This series covers our study through the book of Romans. These sermons with careful and slow exegetical expository coverage move through each chapter and verse following the theme and thesis of the book that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. These sermons were primarily preached by Pastor Duane Smets from April 2005 to November 2008 at The Resolved Church, San Diego, CA in its first three years of existence. Audio from the first year is unavailable.

   Audio & Manuscripts Below

The Gospel Thesis
 Listen     Read    1:1-7 |  An Introduction To Romans
 Listen     Read    1:2-6 |  The Validity, Content & Effect of The Gospel
 Listen     Read    1:7-15 |  Romans Is For God
 Listen     Read    1:14-15 |  Romans Is For Us
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  The Gospel Is The Power Of God Unto Salvation
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Thank God For Jews
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification By Faith
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification & Habbakuk
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  We Are Beggars. This Is True

The Problem Of Sin
 Listen     Read    1:18 |  The Wrath of God
 Listen     Read    1:18-21 |  What Is Plain About God
 Listen     Read    1:18-32 |  The Suppression of Truth and Consequences
 Listen     Read    2:1-11 |  Seek Glory (Part I)
 Listen     Read    2:5-11 |  Seek Glory (Part II)
 Listen     Read    2:11-16 |  The Impartial God
 Listen     Read    2:17-19 |  Circumcision of the Heart
 Listen     Read    3:1-18 |  Moribund No More
 Listen     Read    3:19-20 |  Put Your Hand Over Your Mouth
 Listen     Read    3:21 |  Righteousness From Without
 Listen     Read    3:21-23 |  No Distinction

The Promised Savior
 Listen     Read    3:24-25 |  Propitiation
 Listen     Read    3:25-26 |  Righteousness Demonstrated
 Listen     Read    3:27-30 |  One God & One Salvation
 Listen     Read    3:31 |  The Law Upheld
 Listen     Read    4:1-12 |  The Imputation of Righteouness
 Listen     Read    4:13-17 |  The Promise Secured
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part I)
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part II)
 Listen     Read    4:22-24 |  The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    4:25 |  Who Killed Jesus?
 Listen     Read    5:1 |  Peace With God
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  In The Throne Room
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  Rejoice In The Hope Of The Glory of God
 Listen     Read    5:3-5 |  Rejoicing and Suffering
 Listen     Read    5:6-8 |  Love and Some Verses
 Listen     Read    5:8-10 |  Salvation In Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    5:11 |  Joy In God
 Listen     Read    5:12-14 |  We Are From Adam
 Listen     Read    5:15-17 |  Jesus Is Better Than Adam
 Listen     Read    5:18-19 |  The Guilt & The Gift
 Listen     Read    5:20-21 |  It’s All About Grace

New Life In Christ
 Listen     Read    6:1-4 |  Baptism: The Life of the Buried Dead
 Listen     Read    6:5-7 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:8-11 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part II)
 Listen     Read    6:12-14 |  God Reigning In You
 Listen     Read    6:15-18 |  Master Jesus (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:19-23 |  Master Jesus (Part II)

Bearing Fruit For God
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part I
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part II
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part III

Law & Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 3
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 4

Inner Confliction & The Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 3

No Condemnation In Christ
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 5

Walking According To The Spirit
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 5

The Jesus Family
  Listen    Read    8:12-13  |  Jesus Family Does Not Lose the Battles Which Count
  Listen    Read    8:14-15  |  Jesus Family Welcomes Members and Leads Them
  Listen    Read    8:14  |  The Family of Old
  Listen    Read    8:15-16  |  Adopted Forever
  Listen    Read    8:15  |  The Great Father We Call Abba
  Listen    Read    8:17  |  The Future of the Family

Suffering And The Glory Of God
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  Natural Evil & Moral Evil
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  The Groaning of God’s Spirit
 Listen     Read    8:26-27  |  Prayer & Suffering
 Listen     Read    8:28  |  How God Works it For Good
 Listen     Read    8:29  |  The Image of Christ
 Listen     Read    8:28-30  |  Predestination
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Evil & The Existence of God
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Barriers for the Believer

The God(ness) of God
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part V)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part I)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part II)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part III)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part IV)

Viva La Vida Christus: Living The Life Of Christ
  Listen    Read    12:1-2  |  All of Life is Worship
  Listen    Read    12:3-8  |  Humility, our Gifts, and Real Life
  Listen    Read    12:9-21  |  The Life of Genuine Love
  Listen    Read    13:1-7  |  Life Under Temporal Law
  Listen    Read    13:8-10  |  Life Under Eternal Law
  Listen    Read    13:11-14  |  Living in Light of the Day
  Listen    Read    14:1-2  |  The Principle of Preference (Part I)
  Listen    Read    14:13-15:3  |  The Principle of Preference (Part II)
  Listen    Read    15:4-13  |  The Principle of Preference (Part III)
  Listen    Read    15:14-33  |  Fulfilling the Mission
  Listen    Read    16:1-27  |  Entrusted to God

  Listen         

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

October 12th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“Life in Light of the Day”
Romans 13:11-14

Introduction

Good morning. So we’re half way through our fall series, Viva La Vida. Today we finish up with chapter 13 in the book of Romans. This week’s sermon title is “Living in Light of the Day.” I begin today with a part of the story written by John Bunyan called “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

The main character of Pilgrim’s Progress is a man named “Christian.” Christian is on a journey, taking a trip from a place called, “City of Destruction” to a new home, a place called the “Celestial City.” The journey is treacherous and there are many obstacles to overcome. There’s the “Slough of Despond” a miry swamp one easily sinks into under the weight of guilt. There’s the “Doubting Castle” he must pass through, where the “Giant Despair” lives and the only way out is with a key called “Promise.” There are valleys and rivers and places of rest and places of great danger and difficulty. Christian is traveling according to a map given to him by some shepherds. The map guides him on a path called “The King’s Highway.” In the second part of the book Christian’s family is following him with the help of a guide and while on the King’s Highway they go through the “Enchanted Ground.” While there here is what they experience there…

“By this time they got to the Enchanted Ground, where the air naturally tended to make one drowsy. The place was all grown over with briers and thorns…where was an enchanted arbour (a shaded spot for resting), upon which, if a man sits, or if a man sleeps, some say they shall never rise or wake again in this world…Now, when it was light, their guide could well enough tell how to miss those ways that led wrong, yet, in the dark, he was put to a test; but he had in his pocket a map of all ways leading to or from the Celestial City: therefore he struck a light (for he never went anywhere without his matchbox), and took a view of his map, which in all probability, without it they would have been smothered in the mud; for just a little way before them, and that at the end of the cleanest way too, was a pit–none knows how deep–full of nothing but mud, there made on purpose to destroy the pilgrims who fell into it.

And they came to an arbour and there lay two men whose names were Heedless and Too-Bold. These two went thus far on pilgrimage; but here, being wearied with their journey, they sat down to rest themselves, and so fell fast asleep. When the pilgrims saw them, they stood still and shook their heads; for they knew that the sleepers were in a pitiful case. Then they consulted what to do: whether to go on and leave them in their sleep, or to step to them and try to awake them. So they concluded to go to them and wake them–that is, if they could; but with this caution, namely, to take heed that they themselves did not sit down, nor embrace the offered benefit of that arbour.

(They tried desperately but the two men refused to wake. Then the guide struck up a light and) now they could see one another better, and the way they should walk. (Now, when they were almost through the forest and they came upon a man who was kneeling down and praying. So they went up to him quietly and waited for him to finish. After praying the man got up and looked walked ahead down the path to a clearing. Everyone followed him and when they got to the clearing they could see it at last, the Celestial City so close. And they all began to run.)”

I start out with that story this morning because it captures some key elements of our text in Romans today. The analogies or parallels between the Christian life being a journey fighting sleep and walking in the light. The key theme or thrust of our passage today is urgency, that there is urgency or incumbency for immediate action. There are two main bases for ethics within Christianity. One is what we talked about last week, the eternal law of love. The other is the future, eschatology, what is ahead for us that is supposed to have a profound effect on how we live now.

Well, let’s read our text and pray over it.

Lord God would you help us today to gain much from your Word. For many of us would it fill out our view of our lives and the world we live in, how we live in it, and who we’re living for. Would it further mature us as individuals and the moral quality of our lives and would it inspire us as a community together support each other and walk together in the light, armor and person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

The Age We Are In – A Time Between Time (vs. 11-12a)

I have three main points we’ll move through today as we work with this Bible passage, “The Age We Are In,” “The Apocalypse to Come.” and “The Armor We Wear.” The first point comes from verse 11 and the first part of verse 12 and this issue of time and being a Christian.

Look at all the time references here. We “know the time.” “The hour has come.” “Salvation is nearer to us now.” “The night is far gone.” And “The day is at hand.” That’s five time references in one and half verses.

