The Christian's Responsibility to Government Part 4

So we are to submit to God's ordination of government. It is from Him, to rebel is to resist Him, and government is designed to restrain evil, and certainly we as Christians want to hold up anything that restrains evil, don't we? We don't want to tear down what God has put in place to uphold goodness and restrain evil. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You've heard the political slogans, a future to believe in, change we need. They're based on a simple premise that the people currently in power are not fulfilling their basic responsibilities, and only one person, the candidate asking for your vote, can make government work the way it's supposed to. But in order to know what government should look like, you first have to answer the question, why does government exist? What is its God-given purpose? Find out today as John MacArthur looks at principles relating to the Christian and government.

Now here's John. In the epistle to the Romans, obviously, the familiar portions are about salvation. The great sweeping argument of Romans is from chapter 1 really all the way to the end of chapter 11, laying out the doctrine of justification, sanctification. Then beginning in chapter 12, based upon the fact that we've been saved and set apart unto God, we are to commit ourselves to a certain kind of living. And within the range of the living that a Christian is to be committed to is a proper relationship to the government, to the authority under which he exists.

And so we're looking at how we are to respond to the government. And basically in verses 1 through 7, Paul tells us there are two responsibilities that we have. One, in verse 1, is to be subject to, in verses 6 and 7, to pay our taxes.

So we are to be subject and pay our taxes. This first point, being subject unto the higher powers, goes all the way down through verse 5. And in this he gives seven reasons why we are to be subject to the government under which we live.

Reason number 1 comes in verse 1, and I'll just review it, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. In other words, government is by divine decree. We submit to government because God has designed government for its role of protection of life and property. Secondly, there is a great reason why we want to submit to the government, and that is that if number 1 is true and government is by divine decree, then point number 2 in verse 2 follows logically. Resistance to government is resistance or rebellion against God. Whosoever, therefore, resists the power, referring to the higher power, referring to governmental authority, resisteth the ordinance or the institution of God. That leads to a third reason, which flows out of the first two at the end of verse 2, and it is this. Those who rebel against the government which is ordained of God and are therefore rebelling against God will be punished. Verse 2 at the end says, and they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment. And that is not only judgment from the government, which has been given the right to exact punishment for those who violate its law, but it is the judgment of God who is behind the government as well.

Now there are four more reasons for submission. Reason number 4 is that government serves to restrain evil. Therefore, to go against the government is to go against the restraint of evil. So point number 4, government serves to restrain evil. Notice verse 3, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil works.

Now that's a very basic thought. Government is designed to put fear in the hearts of people who do evil things, not to put fear in the hearts of people who do good things. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?

Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. And we'll get into that in a moment. So closely connected to the last idea about punishment, the thought of verse 2, is this idea about fearing the government if you do evil. The word fear, by the way, is the word phobos.

We get phobia from it. It has to do with a certain terror, and it tells us that that terror is not to people who do the good works, the good works being a class of deeds which are inherently good. But it is a terror to those who do the evil works, a class of deeds the nature of which is inherently evil. The people in society against whom the government moves are those who do the evil deeds, who defy the law, who break the law, who violate the law.

And the apostle says they have reason to have a certain amount of terror. For rulers are to bring terror to those who do evil. In other words, a government, to do its work, must put fear in the hearts of evildoers.

That's a very basic factor. And you and I are well aware of what happens in a government that doesn't put fear into the heart of evildoers. The results of that are indeed tragic. Rulers should be causing evildoers to have fear. Now what this indicates to us, and I want to just digress for a moment, is this. That generally speaking, rulers who are just secular, not speaking about those who know the Lord or know biblical truth or any of that, but rulers in general know the difference between good and evil. Is that not so? They know the difference between the class of deeds that could be categorized as good and the class of deeds that are categorized as evil.

That's patently obvious to them. And I can show you why. Go back in your Bible for a moment to Genesis chapter 2. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 15, the Lord God took man, put him in the garden of Eden to till it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

You can have food from everything that's here. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. What did Adam do? What did Eve do?

Disobeyed God and what? Ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore Adam and Eve, when they sinned, entered in to a knowledge of what?

