Avenger of God’s Wrath

Introduction

I can’t help but think about really important events coming up in the days ahead. Many of you are probably thinking about this as well. Of course, I’m talking about youth weekend in a couple weeks. And so hopefully you’re making preparations. I know many of you are, having people stay in your home or seeing ways that you can help. I know there’s been some emails that have gone out, and so I’m just excited that our young people and many of their friends from around the area get to spend some time together thinking about the things of God and focused on spiritual matters. So it’s a great thing that some of you really put a lot of work into.

This morning we are in Romans chapter 13. Romans 13 verses 1 through 10 is where we’re going to read here in just a moment. I want to work through this text as we kind of finished the body of Romans 12. We did three sermons from there. I want to flow through from that into Romans 13 and see sort of how some of this content connects. And so I sort of purposely did this. I wanted to do it before Tuesday because I didn’t want to do it after Tuesday, and you think I’m biased or targeting people or whatever that might be, because I’m not. I’m actually just looking at the text and trying to see what the text says and having that be the focus. So begin reading with me in Romans chapter 13 and verse 1.

Romans 13 and verse 1, it says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur a judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Would you have no fear of those who are 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. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

For because of this, you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word.

Love does not wrong, does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. This text in Romans 13, and there’s some other ones as well. We may look at first Peter 2, or at least reference it a little bit later, and some scattered other texts throughout the New Testament sometimes are pulled out as kind of standalone text, or they’re treated as if they’re written in isolation from the rest of whatever document they’re in. So we want to look about, you know, Christians in government. We just pull this little text from Romans 13 and we start making conclusions and interpretations without regard for the rest of what Paul has been saying in the letter. Of course, this is always an incorrect way to view biblical text, to just proof text it, pull a few phrases out, and start making assumptions and interpretations.

And so what I want to do this morning is really look at how Paul is actually connecting some thoughts from the end of twelve and some things that matter to them. These are not just random thoughts that Paul has about government. This is something that actually is important to these Christians, these Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome. There’s a context to this. There’s a background to what Paul is saying here that relates to the role of civil government and in particular their lives and the things that they’re facing. It flows from the end of chapter 12 where he talks about living peaceably with all. So much as it depends on them, you live at peace with everyone. You never avenge yourself. There’s some key terms that pop up in what we just read and as well as the end of Romans 12.

So they go together, right? They’re purposely connected. So you never avenge yourself, you leave vengeance to the wrath of God. So he had something to say that about that here in the reading that we just had. In fact, individuals themselves are to treat their enemies with kindness. That doesn’t mean we approve of the things that they’re doing. It doesn’t mean we’re commending their actions or their beliefs or any of that. But he does say if your enemy is hungry, you feed him, if he’s thirsty, you give him a drink. And then that concluding thought, he says, don’t repay evil with evil. And you don’t become overcome by evil, but you overcome evil with good. This is how individuals are to operate within culture and within their society.

But he does have a way for justice to be had on those who are evil. And now that’s what Paul’s going to talk about here for just a moment in Romans 13. It’s not as if there is no justice and people go unchecked. No, there’s a method by which God is able to deal with those who are evil and wrong. Right? He has put this in place. And just like anything, it can be abused and it can be misused. And Paul really doesn’t directly talk about that so much in this text. He really talks about the way it’s supposed to function, and kind of an ideal view of authority and what it looks like. And so I’ll have more to say about that in just a moment.

But he’s saying, you don’t avenge yourself. There’s a way that this works, right? And we need to trust God as the ultimate authority and have faith that the way he has planned for things to happen is what we’re going to put our trust and our faith in. So there’s a background to this whole situation. Right? The emperor is seen as the son of God. They’re seen as deity themselves. In fact, there are accounts of their apotheosis where they ascend like gods into heaven. This is the view of dominant culture in the Roman Empire. The Christians have to wrestle with this reality. They have given their lives to Jesus Christ. He is the anointed one. He is king. Christ is king. They are in his kingdom. So how do you claim to be in God’s kingdom with Christ as your king and still operate within the Roman Empire where you are under an emperor who claims to be the Son of God and his king?

