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(1) Walk Thru The Word:  Romans 13: 1-7  (ESV)

God’s People Promote Good Governmental Authority

1Let 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. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but too bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4for 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.

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

(2) Message map Rom. 11: 1 – 36

The Book of Romans: Session 21

Advocating for Gods Authority On Earth as it is in Heaven

(3) ROMANS 13: 1-4, God Institutes/Installs Governing Authorities & God wants Them to be good!

Does God call a) governments, b) systems, c) processes d) people?

Since “good appears 3 x in Romans 13:1-4, we can conclude …

  1. God wants government to be good,
  2. God, He wants individuals to obey Him.
  3. individuals are to obey God even if they get government jobs/titles
  4. Government is always right and never falls under God’s Judgement.  

Did Paul write Romans 13: 1-7 because

  1. It is true — God exercises sovereignty over governing authorities
  2. Since the letter was going to Rome, the Emperor might read it, and Paul wanted to cause no additional problems for Christians in a city facing stiff persecution.
  3. Paul prophetically was looking forward to a time when Bible based governments would exists, and obeying them was consistent with obeying Scripture.   

EW’s Answers: 1. is true.   2. is questionable  3) is speculative

(4) ROMANS 13: 1

God Institutes/Installs Governing Authorities & Sends His People to Convict Them To Do Gods will. 

1Let every person be SUBECT (“under God’s arrangement,” i.e. submitting to the Lord and His plan for the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

be subject =  to place or rank under, to subject, mid. to obey

Usage: I place under, subject to; mid, pass: I submit, put myself into subjection.

5293 hypotássō (from 5259 /hypó, “under” and 5021 /tássō, “arrange”) – properly, “under God’s arrangement,” i.e. submitting to the Lord (His plan).

Rom 13: 1 God calls His People to commend or convict those in  government to encourage them to do what is right in God’s eyes. 

Depending upon our obedience and government’s responses we either get …

(5) Hitler Helped Himself to power by abusing Rom.13: 1- 4

http://theopoet4camp.blogspot.com/2009/10/gott-mit-unsgod-with-us-hitler-and.html

Hitler, was the democratically elected ruler of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and he commanded Christian leaders to preach ‘unconditional subjugation’ to Hitler claiming the Holy Bible in Romans, 13 demanded such loyalty. When Hitler moved to disarm Germany’s citizenry, Christian leadership obediently mollified their congregations with Romans 13. When Hitler abducted dissidents in the dark of the night without due process, Romans 13 was evoked to cause the church to doubt if they should stand against this. When the burning flesh of those who had been their neighbors manufactured the air unbreathable, Romans 13 hung like a shroud over the confused surrounding communities.

Bonhoeffer’s promising academic and ecclesiastical career was dramatically altered with the Nazi ascension to power on 30 January 1933. He was a determined opponent of the party from its earliest days. Two days after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address in which he warned Germany against slipping into an idolatrous cult of the Führer (leader), who could very well turn out to be Verführer (the mis-leader, or seducer). He was cut off the air in the middle of a sentence, though it is unclear whether the newly elected Nazi regime was responsible.[11] In April 1933, Bonhoeffer was the first church voice of resistance to Hitler’s persecution of Jews, declaring that the church must not simply “bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself.”[12] 

(6) GOD CALLS HIS PEOPLE TO COMMEND & CONVICT THOSE IN GOVERNMENT

If we blindly and inappropriately separate church from state which of the following happens?

(7) God’s good servants are not terrorized by Bad government But Are Used of God To Convict It! GOD CALLS HIS PEOPLE TO CONVICT THOSE IN GOVERNMENT To Get Right With Him

We could frame today’s message around the Biblical confrontations that resulted from God calling & using His people to convict governing authority and leaders in these instances: 

(8) God’s good servants are not terrorized by Bad government – But Are Used of God To Convict It! 

We could frame today’s message around the Biblical confrontations that resulted from God calling & using His people to convict governing authority and leaders in these instances: 

In their exercise of their subjection to God, He called them to …

1) God called Queen Esther to convict King Ahasuerus & Haman, per Esther 8:11 the Jews who were in each and every city [have] the right to assemble and to defend their lives.”

(9) if Romans 13: 1-4 means Christians cant disobey government, then

(10) The Declaration of Independence (Paragraphs 1-3)

Fulfilling Mans Quest for Gods Freedom

The Declaration of Independence is the culmination of a long history of God moving through People to Fulfill Man’s Quest for God’s Freedom.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

(11) In 1776, America’s Founding Father’s Declared & Codified  GOD’s Will for government to secure the inalienable rights He gives We the People.

[bctt tweet=”That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.” username=”LibertyCF3″]In The Declaration of Independence, they stated

(12) Christians Have Dual Citizenship & Nationality

Do Christians are dual citizens of both heaven and earth. 

Can Christians have dueling alliances & responsibilities to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven

Does this mean …

Ans is automated on slide  SoCS doesn’t appear in the US Constitution, nor the Bible

  1. we should attend National Day of Prayer events to ask God not to separate Himself from, but to intervene in, our state/governmental affairs

(13) The Declaration of Independence! Paragraphs 4-5 … expresses the we are challenged to know when we should disobey earthly authority that is violating Gods will.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

(14)  Heres how we make things less confusing:

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

Confusion = instability

Usage: disturbance, upheaval, revolution, almost anarchy, first in the political, and thence in the moral sphere.

Properly, cannot stand (remain steady) in tumultuous times;

God does not want us unsettled, nor unstable in tumultuous times;

Instead, God gives us “ peace of mind.” He gives us a sense of “wholeness”, from all the essential parts of both our being (mind/soul, body and spirit are joined together/united, restored to God in salvation and submitted to walking in God’s Holy Spirit that results in The Fruit of The Spirit reflected through our emotional well-being.   

Hebrews 12:2 — Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,

To fix = to look away from (something else) to see distinctly what we should focus on

To fix our eyes on Christ requires two actions:  1) looking away from the world, and 2) singularly seeing Christ

Hebrews 12:1-3

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Philippians 1:6  ESV And I am sure [KJV, NAS, NIV = certain] of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

(15)  God offers US an If Thenoption 2 Chronicles 7:14

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Each generation Can Be A “Born Again People

(John 3:3-18)

Who Are Called By God’s Name (Christians)

& Apply The Bible To Civics” to Live Out 2 Chron. 7:14

Our focus is Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven

God’s “IF – THEN” Proposition IF we do our part,

If we do our “If” part, God will do His Then” part God Says: “Then”

We must call appropriately for God to hear.

We must ask for forgiveness & repent! 

(16) We Must Be Born Again!

John 3: 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life.

1 John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(17) Let’s Pray that God ReAwakens, ReInvigorates & ReEstablish Us in Our Calls In Christ!

Let’s Pray:

May God grant us the grace to faithfully keep our eyes on Him to fulfill our “IF’s”, so in each situation we obtain God’s “Then’s!

May God increase the number of born-again people in America who fulfill the Greatest Commandment in Matt 22

Deuteronomy 30:6  And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Matt 22:37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Mark 12:30 30and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Luke 10: 27 27He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  [email-download-link namefield=”YES” id=”357″]

 

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