouldn't try to answer that question from the perspective of, you know, what would be the best government if everybody in our nation were a Christian? That's not the kind of environment that we should expect. If that were true, well, yeah, that might change things. But if everybody were a Christian, well, our mission would be accomplished. I think Christ would have already come back. So instead, I think we should be thinking about this in terms of what temporary provisional government will be best given that we live in a society composed of lots of people who don't even acknowledge the true king. You know, and if we shouldn't put a sword to their throats to try to make them convert to Christianity, which obviously I think in light of our charge to go and preach the gospel, that's not God's way of trying to convert the world. Well, then whatever the government that we should want to see established would be, it has to be one in which there's some accommodation for people who have different religious beliefs and different worldviews. I think people should be free to be a Mormon if they want to, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or an atheist. But if that's the case, well, it means there's going to be some degree of inherent instability and tension. Like it means we're going to be trying to have a society together with people who hold fundamentally different worldview commitments. And that means it's going to be inherently difficult. There's not a perfect solution that just is going to make everything work just right. I mean, just recognize the reality of the tension of the situation. And that's why I say that one of the sort of the first principle we should come back to is that Every earthly government is provisional and temporary, and the only perfect government is the absolute monarchy under Christ. Here we are, this sort of overlap of the ages, where the king has come, and the king is coming again, and there's going to be this inherent tension. And so we want to be looking forward to Christ's return, praying, Maranatha, come quickly. So that would be kind of the first principle. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that earthly government is not important, that it doesn't have a very valuable role in place in the here and now. So that brings us to a second principle, which is that the government that we should want to see established should be a government that's fulfilling the role given by God in Scripture. So in some sense, that should be really easy for all of us to agree to. Of course, the question is, well, what is that role? What does Scripture actually say about what the government is supposed to do. And so I have a question for you, which is, where do you think we see government instituted in scripture? I heard Israel, okay, yep. Okay, yeah, so Jethro gives this advice to Moses, good. Saul, I heard somebody say, is that right? Yeah, so King Saul is appointed king by God over Israel. Is there anything earlier than that? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Matt. When Moses first time down the mountain, like Israel declared a nation by God, So certainly there's Israel as a nation, but I think the question is, I mean, even before that, like in the days of Abraham, there's Pharaoh, Abimelech, you know, do they have any sort of governmental authority there? Like I would argue, yes, that seems to be government. Amanda? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think, you know, from Cain leaves and sort of his descendants establish a city. Um, and then we get to the flood and then we come to Genesis nine. So you could debate where exactly do you say government is instituted, but certainly Genesis nine, six, I think is a very significant passage in that respect. It says.
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Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
So this clearly is instituting capital punishment. God is saying a murderer shall be put to death. But I think it's also tied to the institution of human government. God is giving an authority there. He's giving sort of the power of the sword to mankind. And notice that God's kind of commanding mankind to do something that he's also clearly forbidding individual people from doing. There's this notion of shedding man's blood. Well, that's evil, that's sin. And yet he turns around and says,
by man shall his blood be shed.
So how does that work? Well, I think the idea here is that there is such a thing as governing authority. There's such a thing as where a person or a collection of people can act with this authority to do something like shed blood. And it's not murder. It's carrying out justice. It's recognizing what this person did was murder and therefore their blood is to be shed. And so that's where I think this is tied to the, you know, God giving the authority or the power of the sword to men. And that's to be exercised in the context of government. Also, when you think about the context of this, as I mentioned before, this is right after the flood. And of course the flood is preceded by Genesis 6 5 which says
the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. continually.
We've already seen Cain murder Abel. We've seen Lamech, the descendant of Cain, murder someone and then boast about it. So evil has been spreading in the earth. And then God, right after the flood, gives this authority for capital punishment, for the exercise of the sword. I think government here, the implication is that God institutes human government as a way of restraining evil in a fallen world. As I said back in, I think, the first week, it takes a lot for a government to be worse than no government. The depravity of man. makes government necessary. Not to say, to Justin's point, not to say there would be no government at all if there wasn't the fall, but clearly in light of the fall, part of what government is doing is restraining evil. Now, what role do we see given to governing authorities in the New Testament? Okay. Good. So what does that mean in terms of a role? Okay. Yeah. So the government has the right to collect taxes. Good. How did you know? So I think, I think one clear thing we see in the New Testament is that the government has the role to punish evil and praise good. So in Romans 13, verses 3 and 4, it says,
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.
