To help Christians make sense of their relationship to the government, this article provides a simple, biblical, and theological outline of this relationship.
Under each of the points below, it links to other resources that provide more detailed explanations. The following does not intend to be anything like a comprehensive guide.
It merely aims to be a very simple and basic resource for Christians who want to think more carefully about their relationship to governing authorities.
1. God institutes government (the Bible, but Romans 13 too).
To read an article that outlines how Romans 13 fits into the big picture of God’s governance of his creation, click here.
2. Satan corrupts government (the Bible, but Revelation 13 too).
To read an article that balances Romans 13 with the book of Revelation, a book that shows how money and power can corrupt governments, click here.
3. Christians honour God’s authority by honouring governing authorities (Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, the Bible).
The example of the early Christian apologists in the 100s helps to make sense of what honouring authorities looks like when we are outside of political power and viewed with suspicion.
You can read an article that takes a look at these apologists by clicking here.
4. Christians resist lawfully by asking other governmental types to legally resist, by awaiting other means of God’s providence, by not obeying positive commands to do evil, or by proclaiming future judgment (God keeps the score).
To help make sense of these ways of resistance, check out Brad Littlejohn’s article on how the reformers formulated a resistance theory here.
Paul Carter has also written on civil disobedience here, discussing passive disobedience (i.e. not obeying an evil command as in Acts 5).
Justin Martyr (100–165) illustrates what it looks like to proclaim God’s coming judgment to rulers (click here).
5. Governments govern by natural law and conscience, and they should also govern by obeying the Bible. If they do not do the second, they necessarily use the first. Which is how God regularly guides nations (it’s part of his Providence). Natural law simply means recognizing the order that God put into creation.
Steven Wedgeworth has written a helpful introduction to natural law for Desiring God, which you can read by clicking here.
I also wrote a little introduction to natural law, which is more informal than Wedgeworth’s that you can read here.
Here I also make a biblical case for natural theology or what we can know about God from nature. There is an overlap here with natural law.
6. Despite what we might think, God reigns over all nations at all times in every way. He turns heads of kings. He raises up Pharaoh. He brings low Nebuchadnezzar. Assyria is his axe. So God is not waiting for nations to adopt biblical law before he sits as king.
These statements come from the Bible. So read the relevant Bible verses, some of which you can find cited here.
Also, Ian Clary and I briefly discuss Nebuchadnezzar in our podcast on civil government and the Christian from Calvin’s Institutes.
7. Christians are the church, the body of Christ, whose primary guidance is Scripture and Spirit. They also recognize and follow natural law since the law of nature is part of God’s eternal law just as biblical law is. God’s eternal law is identical to God’s moral character—He is Who He is.
While it might be a bit overwhelming, I try to lay out how the Bible and theology distinguish law in this article. But the short version is that God’s eternal law is identical to his very being. And because he created the world, he imposed order unto it. That order can be seen in both natural law and in moral law (the Ten Commandments).
John Calvin explains, “It is a fact that the law of God which we call the moral law is nothing else than a testimony of natural law and of that conscience which God has engraved upon the minds of men” (Inst. 4.20.16).
8. The basic distinction between government and church is this: the government exists to promote peace and order (roads, trade, defence, etc.). The church promotes the Word and Sacraments. These are practical distinctions, but ones rooted in the nature and authority of the church and state that God has instituted.
The word Sacraments refers to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Word refers to preaching, although it also implies proclaiming the Word, which is Jesus. This distinction is massively important, and you can read more about in my article here.
Brad Littlejohn provides a more academic presentation of this two-government theology in his article here. I also gave a talk on this doctrine here.
9. No government can bind our religious conscience and our faith, since we are united to Christ by the Spirit. For this reason, one can—in Luther’s language—be a perfectly free lord of all men while in chains as Paul was and we might eventually be.
Reformational theology teaches that God alone justifies us and frees our conscience. And so any outward restraint (imprisonment or otherwise) cannot touch our free conscience before God.
This vital doctrine plays a central role in reformed theology and has been somewhat forgotten today. Please read this article which outlines how it all works.
10. So civil freedom is not Christian freedom. Christian freedom means by faith we unite to Christ by the Spirit and no government law can impede our salvation. The state therefore cannot bind the Christian’s conscience. It’s an impossibility.
You can read this article which outlines how Christian freedom and the conscience work.
I also wrote an article on Martin Luther’s view of law and gospel, which discusses Christian freedom. You can read it here.
11. The state can bind our outward actions as they pertain to our civil or outward acts.
When someone feels they cannot do a certain civil action, we generally call this a conscientious objection. Confusing this category with our conscience before God is legalism, false, and damning because it makes our conscience before God reliant on the government who can bind our external actions. But we are perfectly free lords of all men. Christ has set us free.
As noted above, I wrote an article on Martin Luther’s view of law and gospel, which discusses Christian freedom. You can read it here.
You may also want to read this article which outlines how Christian freedom and the conscience work.
