Excerpt #4 of “Analysis of Romans 13:1-7 in Light of the Analogy of Scripture”
Given the length of the full paper I recently published on this site, I am posting excerpts which emphasize specific principles within the paper. Hopefully, these excerpts will not only encourage you to read the actual paper, but also think more deeply about the role of Romans 13:1-7 in our response to both Godly and ungodly civil government in our day and time. A proper understanding and obedience to Scripture is critical today as always. This particular Scripture has been mishandled in so many ways that a methodical approach to its exegesis is needed to avoid further error by both individual Christians and the broader church. The pressures being exerted upon true Christianity by the contemporary civil government demand a Biblical response informed by Romans 13:1-7 and the other Scriptures addressed within this paper.
(These excerpts are posted in the order as found in the paper, but do not include the entirety of the paper which combined. Only the PDF contains all sections of the paper.)
God’s Law Limits Government’s Punishments
Though the law of God was meant to curtail disobedience in all spheres, it also limits man’s punishment of the wicked to acceptable degrees. In Exodus 21:23-27 and Leviticus 24:18-23, the well-known lex talionis, often viewed in a negative light, actually prevented far more damaging punishments from being inflicted on the guilty. As Schwertley argues in God’s Law for Modern Man, the goal was justice. He also quotes Greg Bahnsen’s book, Theonomy, pp. 437-438 in further support of this. Deuteronomy 16:18-20 further confirms this intention by commanding the rulers to “judge the people with righteous judgment”, “not pervert justice”, “not show partiality”, “not accept a bribe”, and to follow only justice. Through this obedience they were to inherit the land which God had given them. The impartiality was to extend both to citizens of Israel and strangers in the land (Leviticus 24:22). Based on Deuteronomy 4:1-8 (particularly verses 7 and 8), Schwertley points out in God’s Law for Modern Man that the law was also meant to be a model for other nations. There the nearness of God was extolled as were the laws of the Israelites.
As further examples of its goal of justice, not punitive purposes, the Law included stipulations for self-defense in Exodus 22:2-4 and required atonement for unsolved murders in Deuteronomy 21:1-9. In fact, government itself could be the enactment of judgment as seen in Hosea 13:11 where God says that He would give a king to His people “in His wrath”. St. Thomas Aquinas noted this in work “On Kingship or the The Governance of Rulers” as he addressed how the people should seek help in resisting a tyrant (Sigmund, 25). Both Biblical narratives and propositions therefore demand the doctrine that God is the ultimate authority, ordaining civil government for mankind’s benefit through delegation and jurisdictional division.
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