How does that work? That’s a pretty important question for them to wrestle with. And Paul deals with that some here. It’s dealt with in other places, including 1 Peter chapter 2. And Paul’s goal here is to try to bring together Jew and Gentile. We’ve been seeing this through the whole letter. And now we kind of come to this culmination of the setting that has been behind everything Paul’s doing. Claudius, around 49 AD 49, issued an edict that removed Jews from Rome. The thought here is that they’re troublemakers, right? And so we need to get them out. They’re causing problems. Again, they’re kind of a scapegoat. Nero later on is going to do the same thing. You’re probably familiar with that more so. And so we even have accounts within scripture like Aquila and Priscilla who are moving around, most likely because of things like this edict.

Right? And then some of these Jews are going to come back. Paul is worried about what’s going to happen here. Paul’s writing in about AD 57. Nero, Claudius is killed under suspicious methods, probably assassinated by his wife. Nero comes to power at 16 years old in AD 54. Now, there’s some things about this whole situation that are interesting that we need to think about.

It’s unpredictable. However, that is not the nature of what Nero’s early reign actually was. There was a lot of hope in Nero’s early reign that he was going to be very different than Claudius and some of the policies. Now, this should make a lot of sense as we’re sort of going through political upheaval and all the promises that are made, and things are going to be so good, and it’s going to be better than it used to be, and all those kind of things, right? This is the way all of this works when it comes to propaganda and politics. And it was no different in the ancient world. There were some things behind it that we’ll look at here in just a minute that backed some of this idea and this concept.

And so Paul is writing during this time period. The Jews have been kicked out. Now they’re coming back, and he is concerned that they don’t need unnecessary negative attention put on them. Right? You just submit to the government, you do the things they’re saying, and don’t create problems. You just got kicked out because they thought you were creating problems when you weren’t. But why would you draw attention to yourself through creating a situation that appears like revolt or insubordination or any of that? Just stay away from all of that. This is what Paul’s telling them. That’s not what you’re supposed to be. Right? You don’t avenge yourself, you don’t repay evil with evil. If your enemy’s hungry, you feed him. You’re not overcome by evil.

1. God Is the Ultimate Authority

You don’t act like the evil world, but you overcome evil with good. This is the nature of how God’s people work. Now, the foundation of all of this, the starting place that we need to begin with here is the idea of God’s ultimate authority. He says here, there is no authority. So be subject to the governing authorities, to the highest authorities, and he’s speaking about those on earth, people like the emperor. Okay? But here’s the reason why, for there is no authority except from God. God is the ultimate authority. He has what’s called inherent authority. He is the creator of the world. He did all of this, and therefore he has all authority. He can say what is. He can say, This is what’s supposed to be, this is what it’s not supposed to be, and there is absolutely no one that can question anything that God says.

He is the ultimate authority.

He makes this statement in his book. His book’s really more about authority in the sense of how do we know what we’re supposed to do, but he begins with this starting point about the idea of God’s authority and then the authorities that come from God, which is what we’re dealing with here in Romans 13, one of them at least. He says, God delegates all other authority, that’s other than himself. He is inherent authority, he is ultimate authority. Everything else is delegated. And this is the point Paul’s making here in the text. This includes the authority he gives to government, to the home, and to his church. No human individual or group of people has inherent authority in any ultimate sense. They only have it in the sense that they have been given permission by God to act in whatever capacity they work.

That last statement’s pretty important. In whatever capacity they work. Now, I’m not going to necessarily get into depth on that thought itself this morning, but it is very important in understanding authority. That there’s a certain realm or capacity of authority that we’re given. And for example, I’m given authority in my home, but I’m not given authority in your home. And just because I am authority in my home doesn’t make me an authority in the congregation. And just because I’m an authority in the congregation of some sort doesn’t suddenly make me an authority in civil affairs. These are realms of authority that God has appointed, he has instituted in very specific ways. And although they may interact at times, for example, if there is abuse in a home, it may be that those who are the authority of the church, the elders, they may step in and say, This is wrong.