Time. Time has a lot to do with what it means to be human and what it means to be a Christian. God is outside of time but he created time when he created the world. God’s creation and the people he made and saves is the big story, that is the essence of true history. It is the story of who God is, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he has ahead.

There are two main time or age references in the Bible as I have taught you in the past. There is the old age, the age dominated by sin and evil since the garden of Eden, and there is the new age, the age of salvation free of sin and full of goodness that continues into heavenly eternity.

We spoke about that new age two weeks ago when we looked at how this chapter of Romans talks about the Christian’s relationship to the state. We learned the Christian is truly only a citizen, only a true part of one ruling government, a theocracy, where Jesus rules and reigns as King. We Christians believe Jesus is not just a spiritual crutch for the weak but is a real person who really came into this world as a God-man, who will really return, and when he does he will return not displaying his humility as a poor peasant carpenter but displaying his heavenly right and power as the king of all kings and he will set-up a physical kingdom here on earth.

So what we have are two ages or times, the age of the past and the age of the future. All of history falls into one of those two ages. Now here’s the deal, look at the text. The time and the hour has come. The reason the time and the hour has come is because Jesus has come, Jesus came into the world and he lived life the way it is supposed to be. The life of love for everyone, the life without sin, the life of continually giving God glory and thanks…and then Jesus died for death, the death we deserve for not living life right. When Jesus did that he dealt with sin and evil and he initiated or started the new age. So it’s begun since Jesus, the new future age.

But sin and evil are still all around a lot right? And salvation hasn’t yet fully happened right? You see salvation is mostly in regards to the future in the Bible, like here. Salvation is nearer. It’s not here yet, but it’s close. Salvation is to be saved from something…something bad that we don’t want to happen to us…that the wrath and judgment of God.

Sometimes we talk about already being saved, like Romans 8:24 and a few other passages do. When we talk that way as Christians what we are essentially talking about is being declared saved, we’ve received the hope or promise of salvation from God for our belief in Jesus. We are justified or made right with God through Jesus already through faith. We have a deposit of the Holy Spirit given to us. In that sense we are already saved, because God has already begun his work in us. We are saved now because have the security of being saved in the future.

Other times the Bible talks about salvation happening right now, like in 1 Corinthians 1:18 when it calls Christians “those who are being saved.” We actually get a sense of that here in our text for today don’t we? Salvation, the future, is nearer to us, since when? Since we “first believed.” When we first believed a process of purification or sanctification began in us, where we become less and less attracted to and entangled in sin and more and more attracted to and enraveled in righteousness. That’s the part of the Christian life which is a journey or is a process where progress is made…the being saved part, being saved from sin and wickedness in us.

Then there is the future, when we will all actually and physically be saved. There will be real danger, an eternity danger and we will escape it because of Jesus and will receive entrance into the Celestial City of joy and peace.

Now what we learn from this is that we live in an in-between time, a time between time, an already but not yet time (hand gesture). As Christians we’re a part of the new age to come, the future age of Jesus and his rule and reign. But we’re still also part of old age, the age of lingering sin and evil in us and around us. That creates some tension. I believe many many of the problem and difficulties you and I experience in this life as a Christian have to do with this tension. And that is the reason I believe God inspired this passage of Scripture for us…to teach us how to deal with the tension.

Essentially this passage calls us to put our attention and our focus on to the reality of the future age…Who we really are and what is really ahead for us in Christ. It is so easy for us as Christians just to live life the old way, like we are still just fully in the old age, but we’re not. Jesus has come…he has come into this world and into our lives and that changes things.

When we don’t realize this the analogy the Bible gives here is sleep, it is as though we have fallen asleep and forgotten what is really going on. Like the two men in The Pilgrim’s Progress, we can fall prey to an enchantment where the air and the age we live in can tend to make us drowsy and cause us to forget the reality of who God is, who we are as sinful humans, who Jesus is as God’s son, and the great significance of what Jesus has done for us.

This text stands as a wake up call to us to rise from our sleep. Sleep is an interesting thing. There was an interesting movie out not too ago called, “The Science of Sleep” where Stéphane, the main character becomes confused between what is real life and what he is actually dreaming. Have you guys ever had that experience? When you wake up and you can’t figure out if you’re dreaming or it’s real life?

Maybe you saw another movie, a little bit older, called “Waking Life.” It’s about a young man who is in this constant lucid dream like state. In it he listens to and participates in various philosophical discussions about things like reality, free will, our relationships with others, the meaning of life, existentialism, situation ethics and a whole host of other things.

Sleep. Have you fallen asleep? Are you walking through life just ignoring the real, lasting, eternal things as though you are asleep?

Sleep. Everyone sleeps. You cannot not sleep. The most I have ever gone without sleep was when I was in graduate school and I stayed awake for four days toward the end of writing my master’s thesis. I became a raving lunatic. My neck hurt so bad from bending over reading and typing, that I took a whole stack of books and set my computer on top of them so that I could just type while looking up. Amy thought I had completely gone nuts.

The Guiness World Book of Records says a man named Randy Gardner holds the record for not sleeping the longest. He stayed awake for 11 days before he crashed out. Everyone sleeps. And the Bible takes this common experience, sleep, and says that is what is like when live like God is not Lord of this world, that history is going somewhere, and that Jesus is who he said he was and will do what he said he would do.

I’ll give you another illustration. Have you ever tried to help someone? To really help someone? You give a listening ear and do your best to understand who they are and where they are coming from and what’s going on with them…and even still after all that it is just so clear to you what’s going on with them and what they need to do…but they just won’t listen. You just want to take the person and shake them and yell at them “WAKE UP!!!”

The other day I got in a conversation with a guy who is a senior in high school. He’s about to flunk out because he never goes to class. And the only thing the guy cares to talk about is gang’s. He wants to be in the SA’s. A big gang here in San Diego. This young man wants to be in the SA’s because “nobody messes with them, because if you do, they’ll kill your whole family in front of you.” I tried to tell the dude, “WAKE UP!” That’s what you want? People to be afraid of you because you will kill their family?! WAKE UP!

I actually feel like this a lot. Like the mission of my life is to call us all to WAKE UP! The realities of this world, of our lives, of our sin, of Jesus are so plain…and yet we so often refuse to wake up and get in gear.

The Apocalypse to Come – Jesus, Judgment and Redemption (vs.12-13a)

Well, after informing us that this is the age and hour of salvation and so we need to wake up, this text follows that positive call with a warning of judgment. This my second point for today, “The Apocalypse to Come.”

Look at verse 12 again, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” We’ll talk about clothes and armor and light in a minute, but first look at the contrast here between the night and the day.

Both the time when this book of the Bible was written and the culture of the land it was originally written to has a lot to do with this night and day stuff. They did not have the modern convenience of artificial lighting powered by electricity like we do today. All society was governed by the sun. Thus most people rose at dawn, just before the first glimpse of daylight. This was especially needed because in the middle east it gets really hot in the afternoon, so they would try and get the bulk of their work done early before the heat of the day.

Only slackers, fools, did not get up at the crack of dawn to work. You know these guys. A lot of dudes are like that in our day…living at his parent’s house playing video games until 4am and then sleeping in until noon.

That’s the wrong idea about life. The daytime is for working and the nighttime is for sleeping. The day is at hand! It’s time wake up and get up! The night is over. Look at verse 13, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime.” A parallel between righteous living and unrighteousness living. Between sin-free Jesus goodness living and guilt-infested evil living. The impetus or the thing propelling this urgency is “the day.”

Now the two words, “the day” was a technical phrase for Jews. Several of the Old Testament prophets talk about “the day.” It has two parts, a good part and a bad part. The bad part is it is the dark and furious wrathful judgment of God. Joel 1:15 says, “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.”

We learned just a few weeks ago at the end of Romans 12 that we are not to repay evil for evil because God says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord.” God is the judge of all and he promises in his word that no one guilty will ever get away with wrongdoing. He will judge and repay, so we are not supposed to personally retaliate against people. When will he do that? Because it sure seems like a lot of people are getting away with a lot of stuff right! When’s it going to happen? The day. The great day of the Lord. It’s going to be a dark day for many.

For those who have already died, the Bible teaches the Lord will raise up from the dead, because on “the day” everybody gets an immortal body, one that will not die. For the unrepentant, they will then be judged and experience an unending punishment in their body which cannot be killed. That’s an intense judgment.

For others “the day” will be a glorious day, when all sin and evil will finally be vanquished forever and ever. No more tears and sorrow, no more pain and seeming injustice, no more hurt just peace and joy in the presence of a good good God which will not end. Jesus will descend and sit on his throne and life the way it should be will be full at last. That’s the good part of the day.

There’s a good side and a bad side of the day depending on which side you stand on. If you’re on the side with Jesus, it’s a good day. If you’re not on the side with Jesus, it’ll be a bad day for you, one that won’t end. It will be the great and terrible apocalypse to come.

