Thoughts From Romans 13 (part 3)

Last time we identified Paul’s two reasons why we should “be subject to the governing authorities”:

1. Every authority has been established by God. That refers to their origin.
2. The governing authority is God’s servant to approve good and punish evil. That’s its purpose.

That’s a little from Romans 13. But as I said last time, it might be a good idea to back up a little and take a look at the origins of governments. And human authority on earth really starts right at the beginning, in Genesis 1:

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:27-28

There’s the basic command for humanity on earth – be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over it. Of course, at this moment there is just one couple. You might say, we start with the “mini-government” of the family. But more on that later.

Of course there were governments in the years that followed, although we don’t know a lot about them. But let’s jump over that for now, and take a look at the new world after the flood. Genesis 9, and God’s covenant with Noah.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…

Genesis 9:1

There are various things in this covenant, and we won’t go over all of them. But you can see that we’re continuing with the commands from Genesis 1. But let’s jump down to verses 6-7:

“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
    by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

Genesis 9:6-7

Here we have more references to Genesis 1 – the commands of God for the human race to multiply, and a reference to the image of God – as we say in Latin, the imago Dei. God points out the incredible value of a person made in the image of God, laying down judgement for those who shed blood. And here we see a link to Romans 13:

…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.

Romans 13:4

So here we have a purpose for government – to bear the sword. In fact, the government is the original “avenger”.

And so we move on past Noah and Abraham and into the days of Moses, and we read about government in the law. Now, society still has a foundation in family – we have a nation organized around families and clans and tribes. But even above that, there is a form of government.

Here’s a good example. Let’s say someone kills your brother. You’re angry, and you want to avenge his death.

But maybe it’s not so simple. What if no one actually saw the murder take place? Or what if it was accidental?

Thanks be to God, He gave the Law. And that brings us to our second Latin phrase of the day (made famous by the work of Scottish pastor Samuel Rutherford), lex rex. Lex means Law, and rex means King. So the meaning is this – law is king. In other words, even the rulers of a nation, even a king, must still obey the law.

The opposite of lex rex has been common in history – rex lex. You guessed it – the king is the law. What the king says is law, no matter how arbitrary it may be. Whatever the king decides in the moment is the law.

There is only one case in which rex lex is a good thing – in the case of God Himself. The unchangeable, good God – His Word is Law. And His Law is not arbitrary and ever-changing, because His law comes from His very nature. And from the King of the Universe comes the Scripture – the Bible – which contains laws for our good.

For example, God tells us that there must be two or three witnesses before we can condemn someone (Deuteronomy 17:6). We need to have judges, and trials (Deuteronomy 1:15-17).

In fact, let’s get back to the man who killed your brother, and let’s say it was an accident. He was chopping wood, and the axe head fell off. Not because it wasn’t attached properly – it was just one of those things. It broke off, and hit your brother in the head, and that was it.

According to the law, that man is to be protected from you. And God established cities of refuge all throughout Israel, so that the man could run away and escape your vengeance (Numbers 35:9-34). The man would then have a proper trial.

And so, as the population grew, individual families were not enough to ensure justice in a sinful world. When your brother is killed, you will be angry. You won’t be impartial, and you may be more interested in revenge than in justice. And so God establishes the government, to approve good and punish evil.

In fact, we can see this exact concept right in Romans. First we read this:

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Romans 12:19

And then:

…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.

Romans 13:4

Don’t chase down and kill the man who killed your brother. God is the avenger. And how will He avenge? Well, we know all about the final judgement. But a few verses later, Paul explains. One way in which God will avenge is through the government. The government is God’s avenger, on an earthly level. God has given human government that responsibility. Justice before the law.

That’s just one example, but it will give you a bit of a glimpse into why God established government in a sinful world. And this is why we are to be subject to human government – because it was established by God (its origin), and it punishes evil and approves good (purpose).

Next time we’ll look at what else Paul has to say, and hopefully start to connect this section of Scripture with the parallel passages we talked about earlier.