In the book of Romans, Paul writes to Christians who are
facing a scenario where their religion has been outlawed, and their lives are
in danger for their confession of faith.
In chapter 13, he reminds them that all authorities are to be obeyed
because they rule at His pleasure. When
describing this teaching of the Bible, Martin Luther describes God as ruling
two kingdoms with His two hands. With
His right hand, He rules the Church by grace, and with His left hand, He rules
the kingdoms of the world, along with the earthly estates of family and
employment, by law, calling Christians to obey those in authority as if
rendering obedience to Him.
However, one instance when this is not the case is if an
earthly authority would command or coerce a Christian to renounce Christ or to
sin against God, it is their duty to disobey that command and obey God
instead. The apostle Peter clearly
expresses this in Acts 5:29 when he disobeys a sinful command saying, “We must
obey God rather than men.”
In the present day, Christians still live in a situation
where there may be tension between the commands of God and the laws of the
land. When the secular law allows
actions and behaviors which Scripture clearly forbids, Christians can still
live according to their own conscience within that law. In cases where regulations and judicial
rulings attempt to restrict the rights of Christians to practice their faith in
the public square or demand that they participate in actions their Scripturally-formed
conscience cannot permit, they may need to disobey the secular authorities in
order to obey God.
Recent mandates and orders have also brought to light another
tension for Christians—whether to obey or disobey orders that they believe are
not legally legitimate. Since the United
States is not a monarchy, the executive branch (presidents and governors) are
not the highest authority, but rather the fourth layer, after the people
themselves, delegated through the Constitution, to legislative bodies, whose
statutes are enforced by the executive branch.
Christians, even within the same congregation, may disagree about the
legitimacy of an order, and that raises the question over how the congregation
as a whole will respond.
When this becomes the case, the Church is called to recognize
her role as the administrator of the Lord’s gracious gifts, and not the arbiter
of its members civic conclusions or the enforcer of mandates whose legitimacy
is under question. Christians who are in
agreement regarding their confession of Christ seek a path to ensure the entire
congregation, regardless of their level of risk, the degree of their anxiety,
or the conclusions regarding civic affairs, are given the opportunity to
receive the Lord’s gifts in Word and Sacrament from God’s right hand, while the
individual members follow their conscience in addressing those in the sphere
governed by His left.