Now, I’ll try to avoid both the Kurt Vonnegut and Kirk Cameron end of things regarding end times stuff. But I do want to give us some eschatological, end times guidelines. People often seem to like to get attracted to the fanatical end of things and start imagining all kinds of crazy stuff into the Bible. Stuff like the book of Revelation (singular), talking about helicopters and people disappearing and all kinds of wild stuff. Some churches even get all fanatic about the end times and what’s going on in Israel and start trying to predict all this stuff.

Any time people get more excited about some spiritual fantasy of what could be in the future and they are more into that than Jesus himself you know its dangerous and wrong. It’s an ancient form of Gnosticism which loves “secret knowledge” rather than the clearly revealed knowledge of Jesus in the Bible.

So how are we as Christians supposed to view end times stuff? Ultimately, we do not know all the details, we only know what the Bible clearly says. So what does the Bible clearly say?

1. Christians win. God is good. He is in control of what happens. And we win. There will joy and peace for all believers in Jesus.

2. Total judgment. There will be judgment for those who refuse to be sorry for their lives and turn to Christ and change. We must confess our sins and turn to Jesus (1 Jn 1:9).

3. Unpredictable. Jesus himself said no one knows the day or the hour when it is going to happen (Mk 13:32). So the moment anybody starts predicting a certain time when it’s going to happen you know you got a false Jesus prophet on your hands who really doesn’t love Jesus.

4. Constant readiness. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 ” The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” You must get right with God now. We must wake up now.

This is the main point of all the end times stuff is for us to get right with God, to embrace the provision of his Son and a righteous life while God’s grace is being extended. As our text says, salvation is nearer, the hour has come, this is the time, the day is at hand…it is around the corner. This text is meant to stab us awake! Yes, in some senses to scare us.

Maybe you think that’s wrong. I know for some of you it makes you really uncomfortable whenever I talk about hell. There is a natural uneasiness with the subject. Yet it is one of the principle things which makes someone lost…you are lost if you think there will be no punishment. The consideration of hell is actually one of the first things which tends to rouse sleeping sinners. That’s why I try and mention hell at least once in every one of my sermons.

Let me ask you a question…Is it not a reasonable thing to fright a person out of a house of fire? The most unloving thing I could do for you as a pastor is to never mention hell or the judgment of God. There are consequences and they will come if you do not repent.

But maybe that sounds manipulative to you. Like fear should never be a right motive. But I say is fear always bad? A sinful fear makes men afraid to come to God. A right fear makes men afraid to go [away] from him. A right fear of God fears not experiencing the love of Jesus and being close to him. I am terrified of any life outside of the love and acceptance of Christ.

Listen, all people want to avoid pain and cultivate pleasure. As Pascal once noted, even the man who hangs himself does so on want and hope of a happier and better life. The gospel does not deny us pleasures but on the contrary brings legitimate ones which actually have the effect of heightening pleasure rather than destroying it because in the gospel both reason and conscience are brought into harmony.

Oh how dangerous is sleepiness, lethargy, apathy! It is perhaps one of the most evil things in existence. I have had several friends who just get stuck. They get so engrossed in how they feel or what they don’t feel that they refuse to move forward and embrace the provisions of the gospel.

Do you get apathetic? Do you ever feel like not doing anything? Where you just lack motivation? God seems distant…it’s hard to see the purpose or immediate benefit of doing the things you know you should. You feel slow and groggy and find yourself gravitating towards people and things you know are not good for you?

I feel like that at times. I don’t know a person who doesn’t experience or have to fight apathy? We all do. The question is whether you fight it or not? This text by calling us out of our moral drowsiness and is meant to stab us awake so that we might live in the life and light of Christ.

The Armor We Wear – The Light of Christ (vs. 13b-14)

Maybe you’re there right now. You hear what I’m saying audibly with your ears and you know that’s you. You lack a passion for God. You can’t remember the last time you spent one on one time with him, reading his word and praying. You haven’t really been paying much attention to your life and how you’re living. You know that’s where you are.

And maybe you hear me and you think one of two things. Maybe you think…I don’t know what it’s like to be you and been where you’ve been and go through what you’re going through. Maybe, maybe that’s true. Or you think I’m just some freak with a bunch of emotional baggage who deal with it by yelling at a bunch of people every Sunday. Maybe that’s true too.

Or maybe a third option. Maybe you hear what I’m saying and you don’t just hear with your ears but you hear it in your soul and you know it’s true. You know you’ve been neglecting yourself and the Lord and the people around you and you know you need Jesus and you’re just not sure what to do. What do you do?

If that is you, I’m glad you’re here because we are in one of the most practical sections of the book of Romans that gives us a lot of clear instruction and aid. Let’s look at our text, this is our last main point for today, “The Armor We Wear.” “So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

There’s three real practical things here. One is a reference to clothing. See those words “cast off” and “put on.” “Cast off works of darkness.” “Put on armor of light.” “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s getting dressed words. Take off, put on. Take off, put on. You do this every day with what you wear. At the end of the day you take off some clothes and the beginning of the next day you put other ones on. At several jobs in our city you have to wear a uniform to work there. Or maybe it is just expected that you show up in a suit. But there is a certain attire for the job.

That is the idea here…that every day you live as a Christian is like this. We must take off our old evil age clothes and works and put on the new Jesus age clothes of light and life. That’s the first thing. Every day you must get dressed as a Christian. Remember what clothes you’ve been given, don’t go back to wearing old out of style clothes that are not fit for the task at hand.

The second thing here is in this word “armor.” Armor is obviously a military term. It calls to mind, the worldview of the Christian which views this life, the time-between-the-time as a time of war, we are in a spiritual warfare battle. Ephesians 6 tells us we are in a spiritual battle against sin and we must fight.

If you think that being a Christian was going to be or is easy, you’re wrong. It’s hard and it’s going to take some hard work. Some of our resident military guys who have been over to Iraq can tell you, they act different when they’re over there. There is a wartime mentality. We have to think like that as Christians…it’s wartime. My third personal resolution which hangs in front of my desk in my office says this, “I Resolve to Consider Life on Earth War.” From the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep life is war against our flesh and sin and temptation all around us.

How do you fight? You put on the armor? What is the armor? It is light, armor of light. And then verse 14 expands on what this armor of light is. It is Jesus himself. Look at it. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” At the end of verse 12 we’re to put on the armor of light and at the beginning of verse 14 we learn that this armor of light is Jesus himself!

Paul puts it another way in Ephesians 5:12 he says this, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” You see the works of darkness are death. When you live and walk in them they are death to you.

The idea with walk is that this world is just our temporary home. You will live however many years God has determined for you to live here and then you will live forever in your permanent home. We used to sing a song in church when I was a kid…I don’t remember the title of it but the chorus said, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through, my treasures are laid out, somewhere beyond the blue the angels beckon me from heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” We are just walking through on our way to the Celestial City and how we walk matters.

We get six things listed here which the Bible states are clearly works of darkness and death that will kill you and keep you from reaching the great city and instead you will fall under the wrath of the day. These things are what the light of Christ shines on showing to be darkness and death. When you put on Jesus his light will make you feel uncomfortable about some things. Here’s sex…they come in pairs.

Interestingly, the first two pairs are things which actually usually only happen at night time in our culture. The ESV has “orgies and drunkenness” and “sexual immorality and sensuality.” The first word the ESV has as “orgies” is probably more likely “wild parities where you let loose” since it is coupled with drunkenness. The next set is literally sex with anyone you are not married to and the word sensuality here means indecency or debauchery or licentiousness…it’s being physically loose and morally uncontrolled.

These things are huge here in San Diego and they are huge for some of you in our church. You got to know these things are sin. They are not okay. They are extremely displeasing to God and destructive to yourselves.

The hard thing is it would be so much easier to not say anything. Because when I call people out on this stuff whether in person one on one or from up here when I’m talking… If you are getting drunk, doing drugs, being sexually active with someone you’re not married to and I say something about, there is a huge probability that you are not going to like it, feel like I’m judging you, and likely leave the church.

I know this because it has happened. I’ll be straight up honest with you. We had some of our core church members, people who had been around for over a year, who we loved and spent much time with…we had core people leave the commitment and community of our church this last year because of talking to them about these exact things…having sex with people their not married to, repeated drunkenness, and drug addiction.

It is really hard for me to talk about this stuff because I don’t want to be the bad guy and we’re trying to grow this church so I know I take a risk when I call people out on these things…but when it comes down to it the Bible is really clear here and I care more about honoring the Bible and Jesus being pleased with me as a pastor then I do about you liking me.

So I say this with the utmost love for you. Sex with people you are not married to and getting drunk (which I believe includes the recreational experience of drugs), is evidence that you’re walking on the dark road to hell and I fear for you life eternally unless you wake up and truly put on Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.

