By Dr. Josh Wilson
Introduction
My wife and I have been blessed with eight children. Yes, you read that right, eight children. Six of them are boys, yikes! We like to say that our two girls are our roses amongst the thorns. At the time of this writing, our youngest child is six and our oldest is nineteen. Both are boys. Our second oldest is also boy, as are our third and fourth oldest. We didn’t have girls until our fifth and then sixth child. Needless to say, with our four oldest being all boys, it took a very long time before my wife and I felt comfortable enough with leaving all of the kids at home by themselves under the supervision of the oldest children. It seems like it takes boys a bit little longer than girls to have enough maturity to look after their younger siblings.
Now, however, with our three oldest sons being able to drive and having their own phones, which are actually just smart watches, my wife and I are significantly more comfortable leaving our younger children at home under their supervision. These last couple of years, we have even left town for a couple of days at a time in order to attend a conference or convention. When we so do, we will usually tell the youngest of our children that Joshua, our oldest and most responsible, is in charge until we get back. This temporary arrangement does not mean that my wife and I have completely relinquished our God-given authority when we leave town. (In fact, sometimes Joshua will call us while we are away so that we can have a “talkin’ to” with one of our younger children who is not obeying his instructions.) This arrangement only means that we have temporarily delegated to Joshua an authority that still operates under our own still-existent authority. This arrangement only means that we have temporarily required our younger children to obey him or they will have to answer to us when we get home. This is a temporary, delegated authority that we have given to Joshua, and we ourselves, as parents, are also exercising a temporary delegated authority that God has given to us. (When our children leave the nest, they are no longer under our authority like they were before.)
Now, in the previous article, we had examined the theological concept of the session of Christ, that the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God, reigning and ruling over all the earth as the highest, most supreme governing authority. However, Christians live in a world where there are other earthly rulers who are still in positions of authority over them even after the session of Christ. So what gives? If Jesus is now reigning as king, should not Christians rise up and overthrow these presumptuous earthly rulers, many of whom are not themselves Christians, and establish the reign and rule of Christ alone? As appealing as that sounds, the Bible tells us that God has given these earthly rulers a temporary, delegated authority to rule over the people of this world until the eventual return of Christ. Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans.
Romans 13:1–2 (ESV) — 1 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. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
Note Paul’s bold statement, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” Note also the flow of his argument. First, God has all authority. Second, because God has all authority, He has, from that authority, instituted lower governing authorities. Therefore, every person, including Christians, must be subject to those authorities or they will suffer the judgment of God. Paul’s unstated, yet very obvious, implication is that anyone who resists governing authorities also resists God Himself. With this passage then, the apostle Paul teaches that submission to governing authorities is not a denial of the authority of God, but rather an affirmation of it.
Be Subject to God’s Governing Authorities
From beginning to end, the Bible teaches that God has all authority and power to rule over all the earth and do within it whatever he pleases (cf. Pss 113:4-5; 115:3). That authority and power of God over all the earth has its most visible and tangible expression in the session of Christ. However, the Bible also communicates that God, from His own power and authority, has given lesser authority to the lower, earthly rulers that they should govern and reign over the people of this world. Consider the book of Daniel chapter four:
Daniel 4:17 (ESV) – 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’
In one sense, this passage is making a general reference to all kings, rulers, and any other governing officials. God is the one who places them in their positions of authority. However, in another sense, the specific focus of this passage and the larger chapter was on Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. God through the prophet Daniel declared to Nebuchadnezzar that the only reason at all that he was king of Babylon was because God had made him the King of Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah also declared the same sentiment about the same king.
Jeremiah 27:5-6 (ESV) – 5 “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. 6Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.
Nebuchadnezzar, however, isn’t the only great King of the ancient Near East that God raised him up to his position of authority as King. God also, through Moses, explicitly tells the Pharaoh of the Exodus the same thing.
Exodus 9:14-16 (ESV) – 14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
This exercise of His divine prerogative, to install kings and rulers in this world according to his sovereign right and power, extends even to the lower magistrates governing under the authority of greater kings and rulers. Consider Pontus Pilate who was installed by the Roman Senate as a prefect of the rundown, backwater district of Judea in the greater Roman Empire. When Jesus stood under the judgment of Pontus Pilate, just prior to his crucifixion and death, he declared to the Roman prefect the following:
John 19:11b (NIV) — 11b “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
God places every governing authority in their positions of power, from the rulers of empires down to the small-town, city council member.
Thus, all people everywhere, including Christians, are to be subject to these governing authorities that God has put into place. Consider not just Paul’s words in Romans 13, but also his words in the book of Titus and the words of the Apostle Peter in his first epistle.
