Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Thursday December 10, 2009

www.wenstrom.org

Romans: Romans 13:1c-Those Governmental Authorities Which Do Exist At Any Time Are Ordained By God In Eternity Past

Lesson # 433

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13:1.

This evening we will complete our study of Romans 13:1, which is divided into three parts.

In the first part, Paul issues a command for his Christian readers in Rome to continue making it their habit of voluntarily subjecting themselves to the governmental authorities in Rome.

In the second part, he gives the reason as to why the Roman believers should continue doing this, namely because there is, as an eternal spiritual truth, absolutely no authority that exists on the earth except by God.

This evening we will note the third and final part of the passage, which defines specifically this reason in that it teaches that those governmental authorities, which do at any time in history exist on the earth have been ordained from eternity past by God the Father under the divine decree.

Romans 13:1, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

Romans 13:2, “Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.”

Romans 13:3-4, “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.

Do you want to have no fear of authority?

Do what is good and you will have praise from the same for it is a minister of God to you for good.

But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”

Romans 13:5, “Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.”

Romans 13:6, “For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.”

Romans 13:7, “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

The force of what Paul writes in Romans 13:1-7 is greatly increased as a result of understanding that Nero was ruling Rome at the time.

Nero reigned as emperor of Rome from 54-68 A.D.

He was a tyrant who began a tremendous persecution of Christians in Rome and was notorious for his inhumane and cruel treatment of Christians.

Nero was emperor of Rome and was born at Antium, in December of 37 A.D. and died in 68 A.D., right after he gave the order to execute the apostle Paul.

The fire of 64 A.D. brought the first great persecution of Christians in Rome causing many Romans to sympathize with the unfair treatment endured by the Christians.

Nero had always greatly desired to rebuild Rome and he used the fire to do so by reconstructing it in the Greek style.

He began building a prodigious palace called the Golden House which had it been completed would have covered a third of Rome.

Nero was reportedly at his villa at Antium 35 miles from Rome at the time of the fire, but many held him responsible for the fire in order to indulge his aesthetic tastes in the city’s subsequent reconstruction.

According to the Annals of the Roman historian Tacitus and to the Nero of the Roman biographer Suetonius, Nero in response tried to shift responsibility for the fire on the Christians, who were popularly thought to engage in many wicked practices.

It was during the middle of the reign of this tyrant Nero that the apostle Paul wrote this epistle to the Romans.

He was notorious for his inhumane and cruel treatment of Christians.

Romans 13:1, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

“And” is the “emphatic” or “intensifying” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that advances upon Paul’s statement that there is absolutely no person in governmental authority except by God and intensifies it.

It is introducing a statement that gives the reader more information and specifically identifies for the reader how governmental authorities came into existence by God.

They came into existence by God in the sense that they were ordained by Him in eternity past.

“Those which exist” is the articular nominative feminine plural present active participle form of the verb eimi (ei)miv) (i-mee), which means, “to exist.”

The present tense is also a “gnomic present,” which is used to describe something that is true “any” time and “does” take place.

Therefore, the “gnomic” present says that those governmental authorities, which “at any time do” exist were established by God.

“Established” is the nominative feminine plural perfect passive participle form of the verb tasso (tavssw) (tas-so), which means “to decree, ordain” indicating that God the Father “decreed” or “ordained” governmental authorities to exist on the earth.

This verb does not refer to the establishment of human government by God under the Noahic covenant as recorded in Genesis 9:5-6 since Paul’s statement at this point in Romans 13:1 is not speaking of this but rather is explaining the existence of individual authorities and how they came to power.

Rather, tasso in Romans 13:1 refers to the divine decree in eternity past since Paul is explaining the existence of individual authorities and how they came to power and who is responsible for their ascension to power.

The “divine decree” is the Father’s eternal and immutable will, regarding the future existence of events, which will happen in time and regarding the precise order and manner of their occurrence.

The decree of God is the chosen and adopted plan of all God’s works.

God’s decree rendered all things as certain to occur and He decided that they would exist and so therefore, God rendered certain to occur all the various decisions that human beings would make during the course of their lifetime and God decided that these things would exist.

This would of course include the election of presidents and the decisions leading to the ascension to any position of governmental authority.

The divine decree took place in eternity past before anything was ever created and is God’s eternal and immutable will.

Therefore, it was a part of God’s plan from eternity past that certain individuals would hold authority in government.

The “providence” of God is the divine outworking of the divine decree, the object being the final manifestation of God’s glory and expresses the fact that the world and our lives are not ruled by chance or fate but by God.

Therefore, those individuals who possess governmental authority in the past, and now in the present and will in the future have by the sovereign will of God been ordained to possess and exercise this authority.

Therefore, those who have possessed governmental authority in all the nations of the earth throughout history and into the present and into the future did not acquire this power by chance or fate because God ordained for them to have this power in order to fulfill His plan and to bring glory to Himself.

The decree of God is the chosen and adopted plan of all God’s works and so it was a part of God’s chosen and adopted plan that those individuals who possess and exercise governmental authority would be in the positions that they hold.

The decree of God is the sovereign choice of the divine will (His sovereignty) and mentality (His omniscience) by which all things are brought into being and controlled, made subject to His pleasure, and producing His glorification.

Therefore, those in governmental authority hold their position as a result of God’s sovereign will and omniscience by which this ascension to power was brought into being and was controlled and made subject to God’s pleasure and glorified Him.

The decree of God is His eternal and immutable will regarding the future existence of events, which will happen in time and regarding the precise order and manner of their occurrence.

Therefore, it was God’s eternal and immutable will that those hold power in government would do so.

Furthermore, God decreed the exact time that these individuals who possess governmental authority would ascend to power and the precise order of events leading up to their ascension to power and the manner in which this would transpire.

“By God” indicates that God the Father is the ultimate personal agency behind human government in that He ordained or decreed in eternity past their existence in time.