And just to be sure and to be clear…it’s not that we’re against sex and alcohol. I love sex and I love beer. I like having sex and beer as often as I can. God made sex and is glorified by husbands and wives having sex with each other. I love having sex with my wife. It’s great! And I love beer, especially dark beers and pale ales. God made alcohol, Jesus drank it, and he is glorified when we enjoy it by not drinking too much of it as G.K. Chesterton said. Drinking is not sin, drunkenness is.

Everything is beautiful and enjoyable if you do it God’s way and not your own way. The last couplet here I think is for the other type of people in the room. You see there are two types of sinners. We’re all sinners. Some fall in sin just because they get caught in these traps of doing immoral things they know are wrong. Others fall in sin because they are really good at restraining themselves and not doing those kind things and then this happens…they get proud and look down on everyone else and think they are better because they don’t do those things.

Here’s what usually happens if you’re in that camp. One, you probably tend to get into a lot of arguments with people. Why? Because you’re always justifying yourself, saying why you’re right and the other person is wrong. You’re a quarreler. It is the hardest thing for you to actually listen to another person and learn something from them because you tend to think everyone else is wrong and you’re always right.

The funny thing is people on this side of things tend to be very angry at other people. Why? Because they are jealous. They work so hard at not doing all the bad stuff…but the whole time they wish they could be free and do that stuff too because it looks like everyone else is having all the fun. So you just take it out on them. Quarrelling and jealousy is not good and is just as sinful and evil as sexual immorality and drunkenness. So cast those things off and put on Jesus.

Okay, so we got two things so far on how we walk in the daytime, not sleeping through life. One, we get dressed in Jesus each day. Two, we cast off dark works. And three, the last one…we plan properly.

Look at the last part of verse 14, “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify it’s desires.” What this is talking about is where you do not think ahead of time.

I’ll give you a couple examples. Since we’re talking about drinking, it’s an easy one. If you decide you’re going to go out with some friends or go to a part and you don’t decide beforehand how your going to drink, how much you’re going to have, and how much money you’re going to spend…you’re setting yourself up to fail. You’re making a provision for the flesh to gratify it’s desires.

How about sexual immorality. If you’re hanging out with a girl that’s not your wife and you’re all alone in a house or an apartment and you think that maybe laying down on the couch together to watch a movie is a good idea…it’s not. You’re going to make it very difficult for yourself to resist sexually enjoying yourself with her. Or how about for married people…it’s even easier. You don’t spend any time alone with people of the opposite sex who you are not married to because if you do you are opening the door for a relationship that belongs only with your husband or wife. That’s not wise. You’re making a provision for potential sin.

Now for some of you…I think this one applies. I have friends, people I care about deeply who are just stuck in their traps and patterns of sin and can’t seem to get out. Here’s why…bad company. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Bad company ruins good morals.” If you’re trying to change your life and the way you live and behave but all your closest friends…the people you spend the most time with…are all caught up into all the things you are trying not to do. It’s going to be very difficult. You’re making a provision for the flesh. Some of you just need to stop spending time with people and maybe even cut off relationship with some people for awhile because they are not good people for you.

So we have three things the armor of light in Jesus enables us see and fight with, so we don’t fall asleep. One, we get dressed in Jesus each day. Jesus is our identity. Two, we cast off dark works. We learn to love righteousness and hate wickedness. And three, we plan properly not making provisions for the flesh, not setting ourselves up to fail.

Conclusion

Okay, so this has been a little bit longer sermon. Let’s end it. I started out reading from “The Pilgrim’s Progress” today. I’ll just end with a simple question. Are you making progress? For each and every one of us who are Christians here, let’s ask ourselves are we making progress? Are we growing and maturing and becoming more and more like Jesus, putting him on more, walking more in his light? Or do you find yourself asleep? Getting caught up in the works of darkness and getting stuck in the enchanted forest. Are you just stuck?

Do you have your eyes set on the Celestial City? Does the fast approaching day give you motivation to run and press forward? Is there an urgency to your faith? Are you afraid of hell and excited for heaven? What is it Jesus armor of light needs to shine light on in you? Where do you need change in your life? You can’t change on your own…you need Jesus.

Let’s go to Jesus’ table and spend some time in prayer and reflection and thanks and receive the grace he gives us in this special communion.

  Listen         

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

October 5th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“Life Under Eternal Law”
Romans 13:9-10

Introduction

Good morning everyone. It’s good to see you. If you don’t know me, my name is Duane and I get the joy of being a pastor here and preaching the gospel each week from God’s book, the Bible. Well, let’s read the text for today and get right into it. We’re continuing in our fall sermon series, “Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ” moving through Romans, chapter 12-16.

Last week, we studied the previous section of Scripture which dealt how a Christian is supposed to relate to whatever the government is of the land he or she finds themselves living in. We learned that the Christian is really part of a theocracy called the Kingdom of God, where Jesus rules as king…that’s who and what we live for what we care about.

Whatever rulers of the land, the current politics and politicians and present law is mainly temporary, they are a temporary law until Jesus returns and sets up his physical kingdom here on earth. Until then, we are to attempt to please the current, temporal, ruling governments, by obeying them, living in peace and paying our taxes. Other than that, we don’t care too much because we don’t put a whole lot of trust or hope in any government except the one we really care about…the Kingdom of God where Christ rules as the perfect king.

Today’s text turns our attention from the current ruling governments, to the one ruling law in the Kingdom of God…love and the urgent need for love. Last week’s sermon was “Life Under Temporal Law” and this week’s sermon title is “Life Under Eternal Law” and our text is Romans 13:9-10. Let’s read the text and pray.

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Lord bless the work of your word today. May our understanding of love and its fulfillment through the gospel’s work in us be expanded today. Love is such a simple word and yet is something we seem to fail at so much. Give us your love today…love for you and love for one another. May the urgency and need for us to live in the love of Jesus Christ be greatly impressed upon us. Teach us where we lack love and are really only living for ourselves and our flesh. Work in us today through your word. Amen.

I have three main points from the text today, “Living in Debt Forever,” “Fulfilling the Law Through Love,” and “Being Freed to Love our Neighbor.”

Living in Debt Forever

Ironically, we begin today by talking about money. Verse 8 begins by saying, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” The verse we ended with last week, ended by talking about money…paying money to the government, taxes. And this week starts off by talking about financial debt.

It is ironic because unless you don’t have a TV, a radio, the internet, and no people you ever talk to…then you know that this has been a rollercoaster week financially for the US. Congress just passed a $700 billion dollar financial bailout bill in order to try and save the economy. Now, to be honest, as much as I’ve read about it, I really don’t have a clue how it all works and how it’s supposed to save us and what would happen if they didn’t do that, so I don’t even really have an opinion. I’m just curious where they get the money? $700 billion…that’s a seven with nine zeroes after it. I guess they just start printing more money up or something. I’m sure one of you can tell me afterward.

It is amazing to me how practical the Bible is sometimes. 2 Peter 1:3 says the Bible has in it everything we need for life and godliness. The first words of today’s verse is about as practical you can get for living life…how you handle your money and your relationships.

Now on the outset these four initial words seem to almost say you should never go into debt for anything, no car loans, no house loans, no credit cards, no movie rentals, nothing…”Owe no one anything.” But…we know that’s not what it’s saying. Verse 7 just said there will be times when we owe money to the government and what we miss in this translation is the tense of the word. It is a present imperative, which means it has a continuous force. “Don’t continue owing” would also be a very good translation.

This is actually one place where I actually like what the NIV does. If any of you know me, you know the NIV translation of the Bible frustrates me a lot of the time, which is why we use the ESV here…the ESV is perhaps the best translation out there right now. But here’s what the NIV does, it says, “Let no debt remain outstanding.” The idea is that you pay your debts, you don’t just let them linger and go on forever and ever. You have a contract and pay off plan and you stick to it.

The Bible as a whole is not against you going into debt. There may be times when that would be a good and wise thing to do. Jesus straight up says to loan people money if they ask you and you can do it, Matthew 5:42. In the Old Testament there was a whole system for lending and borrowing. They actually did a very unique thing. Because God owns everything anyway and just calls us temporary stewards of what is his. They only leased land out to each other and then at the end of every 50 years any remaining debt was cancelled and all land was returned. It was called the year of Jubilee, you can read about it in Leviticus 25.

So the Bible is not against you going into debt for some important things at certain times in your life…like a house or a car, but it is against you just going into debt without a real feasible and doable plan to pay it off in a reasonable amount of time. A lot of people who are in trouble right now financially are people who took out these sub-prime loans. About two years ago, Amy and I tried to buy a house and the loan officer wanted to qualify us for about $100 thousand dollars more than I knew was our limit to be able to make the monthly payments. The loan officer said, the payments would be within our monthly price range for the first year and then go up after that. But I knew I probably wouldn’t be making nearly double income in a year…so we walked away from it.