Titus 3:1-2 (NIV) – 1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.
1 Peter 2:13-17 (ESV) – 13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Consider also that these letters of Paul and Peter (Romans, Titus, & 1 Peter) were addressed to Christians living under the rulership of Roman dictators, many of whom came to power by murder and usurpation. The command to be subject to rulers and authorities applies both to those who have come to power by legitimate means and even those who have come to power by illegitimate means. The command to be subject to rulers and authorities applies to all kinds and types of rulers and authorities. In the next articles, we will get into the issues of submission and obedience when these rulers and authorities exercise unjust authority, but for now, we must establish that all governing authorities have been instituted by God and that all people everywhere, including Christians, must be subject to them.
Why This Temporary, Delegated Authority?
This arrangement from God, where he has given a temporary, delegated authority to human governors and rulers even after the session of Christ, begs the question of “Why?” Why has God put this system into place? What purpose to do these governors and rulers serve, especially considering that many of them are not even Christians themselves? To answer that question we need to go back to the very beginning of the Bible, to the book of Genesis, to the state of the world just before the flood of Noah. In the sixth chapter of Genesis it states:
Genesis 6:5 5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:11-13 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violencethrough them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Genesis 6:5 describes the heart of mankind in its post-fall, corrupted, sinful state. Genesis 6:11-13 then describes the outworking of that post-fall heart of mankind. The earth was filled with violence. Now the violence mentioned is not without context. The post-fall world was filled with people who were the direct descendants of Cain, the first murderer, the first shedder of blood in the Bible. Cain’s violence against his brother Abel was a violence that he passed on to his own descendants. Consider the words of Lamech, one of Cain’s descendants listed in Genesis 4:
Genesis 4:23–24 (ESV) — 23 Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 24 If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
When Genesis 6:11-13 states that the earth was filled with violence, think bloodshed. This was the heritage of Cain’s descendants, and that heritage spread to nearly all the rest of the descendants of Adam and Eve. Through them, the earth was filled with violence, with bloodshed.
According Genesis 6:11-13, it was this state of the earth that caused God to pour out his wrath and judgment against all of mankind in the form of a flood upon the entirety of the earth (see Matt 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27; 2 Pet 2:5). The flood was used by God to cleanse the earth of the violence and bloodshed of mankind that had filled and polluted it (compare Num 35:33). Only Noah and his family were saved from that wrath and judgment (compare Heb 11:7 1 Pet 3:20). Thus, the post-fall, corrupted, sinful heart of man and the outworking actions of violence and bloodshed were the root causes of the flood of Noah.
Now after the judgment and cleansing of the flood, God made a covenant with Noah (see Gen 6:18 and 9:8-17) to never again flood the world in judgment. Consider God’s words of promise to Noah in Genesis 8.
Genesis 8:20-21 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
Notice how God, in verse 21, declares in this covenant that the post-fall, corrupted, sinful heart of mankind was still in the same state as it was before flood (compare Gen 6:5). This is significant considering that this post-fall state of the heart of mankind was the cause of the subsequent actions of violence and bloodshed that filled the earth and brought about the judgment of the flood in the first place. God will not destroy the earth again with a flood even though the post-fall condition of the heart of mankind has not changed.
As a matter of fact, in this declaration from Genesis 8, God goes on to promise that He will preserve the created order and sustain mankind’s continued existence in it.
Genesis 8:22-9:-3 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” 1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Notice how God promises to preserve the created order and mankind’s continued existence in it by first sustaining the seasons so that the earth may bring forth is produce (verse 8:22), and then by sustaining the fertility of mankind that the human race might continue to grow and flourish (verse 9:1), and finally by sustaining the animal and plant life that they may be food for mankind (verses 9:2-3). All of this blessing and continued sustenance of the created order, and mankind’s continued existence in it, is promised by God even though the heart of mankind still remains in its post-fall corrupted, sinful state. Again, this is the same post-fall state of the heart that brought about the judgment and disaster of the flood. So what then is going to keep the world from reverting back to the violent state in which it was just prior to the flood?
In the next verses of Genesis 9, God also establishes the means by which mankind and the created order will be preserved, preserved not only from the wrath of God, but also from the state of violence that filled the earth in Genesis 6.
Genesis 9:4-6 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
Notice in this passage, there is a return to the issue of blood and bloodshed which was the problem that had filled the pre-flood world and that had led to the near-total destruction of mankind and the former created order. Since God has promised to preserve mankind and the created order from His wrath and destruction, He now requires that mankind shed blood for blood in order to restrain the spread of violence throughout all the earth. Yet what does that look like? How does this requirement of blood shed restrain the shedding of the blood of man?
