Liberty and Biblical Authority
“Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one
who practices evil.”
Romans 13: 1-4
“Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the LORD’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond-slaves of God. Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear
God, honor the king.”
1 Peter 2: 12-17
A very common practice among Christian teachers is to quote the first verse of Romans 13, and end the discussion. It is not only common today, but has been a deceptive practice of statist, “divine right” tyrants throughout New Testament history. And most Christian leaders will mindlessly repeat this mantra to which they have been conditioned. But, to quote any verse outside the context of the entire passage is to make the Word a lie! Paul asserts that all authority is from God. And this writer urgently recommends to all who read this, that the statement is true, and to challenge God-ordained authority is dangerous business. What must be discerned from the subsequent verses is that Paul goes on to define what authority is, and who has it. Both Romans 13: 1-4 and 1 Peter 2: 12-17 specifically define authorities as those who praise those who do good and punish those who do evil. Very clearly, those who are God’s authorities are His ministers of justice, and we should never have cause to fear authority if we are not doing anything wrong. Authority to enforce God’s standard of justice cannot be confused with arbitrary, dictatorial control that is destructive of individual liberty without just cause. These verses are not difficult to understand and are very self-explanatory. It is to the shame of the Christian leader who insists that every goose-stepper, every socialist thief, and every unjust usurper of “authority” is owed submission by God’s people.
But what else is missing from these discussions? There is an important, complimentary matter in God’s order that is a quickly dismissed, non-issue with most Christian leaders. And, again it is to their shame! The issue is Liberty! God is the giver of life and liberty. For the sake of brevity, I won’t attempt a biblical study here concerning liberty, but it is clear from a variety of passages that Christians have authority to assert our liberty. Christians everywhere have the biblical right to do so. But the American assertion of liberty and self-government is the example for all history, that God blessed like no other. For the American, it is not only a right, but a stewardship to preserve our laws of liberty and biblical authority that God graciously established here.
The “conventional” flow charts of biblical authority, historically, would usually indicate a top-down leadership structure, with God at the top, then somewhere below would be government, then church leaders, and then people. But yet, man came first. God’s covenants were with men before nations or leaders of any kind. What does it mean when the Word says, “…there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2: 5)? It does not throw out proper contexts of leadership. What it says is that only Christ intervenes to God the Father on our behalf, and otherwise no man has the authority to usurp God’s place of leadership with the individual Christian. God is a God of the individual. He loved and gave Himself for each individual believer, and every believer has direct access, by way of a personal relationship with Him, without need of approval, mediation, or hindrance of any mortal man.
Rather than a straight line, an appropriate chart would be a pyramid, With God at the top, the individual under God’s liberty at one base point, and government at the other. Both people and leaders have direct relationships and accountability to God. The confusion is in the relationships between men and their government. As did the English nobles who wrote the Magna Carta, and the Puritans of the English Civil War, our Christian founders understood that God’s people and His authorities have coequal and complimentary responsibility and accountability to each other. As if there is a line drawn between them, God’s people under liberty and God’s authorities each have specific realms of responsibility, and the two should never conflict. When an individual crosses the line into crime and sin, he should properly find himself in trouble with authority. On the other hand, when those in positions of authority forget the God they serve, and use that position to extinguish liberty, steal the productivity of the people, praise those who do evil, and punish those who do right, they should find themselves in trouble as well with God’s people. The timeless question to the Christian leader is as to when and how Christians give a proper response. Do we speak and act when flagrant violations of leadership principles become apparent, or when your neighbors are pulled out of their homes and dragged off in a midnight raid, or when you and your family are machine-gunned into shallow graves? The time can come when every Christian leader should know that we have a responsibility to throw off the “submission” rationale (Psalm 94) and “do something.” Prayerful discernment and prudence have to determine the right things, at the right time, and not when its “too little, too late.”
“A king who sits on the throne of justice,
disperses all evil with his eyes.”
Proverbs 20:8
“Loyalty and Truth preserve the king, and he
upholds his throne by righteousness.”
Proverbs 20:28
“The execution of justice is joy to the righteous, but is terror
to the workers of iniquity.”
Proverbs 21:15
“It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness,
for a throne is established on righteousness.”
Proverbs 16: 12
“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous,
both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.”
Proverbs 17: 15
The form of government is not the issue in discussions of liberty and authority. A king can most certainly be God’s minister of justice. But, the king must consciously serve that purpose, and is accountable to do so, to God and to his subjects. The issue of “divine right” has been the assertion of the most ungodly, brutal tyrants of history. The notion that evil rulers carry the same “authority” as a good one, is from the other end of the spiritual spectrum, and not from God. God does not authorize injustice and persecution of His People. The issue with many Christians, even leaders, is in discerning good and evil, and that we cannot serve both. Obedience to the doctrine of “universal submission” requires disobedience to scripture (Isaiah 5: 20, Romans 12: 9).
A monarchy or an oligarchy can serve God’s justice, and when that is the case, they are due proper submission. But, the day will come when the benevolent dictator is replaced by a malevolent one. There is no future in it, and no protection of life, liberty, or property. In 1 Samuel Chapter 8, self-government under God’s kingship and the Judges was no longer desirable to the unruly people. The Israelites demanded a king and to be reduced to the mediocrity of the rest of the world. The LORD told Samuel to warn the Israelites of the error of rejecting His leadership, and the consequences of a man for a king. But then, He let them have their king. There are two important points here: 1) God warns against it, and 2) God grants their self-determination. God gives His people the liberty and the authority to choose who will rule over us. Why has the American republic been blessed by the Living God as it has? Because our Christian founders, boldly and courageously asserted their liberty, prayerfully asserted their authority to self-determination, and, for the first time since ancient Israel, reversed the trend back to limited, self-government under God’s liberty. The unique American heritage of liberty that we have inherited, charges to us the unique responsibility and stewardship to preserve it.