Learning how to handle your money in a good and godly way is an area several of you probably need to mature in. Some of you I’m guessing have bad credit because you’ve gotten into using credit cards and you maybe missed some payments or were late on them or you only pay the minimum payment which only pays the interest. That’s not good…that’s the kind of thing the Bible is talking about here. You shouldn’t do that. Some of you need to cut up your credit cards and learn that if you don’t have the money for something you don’t buy it, plain and simple.

We live in such a materialistic and consumeristic culture that we think we should be able to buy something if we want it regardless of whether or not we can really afford it. You need to learn self-control and entrust your money to God. As we can see here, God cares about how you spend your money and even the way you treat debt. As a side-note there is a great documentary on the American debt problem and use of credit cards and other bad consumer practices called “Maxed Out.” You can check it out.

Now some of you are scared because of this whole economy thing. I hear you. I’ve heard several stories just this last week. In our community group someone shared that there are families who have lost their homes and are sleeping in cars downtown. My mother and father in-law just this week, watched their neighbor just pack up their house and move away from the home they own because they couldn’t make the payments anymore. Before they left the whole family took hammers to the garage door and cussed out the bank as they were doing it.

People are scared. But we need not be. For those who are God’s children, in his family through Jesus, God has promised in his Word never to leave us or forsake us and that we will never go hungry.

Hebrews 13:5-6 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Matthew 6:31-33 “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ …your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

But maybe you ask how is God going to do that? How will God make sure I’m taken care of? Here is how? When God calls you to be his own and gives you faith in his Son Jesus, you become part of a family of people…a community devoted in love to one another.

Let’s read it here in our text in Romans. “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” If we truly love each other and band together we will be taken care of. The Bible is so genius here. It takes a practical, hit-home issue like finances and debt and flips it and turns it into being a foundational basis for what kind of love we are to have for each other.

I mean this is radical. We are not to have unending financial debt, but instead we are to be in a debt of love to one another forever. We will never have loved enough, when we can say, “Oh, okay I’m done now…bye bye…I fulfilled my debt, my obligation and now I’m done. I loved you and now that’s over…were even.” I mean this is crazy. Paul here takes something bad, like unending financial debt but then sees a parallel to gospel love in that it is a never-ending debt of love toward each other.

Here is the heart issue in it. Does anyone here have a hard time receiving a gift from someone? I do. Anytime anyone pays for me for something, like say a meal, or something bigger sometimes…my automatic response is usually to first resist. If I do give in, usually it is on the condition that I will receive the gift if I can pay for the person the next time. What I realized a number of years ago is that this was pride and I not only do it with my friends but with God. We think we are being good, or righteous in being resistant to grace, but it is our pride that wants to try and payback a gift of love. Our motivation is to want to be self-sufficient, not needy, and we want to make things right ourselves.

That is the idea here with a never-ending debt of love. You can never pay back love. The only way to receive love is to not attempt to counter balance it or you diminish the love. The way we really love is by diving deeper into debt. By loving without any goal or hope of making things even. Instead, our goal is to incur more love debt. The more love we give the more we owe and our debt grows and grows.

Fulfilling the Law Through Love

Look at something interesting here with me, we’ll come back to love in a second, but look at the word “law” here. Verse 8 ends by saying those who love one another fulfill the law. What does it mean to fulfill the law? Paul brings up some of the law, four of the ten commandments…do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet. Then, quoting both Leviticus 19 and Jesus, verse 10 says, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Let me ask you a question. What does it mean to fulfill the law here? Does it mean complete or terminate it? Or does it mean to reach the expected or desired intent or result? You see usually when we hear the word “law” we think bad, do’s and don’ts, rules. Law is negative.

And that is true. One of the main purpose of God’s law is to show us that we are sinners in need of repentance and a savior. Romans 3:20 “Through the law comes knowledge of sin.” But there is another reason for law. Law is based on, or flows out of God’s holy righteous character. God is a perfect and loving God. He does not adulterate, he does not murder, he does not steal nor covet. God is good and Jesus said he did not come to destroy or abolish the law but to fulfill it, to complete it for us, so that we might complete it to through him (Matt 5:17).

We need Jesus for that, badly because our inclinations are toward these very things God says are evil and not to do. But we find ourselves wanting to have sex with people we’re not married to, adultery. We find ourselves angry with people and wishing physical harm or even death upon them, murder. We find ourselves, wanting to get things without having to work hard or pay for them, we like what is free, thievery. And we find ourselves always wanting something more, something different, something better, something someone else has, coveting. Our hearts are desperately wicked (Jer 17:9).

But this is the beauty of the gospel is that it transforms you. The gospel begins to change us and enable us to truly love and it isn’t something we work for or conjure up…we find ourselves naturally loving and truly caring about other people. If love for a person is our first and primary concern, we don’t have to fight and wrestle with ourselves whether it be lustful, hateful, thieving, or coveting thoughts…they will not be barriers or issues for us. Love will squeeze out those desires and we will find ourselves fulfilling the law and enjoying it immensely.

In the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians, love is listed as a fruit of the Spirit. Something Jesus spirit gives, he pours it into our hearts (Rom 5:5), and when it becomes the active driving force for our lives, Galatians 5:23 says against such a thing, there is no law. It gets fulfilled. Law does not stand in opposition to love, ever. Law is against sin, but not love.

Being Freed to Love our Neighbor

This brings me to the question of what is love and who is my neighbor? I believe that when we look into those questions, what we find is the difference between religion and the gospel.

So has anyone seen that commercial for Diet Pepsi Max that’s been on TV for the last few months? There are a bunch of different people around town who sort of look like Zombies until they drink Diet Pepsi Max and then they turn into bobble heads pumping their heads side to side along to Haddaway’s song, “What is Love?” “What is love, baby don’t hurt me no more.”

What is love? What does it mean? Definitions for love these days usually only gets processed as a emotional feeling often accompanied with the particularly erotic feelings. English, unfortunately, only has one word for love. In Greek there are three main words for love: eros, philia, and agape. Eros is erotic, sexual, physical body attraction love. Philia is friendship or family love wherein there is distinct commonality. Agape love is distinctly sacrificial and committed through and through.

Let me explain. Agape is self-less love. But it seems to me that for many today, maybe for you, we have thought of love as a sort of mythical moral compass that cannot err. The thing is love must have an objective moral standard greater than ourselves or else love lapses into just being pure fleeting sentimentality and virtually anything can be loving.

For example, let’s take the first commandment Paul mentions here, do not commit adultery. What is the reason people give for adultery, for cheating on their wife or their husband? I didn’t love them anymore. You see how deceptive that is, to think that adultery could actually be a loving act! That’s crazy. Real love looks a certain way and it only becomes that when you are looking away from yourself.

Loving ourselves is instinctual. We always act for our own interests and preservation. Only each of us as individuals has access to know when we feel hungry in our stomachs. No one else can feel that. We instinctually care about ourselves. What the Bible says here is that love happens when we instinctually love our neighbor like that…as ourselves.

And this only happens through the gospel, it’s what makes Christianity not a religion. Because love is not a set of moral codes that we are trying to force ourselves to abide by…love is what happens when we get forgiven of our sin by Jesus Christ and it changes us, it changes our natural self-centered instincts…we become increasingly loving. We get transformed through Jesus. Don’t you want that, isn’t that what we need. That’s what I want and need…more of Jesus’ love.

Two stories which will hopefully illustrate this and then we’ll close. First is the story of the rich young ruler (Mk 10:17-22). A young successful business man, probably 30 years old or so came up to Jesus and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him, to keep the commandments, and he quoted a few of the ones in our passage today, don’t murder, don’t adulterate, don’t steal. The business man responded and said, he had kept all those perfectly since he was a young boy. The Bible says Jesus then looked at him and it says “he loved him” and then told him he still lacked one thing, to go sell all his possessions give the money to the poor. The story ends with the business man walking away sad because he had a lot of money and was not willing to part with it and love the people around him in need.

Second story, the story of the good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). On another occasion a lawyer came up to Jesus and asked him the same question the rich young business man had asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responded by asking him what the law or the commandments said. In response the lawyer said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus, seemingly surprised, complemented and said yes, do that and you will live. But the lawyer quickly retorts and says, “Yeah, but who’s my neighbor?” In response Jesus tells a story. There’s a guy who’s broken and beat up and stuck in a place between two towns. First, there’s a pastor who drives by every day and see him but never does anything about it. Then, there’s an older man in the faith, whose been a Christian a long time, and he lives nearby and see him but doesn’t do anything for him. Lastly, there is this believer visiting from out of town who sees the guy all messed up, stops, picks him up, ministers to him, gets him some medicine, puts him up in a hotel and pays for it all. At the end of the story Jesus asked who was the neighbor and the lawyer answers rightly by saying, the one who had mercy on the guy who was broken and beat-up.

