The Authority Principle

Romans 13: 1 – 14

The authority principle

1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. 8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Have you ever heard the statement that God ordains the "institution of government" and, therefore, supports all governments as an institution?

This is not correct. God recognizes that chaos results when sinful humans are left free to do what is right in their own eyes, and, therefore, ordains the principle of authority. He then appoints individuals to exercise that authority in various areas of our lives. He holds these individuals personally responsible for their exercise of the authority he gives them and, in scripture, at least, appears largely to ignore the corporate mechanisms through which they exert their authority.

This truth can be seen from a careful examination of the three New Testament passages commonly used as proof that God ordains government institutions. For instance, Romans 13:1-2 teaches that every "authority" is ordained by God, so that those who resist authority oppose the ordinance of God. What is divinely ordained, however, is "authority," not governmental institutions, as is clarified in verses 3 through 6, which speak of individual "rulers" who are "servants of God" and bear authority or power as his "ministers," not of "government" or governmental institutions.

In the book of I Peter 2:13-14, after first saying that we should submit to every "institution" of men, Peter goes on to define the institutions to which he is referring as "a king as the one who is in authority" and "governors as sent by him". So, once again, it is asserted that the "authority" to which we should submit rests upon individual rulers, not corporate governmental institutions.

In I Timothy 2:1-2, we are instructed to pray for "kings and all who are in authority" — the individuals themselves, not the Sanhedrin or Roman Senate or United States Congress as a corporate body. Once again, the authority is said to rest in the individuals.

However, it is equally clear that God, in fact, appoints the individuals who bear authority. This is directly stated in Daniel 4:17, wherein God himself told Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest king of Babylon, in a dream that it is God who bestows rulership over the realm of mankind on whom he wishes "and sets over it the lowliest of men." See also verse 31, in which God removed sovereignty from Nebuchadnezzar for a time, demonstrating both that he maintains power over his appointments and that he holds his appointees accountable.

We learn that twice during His earthly ministry, our Lord Jesus explicitly recognized this principle of individual governmental authority. Thus, when the centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 came to the Lord Jesus asking him to just speak the word that would heal his servant, explaining that he believed Jesus had the same sort of authority over illness that the centurion had over the soldiers in his command, Jesus marveled at his "great faith." The centurion obviously had a correct understanding of the authority principle.