Right? Or it may be that governing authorities, because there is abuse or wrongdoing, because this is their job, we’ll see here in a minute, they may step in and say, This is not right. Right? And so there can be crossover, but God has appointed specific realms of authority, and he has done so for his reasons, and who am I to challenge them? He is the ultimate authority. This is the starting point of what Paul’s doing here. So be subject to the governing authorities, not because they’re the ultimate authority, not because they have unlimited power, not because they can just do whatever they want to do. That’s not the reason at all. It’s because God has appointed them as authority of civil affairs, and there’s no authority except from God.

And the authorities that exist, they have been ordained or ordered or instituted by God. He has put them in place in the way that He wants them to be put in place. So verse 2, it says, Therefore, whoever resists, in my version, it might say the same thing in yours. It says, whoever resists the authorities. And when I read it, I read it a little bit different for a reason. You may have caught it, you may not have, that’s okay. In original language, it’s actually singular, it’s not plural. And I don’t know why, I have no idea why the ESV or some of the other translations translate it as plural. I think they’re trying to capture the context and make this about the civil authorities. I would say it’s not.

He’s still making a general point here. He’s saying that there is no authority except from God. God has instituted all authority. If you resist authority of any kind, whether it’s civil authority in the home, authority in the church, if you resist that, if you’re an obstacle to the rightful claim of authority and realm of authority that God has instituted, then you are a troublemaker. That’s the point he’s making here. So the handbook on the Greek New Testament, it’s a Baylor press publication. They are leading scholars on this idea of they have a book. You can go through it every single Greek term, they tell you what it’s doing, how it works within the text. They translate this as a singular. This is not just something I’m making up myself.

Other three other scholars I looked at all translate this as a singular. And the general point is this is not really about civil authority, it’s about all authority. Because God is the ultimate authority, and when he says this is the way it works, whether it’s in the home or the church or civil government, that’s the way it works. And I’m in no place to resist that. I am in no place to challenge what God has said needs to happen. And so ultimately, all of this comes back to this reality that this is what God has put in place. Now, there are others we could kind of get into some nuances and talk about maybe some other areas. For example, the created order, which is talked about in places like 1 Corinthians 11 or even in the creation accounts.

We could talk a little bit about that, but I think the three most obvious are the ones that Doy talks about in the book, and that is he just references the authority of the home, authority within the congregation, which begins with Christ as head, but then he does have elders or shepherds that are put over the church, and then there’s civil authority, which is what we’re talking about this morning. And none of these authorities are unlimited. They’re all under God’s authority. And they are instituted and they are ordered to do what God has told them to do, not to make up their own rules, not to do things their own ways, not to decide that they are a power and they can do what they want.

No, they all are accountable to the ultimate authority. So 1 Peter 5, this is a text that has to do with shepherds, right? When the chief shepherd comes, he makes this statement, right? They’re going to be rewarded because they’re accountable, shepherds and churches are accountable to the chief shepherd. They don’t just make up their own stuff. Right? They are called to what God to do what God has called them to do in his kingdom for his purposes. And I would suggest to you this morning that is no different when it comes to civil authority. So, how are Christians supposed to understand the relationship between being in God’s kingdom and having civil authorities that are around them wherever you go, whether it’s municipal, whether it’s federal. How do we interact with this and how do we view this in the proper way?

2. Paul Is Not Naive

The first thing I want to point out is that Paul is not naive. Alright, so he’s speaking in a very pragmatic or matter of fact way about how things are supposed to work. Of all people we read about in scripture, he’s probably pretty aware of the realities of government corruption. He dealt with it almost everywhere he went. And so it’s not that Paul doesn’t think the government’s ever corrupt or doesn’t ever abuse its power. But here, that’s not really what he’s talking about. He’s talking about the way it is supposed to work and giving us some insight about how things are supposed to be. Now, the context of this could be, like I talked about earlier, because of what’s happening within the Roman Empire. Nero comes to power.