Good and evil. That knowledge has been passed down through all the sons and daughters of Adam. And every man and woman coming into this world has an inherent and basic knowledge of good and evil. We find in Romans a similar idea in chapter 2 and verse 14. It says, When the heathen, that is, those who are unconverted, those who are not a part of the covenant of God, who have not the law, that is, the written law, those who have not the written law, do by nature the things contained in the law. These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts.

And you can stop at that point. The unregenerate world has the law of God written in their heart. What does that mean? The knowledge of good and evil. That's a part of conscience.

That's a part of what we call in theology natural revelation as opposed to special revelation which is scripture. So the government of man knows the difference between good and evil. Even pagans understand basic morality through human reason, through natural revelation, through common grace.

They understand what is a basic morality. Now even the most evil society, even the worst government will hold to a basic preservation of property and life. And frankly, some good governments do very poorly at this and some evil dictators do very well at it. Even the poorest government is a blessing compared to no government. Can you imagine what would happen, for example, in a society where there was absolutely no one in control?

It would be an instant self-destruct. If no one could protect his or her life except by himself, no one could protect his or her property except by himself, you'd have constant war. So even in a corrupt government, there has been built in by God to the heart of man a sense of what is right and wrong at least in very basic terms. Now let me give you a little bit of an insight into how a government is to act if it fulfills its God-ordained role to the maximum.

And I don't want to belabor it but there are some passages that you might find interesting. Back in chapter 19 of Deuteronomy and verse 13, we learn that a government is to act against evil-doers without pity, without pity. It talks here about a murderer, someone who's taken a life, and it says in verse 13, In other words, if you don't do to that murderer what he has done to someone else and therefore put away the guilt of the innocent bloodshed, you can know that it will not prosper with you.

That's God's promise. This thing is to be dealt with without pity. A government is to act against an evil-doer without pity, it says. And down in verse 21, And thine eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. In other words, there is to be equal retribution without pity.

Why? Verse 20 says, So that the people will fear, and henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. And if you do not exact punishment without pity, then people don't have that fear that restrains them from doing evil. Now go back to Deuteronomy chapter 13 and I'll give you a second principle in which the government is supposed to express its leadership. It is not only to act without pity, but it is to act by God's design without partiality, without partiality.

In other words, there is to be no one set apart because of some respect of persons, because of some preference. Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 13, If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which thou hast not known, nor thy fathers, namely of the gods of the people who are round about you, near unto you, far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him, and thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people, and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die because he sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Now the principle here, of course, is unique in a sense to Israel because it was a theocracy, and the crime was leading people to the worship of a false god. But the point that I want you to see is, in the restriction of bringing death, there was a clear word that it doesn't matter if it's your brother or your son or your wife or your friend or whoever it is, there's no partiality in exacting the law of God. And then verse 11 says, then all Israel will hear and fear and do no more any such wickedness as this among you. If government would act without pity and without partiality, it would go a long way to convince evildoers to change their ways.

There's a third principle in the 25th chapter of Deuteronomy. And it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, and the judgment comes in verse 1, then verse 2 says if he's worthy to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number, 40 stripes he may give him and not exceed and so forth and so on. In other words, when he finds him guilty, he puts him down right on the spot and he beats him and gives him what retribution is due. This means government is to act without pity, without partiality and without delay.

Without delay. It needs to be an immediate kind of punishment, an immediate response so that it is apparent and obvious to all that there is fast judgment. If government acted without pity, without partiality and without delay, it would be a terror to evildoers, right? Unfortunately, we have seen the erosion of that kind of principle, haven't we? And very often we hear all the hue and cry of pity for the criminal and I understand that and I understand the need for mercy. But I also understand what happens when that becomes the norm and everybody thinks they can do whatever they want and escape judgment. And then we are well aware of those kinds of times and places where some people seem to receive partial treatment for things that they have done for which others are more severely punished. And then we all know that punishment is anything but without delay, isn't it?

This will deter the criminal and this will put fear in the hearts of the evildoers. So we are to submit then to God's ordination of government. It is from him to rebel is to resist him. To resist him is to bring punishment and government is designed to restrain evil and certainly we as Christians want to hold up anything that restrains evil, don't we?

