HOLY SUBMISSION

romans 13:1-7

God calls all Christians to have a heart of submission.

Introduction

CALL THEM OUT!!!

ask the students, what they think or feel towards the rules that schools, jobs, and the government have set in place.

ask to give examples and why they dislike or like them.

How has God called us to interact with the authorities in our lives?

Is what you described God honoring or is it falling short?

Tonight were going to uncover what Gods will for us is regarding any and all governing authorities in our lives.

From authorities as small as a crossing guard all the way up to the president.

1.The Requirement to submit vs.1-2a

2.The Purpose of submitting vs. 2b-4

3.The way we submit vs. 5-7

Romans 13:1–7 (CSB)

1 Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. 2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. 4 For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong. 5 Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience. 6 And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks. 7 Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.

PRAY!

CONTEXT:

Who: Paul writing to the church in Rome.

Audience: a mixture of Jews and Gentiles.

The government of Rome: this unbelieving pagan nearly satanic government.

The rulers who have been apart of Jesus’s Crucifixion.

The hands who have persecuted 100’s of Christians including Paul himself.

historically we know Emperor Nero was just appointed over Rome as Paul is writing this letter.

now emperor Nero is know for his gruesome treatment towards Christians.

Nero would feed Christians to his dogs, he would watch them fight in the Colosseum for entertainment and he’d use them as torches to light up his garden at night.

keep this in mind that this is the man whom God is commanding those reading this letter to submit to.

but why should a Christian have to submit to an evil power like Nero someone who is 100% against you seeking your destruction.

maybe your thinking why would God command someone to submit to that?

How is that good?

what does a Christian have to gain from this?

what does God say, what does he command us to do regarding the good and the bad authorities?

and what does that mean for us in regards to God?

1. The Requirement to Submit vs.1-2a

Romans 13:1–2 (CSB)

1 Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. 2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command.

God commands everyone to submit to governing authorities.

This call to submission isn't anything new all over scripture God calls us to submit to someone and in many different ways.

#1 God calls us to submit to himself for salvation. to submit to him as lord and master not only savior to produce a saving faith.

#2 God calls wives to submit to their husbands as to the lord.

#3 children submit your parents.

#4 which we see here submit to governing authorities.

But What are governing authorities?

a person who has power or the ability to do something.

or a person who rules over someone or something.

someone who has the potential to command, control, or govern.

so anyone who is put over someone for example.

-teachers and principals.

-police officers

-judges

-governors

-bosses/managers

-president

so these are the types of people we are called to submit to.

but are we supposed to submit to all of them?

yes the continuation of verse 1 says there is no authority except for God.

so God is the greatest authority there is.

and he has put all the other authorities in place giving them their power and control.

God is the highest authority and has established all the worlds authorities under him.

therefore if we follow/submit to the wordly authorities we are submitting to Gods authority.

vs. 2 also says the one who resists these governing authorities are opposing Gods commands so are against what God has established.

so does that mean we are supposed to follow and listen to absolutely everything they say never saying no.

absolutely not there is a time and place when us as Christians must stand in opposition to what a governing authority has established.

but when is that?

its when they have issued a law or order that would lead you to sin or prevent you from living out any commands God has given.

and anything else other than that we are required by God to submit to.

which is why we extremely need to have godly discernment and guidance from the holy spirit and our fellow believers to help us know when to resist and or when to submit to our governing authorities over us.

now what about those who submit or those who dont submit what happens to them?

2.The Purpose of Submitting vs. 2b-4

Romans 13:2–4 (CSB)

and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. 4 For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.

God set these authorities in place for his purpose and will.

cops and robbers.

-cops what do cops do?

-defend

-protect

-serve the people

-arrest criminals

-maintain the laws

-help citizens

-criminals what do criminals do?

