Romans 13 a- Government
Turn with me this morning, to the book of Romans, chapter 13. We have been going through the book of Romans together, and today we come to the 13th chapter. In the book of Romans, Paul tells us that we have good news - even though we deserve condemnation for our sins -- all people, out and out sinners, good moral people, and even religious ones deserve the condemnation from God -- and even though we can’t earn our salvation, God, in His marvelous grace, offers us forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ dying in our place to pay the penalty of our sins. The righteousness of Christ has been credited to our bankrupt account. And that IS good news for all who will by faith choose to receive that salvation and follow God.
In light of what Paul tells us in chapters 1-11, the doctrine of what is true, in chapters 12 - 16, we see our duty, HOW we should live in light of what is true. We saw in chapter 12 that we are not to make a sacrifice, but to BE a sacrifice, to live our lives for God’s glory. Paul has reminded us that we need to STOP being conformed to the world - being camouflaged to fit right in; instead, there should be something different about us, we are to be internally changed, just like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. If we are going to seek to honor and obey God, we aren’t going to just make a few external changes to the things we do, but internally, in our hearts, we need to change and recommit to obey God.
Paul tells us we are to be serious about serving, using our gifts for the good of the church and the glory of God. And he tells us we are to be outgoing towards others, seeking to show our love in a thousand practical ways. Now we come to chapter 13, and Paul tells us that when we choose to be a living sacrifice, it will change the way we relate to our government.
Remember last month when you were driving down the interstate and you saw that flashing light in your mirror? A patrol officer was kind enough to be concerned for your safety and he allowed you to help contribute to provide better roads for our state. He even wrote out a friendly reminder for you to take home in case you forgot the information he shared with you. What was your attitude towards that officer?
Many of you have also received a friendly invitation in the mail, inviting you to share in the privilege of paying for the expenses of our country, and a friendly reminder that that gift is to come in by April 15th. The friendly people at the IRS would love to have your help! As a Christian, do we need to worry about paying taxes? I’ve known Christians who I went to church with who didn’t think they needed to pay any tax, because they thought the government didn’t follow God. Were they right in doing that?
Paul gives us some good, needed advice here in Romans 13, and we want God to speak to our hearts today about how we can be more faithful to God by the way we view our government. Let’s read what God has to say to us.
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Let’s pray that God would help us to understand His message to us. PRAY.
Today, as we think of how our lives are to be different because we have been internally changed in the way we think, we understand that God wants our thinking changed in the way we think about our Government. There are many Christians who have very unbiblical ideas about government. But for a Christian, God tells us we have two main responsibilities: They are very simple and easy to remember: 1. Be subject to the government and 2. Support the government by paying your taxes.
1. Be Subject to the Government - as we think about government, Paul starts out in verse 1 by reminding us that God is the ultimate authority in our lives. And God has chosen to delegate his authority to governments. God has chosen to bless mankind and provide for our protection and safety by instituting human government. God is the establisher of government. This is not a scheme of Satan to trick and bind us, but an establishment from God. Does Satan uses governments and rulers for his wicked schemes? Of course, there are wicked governments, but God is the institutor of government.
And as we think about being subject to authority, we first of all need to . . .
• submit for worship’s sake - we remember that God is our authority, and we submit to government as an act of worshiping God. And because God is our authority, any time our government tries to tells us NOT to do something that God has commanded us to do, or anytime our government tells us to DO something God has commanded us NOT to do, we need to obey God first as our highest authority.
There is a chain of command that we need to follow. I used to work for UPS as a supervisor in their loading operation. I had a driver supervisor Dave Swofford who would come and tell me to load packages for a certain neighborhood on a certain driver’s car. I had a center manager over Dave named Larry who would come and tell me NOT to load that neighborhood on that driver. I had two conflicting orders: who do I follow? The higher authority. And when you find yourself in a situation of conflicting authorities, you need to ask who is your higher authority.
In Acts 4 we find Peter and John in a situation of conflicting authorities. Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” In a case of conflict of authority, they choose to obey God, their higher authority.
In the book of Daniel, we see Daniel as a young man, taken forcefully from his homeland and under the control of an enemy nation. And Daniel is given orders that defy his commands from God. Daniel is submissive in that he makes a respectful request, he seeks to work through all available channels, but Daniel resolved not to defile himself [Dan 1:8] and go against God’s commands.