We don't want to tear down what God has put in place to uphold goodness and restrain evil. And we might stop at this moment and ask the question, but what if government treats you badly? What if government takes your freedoms?

What if government encroaches upon you in ways that you feel are unfair or unjust or inequitable? Well, the pattern that you need to look back to would be the example of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was put in jail in Philippi, wasn't he? He was put in jail there.

He didn't do anything to deserve it. He was accused. It says in Acts 16, it says, these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them. The magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded to beat them.

The whole place is in an uproar in Philippi and they haven't done a thing. It's just a mad mob. And they laid many stripes on them, threw them into prison, charged the jailer to keep them safely.

They made their feet fast in the stocks and what did they do? What were Paul and Silas doing at midnight? Singing praise, weren't they? Yes, they were treated badly by a government. Yes, they were treated unfairly and inequitably and unjustly, absolutely. But it's the same Paul who was treated that way who said that we're to submit to the government. The Apostle Paul knew what it was to endure injustice. In fact, he endured it rather frequently from place to place.

Three times he was beaten with rods, once stoned. Still the truth stands in spite of the fact that there are those times when government oversteps its bounds, when government goes beyond its limits. There are those times when there is injustice and inequity.

Still the principle stands. In the 19th chapter of Acts and verse 35, you remember the story in Ephesus. When the town clerk had quieted the people, he said, You men of Ephesus, what man is there that knows not that the city of the Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly, for you have brought here these men who are neither robbers of temples nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against any man, the law is open and there are deputies.

Let them accuse one another. And here the town clerk stops the mob that would have just eliminated those who were proclaiming Christ and says, Let's bring this to the law. Let's bring this to lawful assembly, he says in verse 39. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, for there being no cause for which we may give an account of this concourse.

And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. Just on one hand we see in Acts 16 where government acts against the apostle Paul, we go to Acts 19 and government acts in his defense and rescues him from a mob. So we don't want to obviate the principle. There are times when government may overstep its bounds.

There are times when we may be very dependent upon its provision. And you remember when they were going to scourge the apostle Paul in Acts 22, he said to the one who was going to lead him into the scourging, Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman citizen? And he pulled rank, didn't he, in a sense. He reached out for his Roman citizenship as a protection against what they were going to do to him. So the truth stands. Whether government is protecting us or whether government seems to be overstepping its bounds and acting unjustly toward us, we need to be submissive. Now that leads us to a fifth principle back to Romans 13. We are to be submissive because government serves to promote good. It serves to promote good. In verse 3 again it says, Will you then not be afraid of the power?

Do you want to have it so you're not afraid of government? Then do what is good and you'll have praise of the same. And I still believe our government is in place to bring praise to those who do good, who do well. And so Paul says, Do what is good and you don't have to fear because you will have praise from the same.

That is from those in authority. If you enjoy a quiet and peaceful life, if you live a life of goodness, if you demonstrate the love of Christ and godliness and virtue, and if you are not a troublemaker and a rabble-rouser, you will find that you will receive praise. And government becomes in a sense, verse 4, the servant of God to thee for good.

Isn't that a wonderful statement? The servant of God to thee for good. The diakonos, the deacon of God to thee for good. And here's the ruler's purpose. Not only to be a terror to those that do the class of deeds called evil, but to be a praise to those who do the class of deeds called good.

And his title is one of great honor. He's a servant of God. The president of the United States is a servant of God. The senators and assemblymen of the United States, the justices, all the way down into the states, the mayors and the people who function in the city level of government, they are all servants of God. That is in a unique sense, not in the sense of a believer necessarily, not in the sense of one who ministers in the church, but in the sense that they carry out a God-ordained service. They uphold a divine institution.

