ROMANS 12:1-2
As with all the books of the Bible, the book of Romans is an amazing book. The great 20th century preacher, Donald Gray Barnhouse wrote that Paul’s letter to the church at Rome is, “the most complete diagnosis of the plague of man’s sin, and the most glorious setting forth of the simple remedy of justification by faith apart from the works of the law.” He also said, “There is in the book of Romans that which will delight the greatest logician and hold the attention of the wisest among men. And there is in the book of Romans that which will bring the humblest soul in tears of repentance to the feet of the Savior, will give him the knowledge of the true value of his soul in the light of eternity and a true concept of the dignity of human personality when it has been lifted by the grace of God.” It is a truly amazing book. Like most of Paul’s letters, it follows a particular pattern. The first part of the book is what we might call doctrinal. It lays out the glories and wonders of who God is. It also lays out the horrors and awfulness of who man is apart from God. And it’s out of that contrast that he lays out the amazing grace of salvation. Salvation solely based on the grace of God. Salvation solely provided by His initiative. Salvation solely offered through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The blood that was shed as a substitute for you and me. The blood that was shed because of God’s completely undeserved and unmerited love for you and me. That is the doctrinal message of the first half of the book of Romans. It is the basis and foundation for everything. Some people today say that doctrine isn’t important. They say it divides people and doesn’t have anything to do with day-to-day living. Well, there is one word in Scripture that goes completely against that. And that is the fourth word of the verse we just read. The fourth word of Romans 12:1 is “therefore.” It is the word that marks a transition in the book. Think of it like a big hinge. Paul is saying, “because of all of that, I appeal to you—I beseech you.” Everything that precedes this is the foundation. It is the “why”. Why do we do what we do? What is the basis for the way we’re supposed to act? Have you ever spent much time around a 3 year old? 3 year olds can drive you nuts. What is their favorite question? Their favorite question is “why”. It can drive you crazy, but they ask because they’re curious. They ask because they don’t have a foundation. They honestly don’t know why they’re supposed to do the things you’re telling them to do. It would be nice if you could send them to Romans 1-11 and tell them to read it. But most of the time adults won’t even do that. But that’s where it can be found. That’s our foundation. That’s where the why is found. And do you know what we call the “why?” We call it the gospel. The gospel is the why for everything we do. God is holy and perfect. We are sinners by birth and sinners by choice. And as such, we are worthy of only His eternal judgment. But God loves us and desires to be glorified in a relationship with us. He couldn’t let our sin go unpunished, or that would make Him unjust. So He did punish our sin. He punished it by placing it on His Son. He placed our sin on His Son and killed Him for it. Jesus willingly took our sin on our behalf and laid down His life to pay for it. He has paid the price and freely offers the gift of salvation to all who will receive Him. Not because of anything we can ever do to earn it. Not because we somehow deserve it. But precisely because we can’t earn it. Precisely because we don’t deserve it. That’s what makes it grace. That’s what makes it amazing. That’s what makes it salvation. That’s what makes it the gospel. That is the “why” that Paul addresses in the first 11 chapters of Romans. It’s the doctrine of the gospel. But then comes the hinge. Then comes the “therefore”. In the two verses we just read, Paul changes direction. He goes from what we would call doctrine to what we would see as practical application of that doctrine. In other words, how now shall we live? Now that the glorious gospel of chapters 1-11 has been applied to our lives, how do we live? This is where some of us in here need to take a step back. You need to take a step back because you have never applied the gospel to your life. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the rest of this message doesn’t apply to you. It doesn’t apply to you because you can live the right way all you want to and it won’t make a bit of difference. You can live a good life and be a good citizen and do all the right things, but if Jesus hasn’t saved you, you are lost. And if you’re lost, nothing else matters. You won’t be able to stand before God’s judgment and say, “But God, I was a good guy.” “I obeyed all the laws of the land.” “I paid my taxes and voted for the right people.” Those might be good answers. But they’re answering the wrong question. And good answers to the wrong question are still wrong. The only question that will really matter on that judgment day is, “What have you done with my Son?” “Who is My Son to you?” If you get that right, then you have a foundation for how to live the right way. