Authority Romans Series Part 4: Under the Hood New Life Assembly Romans 13:1-14 October 23, 2011 AM Main Sermon Idea: We must obey authorities that God has put in place and live ethically and morally for Christ. Introduction Who s in charge here? This is a question that begs for an answer among human beings. It seems that even when we just hang out, there is a leader. Someone at least steers a group of humans. There are different styles of leadership and authority ranging from team playing to dictators. It seems that humans can t be in a group without knowing who s in charge. We have some who need authority to tell them what to do, to make them feel safe. And then we have others who don t wish to be told what to do by anyone. We have people like Francis Bacon who realize that absolute power corrupts absolutely. So how do we deal with authority as believers? Surely we are not yet in the Kingdom of God, for Jesus is King of our hearts, but not King of our world yet. Let s read what Paul has to say about authority in Romans 13:1-14. I. Authorities are ordained by God for goodness (1-7). A. We submit to godly authorities because He has chosen them to carry out His will. 1.God ordains and institutes authority. a. Paul starts by talking about authority as it is instituted by God. This is not an easy pill to swallow for us today, as we have been exposed to so many authorities that have abused their place of power. b. But imagine what it was like for Paul to say this to the Romans! You must understand that in Paul s day, Rome was persecuting the church in great numbers. c. In no way was Roman rule helpful to Christians or Jews in Paul s day, and yet he is humble enough to set up a standard of being obedient to authorities. d. Paul s reason for this is that God is the one who ordains the leaders and rulers that have authority over us. God is the ultimate King, and those who serve in places of authority are put there by Him. e. But this point creates quite a stir in our minds. Does God then ordain those leaders and authorities that are not in line with His will? How did those people get authority if all authority comes from God? 1
f. We live in a world where there are many usurpers, people who have stolen a place of authority. They learned how to do that from the devil. This is not an easy question to answer, but just like everything else, authority can be co-opted and abused and stolen. g. Application: God is still sovereign and in charge of all that happens. Does God ordain evil leadership? There are some parts of the Bible that indicate that He may to serve His larger purpose? But as American believers, we are so used to thinking that we choose our leaders that we have a hard time remembering that God ordains all leadership! He may use voting systems and democracy, or any other form of government, but all government comes from God. 2.Authorities are meant to hold up God s laws. a. Illustration: We have so much trouble with the understanding that all governments originate with God. We are used to wasteful spending, bureaucracy, red tape, inefficiency, and a host of other maladies of our governments. We have every right and reason as Americans to complain. How could government, something we have such issues with, come from God? What was He thinking? b. Well, the point is that our problems with government aren t because of God. They are because fallen human beings are imperfect, and that individual perfection is magnified in the governments they run. c. One of the backbones of Paul s argument is that the authority is godly. But we know in our world that this rarely happens, sometimes even in churches! d. The authorities are put in place by God to protect and prosper His good law. When people do the law, they have nothing to fear from government. It is those who violate God s law that must be afraid of the governments resources to bring them to justice. e. Imagine just for a moment that there was no government. We all are immediately thinking of the greatness of no more taxes, no more inefficiency, etc. But think about it a little more. No government. f. The world would become a giant mob. And if there s anything worse than an inefficient government, it s a mob without any governance. Very few people would truly embrace anarchy. g. The world would be a mess. Without laws, people could do whatever they wanted, whether or not we wished for them to do it. 2
There would be no one to enforce any sense of morals. This world would be torn apart! h. Application: We need authority to maintain order and to keep us from committing atrocities against others. We need a moral rule and a law. We need someone to bear the responsibility of governing. It is a lot harder than we think it is. So many voices and demands from so many people. For the very reason that we don t want the job, we should respect those who willingly serve their communities through government, even if they re not perfect. If Christians did not support authority, how can they claim authority for God or the Bible? B. We pay taxes and do our civic duty as part of the byproduct of a relationship with God. 1.Authorities are paid for their service to us and God through taxes. a. Because the authorities do the work of God and keep us safe, when they are godly, of course, they are deserving of recompense for their service to our group. b. Once again, we must understand that Paul lived in Rome, a