Romans 13: The Orthodox Christian View
This is article two in the Educational Theology Series (ETS).
This essay introduces argumentation around Romans 13, found in the Bible, from a historical orthodox Christian doctrinal perspective.
A typical statement might be, “You cannot persecute someone by asking them to obey the law. Everyone is expected to obey the law.”
A typical response to this might be, “Would you have argued that to someone hiding you from deportation to a death camp? Do you mean all the laws existing in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and communist China, the Khmer Rouge, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.? Are you arguing that the prophet Daniel should have disobeyed God to worship King Nebuchadnezzar II’s golden statue?”
Norman Geisler's 2004 Systematic Theology: Volume Two discussed the subject of God and His creation and is recommended for a requisite theological understanding concerning God and His creation.
In chapter 13, "God's Holiness and Righteousness," Geisler (2004) discusses God's moral and non-moral attributes and characteristics. In chapter 23, Geisler (2004) discusses God's sovereignty over creation.
First, God’s holiness and righteousness: With respect to holiness, Geisler (2004) wrote "Holiness is both a metaphysical and a moral attribute: It refers to His [God's] absolute moral uniqueness as well as His total separateness from creatures. As established above, in one sense holiness is an overall attribute of God that distinguishes Him from everything else that exists. God's righteousness refers to His absolute justice or rightness. Righteousness is the intrinsic characteristic of God wherein He is the ultimate standard of just and right actions and because of which He must [ultimately] punish all unjust and evil acts" (p. 336).
Second, God’s sovereignty: In chapter 23, Geisler (2004) discusses God's sovereignty over creation writing "Technically, sovereignty is not an attribute of God, but rather an activity of God in relation to His universe. Sovereignty is God's control over His creation, dealing with His governance over it: Sovereignty is God's rule over all reality. Sovereignty should be distinguished from other related activities of God" (p. 536). Geisler concludes with, "The biblical, theological, and historical foundation of God's complete and sovereign control over all human events-past, present, and future- stand firm. Challenges both from within and without are easily answered" (p. 561).
The point here is that it is within the context of the one true holy, righteous, and sovereign creator God that the Bible (1997) teaches (de facto) human-made laws which genuinely oppose creator God's sovereign (de jure) moral law are ungodly and to be resisted (in some cases disobeyed) until they can be overturned.
This is why the Dutch Ten Boom family was morally justified in breaking human-made laws when they hid Jews from arrest and deportation to death camps, for example, while the ungodly human-made laws created by the Nazis to facilitate the murder of such innocents constituted a misuse of government and Romans 13 (Boom et al., 2008).
This is why Brother Andrew was morally justified in delivering Bibles to persecuted Christians in areas under the control of authoritarian state atheists while the human-made laws the state atheists created to prevent people from obtaining a Bible constituted a misuse of government and Romans 13 (Andrew et al., 2015).
The biblical model is that people are not to work against creator God, even when a human-made law (or body of laws) has been established to do so. Jesus and His apostles broke human-made laws. The Bible lists examples that include Jesus violating human-made laws to supernaturally heal sick people and the apostles violating human-made laws by spreading the Christian message.
The apostle Paul’s ministry to convert Gentiles in the Roman Empire went against Roman law. Acts 16:21 states Paul was "proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to practice, since we are Romans” (NASB, 1997). Paul was imprisoned (and likely killed) by the Roman government for such acts of civil disobedience (demonstrating that while the Roman government did not have the moral right to imprison and kill him for spreading creator God's gospel of Jesus Christ, they appear to have had the ability to imprison and kill him for doing so).
In fact, all the apostles were involved in spreading the Christian gospel. Revelations 13, 18, and Acts 17:6-7 describe the apostles as "men who have upset the world" and who "all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus" (NASB, 1997).
Understand; however, the Bible records that Jesus conformed to human law (including Roman law) which did not impede God's will (and plan of salvation for humanity in which His life, death, and resurrection are instrumental, as chronicled in orthodox Christian history). A well-known example of this is Mark 12:17.
It is also important to understand that Jesus refused to align with the Jewish revolutionaries of the period who would go on to mount three Jewish revolts against the Roman Empire, which were ultimately crushed by the Romans between 66 and 135 CE. Jesus demonstrated to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate in John 18:36 that He was not sent by God to establish an earthly kingdom with a military to take over the world as is often attributed to Islam (see Warner, 2014) and Marxism (see Lee & Bullivant, 2016).