What Jesus does is he points out that we often don’t know who are neighbor is because we lack the love and compassion shown in mercy. In the story Jesus, we’re the person who’s beat up and broken…deep down, and Jesus has had mercy on us, offering his life and his death in exchange for our brokenness and sin. Because we’ve received mercy then everyone becomes our neighbor, we then understand the depth of love and freely give it to all. The lawyer asked Jesus who our neighbor is? Jesus answered by explaining what it meant to be neighborly.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude. I want to probe us all a little bit. How is your neighborly-ness? When you look at people what do you see?

When you see people and the state they are in…when you see their sin and their failure what are your thoughts or affections? Do you think and feel anger toward them for being so dumb, or self-centered, or just caught up in bad things? Do you see their hardness of heart and does it make you mad?

Or when you see people and the state they are in…when you see their sin and their failure…do you see them as broken and hurting people? Do you see them as people in need of love? Do you see them as your neighbor? Someone you’re called to have a never-ending debt of love for?

Do you focus so much on your life and your job and your money and your family that you can’t even see anyone around who is hurting and broken? Are you pursuing life with a goal of thinking that if you made just enough money or could get out of financial debt or if you could buy enough things that then you’d be happy? Or is pouring our your life in a debt of love toward others the thing which gives you the most satisfaction?

Is the gospel changing you? Are you being transformed by Jesus work in you, enabling you to fulfill the law and really becoming more loving? Or are you becoming harder, just expecting that everything and everyone around you is going to fail you?

There’s probably not a person in this room who could honestly answer all those probing questions the way we wish we could. That’s because there is only one who truly see people in the fullness of who they are, with all the corruption intertwined, as he yet has mercy and compassion and love. That’s Jesus and that’s why we need him. We need his forgiveness and his love to permeate us and turn us away from ourselves and onto him so that we might see people through his eyes with his love and his grace.

Here’s what you can be sure of today from this text. If you’ve been foolish and dumb with money…there is hope in Jesus. If you’ve tried and tried to gain favor or approval with God and failed, God loves you regardless of all your vain efforts and gives you never-ending love through his son. If you’ve been completely oblivious to your neighbor, Jesus will open up your heart with compassion for people who are desperate and ruined all around us in this world.

Let’s pray.

  Listen         

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

September 28st, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“Life Under Temporal Law”
Romans 13:1-7

Introduction

Good morning. This is week 5 of our fall series, “Viva La Vida Christus.” We’re just about half way through the series.

Today’s text, the next section in Romans is a “hot text.” It’s hot because it is all about politics. Nothing gets people’s blood boiling more these days than politics. General election is coming up on November 4th…The first presidential debate took place the other night…this is a “hot text.”

People right now are extremely passionate about what is happening in our political world. You guys all know they say there is one sure fire way to get a person or a group of people all riled up and that’s, “religion and politics.” That’s why you’re not supposed to talk about them if you want to make friends and keep peace. But we’re taking on both this morning so oh well.

Have you ever wondered how the Bible views the Christian is supposed to relate to government? Are Christians supposed to care? Are they supposed to be involved? Are they supposed to vote? Be democrats, republicans? What does the Bible say about those who love and follow Jesus and what that means in regards to government? We’ll try and answer some of those questions today.

Before I read our text for today and pray over it I think it would be very helpful for us all to take a quick look at the Bible’s story of government and it’s relationship to God’s people. That will help us place this text a little bit into the grand scheme of things.

Politics in the Bible begin right off the bat in the garden of Eden. From the garden of Eden onward, through the law, the prophets, the psalms…the Bible universally pictures God as the King. Thus, those who believe in and love God are part of a theocracy where God is King and ruler over the earth and mankind ought to worship and serve him as the governing King over our lives, families, and societies.

Here’s a key text. 1 Samuel 8. What happened is as God has called and gathered his people together, he’s shown them he’s a good and worthy king, he mightily led them out of Egypt showing his great and kingly power and rule, then he led them into the promised land and set up judges and prophets to care for the people under his rulership…but in 1 Samuel 8, the people come to him with a complaint. The elders of Israel get together and they come to God and they say this, “appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations…(we want) a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles (1 Sam 8:4,20).”

In response God tells them that if they have a human king, he will abuse his power and never be able to rule perfectly because he is a sinful human (which is exactly what we have seen throughout human history). The people still say, “No, we want a king.” So God gives them what he want and says these key words, 1 Samuel 8:7, “they have rejected me from being king over them.”

Two whole books of the Bible, 1 & 2 Kings gets devoted to seeing how every king, 44 of them in all, fail at being king. Only God is the perfect king. The prophets of God begin telling of a messiah, a Christ who would come, who would be God himself and rule as the perfect king once again.

Jesus comes on the scene several hundred years later. But in this first coming he doesn’t come in all his heavenly garb, putting out on display for everyone that he is the divine king of heaven and earth. He comes first to show that he is the perfect and worthy king because he is humble and loves the people. Jesus was homeless. Jesus was a servant healing the people, feeding the people, teaching the people, and ministering to the people’s spiritual needs. But he acknowledges that he is in fact the king of heaven.

Even right before his death, Pilate, the Roman governor asks him, “‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world (Jn 8:37).” And so Pilate hangs a plaque above Jesus’ cross, saying “King of the Jews.”

Jesus dies for the sins of his people, comes back to life from the dead three days later, showing himself to hundreds of people, and then he ascends on a cloud up into the sky. He tells his followers to go out into all the world and tell everyone who he is and what he is done and once everyone has heard, he’ll come back on a cloud with the sound of a loud trumpet, with all his angels, in his full kingly divine glory, he’ll destroy all who oppose him and set up his perfect rule and throne here on earth. That’s going to be an amazing day.

Now, I tell that whole biblical story to help us get it firmly in place in our heads that the core government of the Christian, our core allegiance, is a theocratic loyalty and commitment to Jesus the King. We are part of what he called, “the kingdom of God.” It’s what Jesus preached about most, life under his rule in his kingdom. Jesus constantly preached about the kingdom of God, over a combined 121 times in the gospels, Jesus is talking about life in his kingdom, where he rules as King. That’s the government Christian really belong to and are part of.

Okay, that’s kind of a long introduction to our text but I think a necessary one. I’ve given today’s message, the subtitle “Life Under Temporal Law.” Because our text addresses how we are to live under temporary rulers until the permanent rule of Jesus comes. Next week’s text will look at the “Life Under the Eternal Law” of love and the day when Jesus will return to ensure it.

So let’s read and pray over our text that addresses how the Christian is to relate to these temporary governing rulers, the Christian and politics.

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. 3 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, 4 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. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 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.

Structurally there are three main parts to this text: [1] God Rules Government (vs 1). [2] God Repays Wrongdoing (vs 2-5). [3] God Records Money (vs 6-7).

God Rules Government (vs 1)

We start off with a command, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” And then we get three reasons why. But notice a couple things first. First, look at those two words “every person.” That means everyone, without exception. Christians are not to be anarchists or anti-governmentists. That’s the wrong attitude. Much of this series, Viva La Vida, the texts this series covers concerns our attitude as Christians. We’ve talked about our attitude toward one another within the church in regards to our gifts, we’ve talked about our attitude toward our community, the city in which we live, we’ve talked about our attitude toward our enemies, those we don’t get along with, and now we’re being taught about our attitude toward our government, who temporarily (until Jesus comes again) physically rules over us.

Remember our very first sermon in this series began with the theme of “All of Life is Worship” from Romans 12:1-2 where we are told not to be conformed to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Perhaps Paul, the human author here, is concerned that we might take that a little to far…that we might think, “Oh, well Jesus is king, so I don’t have to listen to or abide by other governing authorities…I’m not going to conform to this world!” So he addresses that specifically here, how being transformed by the gospel effects how we relate to authorities or rulers in our land.

And this is for everyone. If you’re wondering whether this text has anything to do with you today, you can be sure it does, because it clearly says right here that it is for “every person.”

The second thing I want us to notice from this command is the words “be subject to” or it could be translated and some versions do translate it this way, “be submissive to.” Submission, that is not easy for anyone. The reason is because of sin. As we’ve talked about, heavily caught up in the heart of sin are issues of pride, where we want to be the own ruler of our lives. We want to do what we want, when we want, how we want, with who we want, and we don’t want anyone else to say anything about it.

The difference with being a Christian is that it changes you from being a rebellious person to be a submissive person. In large, much of the Christian life is about obedience, where being obedient becomes not something that is oppressive but something that is a joy. Where it makes you happy to obey and do what God tells you to.

