Authorities and Authority
Authorities and Authority by Rev. L. John Gable
June 17, 2018
We have gotten into a portion of our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans in which, as we said last week, he moves from theory to praxis, from the theoretical to the practical, from giving really good theology to offering very practical guidelines for living. This is helpful guidance for us as we seek to apply the truths we have heard earlier in his letter to the actual living of our lives under the grace and Lordship of Jesus Christ. So why then does he insert these few short verses we read this morning about obedience to government authorities? They hardly seem to fit; in fact, it would be very easy to simply jump over them; we’d not even miss them. Yet for some reason Paul felt it necessary to write about the Christian’s relationship and responsibility to the civil authorities.
He writes, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.” I can only imagine that those were very difficult words for Paul to write. In one regard it makes sense that he would include this teaching in the context of the other instructions he is giving in Romans 12 and 13 about living at peace with others. The body of believers in the first century was very small and fragile, so it makes sense that Paul would remind them to seek to find ways to get along, even with the government, even when they are in disagreement with its practices.
It is one thing to live in a society such as ours, in which regardless of whether we agree with the person currently holding the office or the one before them or the one before them, we generally agree that the purpose of government is to promote and encourage the common good and to discourage and restrain social ills and evil. Historically it has been held that God has ordained three institutions for the ordering of society, one of them being the government, along with the family and the Church. But having said that, consider the first century world in which Paul lived, the world into which Jesus was born and the Church was birthed. Roman Emperors ruled with an iron fist. We speak of the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome that extended across the entire Empire, but it was a peace that came with a heavy price of obedience to the dictates of a more often than not brutal Emperor and the violence of the Roman spear. Consider the massacre of the innocents under Herod the Great upon hearing the news of the birth of a supposed Messiah, one so called the King of the Jews; or of his son Herod Antipas who participated either directly or indirectly in the executions of John the Baptist and of Jesus Himself; or Caligula the so called “insane tyrant” who declared himself a “god” and insisted that his subjects worship him as such; or Nero, the Emperor during the time of Paul’s ministry, who likely oversaw the deaths of both Peter and Paul, who supposedly set fire to Rome in order to incite violence against the Christians; or of the Emperor Diocletian who masterminded the last, largest and most brutal official persecution of believers in an attempt to eliminate Christianity entirely. All of this was going on, or was at least on the horizon, when Paul wrote these words, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.”
It is one thing to read these words today in the safety and security of the freedoms we enjoy, particularly when we know the processes of our democratic form of government. If we don’t like or agree with the one in office all of the mechanisms for the peaceful transfer of power are in place and we know how to exercise them: speak up, speak out, write a letter, carry a sign, vote, run for office.
But in the first century none of those were options. Allegiance to Rome, and hence to the Emperor, was measured in one way and one way alone, and our passage from Luke’s Gospel gives us an insight. One day some people came to Jesus with a question that was admittedly intended to trick Him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor or not?” Their question was an attempt to pit Jesus as a religious authority against the authority of Rome, thus making Him an insurrectionist. Jesus smelled the bait, but didn’t take it. He answered, “Show me the coin. Whose head and whose title does it bear?” The coin Jesus was referring to was a silver denarius minted specifically for the paying of the tax. On one side it pictured the laurel headed Emperor Tiberius Caesar and on the other side the image of his mother, Livia. The words printed around the circumference of the coin were: “Tiberius, Caesar, Majestic Son of the Divine Augustus.” In effect it was a portable idol, declaring the Emperor as being divine. In answer to their question, Jesus said, “The coin belongs to Tiberius Caesar, give it back to him, not as a gift, not as a sacrifice, but because it is something borrowed which needs to be returned. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. The coin is Caesar’s, it has been marked with his image; you on the other hand have been fashioned in the image of God, you belong to God.” Jesus was being more than clever and quick on His feet here. He is making a profound statement as to Whom we owe our ultimate allegiance, and He makes it clear that it is not Caesar.
Every year, as a demonstration of one’s allegiance to Rome, soldiers would come to your door and order you to pay a tax, burn a pinch of incense, then utter these three simple words “Caesar is Lord”; simple enough, unless, of course you are a Christian, in which case Caesar is not lord, Jesus is. This is the earliest of the Christian confessions and creeds, “Jesus is Lord!” and this confrontation became the defining point of persecution. Who is the ultimate authority in your life? It is God and God alone; all others are impostors and allegiance to them in any ultimate way is a form of idolatry.
So what is Paul saying in this passage and what can we take from it today?
