Basics of Government
God instituted government as an avenger of blood and an adjudicator of wrongs
“I will require the life of every animal and every man for your life and your blood. I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image.” - Genesis 9:5-6
Government was instituted as a response to sin and evil, and so there would have been no need for its coercive authority if sin had not entered into the world.1 In its most basic form, government is God’s avenger,2 operating as an instrument of God’s wrath against the individual offender in order that the whole society is not judged for turning a blind eye to his atrocities.3
1Ge 3:17; Ro 5:12 2Ro 13:4 3De 19:12-13; De 21:6-9; De 22:22
“If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court, and the judges will hear their case. They will clear the innocent and condemn the guilty. If the guilty party deserves to be flogged, the judge will make him lie down and be flogged in his presence with the number of lashes appropriate for his crime. He may be flogged with forty lashes, but no more. Otherwise, if he is flogged with more lashes than these, your brother will be degraded in your sight.” - Deuteronomy 25:1-3
God’s law instituted a system of judges that would judge accusations and disputes, rendering verdicts and authorizing restitution and punishments that were consistent with God’s Law. These judges were to be impartial and render only just verdicts. They were forbidden to make rulings based on a person’s status, whether rich or poor.1
1Le 19:15
Government's authority comes only from God
“Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.” - Romans 13:1-2
Government derives its authority from God alone. Its authority is therefore limited to the roles for which God instituted it.1 God commands us to honor those in authority, but if their commands prevent Christian obligations, then it is the right and duty of godly men to defy their tyrannical demands.2
1Ro 13:3-4 2Ac 5:29
Man has corrupted government
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.” - Proverbs 1:7
In the Bible, God has revealed his character and law, but we as fools have despised this gracious revelation. We have forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and have instead dug waterless wells. Lacking the foundation to live well, we have descended into being a society that must be held together by the coercive power of government.
“When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time” - Genesis 6:5
Every year, we see more and more that man is hell-bent on evil. Every year, state and federal legislators continue to outlaw liberties in a useless attempt to restrain man’s depraved nature.
Unbiblical punishments and little restoration
While the bible calls for capital punishment for capital sins, and restitution for damage against property and persons, we have instead resorted to caging and fining anyone that does something society considers not cool. While God has created the world in such a way that you have to follow certain laws to live in it as a society, modern man has rejected God and has replaced “crimes against God” with “crimes against society”, and then has proceeded to redefine these crimes against society as his fancies saw fit.
Legalization of murder and suicide
God as creator and supreme ruler of all things, deserves the utmost respect. Man in turn, made in his image, deserves a measure of this respect. God as the giver of life is the only one who can authorize the taking of any life. God has placed the life of plants and animals under man's dominion and stewardship, but has reserved the life of man to his discretion and has only authorized the taking of human life in the case of capital sins, self defense, and warfare.
Florida legislators have authorized the murder of preborn children, with maternal consent, up to the age of six weeks. Furthermore, they have without reservations, authorized the mother to murder her child at any point before delivery.
Oppressive regulations to “protect” consumers
Law after law has been passed in our state and country to protect consumers from producers. In reality, these laws are about protecting idiots from their poor judgment, and protecting the establishment from entrepreneurs. Aside from all the oppressive registration that businesses must comply with so that a portion of their profits can be confiscated and redistributed, they also must spend valuable time and money to discover, understand, and follow the government’s nanny-state regulations.
Wellfare
The Law of God instructs us to provide work and wages for the poor, but the State has decided that the working class’s wages will do instead of God’s plan for charity. God instituted the family as the department of welfare, and absent an overreaching government, it is perfectly capable of this role. The family is such a powerful thing, that the Totalitarian governments have sought to dismantle and destroy it not only by seeking to ideologically tear it apart, but also subsidizing the stupidity of doing life without it as God designed.
Legislative protection of those who commit abominations
Whereas certain sins are so destructive to a community that God commands the death penalty for them, we instead pass law after law to protect and enable those committing these abominations to infiltrate all of society.
The Gospel is the only thing that will fix a broken society
“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?” - Psalm 82:2
God instituted government to restrain evil, but those in power have the same sin problem that permeates all of humanity. Often, rather than restraining sinfulness, politicians end up justifying and systemizing it. Without help beyond itself, mankind will always descend into the darkest of sins.
“For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” - John 3:17
The good news of the gospel is that Christ came into the world not to punish the world for its transgressions and love of sin, but rather so that the world might be saved (forgiven and transformed) through his death and reign as King of Kings.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. - Psalm 2:11
Man was created to serve God. When he lives for God, he lives well; when he pursues his appetites and lusts, he chases death. But this latter state of indulgence is the prison we are all born into. This bondage of death is seen in a father abandoning his son, a hypocrite pastor preying on God’s lambs, a corrupt politician distorting justice at the offer of a bribe, and a mother taking an abortion pill to poison her baby girl.
The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, - Luke 4:18
Between us and freedom are the two insurmountable obstacles of our unrelenting sinfulness and the death our sins have earned us. No matter how hard we try, we cannot overcome our corruption or pay our debt. God, being just and faithful, cannot leave the guilty unpunished. We have committed cosmic treason against God, and he would be evil to overlook it. So, in order to save wretches and yet remain the just Judge of all the earth, his Son was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Christ, on the cross, drank our death and shattered our chains so that we might live for him in this life and the next. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow if you only go to Christ and surrender to his servitude of rest. Jesus does not save us from the penalty of sin to leave us in sin’s power, but when one is truly saved, he is placed under God’s Law, the perfect Law of Liberty.