So, our first command as a Christian is to submit to authority - realizing that God’s authority is higher than the government, because God has instituted the governments. We submit for worship’s sake, because submission to government is an act of worship. The term “submit” is a military term meaning to “line up and take your orders.” We always obey God first, but there is not a distinction about obeying good or bad rulers and good or bad governments. Only the distinction between obeying God over government.
Think about the world Jesus was born into. He came to a world of slavery - where there were 3 slaves for every free man. he came to a world of absolute rulers -- the Caesars saw themselves as gods. Herod at his spoken command has all infants in the region killed. Jesus came to a land of persecution and heavy taxes. But Jesus still chooses to be submissive to the government of his day. The zealots, the nationalist Jews were looking for a leader to overthrow the government and the Roman occupation -- we’ll talk more about that next week -- but Jesus lived a life submissive to His Father first, and the ordained government second.
In 1 Peter 2 we are told to live such good lives that the unbelievers may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. So how does Peter say we do this? He goes on to say, Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
So submission to government, even to a government of wicked rulers, is God’s will, unless they are in conflict with God’s specific commands to us as the higher power.
So, we submit to our government first for worship’s sake - because this obedience is the way we worship God. Paul goes on to say in Romans 13: 2 - Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Then Paul gives us a second reason for submission in verse 3 - we are to
• submit for wrath’s sake - because resistance to the government will bring punishment. Paul says in verse 3 - For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
Governments have been instituted by God for our good, to punish wrongdoers. If we choose to disobey our rulers to follow a higher authority in our God, we need to be prepared to face the consequences. Remember Daniel’s three friends, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, they know that their refusal to worship Nebuchadnezzar will result in being thrown into the fiery furnace, but they are willing to face death in order to obey God.
So biblically, HOW is the government supposed to bring punishment? God DOES give us principles in the Bible that guide the execution of punishment. First, the government is to
* act without pity - In Deuteronomy 19:11 we find these instructions about giving punishment: But if a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, assaults and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, the elders of his town shall send for him, bring him back from the city, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. Show him no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.
While we want to be merciful, in applying punishment we must not pity those who receive the punishment for their crimes. Today we see people boldly commiting murder, but free from punishment because we pity the criminal. Secondly, government is to
* act without partiality - there is not to be a distinction between persons in giving punishment. Why is it that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gets to have special treatment in prison and then travel to Texas to look for a job, while others guilty of far lesser crimes are still serving their sentences. We have a nation that shows partiality in its punishment. God said in Deuteronomy 13:6 - If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you. . . do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.
God’s pattern for punishment is to have no partiality in administering punishment; it is fair and consistent. Then thirdly, governments are to
* act without delay - they are to be swift in applying punishment. In Deuteronomy 25:2 we read If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make him lie down and have him flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime deserves. There was immediate judgment so that all could see and fear. God warns us in Ecclesiastes 8:11 - When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong. We need punishment that is without pity, without partiality, and without delay. If the government acts as it should in providing punishment, it will be a deterrent for criminals.
So, we submit for wrath’s sake because the government has the God-ordained right of punishment. And it even has the right of capital punishment. In the OT, punishment came in three forms: restitution - those who stole were to pay back in multiplied quantities, corporal punishment - certain crimes were dealt with by physical punishment, whippings or beating - and third capital punishment. The OT law gave many crimes that deserved a punishment of death: murder, blasphemy, witchcraft, occult practices, false prophecy, rape, kidnapping, and several other reasons. The Jews didn’t use a prison system: it wasn’t ordained by God. Rather God instituted a system that worked. Here in Romans 13, Paul affirms the right of the government for capital punishment.: verse 4 says, he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. What is the purpose of the sword? It’s not a weapon to inflict a fine; it’s not a weapon to spank someone; it’s a weapon to take a life. God says the government has the right to take a life in bringing punishment.
Paul understood this very well. In Acts 25:11 Paul says, If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. He saw the right of the government to bring capital punishment when a criminal was duly convicted of certain crimes.
Capital punishment is a deterrent to keep people from committing certain crimes by the knowledge of swift and certain judgment coming for their crimes. God does not delight in killing people, but rather He allows capital punishment as a way of saving people from death by deterring those who would commit atrocious crimes.
In Acts 5 we find the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira who lied to the church. God struck them down dead, and it tells us, Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. You can believe that when the church found out they were struck dead for lying that the rest of the church was much more careful to tell the truth about their offerings from then on. Capital punishment carries a powerful deterrent to crime, and is the God-ordained right of governments.