Governments (i.e., higher powers) are ordained by the creator God of the Bible for the benefit of humanity within the parameters of normative morality but are always superseded by the de jure highest power (e.g., the creator God of the Bible) when they conflict.
God does not cosign, support, nor promote wickedness even when certain people manage to have it codified into law and engage in fallacious argumentation attempting to justify it. In whatever form government takes, higher powers are always beneath the creator God of the Bible. It is with this understanding that the biblical record makes clear Jesus did not accept every human-made law by governing authorities as ultimately equivalent with God’s will. Jesus often upset the status quo and challenged the authorities’ claim to what is right and true. And, so have his disciples.
In Romans 13: The True Meaning of Submission (Baldwin & Baldwin, 2011) and the referenced video lectures (Baldwin, 2019), Baldwin argues that a genuine view of scripture prevents us from viewing the demands of society and its rulers with uncritical acceptance and automatic approval arguing that the government which persecutes genuine Christians; which passes laws to harm the righteous on behalf of the immoral; which dispenses injustice instead of justice; which perpetrates moral decay and spiritual deception has been usurped by forces diametrically opposed to the creator God of the Bible’s intents and purposes.
Christ nor his apostles ever taught, nor would ever have taught, that Christians are morally obligated by the holy creator God of the Bible to perform wicked acts to satisfy ungodly human-made laws.
Brauch (1990) summarized the apostle Paul’s argument in Romans:
“It is God’s intent that human life in the context of community will be life in harmony and peace and order. Since life in community becomes chaotic and anarchistic without the presence of regulatory laws enforced by authorities, the presence of these is part of God’s overall intent for human existence... Insofar as the state and its rulers exercise their authority in keeping with God’s intent, they act as God’s ministers for the common good of society. If, however, the authority of the state runs counter to this divine intent, then that authority should not be understood as God-given and Christians may expect to suffer for honoring God in disobeying laws which are ungodly” (p. 82).
While some cases of Christian resistance are clear, such as the previously mentioned case of the Ten Boom Family (Boom et al., 2008) working in the Netherlands to save innocent lives during World War II, others are not. A debated example is the American Revolution. Some Christians argue that it was biblically justified; however, other important voices in Christian scholarship argue that it was not biblically justified.
There is a consensus; however, around the exercise of moral self-defense to protect and preserve innocent human life when it becomes necessary.
Also, consensus exists around “Just War Theory,” as interpreted by Church fathers like Saint Augustine (2015) and Thomas Aquinas (1948), with respect to individuals in law enforcement and the military being empowered to discharge their lawful duties in a moral manner.
Whichever example is reviewed, Baldwin & Baldwin (2011) believe that “Romans chapter 13 presumes that a person's submission is conducted towards true and real government" (p. 13) and "as government's actions become more and more evil, the cause of resistance towards government becomes more and more righteous” (p. 16).
Ideally, this is understood in the context of peaceful resistance which Brach (1990) summarized and only when necessary. As the apostle Paul wrote, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people" (NASB, 1997, Romans 12:18).
Bibliography
Aquinas, T. (1948). The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.; Vols. 1–5). Christian Classics. (Original work published 1274 C.E.).
Andrew, B., Sherrill, J. L., & Sherrill, E. (2015). God's smuggler. Chosen Books.
Baldwin, C. (2019, December 4). The true meaning of Romans 13 (Parts 1-4). | Liberty Fellowship
Baldwin, T., & Baldwin, C. (2011). Romans 13: The true meaning of submission (2nd ed.). Liberty Defense League.
Boom, C. T., Sherrill, E., & Sherrill, J. L. (2008). The hiding place (35th Anniversary edition ed.). Chosen Books.
Brauch, M. (1990). Hard sayings of Paul. Hodder and Stoughton.
Geisler, N. (2004). Systematic theology (Vols. 1-4). Bethany House.
Kaiser, W. C., Jr., Davids, P. H., Bruce, F. F., & Brauch, M. T. (1996). Hard sayings of the Bible (pp. 574–576). InterVarsity.
Lee, L., & Bullivant, S. (2016). A dictionary of atheism. Oxford University Press.
New American Standard Bible. (1997). (Original work published 1960). The Lockman Foundation
Runge, S. E. (2014). Romans: A visual and textual guide. Lexham Press.
Runge, S. E. (2015). Discourse grammar of the Greek New Testament: A practical introduction for teaching and exegesis. Hendrickson.
Saint Augustine of Hippo. (2015). Reply to Faustus the Manichaean. Aeterna Press. (Original work published 400 C.E.).
Warner, B. (2014). Political Islam. https://www.politicalislam.com/
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