Notice the language of Genesis 9:6. God has now given man the authority to require blood for blood, implying that there is also to be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. This is language that is descriptive of Old Testament judicial law applied in cases of crime and punishment. Consider these passages from the law codes of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Leviticus 24:17–22 (ESV) — 17 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. 18 Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. 21 Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. 22 You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.”
Deuteronomy 19:18-21 (ESV) 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
This concept of crime and punishment is known as the Lex Talionis, the law of retribution. The purpose of applying the Lex Talionis is to bring about a fair and even distribution of justice where the punishment fits the crime and the crime fits the punishment like weights on a balance scale. (Lamech’s words in Genesis 4:23-24 show that this was not practiced prior to the flood. Rather, retribution was doled out disproportionately resulting in increasing, disproportionate retribution that filled the world with greater and greater violence.) Notice, however, in Deuteronomy 19:19-20 that this law of retribution, the Lex Talionis, is also meant to be a fearful and terrifying restraint upon the actions of the evildoer who still has that post-fall, corrupted, sinful heart. The application of the Lex Talionis, first given in Genesis 9:6, functions then as a means of preventing, punishing, and purging evil from society.
What man then has the authority and responsibility for applying the Lex Talionis in matters of crime and punishment? In conjunction with Genesis 9:6, the passages from Leviticus and Deuteronomy communicate that this authority and responsibility is given specifically to civil magistrates. In fact, for centuries Christian interpreters have understood this requirement of blood for blood in Genesis 9:6 to be the first founding and establishment of human civil government. In His covenant with Noah, God instituted civil government in order to keep law and order and to preserve society by applying the Lex Talionis, the law of retribution, to the evildoer, the one who still has that post-fall, corrupted sinful heart that brought about the violence-filled earth of Genesis 6 and the wrathful flood of God’s judgment in Genesis 7-8. Thus, human civil governments exist as a temporary, common grace from God to restrain the fallen heart of man and to preserve the created order for the first coming of Christ and the subsequent redemption of all of his people.
So what then? Now that Christ has already come the first time, and is now at the right hand of the Father, reigning and ruling over all the earth, what is going to happen once all of his people are eventually redeemed? The Bible tells us that Christ will then come on the clouds of heaven, and all of those temporary governing authorities will either willingly hand over their rulership to Christ, or Christ will shatter them in his wrath and take their rulership from them by the might of his power.
Psalm 110:5 (ESV) — 5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
1 Corinthians 15:24 (ESV) — 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
Revelation 11:15 (ESV) — 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Thus, after Christ has taken over all rulership to himself, there will no longer be any need for this present created order to be preserved by human civil government. This created order will be burned up (Isa 51:6; 2 Pet 3:10-12), and Christ will then consummate his kingdom in a new heavens and a new earth (Rev 21-22).
Conclusion
While Christians await the eventual return of King Jesu, God has established human governing authorities to preserve the created order until the full redemption of all his people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Until that time comes, all people everywhere, including Christians, are to submit to these governing authorities because they are God’s servants for the common good (Rom 13:4). They are ministers of God, striking fear into the hearts evildoers and carrying out the wrath of God upon them (Rom 13:3, 6). To resist these governing authorities is to resist what God has appointed for the preservation of the civil society and the created order (Rom 13:1-2).
Christians, however, should not put their trust in governing authorities (Ps 146:3-4) to bring heaven to earth or to change the hearts of the people in the culture. That is not the purpose for which God instituted them. Governing authorities have no more power to change hearts than the Law of God has the power to make people righteous. That is not the function of the Law of God, and that is not the function of governing authorities. Governing authorities can only restrain hearts with the threat of retribution; they cannot change them.
Yet Christians should not be discouraged by the current political order, nor the state of the hearts of the people of their culture. Politics and culture are temporary. The sin of the culture is merely being restrained, and the current political order is merely the restraint. One day, King Jesus will come and put an end to the current political order and will sweep away the wicked and the evildoer. One day, King Jesus will establish his Kingdom with his people whose own hearts he himself has changed through the working of his Spirit, and they will reign with him in righteousness forever.
Josh Wilson is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Park Hills, MO, and is a professor of Bible at Missouri Baptist University, professor of Old Testament at International Reformed Baptist Seminary, and professor of Hebrew at Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a part of the leadership team for Founders Midwest and has been a speaker at the Founders Midwest Conference. If you would like more information about Founders Midwest and the annual conference, be sure to check out our Facebook page or visit our website for more information.