So we submit to governments for worship sake, and for punishment’s sake -- but what happens if the government treats you unfairly? The Bible also answers that question for us:
First, # we still submit - In Acts 16, we find Paul oppressively imprisoned, but when evening comes, what do we find him doing? About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Even when the government treats us wrongly, we submit, and we continue to seek to praise and worship God. But secondly, when the government is wrong, we use the channels open to us. In Acts 22 Paul is wrongly taken prisoner. It tells us, the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. . . . Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately.
Paul knows the Roman law and uses it to obtain his freedom. When our government does not function as it should, we need to still submit, but to peacefully use the law to bring about change. We don’t need to throw a revolt or start placing bombs in federal buildings, but we can use the law in our favor to bring about change.
So Paul has said, we submit for worship sake, we submit for wrath’s sake, thirdly,
• we submit for conscience sake - verse 5 - we obey the law, we submit to the government so we may have a clear conscience before God. We’ll come back to this in a minute, but let me mention quickly the last two reasons mentioned here in this chapter.
• we submit for love’s sake - verses 8-10, because we love one another, we submit to the governments to bring about the best good for our land. And lastly,
• we submit for ministry sake - verses 11-1 4 - because our time on this earth is short, and we want to reach as many as we possible can, we submit to our governments as a witness and testimony so we may reach others for Christ.
So, for every Christian, we have two key responsibilities: We are to
1. Be subject to the government and
2. Support the government - by paying taxes. This is the key idea Paul uses in verses 5 and 6 as he talks about keeping a clear conscience. There are many Christians who try to argue their way out of paying taxes. In Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Baptist Temple was recently seized by the government for breaking the law in regards to employment tax. Many people think that if they disagree with how their money is spent - like a graduated tax, or funding abortions, or promoting homosexuality-- that they can choose to not pay tax. But remember Jesus did: In Matthew 16 Jesus pays the temple tax that goes into a treasury that would pay Judas, leading to Jesus’ own execution; he is paying for the upkeep of a temple that Jesus has prophesied will be shortly destroyed; he is paying for an apostate religious system that was far from righteous: twice in his ministry jesus comes in to cleanse the temple of their abuse. Yet Jesus still pays the tax.
Taxes actually are God’s idea. Remember when Joseph was in Egypt, there is an annual percentage tax placed on the people in the good years to provide for them in the years of famine. God demanded that the Jews pay regular tithes -- 10% of their income - as an act of worship. Malachi 3 even goes so far as to say when a person holds their tithe from the Lord, they are robbing God. “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. When the offering plate is passed each week, remember that is not my money or Bethel’s money, or even your own money in the plate. It belongs to God. And to withhold a tithe is to rob God. And God will bring judgment. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
So, we support our government by paying taxes. It is a system set up by God for the Jews. And it is a good system for governments to follow. The key problem is HOW the taxes are collected and distributed. But the idea is a good one.
In verse 7 it says, Give everyone what you owe him. The word here “give” is really the word “render” which means to pay an obligation - taxes are not a “gift” but an “obligation”. We each are called to give several things. Tribute or taxes refers to a personal tax, a head tax, like our income tax. Revenue or custom refers to a sales tax, a tax on goods and commodities. We are to pay income tax and sales tax.
And a short note on paying tax. If you want to have a good conscience, don’t cheat on your taxes. God wants you to pay them! Don’t smuggle cans in from Ohio or Indiana to collect the bottle refund. If you buy things over the internet, don’t forget on your Michigan tax form the line that computes what you owe in use tax. No man or woman who cheats on their taxes can rightly call themselves a godly Christian. God wants us to be totally above question on the issue of paying our taxes.
I can sleep peacefully at night because I pay my taxes. I try not to pay anything more than is due the government, but to keep a clear conscience with God we pay our taxes. We pay what we owe.
And then besides money, Paul says we owe something else: respect and honor. We need to give proper respect and honor to our government officials. Even if we don’t like them. Even if we disagree with them. Even if they stand for everything we are against. We still show honor and respect.
So, our government is instituted by God to provide for our protection and safety. Because we are inwardly changed with a renewed way of thinking, every Christian should submit to the government and support the government. And when we do, we will have a clear conscience before God and we will have a testimony that allows us to reach many for Christ. May God help us to think rightly about our government. Let’s pray.