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how well you live. Because of the gospel… because of who God is… because of who we are in light of who He is… because of what He has done for us… therefore. And that’s the “therefore” that’s in 12:1. That’s the hinge between what God has done for us and how we are to live because of it. We no longer offer bulls and goats as sacrifices. We offer our bodies as living sacrifices. We live holy lives. We live in a way that is acceptable to God. In a way that is consistent with the name we are called by. If we are called by the name of Christ, then we should strive to live like Him. We should allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds in such a way that we become completely transformed. So that we may, through the daily testing and trying of our faith, prove God’s will. That we may prove God’s good and acceptable and perfect will. And that is what the second part of Romans is about. That’s what’s on the other side of the hinge. That’s the therefore. We could spend months and months looking at all of the therefore-s. But this morning, in light of what’s coming up this Tuesday, we’re just going to look at one. Hopefully we know that as Christians, we are to do what 12:1-2 says. Hopefully we know that we are to prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The question is, how does that play out in day-to-day life? And the bigger question for us this week is, how does that play out in our role with government? What is God’s good and acceptable and perfect will for us as Christian citizens? We find the answer after the “therefore”. We find the answer a page or so later in Romans 13:1-7. Turn there with me and let’s read:
ROMANS 13:1-7
What is God’s good and acceptable and perfect will for us as Christian citizens? God’s good and acceptable and perfect will is for us to be subject to the government He’s placed over us. Now, first, that begs the question… what does it mean to be subject to the government? It means submit. Guys, we like that word when Paul tells us that wives are to submit to their husbands in Ephesians 5. We like it when the Bible tells us that our children are supposed to submit to us as parents. But if we’re going to like it there, we have to like it here. Being subject to the government means that we are to recognize its authority over us. We are to recognize its authority over us and do what it tells us to do… insofar as it does not command us to violate God’s Word. Now, why is that? Is it because we always agree with government? Is it because my party’s in power and I’m loyal to them? Is it because they always do the right thing? No. First of all, we are subject to the government because God put it there. Verse 1 puts it as plainly as possible. It says, “the powers that be are ordained of God.” Did you know that George Bush was not put into the Presidency by the Supreme Court? You hear that in the media over and over again. But the Supreme Court did not put him there. As a matter of fact, the electoral college didn’t put him there. God put him there. Just like he put President Clinton and President Regan and President Carter there. Just like He’s going to put our next president there. The powers that be are ordained of God. How does God do it? In our country he uses our votes. In other countries, he uses other means. But whatever the means, rest assured that God is in control. Tuesday night, I know what I’ll be doing. I’m a glutton for punishment, so I’ll be sitting up half the night watching election returns. And I know me. There will probably be times of weakness when I will worry about the fate of our nation. But do you know what? God is not going to be sitting on the edge of heaven wringing His hands wondering what the exit polls in Pennsylvania and Ohio and Florida are saying. He already knows. He already knows because He has ordained what will happen. Does that mean that the most godly man will be elected? Certainly not. God ordained Hezekiah as much as He ordained Manasseh his son to be king of Judah. Hezekiah was one of the greatest godly kings of Judah. Manasseh was one of the most wicked. To the point that he practiced witchcraft and even burned his own son as a pagan human sacrifice. Scripture says that under his rule, he shed so much innocent blood that it could have filled Jerusalem from one end to the other. When we see verse 1, we have to understand that God even put an evil king like Manasseh into power. God places whom He will into power. And He does it for a reason. Look at verses 3-4:
ROMANS 13:3-4
God gives us human government to keep order. In these two verses, when Paul uses the words “good” and “evil”, he is speaking of the law of the land. Ideally, the law of the land would reflect the Law of God. But we know that’s not always the case. In a general sense it is. But not in an absolute sense. But that is why God ordained human government in the first place. Way back in Genesis 9:6, God instituted human government to restrain the evils that had run rampant before the flood. If God was going to promise never to destroy the earth with water again, He was going to give man a tool to restrain evil. And that tool was human government. Its purpose is a good one. It is to restrain violence. Without government, chaos and anarchy would rule. God is a God of order and not chaos. So He provided human restraint on the evil tendencies of people. But just the presence of human government means nothing unless God also gave them authority. So He did. As verse 4 says, God gave human government the authority to bear the sword. In other words, the government’s authority to use force is God-given. The ability to exercise force in restraining violence is God-given. The