He’s influenced by people like Seneca, who is a Stoic philosopher. Stoics are not exactly in line in terms of their moral thinking with someone like the Apostle Paul, but they’re very close. They have a lot of similarities. And they would encourage very similar type of behavior as someone like the Apostle Baal would encourage. Seneca is trying to guide Nero toward an atmosphere of peace, and not the kind of peace that you gain through the sword. Not, I’m gonna go dominate all your cultures and then we’ll have peace because you do whatever I say. Not that kind of peace. That’s what Augustus did. But a kind of peace where the sword is put in place and there isn’t fear. This is the kind of promises that are often made in the beginning of a reign, which is what is happening here.

Here’s this is the writing of Seneca on mercy. There’s a lot of irony into some of this, as we’ll talk about here in just a minute. But he’s speaking sort of as if he’s Nero, right? With all things thus at my disposal, I have been moved neither by anger nor youthful impulse to unjust punishment. With me, the sword is hidden. No, it is sheathed. I am sparing even the meanest blood. No man fails to find favor at my hands. So 54-ish, 55-ish, there’s a lot of hope that Nero is going to bring this period of peace that’s very different than what existed under Claudius. This is the atmosphere in which Paul is writing this letter in 57 AD. Now, unfortunately, by the time you get to 59 AD, all hope is lost for this kind of peace.

Nero kills his own mother. He slaughters his two wives, he begins killing Christians mercilessly. He gets so paranoid that ultimately he commits suicide. That’s where this ends up. But by the time he’s done that, he has killed every living member of the Judeo-Claudian dynasty. So a lot of irony, as I said. Seneca’s trying to push mercy, he’s trying to push peace, and ultimately, Nero, as tyrants tend to do, completely rejects all of that to his own demise. Now, Peter’s writing, which is more like mid-60s, actually says a lot of similar things to what Paul says here. And so I want to come back to that thought a little bit later, because Paul’s not really dealing with corruption and abuse here, but Peter really is writing within the context of suffering and oppression.

And so it’s noteworthy that he says quite a few of the same sorts of things. But what I really want to point out here in this text is all the things that aren’t present. This is not some commendation of the fullness of the Roman Empire.

3. God's Servant to Punish Wrongdoers and Praise Good

When Paul says, subject yourselves to the high authorities, he’s not saying that the high authorities can just do whatever they want and they can poke their nose into every realm of existence, and you have to back it and say, yes, that’s the right thing to do. That’s not the point he’s making at all. In fact, both Paul and Peter specifically say what the role of civil authority actually is. They make it pretty clear as we read through the text. Here’s what they’re supposed to do, right? This is verse 3. The rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Then he says, this is just a kind of a logical thought here. Do you want to not be afraid? Then do good. Right? I mean, I think that’s a pretty good message for us today.

I know there’s there’s corruption in every human government, in every human institution, but generally speaking, if we don’t want to be afraid, we just do good. You know, stay out of trouble. Don’t do things that are problematic, that bring negative attention, that challenge established authority, which is appointed by God. Don’t do that stuff, and you’re probably gonna be fine, right? If you if you don’t want to be afraid, then just do good. This is what Paul’s saying. And you’re gonna receive the approval, right? 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. He is a servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Now, Peter says almost the exact same thing, a little bit different language, but he talks about governors who are sent to punish evil and to praise good.

This, as far as we know, as appointed by God, is the role of civil government. Now, if you find something else somewhere else, glad to see it. But the general point, and what they are supposed to be doing as God’s servant and ministers as civil authorities is to keep peace and justice. They are to punish wrongdoers, and they are to praise those who do good. That is the role that they are to fulfill. They are not to run my home or your home. They’re not to run the church. God has appointed leadership to do that. That would be resisting the will of God to actually try to do those things. That’s going against what God has appointed, and God is the ultimate authority, not the highest authorities of civil matters.

