Thoughts on Romans 13: Part II

I remember my first real confusion about authority as an 8th grader playing junior high volleyball.

Awkward, 13 year old me ran alongside my coach during a drill and we found ourselves in an epic battle of your-mama jokes. We were throwing back these horribly lame one-liners, when I launched my game winner… “your mama’s so dumb, she has to climb over a glass wall to see what's on the other side.” It was at that exact moment, when my awful, not-even-funny joke, reached my coach’s ears that his demeanor changed, his jog slowed, eyebrows furrowed, and I realized that I crossed a line, but I hadn’t realized I was even close to it. I received the most humiliating punishment for a goody-two-shoes student when he benched me for the next two games and I had to explain to my team that I had disrespected my authority. 

Like my 8th grade self, we are often confused how exactly to go about submitting to authorities.

The lines are blurred, relationships messy, and the world is full of sin and evil. It makes trusting non-Christian rulers to do even a little good seem near impossible.

So then, what exactly does Paul mean by submit?

Submit has a broader sense and scope than just merely obey. Submission called the Roman Christians to recognize they stood under the government in a scheme that God instituted for ruling the world—of which He is the ultimate hierarchal head.

This passage, and Peter’s parallel text in 2 Peter 2, use the word hupotass — an actual military term for arranging oneself in military fashion under a commander. It gives us a literal picture of subjecting ourselves under the command of a leader in war. Picture any battle scene from an epic war movie—the options of a soldier ignoring or rebelling against his commanding officer are both out of the question! If the soldier ignores his command and runs away, he'd be shamed or killed by his own army. And if the soldier actively rebels against the commander, he doesn't stand a shot! 

Completely contrary to the norm of ignoring or rebelling against authority, we are to put ourselves in an attitude of submission, arranging ourselves under the command of a leader.

But don't dance uncomfortably in your seat just yet. Such a call to put ourselves in an attitude of submission to authority sounded as impossible to the Roman Christians as it does to us. Not only was their culture pagan, it was completely hostile to Christianity. Christians were labeled as trouble makers, insurrectionists, theists, home-wreckers, cannibals, and worse. As such, they had grown accustomed to ignoring and rebelling against their authorities. And yet, Paul was calling the believers to an ethic that was not of this world. 

He calls them to submit to the authorities that persecuted them: to submit to the leaders that propagated a society dominated by violence and slavery—people that contributed to a culture where the abuse of women and the murder of children was common place, where sexual sin was rampant and homosexual acts seen as worship to the gods. The Roman Christians lived in a wretched, rotten, ungodly, and wicked society—one that sounds a lot like ours. 

And yet, Paul still called them to live in an attitude of submission

Why? Because God is sovereign over earthly authority.

As if Paul anticipates my own doubt and discomfort at the state of our world and the reputation and history of pagan authorities, he assures me of God's sovereignty with two pieces of evidence.

First, God is sovereign over earthly authority because he established the structure of government in creation.

Part of the creational view of the world is that God wanted the world to be ordered, not chaotic. Thus, human structures of power are the God-given means by which that end is accomplished. It is in this way that the governing authorities function as a servant of God as bearers of the sword (v. 4). The state is carrying out a function appointed by God and therefore mediates God’s judgment in history. Government—as it was intended—promotes the good of society. 

Second, God established the earthly authorities themselves.

God having ordained the governing authorities is not a new point, rather, it has been proven throughout the Bible. God’s providential rule over all of creation is specifically applied to the rise and fall of political leaders. 

• Isa. 45:1-7 - Persian King Cyrus who came to power seemingly by his own ability to use political and military machinations, when in reality, he was God’s anointed who God raised up to further his plan for history.
• Jeroboam, the evil king of the Judges who established idolatry, was appointed by God as king over ten tribes. 
• Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan Babylonian king himself who carried Judah captive was also used by God to do his work—and the oppressed Jews under him were not commanded to rebel or ignore his rule, they were commanded to pray for the peace of Babylon. 
• In the New Testament we see the God-given place of secular rulers, even of deeply flawed, sinful, self-serving, corrupt, and idolatrous rulers like Felix, Festus, and Herod Agrippa.
• Even Jesus recognizes the authority of Pontius Pilate when he says to him in John 19:11, “You would have no authority over me, unless it had been given you from above.”

There is proof of God’s sovereignty over authority because he both 1) created it as an order and 2) established the individuals in authority. But again, part of the tension of this text is our desire to qualify our submission to authority.

We want to ask Paul, how can you mean to submit—when we can point to endless examples of those who have abused their power! People as evil as Hitler, Stalin, Bin Laden, Hussein, and Kim Jong Un—leaders whose heinous crimes against humanity are so clearly evil, we couldn’t possibly make a case for what we see in Rom. 13 as leaders being servants of God and using the sword for good. How can we ourselves, Christians today in the United States, not wonder about whether or not we’ll have to stand against the government when we hear the bigotry of Donald Trump towards other human beings.

We look at the condition of our country and of the world and any hope to “make America great again” seems lost. 

We hear talk of neighborhood blocks mobilizing plans in the case of civil unrest. As a worst-case scenario resort, a community could come together and share food, medicine, and trade skills. People are actually talking about what we’d do in a literal case of civil war. “It’s for preparation and protection,” they say. Yet, I feel far from assured. 

At some level, we’re beginning to recognize that the comfort we have experienced as Christian Americans may be drawing to an end.

Times when it is our faithful responsibility to heed John 5:29 and obey God rather than men are becoming a reality.

We look to the story of Bonhoeffer. We consider how deeply he considered his actions against the Nazi government and his participation in the attempt on Hitler’s life. When the attempt failed, however, Bonhoeffer accepted the consequences of the corrupt government and surrendered his life. Like the martyrs of the early church he didn't fight, barter, or retaliate. He submitted.

It is a humbling reality to remember our brothers and sisters elsewhere who face these conflicts on a different extreme. We remember the church in countries ruled by the Islamic State whose commitment to God and the decree of their rulers conflict on a day to day basis.

N.T. Wright hopes to make some sense of this when he writes, “The rulers of this age inevitably twist their God-given vocation to bring order to the world into the satanic possibility of tyranny. And yet the cross of Jesus enthroned as the true Son of God constitutes the paradoxical victory by which rulers’ idolatry and corruption are confronted and overthrown. And in some strange way are reconciled to bring God’s wise order to the world…whether or not they would see it like that.”

In his life on earth, Jesus had every reason to want to “fix” the political climate and rebel against the corrupt authorities. Yet even Christ learned obedience by the things he suffered. The Jews wanted him to rise up against Rome and overthrow political leaders, but he never did. Instead, he continued his work proclaiming the kingdom of God, healing the sick, and restoring the broken until he was put to death by those corrupt authorities.

Yet even in excruciating torture, Jesus did not ignore or rebel against the corrupt rulers and evil government.

Jesus Christ responded in submission. He willingly accepted death and trusted in the sovereignty of his Father, God. 

Imagine with me for a moment, what would it look like if our lives as Christians were characterized by submission? What would it look like right now if in our marriages, schools, workplaces, state, and country Christians came together in an attitude of submission of to the authorities that govern us? Would such a response not be so radically different than the way we usually respond in ignorance and rebellion?

Our response to authority reflects our belief in God's sovereignty.

Let's respond like Christ.