Submission to the Government as Worship to God– Romans
13:1-7
Dr. Scott Haffeman
ROMANS 13:1-7 (English Standard
Version)
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. Therefore whoever
resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those
who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good
conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in
authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval.
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. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid
God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason
you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God,
attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes
to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to
whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. In the shadow of
the cross, in which the Jewish and Roman authorities joined together
to kill the innocent Son of God, not to mention the brutalities of
governments ever since, Paul’s command in Romans 13:1 is as shocking
as it is straightforward: “Let every person be subject to the ruling
authorities.” Many have therefore attempted to rid us of its import,
taking Paul’s command to be the naďve statement of an optimist in
the early days of Nero’s reign when things still looked promising,
or the advice of a political pragmatist seeking to keep the young
churches in Rome out of trouble. Others, realizing its misuse as a
justification for totalitarian oppression, have ripped it out of
Scripture altogether as the compromising interpolation of a later,
compromised Christian.
There is no textual or contextual evidence for such a radical
move. Nor was Paul a Pollyanna or simply a pragmatist. He himself
had been arrested unjustly and severely beaten by both the Jewish
and Roman magistrates as a law-breaker and troublemaker because of
his commitment to Jesus (2 Cor 11:24-25). Indeed, his life would
ultimately culminate in martyrdom. And he taught that at the end of
the age an evil ruler would arise in one last, great rebellion
against the Lord and his people (2 Thess.2:1-12).
Rather, Paul’s admonition to submit to the government is a sober
application of what it means to present ourselves as living
sacrifices to God (Rom 12: 1). Theology and biblical theology, not
politics, i.e., the sovereignty of God and the teaching of the
Scriptures, not the social order, drive Paul’s command. In
particular, Paul’s command is grounded in God’s will: “For there is
no authority except by God,” which means, by implication, that
“those that exist have been appointed by God” (13:1bc). For the
Scriptures declare that every ruler rules at God’s command (2 Sam
12:7-8; Isa 41:2-4; 45:1-7; Jer 27:4-7; Dan 2:21, 37-38; 4:17, 25;
Prov 8:15-16; Job 12:18). Though inscrutable to our finite vision,
every conquest and every election takes place in accord with God’s
designs and directives. As Tom Schreiner points out, even the
“beast” of Revelation 13 was given his power by God (Rev 13:5, 7,
14, 15).
The unflinching gravity of Paul’s command is therefore grounded
in the greatness of his God. Paul sees the hand of God so firmly at
work behind every government, even the harsh Roman empire, with its
growing worship of Caesar, that he concludes that those who resist
or oppose the governing authority are actually opposing God, an
offense to be judged ultimately by God himself (v. 2). To submit to
the government is to submit to God, worshipping God for his
sovereignty over all human magistrates. Not to do so is to rebel
against the One who governs the universe. Thus, those who oppose
their government will suffer judgment because ruling authorities
exist as God’s servants, an avenger of (God’s) wrath against those
who do evil, in order to support and praise the good (vv. 3-4). Paul
consequently emphasizes that the authorities are God’s servants
since they are authorized to do what no individual can: revenge evil
as God’s instrument of wrath (Rom 12:19). Paul does not flinch from
saying that governments are God’s representatives, called to embody
his will.
Here too Paul’s words shock us in view of the realities of
history. It is a tragic truism that often just the opposite takes
place: unjust governments (and which government is not fallen?) have
a track record of persecuting or tacitly supporting the persecution
of those who do what is good, not least of all when the “good” is
Jesus and the ethics of his kingdom. And again, together with the
prophets and apostles, Jesus himself bore this truth on his
back.
So it is crucial to recognize that the government’s divinely
ordained job description in verses 3-4 is not a prophetic promise of
what will be true but a proverbial principle of what ought to be
true, and of what, in many situations, by God’s grace, is the case.
These statements of principle are therefore also commands and
warnings to all rulers who, as God’s “servants,” fail to follow
God’s principles, governing for their own good rather than for the
good of their people.
Nevertheless, despite the constant failures of fallen
governments, Paul draws from the principles of verses 3-4 the same
admonition with which he began his argument: “therefore it is
necessary for one to be in submission” (v. 5a). Now, however, he
adds an additional reason for doing so: given what one knows about
the sovereignty of God behind all authorities (vv. 1-2), and the
purpose of all authority (vv. 3-4), it becomes a matter of
conscience, not merely a means of avoiding punishment, to submit!
Always the pastor, Paul concludes his discussion by applying his
general principle to their specific situation. In spite of the
uproar brewing in Rome at that time over the abuses of the
tax-collectors (see the commentaries), for the Romans to submit to
the authorities will mean paying their taxes of all kinds (v. 6a).
Even the Roman authorities, who not long ago expelled Jews and
Christians from the city on trumped up charges (!), are God’s
“public ministers” (leitourgoi, v. 6b, the same word used of priests
in the temple!). Paul’s use of this terminology indicates that there
is no sacred/secular distinction in his thinking; the authorities
serve God in civil society in the same way that priests serve in the
temple and that Paul himself serves on the mission field (Rom.
15:16).
What then does this mean for us today? First, as Paul’s own
example shows, we are to worship God by witnessing to his “good and
acceptable and perfect will” with our own words and deeds (Rom
12:2), no matter what the political and social consequences. Our
ultimate governing authority is Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and
Lord of the nations. We do what he says. On this, Scripture is
clear.
Our submission to God takes place, however, in a divinely-established political order that demands not only our obedience in civil matters but also our livelihood, albeit often unjustly (complaints about taxation are nothing new!). Worshipping God therefore entails submitting to such authorities as well. We are not above our Master (Mark 12:13-17par.; Matt 17:24-27). History shows, moreover, that the call to worship God by submitting to the authorities may cost not just our money but even our lives. Here too we are not above our Master. Like Jesus, our submission to unjust punishment, even to the point of death, testifies to our confidence in God’s loving sovereignty and righteous judgment, under which both the ruler and the ruled stand (see 1 Peter 2:13-23). Submission to governing authorities as an act of worship to God, even when they return evil for good, does not baptize their actions; it rebukes their arrogance (our lives, like their rule, are in God’s hands!) and calls them to repentance before the judgment of the One whom they are called to represent. In all things, therefore, we are to speak of Christ, live like Christ, and, if need be, die for Christ.
DR.SCOTT HAFEMANN is Mary French Rockefeller Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He has written numerous articles and authored or edited nine books. Among his most recent are "Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect" (InterVarsity Press 2002), which he edited; "The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Understanding the Heart of the Bible (Crossway Books 2001); and 2 Corinthians"," NIV Application Commentary" (Zondervan 2000). Dr. Hafemann has served in full and part-time positions in Evangelical Mennonite, Community Baptist and Congregational (Baptistic) churches.