They don’t suddenly get to claim control of everything. They don’t have unlimited power. Right? So I want us to understand the scope of what’s going on in this text and what Paul is actually saying here. That the civil authority, they have a task, they have a job, and what their job is to do is actually to keep us from doing what we shouldn’t be doing. Right? Do not avenge yourself, but leave place for the wrath of God. Well, how do we do that? And we do that by supporting what civil authorities are supposed to be doing. Right? And there’s a number of ways he mentions down here toward the bottom of that section about paying taxes and revenue and respecting and showing honor. As they’re going about doing what they’re supposed to do, we should be supporting them in that effort.

They are God’s servant to accomplish this. This is what God has established. And our government, the government in America, is not the first time this happened. God has used Nebuchadnezzar, he used Cyrus, He’s used the Assyrians. He’s used all sorts of human power and authority to accomplish the things that he wants to accomplish. And that’s his prerogative. He is the ultimate authority, and he gets to make that call. That’s his choice about how he wants to do it. Interesting to me as I was reading through this, you know, I don’t really like taxes. You probably don’t either. And so I would love to be able to say, well, they’re just abusing power and all this, and I shouldn’t have to pay taxes. But it’s actually pretty interesting looking at scholarly work on all of this.

Actually, some of the leading scholars on this think actually most of this text is primarily focused on taxes, on your need to pay taxes. There were kind of indirect, what are called direct and indirect taxes. And one of the problems that is a problem for Christians within this culture was trying to avoid some of the indirect taxes. And so, based on the wording here, that the tax police would wear swords and come and try to force you to pay your taxes. And so this idea of not bearing the sword in vain and all of that could very much be related to the fact that he’s saying, hey, do what you’re supposed to do. They say you’re supposed to pay these taxes, you need to pay your taxes.

I don’t like it. You probably don’t like it either. But this is the way it works. I don’t get to make that call. God says, submit yourself to the governing authorities. This is what he tells us to do. I may not agree with how all the money is used or any of that sort of thing. Paul’s not even saying here, particularly within our culture, which is different than theirs, that we can’t voice opposition to some of what’s happening. That it doesn’t say anything about that. But when it comes down to it, we have to respect and honor what the governing authorities are doing. And like I said, Paul’s not naive. He realizes that there is corruption, that there is abuse. And so we have to keep in mind our place is not, we are not revolutionaries.

4. God's People Are Not Called to Be Insurrectionists

This is where I want us to end up here toward the end. God’s people are not called to be insurrectionists. We are not called to revolt. In fact, quite the opposite. Paul here is trying to use an atmosphere of peace that appears at the moment to help them see their need to kind of fall in line with what’s happening. Don’t create problems or chaos, don’t bring attention to yourself. Just do what you need to do, pay your taxes, respect the people you respect. There are certainly difficulties within culture in some of this in their world. Most things in their world were tied to pagan worship or the imperial cult in some way. And it would be very easy as a Christian to say, hey, this is all about imperial cult worship.

I don’t have to pay that tax. And I don’t have to support anything they’re doing because they’re honoring Caesar as God, and Caesar’s not God. Jesus Christ is Son of God. He is divine. Do you see how this could be problematic in how Paul is wanting them to avoid these issues? Right? No, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, Jesus says. And Paul essentially is saying the same thing here. Charles Talbert, an expert on the New Testament world, and he’s has a commentary on Romans, makes this statement. I want to kind of place boundaries or help us understand the limits of what’s happening here in Romans 13, because as I said, sometimes people just kind of pull this text and start making all kinds of claims and assumptions about what it proves.

All right? But there are some limits to what’s going on here. This is what he says. All that is asked of the readers is that they do good, pay taxes, and honor and respect those in power. All that is legitimately ascribed to the authorities is punishing the evil and rewarding the good. This limited homage is far from an enthusiastic endorsement of the empire. Now there are nuances in terms of what their culture was like and what ours is like, but I would say it is very similar. Just because we do good and we pay taxes and we respect and give honor to those who are empowered doesn’t mean we now fully commend the things that happen in civil affairs. That certainly is not true in the Roman Empire, and they dealt with things far worse and far more disturbing and far more corrupt than what we deal with.

