ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
God will allow that blood.-thirsty Caesar of the revived Roman Empire to wash his hands in.the blood of people just because of their apostasy and gross wickedness. God put human government in the world after the flood. During the age of innocence there was no need f~ it. Th~ during the age of conscience every man did just as he wished, according to what he thought he should do. The result was that the human race sank to such terrible depths of degrada.. tion that "every imagination of the thoughts" of man's "heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6: 5). Therefore God sent the flood in judgment. Yet' today there are people who would do away with government! T~ey want free love and com.- munism. Yes; God put government in the world to restrain the wickedness of man. Conscience revealed the need of govern.- ment. And God laid down the foundation law of human gov.- ernment, saying, "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man" (Gen. 9:6). Thus Jehovah instituted capital punishment as the foundation law of human government, to restrain the wickedness of man. Let us remember that this is not a part of the Mosaic Law, and has not been done away. It was S]iven hundreds of years before the Law of Moses was given. It is necessary to keep this in mind in order to understand Rom. 13:1.-7. This is the sense in which "the powers that be are or.- dained of God." And "the powers that be" refer only to human governments, not to the powers of darkness, as some cults teach, thus denying the existence of a personal devil. Paul is writing here of human governments and human rulers on the earth. And he tells us God's will in our relationship to these in verse 2: "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation" (Revised Version), "in ~I!e ~eE-se of_j udgment by _the magistrate" or civil pow.er. "Damnation," or "condemnation," refers to the judgment [Page 235
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