horrid empire that tormented believers readily. There were economic and social persecutions in place for any Christian. c. And yet this same Paul says that we as believers should not only be committed to submitting ourselves to the authorities, but that we should also pay them their taxes! d. People have a great problem with taxes. Let me say that while the Bible gives us multiple places where it tells us to pay our taxes, namely Give unto Caesar what is Caesar s and also here in verses 6-7, there is a question over how much is too much for most. e. These are two different arguments. One complains about paying taxes at all. That is not biblical. We see in the Bible that taxes were paid and that even Christ is our example in this. f. However, the Bible also addresses an overbearing tax and an oppressive tax throughout the prophets and the law of God. It is not against biblical principle to argue that a tax is oppressive. g. Application: Taxes are seen as a due recompense for providing a government and a rule of law, which is ordained by God. Both law itself and those who enforce it have been placed in leadership by God. To stand against godly leadership that is not oppressive is to stand against God Himself! Let us not argue against the ideas of 3
government or taxes on their own. Let us rather present a case for godly governance. 2.Debts for the believer must be paid to honor those who serve. a. The way Paul talks about taxes, they are a debt that believers owe to those leaders whose life is devoted to the order and law of a group of individuals. b. Where there is a group of people, there is a government. And those who offer their service and life to protect and govern these groups deserve their due just as much as anyone working any job. This is also a biblical principle. c. But beyond this, as Paul continues to describe what Christians look like, he also reminds us that we must not be people indebted to others. Christians are not to be the ones who owe the world. d. Think about that for a moment. A believer who owes the world is enslaved to the world. We are to live in the freedom of Christ. If we are to be enslaved, it must be to Jesus and His rule! e. Application: Throughout the Bible, not just here, there is a principle of not being a debtor. The Proverbs tell us to stay out of debt and throughout the New Testament, we are told to be the ones helping others, not being helped. I thank God that those who are poor, even among believers, are taken care of by someone. I do wish, though, that the American church, would step up and take care of the poor, the homeless, and those in need. Instead, we expect our inefficient government to do it. And then we complain about how they do it! I would suggest to you that we should not complain about how our government handles the poor and needy until we have done everything we can in our church setting to help others. Shouldn t we be the ones leading in these areas? James says that perfect religion is to take care of widows and orphans in their distress (James 1:27). II. Love is not an illegal action punishable by authorities (8-14). A. We are safe from breaking the law when we practice the godly principle of love. 1.Love fulfills the commandments of God s law. a. There is one area in which the believer is allowed to be a debtor. That area is love. We owe our love to one another and to the world. It is our love for one another that fulfills the law of God. b. No one was ever jailed for being kind or loving toward another person. Love causes the opposite of what puts someone in prison or makes victims. 4
c. Love instead is an action that brings people good and positive things, not negative ones. All of the negative commands are still obeyed with the positive command of loving others as we love ourselves. d. Illustration: No one ever got put in jail for giving someone a gift that they needed. No one was ever put in prison for working in a soup kitchen or giving money to a homeless guy. No one was ever put in jail for taking meals to someone who was sick. On the other hand, people get put in jail for giving someone a gift they didn t need, like sending them a bomb in the mail or a fist in their face. Acts of violence are punished by the law and government, not acts of love and kindness. 2.Love enacts godly character in us in the last days. a. God s law is listed in negative commands, the Ten Commandments. You should not this and you should not that. These are negatives. They don t encourage us to do good things but to not do bad things. b. But in doing the good thing of loving our neighbor and making sure they are in a better place even than ourselves, will never get us in trouble with the law. c. When we love our neighbor as ourself, we are becoming less selfish, the key to learning godliness and godly character. In our loving others, we fulfill not just the law of God, but the fruit of the Spirit and we are also walking in the Spirit. d. When we do what God prompts us to do by His Spirit, we do good things to others, and so exhibit the goodness of God in a world that only knows evil and wickedness. e. Application: How we live in these last days tells people everything they need to know about us. Being a Christian is indeed about what we believe, our doctrines. But is just as much about our deeds. If we don t act on our beliefs, we don t truly believe in those tenets. To show that we do believe these things, we act on them as though they are the reality of our situation. B. We can live out our salvation and still follow the godly ethical laws of the land. 1.When we live without sin and evil, we maintain God s laws. a. Our love in action has been shown to be just what the law ordered. Only when we don t love should we be in danger of the punishment that a government could justly bring. b. But you might mention, as we did in the beginning of the message, that not all governments are godly. In fact, almost all governments 5