-break laws

-hurt people

-hide

-are shady

-selfish

how do cops and criminals interact with each other?

the criminal breaks the law and the cops go in and makes them pay for the wrong they have done.

do the criminals like the cops?

no they hate them even though they are in the wrong and the cops are doing whats right.

they hate the fact that the good is preventing them from doing bad.

like the cops who protect and avenge the people who do good.

God has established all authorities to be this avenger this law keeper, even though not all of them get it right and end up looking more like a criminal God uses them anyway to bring about his righteous judgment on all things.

God has set all these authorities up to keep the peace to point to his authority to show that the world must have someone in authority ruling or else there will be pure chaos.

hint look at the time of the flood there was no authority and people did as they pleased and evil ran rampant.

Jeremiah. who remembers when we went over this on sunday mornings

expand on this

#1 Israel under exiled authority (due to sin)

#2 Christians under tyrannical government (while doing good)

so God used the surrounding nations around israel to conquer them and make them submit under their rule in exile so that the people would turn back to God.

so God used these pagan authorities to bring Gods people back to him.

but on the other hand you have the Christians in rome submitting to nero they were not far from God or in sin. yet they are also called to submit to a tyrannic government so how do we reconcile that to this text.

God has established all governing authorities whether good or bad to work for his will and glory.

for instance with israel with nebakazar they were called to submit to them in order that they see the error of their ways and come back to God.

but with nero they submited to him in order that God would be glorified through their suffering.

they were outstanding citizens who honored and respected the authorities, who gave to the poor and orphans. yet nero sill killed them for being Christians.

but in doing so everyone seen this and asked why these people are wrongfully convicted, along with saying how can they love them while being killed.

leading to multitudes coming to christ.

the christians being persecuted who submitted to nero didnt get to see their fruits but so many others did.

heres how they did it.

3. The Way to Submit vs. 5-7

Romans 13:5–7 (CSB)

5 Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience. 6 And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks. 7 Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.

God has called us not to submit to authorities out of obligation alone or for the fear of facing judgment,

but rather to have a heart that rejoices and is content in submission.

so why do you think most people follow laws?

Becuase they dont want to get in trouble.

but God has called us to something different.

he says not out of escape from wrath or punishment.

but rather your conscience, because of doing whats right.

delighting in being obedient to God which in turn means being obedient to our governing authorities regardless of what that entails

the text says for this reason becuase you delight in submitting to authorites you pay taxes becuase you are paying Gods servants for their work.

you pay your obligations to them.

showing them respect and honor regardless if they deserve it from worldly standards.

you as a christian are called to be the upmost outstanding citizen.

leaving no room for any authorities to shame you as a christian.

1 Peter 2:13–17 CSB

13 Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority 14 or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. 15 For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. 16 Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Gods saying you do what is right and good, and it will leave no room for anyone to justly talk bad about you or condem you.

the fact that you have done right by the rulers and authorities will strengthen the gospel if not to the authorities themselves but to all those looking in on the outside.

God wants to use our obedience and submission for his glory.

so the question is where is our hearts in this?

do we have a problem with authority in our lives?

are we the person whos always looking for a loop hole to bend the rules in my favor?

do we resent the government thats in place because they dont suit our taste or align with our views?

do we hate those in power and refuse to follow their rules?

if the answer to any of those is yes then we need to examine our hearts and our motives?

to ask the hard questions of why do i have an authority issue?

why do i not want to submit to those authorities whether it be God directly or his established authorities?

i believe if we are honest we all struggle with this in some way or fashion whether it be on a small scale or large one from not caring about speed limits to fully rejecting Gods commands all of them come from an unsubmissive heart.

so the call here is to pray that God change our hearts to delight in submitting first of all to him and second to his authorities good or bad.

second would be to repent to identify where we’ve fallen short in submitting to any authorities in our lives whether that be our teachers, bosses, governments whom ever and what ever.

then we ask God to lead us and strengthen us to turn towards submitting to those people with a joyous heart.

know that we are honoring our God and king while we honor our worldly authorities.

- so thats the challenge before i pray ill give you sometime to reflect on these things use it as a time of response.