Personally, they may not know God at all, but they represent him. They represent his desire for peace and safety among men. And so we do all we can to keep peace, to live honorably, to live with sobriety and dignity, to cultivate harmony, to be model citizens, that those who are carrying out a service to God in government may honor us and certainly, beloved, and we've been trying to say this in the whole series, we who are evangelical, fundamental Christians who really hold the name of Christ up should be the model of what a citizen should be in society. That those who are in the governmental sense the servants of God may see in us something utterly unique and attractive. Robert Haldane many years ago wrote a marvelous commentary on Romans and in it he says this, �The institution of civil government is a dispensation of mercy and its existence is so indispensable that the moment it ceases under one form it reestablishes itself in another.� That's a very good statement. When you see a coup in a country or you see the country overturned or a revolution, it'll never be the elimination of government, it'll only be the exchange of government because man cannot survive without that. Haldane goes on to say, �The world ever since the fall when the dominion of one part of the human race over another was immediately introduced has been in such a state of corruption and depravity that without the powerful obstacle presented by civil government to the selfish and malignant passions of men, it would be better to live among the beasts of the forest than in human society. As soon as its restraints are removed, man shows himself in his real character when there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes.� So Paul is still building his case. We are called to submission because God is a source of government, to rebel is to resist God, to resist God brings judgment, is set to restrain evil, and we want to uphold a government that restrains evil, and government is there to promote good, and we want to be good so that we might enjoy the benefits of government.

That's John MacArthur showing you why you should be thankful for your leaders, even if they do not follow Jesus Christ. John has titled our current study on grace to you, The Christian and Government. John, it's always obvious when you preach that you spend hours doing research.

You dig into the Bible's original languages and the history, the grammar, the culture, and all of that, and that's obviously crucial for someone like you who's teaching the Scriptures. But you don't do that so that we don't have to. I know you'd say it's an important duty for everyone who studies Scripture to take it seriously and do the hard work.

Yeah, that's absolutely right. I do it so that I can teach you how to do it. You can preach, you could say, okay, I studied this, and here's what it means. So trust me, this is what it means. This means this, and this means this, and this means this, and take my word for it, I'm the expert, I studied it. That's not really convincing, and that doesn't help somebody know how I came to that conclusion, right? If I just tell you this is what it means, but I don't tell you why it means that, I haven't helped you.

You have to trust me. This is sort of me speaking like the expert, you know, this is me, so sit there and take it. That's never been my approach to expository preaching. My approach has been, let me show you what this means and what it has to mean by looking at the text itself, so that you're going through a process with me of saying, wow, clearly that is what it means. And I'll even use Greek or Hebrew words sometimes to show you that. I'll use history, I'll expand the context, I'll use other passages to speak to the one at hand. So the great impact of expository preaching is this, that I'm teaching you how to understand the Bible so that you can teach somebody else. And I've said this through my whole preaching ministry, I'm concerned with the next line of people. I'm not concerned that you know what this means and that's okay. I'm concerned that you know and understand why this has to mean that so that you could pass it on to someone else.

I'm looking at giving you the baton and having you give the baton to someone else. In the process of this, I've written 34 volumes on the New Testament, digging deep into everything in the New Testament. It would be wonderful for you to have that commentary set. You can order the entire series, 34 volumes, at a very large discount. You can purchase individual volumes at a very reasonable price.

And of course, on U.S. orders, shipping is free. So pick a couple of commentaries, Romans or whatever you like, or get it all and do that soon, because it'll become the resource, the go-to resource for the rest of your Christian life. Friend, there are probably passages in the New Testament that confuse you or you just want to know more about.

These commentaries will give you the answers you're looking for. To order the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series, contact us today. Each volume is available for $19. The Romans commentary that John mentioned comes in two volumes, and again, if you purchase all 34 volumes at once, you will enjoy a discount on each commentary. To order the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series, call toll-free 800-554-7223. And that number is easy to remember as 800-55-GRACE.

You can also order online at GTY.org. And while you're at GTY.org, make sure to take advantage of the thousands of free resources that are available. You can listen to broadcasts you may have missed, watch Grace To You television, or download any of John's 3500 sermons.

All of them are free of charge in MP3 or transcript format. And if you're not sure where to start, try GraceStream. It's a continual broadcast of John's teaching, beginning in Matthew and taking you through Revelation. So whether you have a few minutes on your break at work or a couple of hours to study, log on and start learning.

The website one more time, GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for listening today. Be here tomorrow as John continues to show you how to honor God by honoring your government leaders. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.