Path and Destination

It’s not as if we could do nothing, but what any action we take must follow Biblical Law.

We live in a fallen world; it’s terminal. There is no saving this world as know it. What we mean by “this world” is a reference to our current existence as fallen humans, particularly in the aggregate.

And nobody in their right mind wants to preserve this existence. We will most certainly take advantage of what’s possible while we are here, but there is nothing belonging to this world that matters that much. We will take advantage of our time here to invest ourselves in something eternal: God’s glory. So our motivation and drive is making Him glorious, and the single biggest way to do that is to live by His divine moral character and harvest His blessings. The proximate issue for His glory is the shalom that comes from embracing His ways in this life.

Don’t rely on any human agency to decide how anything works out. We do play along with it; that’s what Romans 13 is all about. We are forbidden by God from trying to interfere with the general run of things in terms of human government. If there’s going to be any kind of resistance, it must first rest on a divine sense of calling as viewed through Biblical Law, not something dreamed up by human reason or cultural dreams. We don’t go along with the herd in every way, but we seek a strategic opportunity to work from within the prevailing system.

So when dealing with fallen human government, we make no promises. We offer no genuine allegiance, only a truce. We belong to Christ and no human government has any real claim on our loyalty unless it first embraces the Law of Noah — fat chance of that. It might be unwise to make a lot of noise about that all the time, but our obedience to Biblical Law means we have to seek every opportunity to honestly proclaim our true loyalty. Nothing in Romans 13 says we are obliged to love a government system that defies God.

Reject any attempt to hold you accountable to values contrary to divine revelation. In this we defy social convention. The society in which we live does not love Jesus; they have no standing to complain when we ignore their posturing and noise. I refuse to wear any garment of shame; it doesn’t come in my size.

It’s your own personal sense of calling and mission that determines your tactical choices in playing along or not. At best, we are cynical about the glowing patriotic warmth popularly portrayed in civic religion. You cannot serve two different masters, and if you don’t understand that government as a whole considers itself God, you simply aren’t paying attention. Even when the official motto says, “In God we trust,” you can bet “God” means the sum total of government will. Take whatever actions your convictions demand.

If your choices mean dying, what’s the big deal? Do you really find his awful fallen existence so precious? If that’s the case, then you really don’t know God and His Word. The only thing that could possibly be precious about this life is whatever connects us to the next life, eternal life. We are striving only to satisfy the Lord so He can take us out of this world. We have a mission here, and that’s our only joy in living. Let us take up our own crosses and focus on the finish line.

The path to that finish line is Biblical Law.