So once we become a Christian our rebellious tendencies begin to get curbed and we become much more willing to submit. Here’s a number of things the Bible says get affected by our new submissive attitude, places where this word “submit” gets used: As fellow Christians we joyfully submit to one another (Eph 5:21). As employees joyfully submit to master/bosses (Tit 2:9). Christian wives joyfully submit to their husbands (1 Cor 14:34; Eph 5:24; Col 3:18; Tit 2:5). And Christians are to joyfully submit to spiritual leaders, their pastors (Heb. 13:7).

Do you have a submissive attitude? How is your rebellion? Is it your joy to submit? Or does the sinful tendency to fight and do your own thing get the best of you most the time?

Okay, let’s move on to the reasons why we are to submit. The first reason is God is the only real authority. Look at the rest of verse 1, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” That is a huge statement. Now I’m sure if you’re like me you’re automatically thinking, even evil rulers and government? We’ll talk about that in a moment. But first let’s get a hold of this and see what the Bible has to say about these temporal governments.

This idea that God rules over all governments is the universal agreement of all the biblical writers. The Bible views God as the only true sovereign. Sov, means all, reign means rule. God is the only one who has completely free reign. All other ruler’s power and authority is limited. That is because they are not God. God is the author of all and thus he has all authority.

Let me give you some other verses to help you see what I am saying.

Psalm 22:8 “Kingship belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.”

Proverbs 8:15 “By me Kings reign (says the LORD).”

Proverbs 21:1 ” The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”

Daniel 4:17 “The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”

GOD RULES GOVERNMENT. The universal picture of the Bible, is no matter who the king is, no matter who the ruler is, no matter who the president is, no matter whether it is a human theocracy, oligarchy, democracy, or communist government…GOD rules over every one of them no matter what who or what the government is!

You might ask, “How can that be, how does God do that?” This is what we have talked about before called compatibalism. Which means God is the only one who has a sovereign, free will, and all human have a compatible will that make real and meaningful decisions which are ultimately determined by God. God has an amazing ability to order a host of circumstances in such a way that certain things will happen and God also has an amazing ability to work deep in our heart in a way that no one else can. Through these means God accomplishes his ultimate will, especially with human rulers.

God rules over human rulers. They are placed and instituted by God. We might think it is because of our elections. We might think it is because of certain family traditions or power. But the Bible teaches us here that ultimately, whoever the ruler is and whatever the ruling system is, it is placed and instituted by God.

God Repays Wrongdoing

Which brings us to our second main point for today, “God Repays Wrongdoing,” answering the question of what God’s purpose is with temporal human rulers? I think on one hand God is trying to teach us something through history…that only a perfect sinless and divine ruler will ever be able to bring worldwide peace and life the way it should be. Until that time when God does that in Jesus, he chooses to use these temporal human governments as instruments of his justice.

Let’s read the verses which say this. “2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 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, 4 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. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.”

First let’s look at what is obviously clear here. One of the best hermeneutical principles, hermeneutics means rules of interpretation, is that whatever the easiest reading is or whatever a text seems to be saying is most likely what it means.

So here’s what’s obvious. One, resisting or rebelling against authorities is really resisting or rebelling against God since he placed the authority. Two, if we don’t rebel or resist them we should have any reason to be afraid of them and in fact the opposite, authorities will praise and reward us. And three, if we resist or rebel, God’s gives rulers the right to judge and punish you even put you to death.

I’ll say a couple things about each. First, rebelling against authorities…running from the cops. If we really believe that God places authorities in power as this text clearly states, then if we resist them, we are really resisting and rebelling against God. That’s bad. Opposing God is not smart. It is so easy for us to depersonalize God as some sort of nebulous moral force.

Sometimes I’ve tried to draw this out by using an analogy addressing the personal nature of wronging a thing or a person. If I step on a spider (I’ve got a ton of them in my office, since it is really a garage!), it can’t really do much back to me. If I miss it will just run away and maybe tell it’s other little spider friends to come make more webs for me to get annoyed with and have to clean up. If I do something to a little bit bigger creature like say a dog, say I kick a dog. Well, if I wrong or hurt a dog, he might be able to bite me or lunge at me and hurt me back…but probably not kill me. Say I do something to wrong to a fellow human being. They could either do the same thing back to me or what happens most of the time is they tell other people and my name and reputation could get dragged through the mud. Say I do something to make a bear mad. Well, then I got a pretty good chance of getting mauled and dying. But say I offend God. The creator and source of the universe, I wrong him. That is a big deal. God is an eternal God. Then I’ve got an eternal issue on my hands.

Sin is serious. Rebellion is against God and wrongdoing is an eternal issue of the heart and it has eternal consequences if we don’t get right with God. Sometimes our rebelliousness comes out in our attitude toward government.

What about the second thing? Not needing to be afraid but instead receive praise. It’s funny. Working in the system as a social worker in our state I often get the chance to talk to teenagers who’ve been to Juvenile Hall before for various crimes. Sometimes I’ll ask them, “Well did you learn you’re lesson?” It’s funny. Most of the time they say something like, “I learned not to get caught.” Is that our attitude with God and/or government? Well, it’s okay as long as I don’t get caught. Then we live in fear in a constant state of us versus them. That’s not the way it is supposed to be, we are to live in harmony receiving praise and approval for our quality of life as Christians in our city.

There is a great passage of the Bible on this. 1 Timothy 2:2 “(I urge you pray) for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” That is our goal, to live peaceful and quiet and godly dignified lives. We are to put the gospel, to put Jesus on display and show how great living for him in his kingdom is. That is one of the reasons our community groups are adopting a city mission project once every two months. So that people in our city will see our good deed and then turn and glorify our God and king, Jesus (1 Pet 2:2).

Look at verse 4, where it says, government is God’s servant for your good. That is interesting because the word servant here is minister, a word that is usually only used in reference to Christians and their service to each other in the church. But here God calls government officials servants. And if you think about it, it is true. Governments by nature do not produce anything. They are a public service to the people meant for the people’s good. We need to remember that.

Now the third thing, the sword. Government’s right to put people to death. The sword in the time the book of Romans was written was the symbol and instrument of capital punishment…putting people to death for crimes punishable by death. For us in California, the equivalent would be an electric chair. In other states it could be lethal injection. The death penalty.

So many of you probably know this is a subject of debate in our country. Some don’t believe we should have a death penalty because they say its either inhumane or because of the chance that the person was innocent. The way they curbed that in the Torah was by only convicting a person on the basis of two or more eyewitnesses and if it was discovered that an eyewitness lied, they were put to death (Deut 17:6-7).

But here is the reason why I believe God gives governments the right to put people to death. Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The reason is because murder assaults the very being of God, the life-giver. Humans are special because they are made in the image and likeness of God. Thus, to kill a human is a heinous thing in the sight of God.

So God gives governments the right to avenge and put to death. Last week we learned that as individuals we are to live according to love rather than justice. Here, regards to government, we learn that they are to exist according to justice rather than love. Last week we learned that we are not to repay evil, it is God’s to repay. This week we learn that God repays evil through the government. The point we are to get is that government is God’s servant of justice, to administer his wrath.

Wrath is ultimately the eternal judgment of hell which comes for the unrepentant when they die. Other times the word wrath is hellish things which happen here on earth leading up to that time. Here, judgment, the sword, is wrath. That most likely refers to the immediate physical death one experiences but we know from other Scriptures that then comes the spiritual and eternal experience of wrath. You don’t want that. That’s why verse 5 ends by saying, this is important not only for avoiding physical pain and suffering wrath, but because of conscience…because you also have the eternal God to deal with for wrongdoing.

Okay, let’s talk about the big elephant here…what about evil governments and unjust leaders? The Hitlers, Stalins, Saddams? Are we to submit to them? Did God institute and establish them too? I mean Paul presents a pretty rosy view of government here, like they are always all good and nice. But that’s rarely the case.

I’ll try and be brief on this because we could really take a whole sermon addressing it, indeed there’s really a whole book of the Bible written on this subject. I was reading from it the other day in my morning devotions, the book of Habakkuk. As far as Paul being ignorant or naïve of evil governments we know that is not true. Paul was a Christian, who loved and followed Jesus, who was unjustly killed. Paul himself was unjustly thrown into prison several times. In another of his books he says an evil ruler will arise. And Paul was ultimately beheaded by the Roman government. So Paul writes this being well aware of evil governments and rulers.

So to answer the first question, Does God institute and establish evil rulers? Yes God allows evil rulers to exist and appoints them. Why? What does the text say? Yes, all rulers are appointed by God and God appoints them as instruments of his justice. Well, sometimes they don’t exercise justice, sometimes they are tyrannical. True. Three things.

One, quoting R.H. Stein, “Even oppressive governments by their very nature seek to prevent the evils of indiscriminate murder, riot, thievery, as well as general instability and chaos, and good acts do at times meet with its approval and praise.”