In fact, by the reign of Tiberius, they weren’t even able to vote. Voting power, election power went to the Senate, and the people really had very little say in the things that are going on. They are just under the mighty hand of Rome. And yet they’re told to be subject, to be respectful, to be honorable. And so this brings me to this last point here, and why I connected verses 8 through 10 with the previous section. I mean, it’s connected in Paul’s writing, but why I included it this morning is that God’s people, they’re called to love neighbor, not to be insurrectionist and not revolt. That doesn’t mean you have to like what’s happening. It doesn’t mean you agree with it. It doesn’t mean that you can’t say there’s something wrong with what’s taking place or voice opposition to some of the things that are happening.

Certainly, as God’s people, we would voice opposition to some of the things that are going on in civil affairs. Because it’s really not about politics, it’s about morality. And the Bible certainly has a lot to say about what is moral and what is immoral. But when it comes down to it, we are not called to take action with violence, to revolt against the powers that be. That is not who God’s people are to be. Paul doesn’t directly deal with the corruption or evil, as I mentioned earlier, but there’s principles that exist to help us understand how we react in such situations. Romans 12. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Never avenge yourself. Repay no one evil for evil. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

All within a small little section, right before this whole text on government. I think those are pretty important guiding principles. And what God expects his people to act like in his kingdom.

The realm that they have, it doesn’t mean that I have to do everything they say about my home because they’re not the authority in my home. It doesn’t mean that everything they say about church we have to do because we have authority of the church. It’s Christ’s head and we have elders. Right? So I think we need to understand those distinctions. But we need to submit to civil affairs and authorities in the realm of which they are appointed by God to rule, which sometimes involves things we don’t like giving some of our money to them. It’s just the way it is. That’s how they function. And I may not like it. There may be all sorts of things I don’t like about it, but God says to submit.

5. Love Does No Wrong to a Neighbor

And more importantly, he says, he calls us all back to the most important thing, which is that love does no wrong to a neighbor. So I’ve heard things like, well, if the government wants you to do something that’s sinful, well, obviously. I mean, that’s certainly not something we should do. But I think we can get a little bit more precise. If the government is expecting me to do things that mean I’m not loving my neighbor, loving my neighbor is a higher law and a higher authority than anything the government says. Right? So God’s pulling us back to this through Paul’s writing and saying, this is how it works. You don’t owe anyone anything except to love each other. Right? So you would submit to governing authorities.

They have a realm in which they work. In fact, it’s meant to help you because you shouldn’t be avenging yourself. And I think there’s some good reason for this. Right? Because if I want to avenge myself, what am I tempted to do and how am I tempted to act? Is it unbiased? Or is it based off in an emotion and how I feel in the moment? And yet God has put in place methods by which we have judges or others to help us not be unfair and how we do that, right? So we’ll let them do their job. At the same time, don’t act in ways that cause you to not love your neighbor as yourself, right? Pulling back to the passage in Leviticus 19 and saying all of these things matter and they all fit together.

Love is fulfilling of the law. And so maybe we want simple answers from texts like Romans 13. But of course, these answers are never simple because they involve the heart and they involve motives. They involve me saying, Am I really being submissive or am I looking just for a way to express my freedom so I can do whatever I want? Right? This is the problem that Paul and Peter both deal with in other texts. And we have to wrestle with that ourselves. There’s nothing here in Romans 13 about voting or not voting. There’s nothing here in Romans 13 about seeking political office or not seeking political office or serving in the military or not serving in the military. In fact, some of these things may be very different in their culture than ours.

If you served in the military, often you were tied to some pagan deity and you offered and you sacrificed to that deity as part of your unit. You certainly were tied to the imperial cult and serving Caesar as emperor. And we don’t have that same sort of context or culture around serving in our military, for example, or serving in political office. If you were a political official, again, you would have been tied to the imperial cult religion. Right? So to kind of make blanket statements about their culture and ours is an inappropriate way to handle a text. But what we can do is see the principles within the text and understand how we as God’s people are to interact. And by the way, Scripture does this, for example, with the household code as well.