are ungodly! So what do we do? Do we just continue to submit to even ungodly governments? c. Paul presents such a positive view of government and authority in Romans 13. There is very little to indicate in just this one chapter what to do about unjust and ungodly government. d. But there are other places throughout the Bible where we see godly people refusing to do what ungodly governments demanded of them that was sin. e. Illustration: There s the Hebrew midwives who are commanded to kill all the Hebrew boys when they are born who ignore Pharoah and even lie to him to save these boys. And they are commended in Scripture! There is also the three friends of Daniel who are commanded to bow down to an idol and are thrown into a burning furnace for disobedience. Also, Peter and John in Acts 4:18-21 tell their authorities that God s law is higher than human law. f. So there is a pattern here that we can discern. It seems that when a law goes against God s greater law, we are not required to obey it. However, you will notice the way that these examples played out. g. Nowhere was there killing of the authorities or even complaining about them. These people took the punishment of unjust governments upon themselves. But they did not obey these ungodly commands! h. Illustration: Throughout history, we have seen different types of disobedience. There has been the violent disobedience of the French revolution that would cut the heads off of the rich rulers and anyone who disagreed with them. There s also Ghandi who led a civil disobedient people to victory without bloodshed. Today, one might wish to compare the Occupy Wall Street protestors to the Tea Party protestors. There is a godly way even to protest our government! Let us be careful to be respectful of God s authorities as we protest. Even David would not touch Saul, whom he called God s anointed, even though it was clear Saul was not anointed as a person at the time! i. Application: We must act with humility when we protest taxes, government, etc. There is a peaceable way to protest. There is a godly way to protest. There is a respect for authority while simultaneously demanding more godly leaders. Let us not cross the line to bash authority, which comes from God, or taxes, which are allowed for in Scripture. But let us not readily obey ungodly 6
commands from government either. Let us always seek to love others, and so fulfill God s greater and higher authority! 2.We clothe ourselves with Christ through our obedience to God s law. a. In and of ourselves, we cannot accomplish God s law. But that is one of the ways that Christ is our righteousness. We put Christ on like a garment. b. In this world of sin and fallenness, we put on our righteousness by putting on the attitude and deeds of Christ. And in putting on Christ, we act as those who fulfill God s law. c. When we put on Christ, we demonstrate Christ s righteousness instead of our sinfulness and filthy rags righteousness. It s not about our righteousness, but about showing others God s righteousness. d. Paul also uses the imagery of the night and the day. When we live in darkness and think others can t see, we do things we don t want others to see. But in the daylight, most of us would not be so opportunistic. e. This is a call for us to live in private and in public, at night and in the day, the same way. Why would we who are living by God s gold standard give the world a different witness? f. Application: We need to represent Christ, and so walk out our salvation in life. We live by the spirit of God, not by our fleshly desires. We desire a lot of things that don t please God. Those sinful things may be wrong ways of seeking good things. They may be things that are blessings in the proper season, but not in any other season. When we live for Christ all the time, we can indeed respect authority, because the greatest Authority has set others in place for our protection and guidance. Conclusion Because of the corruption of humanity, we find it so hard to submit to authority. We have all kinds of excuses to get out of doing what we re told. We fight and chafe against leaders and their commands. We hate paying taxes and we complain about the way things are done in government. These arguments that we have against injustices and oppression by a government are biblical, but authority and the things that come with it are from God, and our refusal to accept these things is a rejection of God s authority in our lives. Let us make every effort to be grateful that authority belongs to God and is ordained by Him. Let us make every effort to be loving and kind, and so fulfill the law. Let us never sacrifice God s greater rule to follow ungodly leadership! Let us remain balanced in our view of government and authority. It s not easy, especially in an age of wicked rulers. Let us show them a greater light in Christ! 7