Two, God’s use of evil rulers could be an act of judgment against the world. In Romans 2, we learn that God’s judgment is in part expressed by leaving to our sinful selves to see what happens without the intervention of his grace.

Three, sometimes God intentionally uses evil rulers to judge his people. This happened several times throughout the various stories of the Old Testament, it is the subject of much of the books in the Bible known as the Prophets. It ultimately culminates in the kingdom of Israel being destroyed and God’s people taken off to Babylon. And God says he did this intentionally to judge Israel. Read the story of Habakkuk, that is what it is all about. God using evil, oppressive rulers to judge his people.

Then if that is true, then comes this question. Are we to just obey and submit to evil governments regardless of what they say or do. No. Two principles make our action clear. Principle number one is we are to obey and submit to God first and foremost, always. Principle number two is we are to obey and submit to governments. If principle number two clashes with principle number one, then we follow principle number one and obey God instead of the government.

Here is an example. Acts 5, Peter was in the city of Jerusalem. He was preaching the gospel, about who Jesus is and what he had done and calling people to put faith in Jesus. He and a few other of the apostles get thrown in prison. During the night, the story says an angel came and opened the prison doors and brought them out. So what does Peter and his friends do? Go into hiding? No, instead the next day they go back out into the public into the temple courts and start preaching about Jesus again. The law officers are furious, so they arrest them again and bring ‘em to the court in front of all the people and they say, we arrested these men for preaching in the name of Jesus and we put them in prison, but this morning we went and the prison doors were locked and the guards were there but here these men are outside here preaching in this name, Jesus again.

Here are Peter’s words, Acts 5:29-32, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

You see, principle number one, we obey God. Principle number two, we obey authorities. If authorities tell us we can’t do something God has told us to do in his word, we obey God and not the authorities.

This is the way God’s people have always handled government. In the book of Exodus, Pharaoh ordered all the newborns to be killed, but God’s people would not obey. In the book of Daniel King Nebuchadnezzar commanded God’s people to worship his golden image. But they refused and three dudes ended up getting thrown into a furnace of fire for it. Again in Daniel, another king named Darius commands God’s people not to pray to God, but Daniel refuses and gets thrown into a lion’s den for it. In Rome, one of the biggest problems the Roman government had with Christians was not following the Roman laws, but they refused to say “Caesar is Lord” when commanded to do so, because they believe only “Jesus is Lord.” And the early Christians suffered much for it.

We must obey God rather than men if men tell us to disobey God…but other than that we should obey earthly rulers as much as possible so that we can peacefully be about spreading the mission of gospel.

God Records Money

Okay our last point for today is another main area that Christian submission to government plays out…money, God Record Money. God cares about what we do with our money. Why? Because money often very easily gets a grip on our heart and God wants to loosen that grip so that we hold on and trust in nothing but him.

Let’s look at the text, verses 6-7 “6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 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.”

Taxes in a government go to financially enabling a government to function. Here two types of taxes are mentioned, “taxes” and “revenue.” Those are technical terms. The first is direct taxes, translated “taxes” here. This included property tax for your land and poll tax for elections. The second is indirect taxes, translated “revenue” here. Revenue was tax on goods and tolls. We have sales tax which is tax on goods and if you ever take toll roads, they had tax on those too, like us.

Taxes were a big point of contention in Rome during the time this was written. The historian Seutonius records that taxes were exorbitantly high. Another historian named Tacitus records that there were a lot of complaints about the taxes and the extortion of tax collectors. Even the evil Emperor Nero considered repealing indirect taxes. Paul was probably undoubtedly aware of this and saw Christian submission in this area as a prime way of putting on display the peace and joyful obedience with God that comes from the gospel. Christian are commanded here to pay there taxes and not make a big stink about it. They are to honor and respect their government because they recognize that God has placed it.

Paul here carries on the same teaching of Jesus here. Often times when people ask me what I think about government I go to this story of Jesus because Jesus attitude toward government is so superbly displayed in it.

The Pharisees come to Jesus and ask him if they should pay taxes to Caesar, the Roman Emperor or not. They were essentially asking him how God’s people are supposed to relate to government. Jesus does something interesting. He asks for a coin. Like our coins who have pictures of presidents on them, their coins had pictures of the Caesar on them. Jesus looks at the coin and asks, “Whose inscription is on this?” They say “Caesar’s.” And then Jesus replies, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s (Mk 12:17).”

You see here, Jesus attitude toward government is one of placation or appeasement. Jesus is about something different. He is about the kingdom of God. You do whatever you have to do to make the temporal government happy so you can be about the business of God. Jesus, with one sentence here, just dismisses getting all hyped up on the government and what it’s doing.

Sometimes I get worried about Christians who get so hyped up and involved in politics and what is currently going on because the Christian’s main goal is to be about the mission of Jesus. The mission is the gospel in the message of the kingdom of God. Jesus and the apostles both had an apolitical or non-political ministry method. If churches and Christians get too heavily into current politics it sends a mixed message to the individuals and cities Jesus’ church is on mission for.

Christians must beware of getting distracted from putting a false hope for peace, joy, and justice in any other government but a theocracy where Jesus rules as King. All governments will fail and to become passionately devoted to a particular political party and/or system becomes spiritual treason to the theocracy of Christians who belong to the Kingdom of God.

God cares about what we do with our money and our attitude toward government with it. He keeps a record of whether we have a humble and submissive attitude or whether we treat our money as if it were our own. The Bible’s perspective is that we are stewards. All the money we make is on loan to us from God and God wants us to use it wisely for his glory and fame.

Conclusion

Well, let’s wrap up today’s message. What I want to do is try my best to address a couple real practical application issues regarding Christians and politics and then address our heart.

This is my perspective, so you can take it or leave it…but after studying a text like this and considering what seems to me to be a widespread overemphasis in politics by Christian I feel impelled to say some things.

First on voting. The Bible nowhere commands Christians to vote and one is not required by law to vote. If we were, then according to Romans 13, we be disobeying God if we did not vote. Democratic systems like the U.S. and others did not exist in Bible times and therefore one cannot superimpose a democratic worldview onto the Bible and hypothesize what the Biblical writers would say about it. Building a theology based on speculation is never wise. Thus, it is wrong for Christians to put a moral obligation and/or ethical responsibility on other Christians to vote when the Bible (our base for ethics) is silent on the issue.

It may be wise for Christians to vote if the culture of the land they are living in is a voting culture and it will help to understand and build a bridge with the people we are living for. Yet this decision is up to the individual’s choice and conscience as the Holy Spirit guides them in their incarnational evangelism. God may move upon certain individuals to try and reach people who are anarchists and it could be wise for them to dismiss voting in order to reach them to show them where their true allegiance is, to Jesus.

Christian involvement in other political sectors such as government, military, elections, etc. is acceptable as long as the main goal is to put the gospel on display to the people they work with. In addition, it is good for Christians to work to uphold universal moral law, as long as Christians are careful not to attempt to legislate particulary Christian beliefs and practice.

Christians should live their lives in light of the Bible regardless of wherever they live and whatever is happening within the political sphere of the country they live in. A real and lasting difference is made in a city by the quality of Christians’ lifestyle before friends, neighbors and co-workers and not through political involvement and/or influence.

Christians are commanded by Scripture to abide by the laws of the land (Rom 13:1). Section 501(c)(3), Part VIII, of the Internal Revenue Code, forbids a Religious Non-Profit Organization, to “Support or oppose candidates in political campaigns in any way.” OR “Attempt to influence legislation.” Thus, it is illegal within the U.S. for a church to encourage its members to support or oppose elections or legislation in any way…so you will never hear me do that.

Okay, if I haven’t offended a bunch of you let me end with the gospel and our hearts. The theme of this chunk of Scripture is submission. It is about humility. Part of living in this fallen, sinful world, is that we get hurt and wronged…sometimes by individuals and sometimes by the government.

The Christian response is peace and forgiveness, not retaliation and fighting back. Sometimes we think the only thing that will make us feel better is justice. Our name being cleared. Wrong being called out. Someone paying for what they’ve done. The truth is such response could never bring us the peace and the comfort we’re looking for.

The truth is we are the ones who deserve justice, who deserve to pay, for we have all wronged and offended God and his glory. We don’t want justice we want mercy. And as recipient of mercy and forgiveness in Jesus it’s supposed to change us into merciful and forgiving people.

Maybe you have a deep seated resentment against a family member, a brother or a sister. Maybe you’re mom or your dad. Maybe a friend who was once close. Maybe a government you once trusted. Lay it all down today and receive the healing of our Lord Jesus. All him to be king of your life. Serve and worship him only and put no trust in any other person or government.

Let’s allow him to minister to us today. He’s both a powerful king and merciful pastor.