Then very similarly in 1 Peter 2, verses 13 and 14, it says,
be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
Okay, so punishing evil, praising good in wielding this power of the sword. More specifically or practically, what would that entail in society? Jacob? Yeah, so there has to be, I mean a criminal justice system seems totally necessary there. What about national defense? Is that related to this? I think arguably so, right? If they're going to be punishing evil and sort of that would entail maybe protecting citizens from the evil of those outside the nation as well. So I think you can get there. All of this would require taxes to, overseas, so they clearly have the prerogative to take taxes. Initiative time, hold that. And then one other, I think, really key text in the New Testament as we think about the role of government would be in 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 through 4. And there Paul tells us that we should pray that we would be able to live peaceful, quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. So pray that the governing authorities would enable that. So I think obviously the part of the role of governing authorities would be to provide the ability for us to lead peaceful, quiet lives, godly, and dignified in every way. Now, part of how they would do that would be through having a justice system, but what else would that tell us about the role of governing authorities? Hayden? Okay, good, yep. Dara? Right, yeah, so for sure, if we're gonna live a godly life, we have to be free to worship our King Jesus according to our conscience. I think right there, we should pray and want a government that allows us to do that. Good, yep. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, I also think, I mean, Again, this is a bit of a derivative of this, but I think you could argue that you want a government that's sort of helping provide some sort of stability, some sort of economic stability for the nation, right? Because if the government is just mismanaging everything, and people are desperate and starving, and there's no roads to get around, you know, just everything is collapsing, like that's not going to be a peaceful, quiet kind of society. You know, so I think you can kind of get from here to think about some of these other things that a government might want to do that would help just be for the good of society as a whole, to allow us to live peaceful, quiet lives. So there I think are really some of the key verses about what scripture says for what the role of the government is, the kinds of things we should pray for and vote for, but obviously that leaves a lot of gray area. So a couple other big picture questions that I just want to consider briefly. How big do you think the government should be? How do we begin to think about that question? Does the Bible, as Christians, should we be all about a small government, big government, in between? How would you begin to think about that? Okay. I mean, when we think about sin, how should that affect the way we think about, is it a big government or a small government? Yeah. No, I agree. Yeah, I think some sort of checks and balances. Dara? Yeah, yeah, I think that's well said. I mean, I think it's helpful for us to kind of see that it does cut both ways. On one hand, the depravity of man is part of the reason we as Christians should be totally against anarchy. It's like we need governing authorities. God has instituted government. for good, to restrain evil. We should recognize that, yeah, if there's no government, I mean, the sinfulness of man is just going to run rampant. It will corrupt and distort and ruin just sort of every aspect of society because people don't do the right thing. They take advantage. And yet on the other hand, you know, understanding the depravity of man also means, but even the leaders in the government are sinners too. You know, so that's really why we should be kind of, I think there's good reason as Christians to think, you know, totalitarian government has some downsides. And while Romans 13 is pretty clear, the authorities that exist have been appointed by God, right? So that's not a reason we say, well, I don't submit to them. Um, but to the degree that we have the ability to influence something, I think there, there's some biblical wisdom in thinking, you know, yeah, checks and balances can be a good idea. I mean, I think that's something that I'm personally thankful for in, in the American system. Um, I think in light of the sinfulness of man, it makes sense to try to avoid these concentrations of power and it's good for there to be accountability. Now one other, I think, big picture question that's important to address here is to what degree is Israel a model? To what degree as we think about the role of government should we look at the example of Israel as like a pattern to say, well, that's kind of the way government should function? What do you think about that? Amanda? Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Amelia? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Matt? Yeah. Yeah, I think this is one of those. On one hand, I mean, all of God's law is holy and righteous and good. I mean, as we look back and read the Mosaic law, we shouldn't be too quick to just think, well, that's Old Testament, that has nothing to do with us, and just move on. I mean, even Paul, I mean, he applies,
don't muzzle an ox as it treads out the grain
and turns around and says, you should know, you should be paying your pastors. There was a principle there that they should have understood. seen how it applied. So I think similarly, there's a lot of ways we can glean principles for justice and righteousness from the Mosaic law that would have bearing. You should put a railing on your roof deck so people don't fall off and die. You should make sure you have witnesses and proof before you sentence somebody to death. Then there's interesting ones like leaving gleanings in the fields for the poor. we should maybe think what principles at play there and how might that translate into our society. But on the other hand, I think there are some that sort of take this too far in terms of almost seeing too much similarity of like Israel is like this and therefore in America we should try to pattern our government after that very similarly. I think this roughly corresponds to something called theonomy. So there's a lot of advocates that don't, you know, there's a lot of different versions and shades within that, but it is this idea of a very high degree of continuity between Israel and the Mosaic law and what any nation today is supposed to look like. And I think one of the things that overlooks is that part of what was unique about Israel as a nation is that they were in covenant with God in a special way. Whether an Israelite wanted to or not, by virtue of being born into that society, they were a member of a covenant community who was called upon to be circumcised and accountable to represent God to the world in a special way. So part of the function of the Mosaic Law was to set God's people apart as a holy people. But when you come over to the New Testament, there's a shift that takes place. No longer is it the national entity that's in this special covenant with God, but it's the church. It's we are the people who are called up from within society to reflect and represent God. And so I think that needs to factor in as we think about how to apply the example we see in Israel to today. Also, you know, if Paul thought that the government's job was to enforce the Mosaic law, and the greatest commandment is to love God and not commit idolatry, well then, how can he turn around in Romans 13 and say that Roman government is promoting good and punishing evil when they're totally allowing idolatry to flourish, right? He doesn't say the government's supposed to be enforcing that. He seems to have something else in mind there. So the point would be the government is not supposed to do the work of the church or kind of be this arm of the church that kind of allows us to do our mission by using the power of the sword, but rather I think the government is supposed to provide this stable platform, this society that allows for lives of godliness and peace to be promoted a foundation on which we as the church can now do our work of seeking to make disciples and making Christ known. So those are a couple preliminary principles as we start, or guiding principles as we start working through this, and we'll pick that up next time. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this time you've given us to spend together and to think about your word and especially the institution of government. We pray that you would just help us to think about this well. We pray that even as we wrestle with this in the here and now, we would be looking forward to Christ and him coming as our true and everlasting king. In his name we pray, amen.
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