authority to execute murderers and violent offenders is God-given. The authority to employ military force is God-given. Does that mean that the authority given by God is always exercised in the right way? No—as a matter of fact, throughout history, most of the time it has been exercised in the wrong way. But that does nothing to take away the fact that God places whom He will in power. It does nothing to take away the fact that God puts rulers there for a reason. And it does nothing to take away the fact that He gives rulers the authority to do what He put them there to do. That is why it is God’s good and acceptable and perfect will is for us as Christian citizens to be subject to the government He’s placed over us. So how does that play out in our day-to-day life? How does that play out in the context of an election? How does that play out when we see things that our government does that are clearly wrong? It plays out in verses 5-7:
ROMANS 13:5-7
How are we to live as Christian citizens in America today? First off, verse 5 goes back to that word “be subject.” We are to submit. But we are to submit with the right motivation. Do you submit because you’re afraid of the consequences? Or do you submit because it’s what God wants you to do. Let me give you an example. Submitting because you’re afraid of the consequences means that you set your cruise control for 7 miles over the speed limit because you know they won’t pull you over. Submitting because it’s what God wants you to do is setting the cruise control for the speed limit. Do you see the difference? Submit—be subject, not just out of fear and obligation. But out of service to God. Out of your desire to do God’s good and acceptable and perfect will in your life. In our great nation, that service—that submission—will play itself out in the same ways it played itself out for Paul in Rome. In verse 7, it means that we will pay our dues—that’s taxes. When verse 7 talks about tribute—in Rome, that was a “carrying” tax. It was a tax that was imposed on the assets you carried on your books throughout the year. It was kind of a combination property tax and income tax. The Bible says to pay it. Not cheat it. Not loophole it. Pay it. But that wasn’t the only taxes they had to worry about. Verse 7 also talks about custom. The word for custom literally means “end”. This was a tax that was applied when something was completed. Either a transaction or a trip. It’s the word that was used for a sales tax and a toll. The Bible says to pay it. In other words, governments are always going to impose taxes. And then they will figure out a way to impose more taxes. Can we disagree with the policy? Yes. But we still have to pay our taxes. And not just because the IRS is going to come after us. But that is God’s will for us to submit to the government in that way. But then Paul goes a step further. Then he goes from taxes to fear. That is the same word that’s used for fearing God. In other words, it is our Christian duty to respect our government. For anybody who has ever served in the military, you understand this. Did you get to pick who you saluted? What if the officer was a real dirtbag? Could you just say—I’m not going to salute him because he’s not worth it? No—the salute recognized the position, not the person. That’s the way we are to respect and have a reverent fear for government. Because we know that God put them there. And our respect and reverent fear is for Him, not for the person. That is God’s will for us. Finally, we are called to give honor. The word translated honor carries the meaning of value—something of worth. In other words, we are called to recognize the things of tremendous value God has given us in America. We are to exercise the freedoms God has given us to their fullest. We have free access to information. We can and should put forth the effort to cut through all the bias in the media and exercise democracy wisely. We have the right to vote that God has given us through the sacrifice of many brave lives. We can and should exercise that right in line with biblical principles. What an amazing thing to recognize that God will use our votes to place whom He will into office next week. He doesn’t call us to understand it. He calls us to be faithful to fulfill the responsibility He’s given us. And what a privilege that responsibility is. Is this the most important election in the history of this nation as some people have said? I don’t think so. I think the Civil War and the two World Wars and the Great Depression were some pretty important elections. Is our nation doomed if one or the other of the candidates gets elected? Scripture says that our nation is doomed if we fail to humble ourselves before God. Our nation is doomed if we fail to pray. Our nation is doomed if we fail to seek God’s face. Our nation is doomed if we fail to turn from our wicked ways. But if we do… if we as God’s people humble ourselves before Him… if we as God’s people pray… if we as God’s people seek His face… if we as God’s people turn from our wicked ways… God will give us change. He will give us the kind of change that only comes from the power of the gospel.
It’s one thing to want that kind of change in our country. But have you experienced that kind of change in your own life? If you haven’t experienced the change that comes from trusting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, nothing else really matters. You can have that kind of change today.