His first and most important point is this: there is one ultimate authority in our lives – God; all other authorities are pen-ultimate, lesser authorities, including the government or any civic leader, or any church leader, for that matter. We owe our allegiance to all who govern over us, but in their proper order. As Jesus instructed, our allegiance to God is more far reaching than is our allegiance to any human authority; yet having said that, our obligation to human authorities who rule and govern over us cannot be ignored either.
You see, as Christians, we have a dual citizenship. As followers of Jesus we confess to being citizens of the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ first and primary message was that “the Kingdom of God is at hand, follow Me.” We enter in to the Kingdom by confessing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and in so doing submit to His governance and Lordship over our lives. To put our trust in Christ is to live with the confident assurance that one day the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. That Kingdom is our ultimate goal and God is our ultimate Ruler and Authority, but as long as we hold a dual citizenship we must obey the rules of the kingdoms of this world as well. If you aren’t convinced of that try explaining to the officer who catches you going 80 in a 30 that you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God, and no longer subject to the Law, as Paul will state back in 6:14. Use that as a proof-text. So, Paul here gives clear instruction that we are to obey the authorities of the kingdom in which we live under the larger heading of “So far as it is possible, live peaceably with all” so, “Pay to all what is due them – taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, honor to whom honor is due”, but in doing so, we are never to forget that there is a higher authority to which we are ultimately accountable.
Paul makes it clear and theologians through the ages have agreed with him that civic governments have their God-given place and purpose: to establish and maintain civil order. God is a God of order and structure, so governments are instituted to maintain that order, we might even say they are needed to maintain that order. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it this way, “the goodness of God makes civil order possible; the corruption of human nature by sin makes such civil order necessary.”
So in this light it makes sense that Paul would instruct us to “be subject to the governing authorities”, but then invariably we feel the need to push back saying, “I understand the role of government when it is functioning as it should, but what about when it is not? What about Nero and Caligula and Diocletian and Stalin and Hitler and Pot Pol and Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein and other tyrannical leaders throughout history, surely their governments have not been established by God and that their citizens aren’t required to obey their evil dictates?” And therein lies the tension of living with a dual citizenship and the reason why passages like this cannot be simply taken out of context to support our particular causes. Christians in every age have taken stands against their governments and their leaders, not out of disobedience to the authority of the Scriptures but out of obedience to their higher authority, God, the Author of the Scriptures. Without laws to guide us there is disorder and anarchy so we must obey them, but when laws do not serve the common good and justice they must be challenged and changed. Both of those positions can be supported in Scripture. John Calvin himself says, “Tyrannies and unjust exercise of power, as they are full of disorder, are not an ordained government.” Which is to say, when the practices of the kingdoms of this world conflict with the clear teachings of the Kingdom of God, we must always give our allegiance to the higher authority, to do anything less is idolatry. Even kings and powers and rulers and presidents are subject to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords; despite their perceived power even penultimate authorities are subject to the One Ultimate Authority, as are each of us.
Perhaps in all of this I should close as simply and as clearly as I can. We are called as Christians, and as citizens of this land, not only to live as responsible citizens, but also to pray for those who lead us, in every office of church and state. These individuals carry a tremendous weight of responsibility to work and act for the common good, whether we agree with the decisions they make or not, we must commit to praying for them. As people of faith we can pray that those who lead us will also know and follow the One who leads them; that they will understand that they are also persons under a higher authority; that they will also submit to the God who is their ultimate authority.
So let me close with this prayer for the President, written by the Chaplain of the US Senate.
“We pray, Lord Jesus, for our President. We are deeply concerned that he may know Your will, and that he may have the spiritual courage and grace to follow it.
Deliver him, we pray, from all selfish considerations.
Lift him above the claims of politics.
Fill him with Your Spirit, Who shall make him fearless to seek, to know and to do the right.
Save him from friends who, in the name of politics or even friendship, would persuade him from that holy path.
Strengthen and empower his advisors. Bring them, too, to their knees in prayer. May their example and their influence spread, that we, in these United States, may yet have a government of leaders who know You, the Almighty God, as their Friend, and who place Your will first in their lives as well as in their prayers.
Hear and answer, we pray, forgiving us of all our unworthiness; cleansing us from every ignoble thought and unworthy ambition that we may be renewed in spirit and mind and heart, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
Now lest you think I am being partisan or political, as I assure you I try not to be in my preaching and teaching, you need to know that that prayer was written and delivered by Peter Marshall, Presbyterian minister and chaplain of the Senate from 1947-1949, under the Presidency of Harry S. Truman.
So “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities” and let every governing authority be subject to the One who is the Ultimate Authority, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.