How things work within the home. Paul deals with this in Ephesians, he deals with it in Colossians. Peter deals with it very close to where he talks about government in 1 Peter 2 and 3, the way things should operate within the house. Also within the church. We have instruction about how all these things are supposed to work. And as God is the ultimate authority, we should be honoring what God has asked us to do. So in the end, government is there for a purpose to be an avenger. As I’m not supposed to avenge myself and try to take justice into my own hands, this is the role that God has appointed civil authorities for. This is what they’re supposed to do. Which then allows me to do the other things he has told me to do, which is to treat my enemy positively.

Right? To take care of them, even if we feel like they don’t deserve it, or whatever the context may be. This is how God’s people work because they are emulating God and they are merciful even to those who are ungodly. And so we are to submit to the government. We are under their charge when it comes to civil affairs. And that remains the case unless they overstep their God-appointed role, or unless they want us to violate the law of love, which Paul talks about here in this text. So, what does that look like? This is where God gives us liberty and we have to use our conscience, right? So he says, submit not just to avoid God’s wrath, but for your own conscience’ sake. He doesn’t just give us a list of rules about when to submit and when not to.

We have to use discernment and good judgment. We have to really wrestle with is this something I just don’t like, and so I just don’t want to do it? Or is it really violating God’s authority and loving my neighbor as myself? Which one is it? And so we have to be willing to wrestle with those ideas and think through that. And that’s what Paul wants them to do. We’re remembering as well the consequences at times if we decide to not do what the government says. Realize it can bring problems. And do you want that? And so thinking carefully about why we’re taking stands where we take stands, why we are maybe being difficult or resisting when we’re being difficult and resisting, is it really for the honor of God and for his kingdom?

Or is it more just that I want to do that?

Conclusion

And Paul would say that’s wrong if that’s what I’m doing. If I’m standing for the kingdom of God and standing on godly principles and truths, it’s a different story. Next part of this section in Romans 13, which we’ll talk about next time, deals with the urgency of falling in line with the kingdom of God and doing things in his ways. But I hope that some of the principles from this text are helpful, even in going throughout this week, which I know is a difficult week in many ways because of the consequences that come from whatever the decisions are made. I was being lighthearted in the beginning. Because I know this is difficult. We have our opinions and we think we know it’s best, and we get frustrated and upset when things don’t go the way we want, and all of that.

But Romans 13 is a reminder to understand the bottom line of what government is there to do and what it’s there to help me avoid doing, and to honor God and his ultimate authority and his wisdom for instituting and ordaining all of this. We haven’t talked this morning very much about becoming a Christian, but I want to give you that opportunity. I want you to understand that God’s wisdom through scripture points us in the right direction. You see it even with something like this. How do we handle authority? How do we handle government officials? And how do we handle situations or in situations in our life that can be trying and difficult? God gives us wisdom on that, but he also tells us why it’s important to submit ourselves to him.

He’s the creator of the world. He has a plan that’s going to bring harmony. No civil government is going to be perfect. None of them are going to be free from abuse and corruption, but there is a king who has my best interest and your best interest in heart. And we’re working toward a time in which we will be with him forever in his kingdom, and there will be no crying, and there’ll be no pain, and there’ll be no suffering. Any of the things we deal with now, whether it’s from our government or from someone else, all that stuff will be done away with that it’s painful and bad. And we can be with the Lord forever. And you can have that if you’re his, if you give your life to Jesus Christ.

You give your life to him. And he tells us how to do that in Romans chapter 6. He actually explains how they already had done it. They were buried with him in baptism and they resurrected in newness of life, ready to serve and to work in his kingdom. And you can do begin that this morning. If you’re not a Christian, we invite you to join us on this journey, which is way more important and way more valuable and way more impactful and way more influential than any other sort of thing that you can join in our world. Will you do that? Why don’t you come now as we stand and we sing?