ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
"The night is far spent, the day is at hand.'• Let us there- fore "put ... on the Lord Jesus Christ." As a garment of light in a sin-darkened world, let us reproduce in our lives His righteousness. This is to know Him and to make Him known. THE CHRISTIAN'S RESPONSIBILITY . TO GOVERNMENTS 13:1-7 As we have already stated. our attitude toward govern- . mental powers is included in our relationship to the world. But because Rom. 13: 1-7 is often misunderstood, and because it speaks to us of a vital part of our Christian responsibility; therefore, we are devoting a separate topic to it here. Let us read these verses carefully. We need to remember that as ) Christians we are citizens of another world. "Our citizenship is in heaven,. (Phil. 3: 20). Consequently we are passing as strangers through the enemy's territory; for Satan is the arch-enemy of our souls, and he is "the god of this world." We must walk circumspectly; and in order that we may know what our conduct should be, the Holy Spirit caused Paul to write these words. The gift of God's righteousness, which we receive as a result of our faith in the finished work of our Lord on the cross, should be reproduced in our relation to governmental powers. Believers can not be anarchists, or Bolshevists, or terrorists. Neither must they flaunt governmental authority. Of course, if governmental authority opposes the commands of our God, which will be the case during the great tribula- tion, then our behavior should be like that of the early Chris- tians. We must "obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). My friends, we may be called upon to do this before this age is over. We are not going through the tribulation, but great events are nearly always foreshadowed, and we may have a taste of what the people will suffer during that terrible time. However, unless governmental comma_nd~ oppose those of God. we must be -in suhjection to them, even though the-men [Page 233
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online