D.M. Lloyd Jones Romans 13

The Difference between Church and State (Romans 13:1-7)

#1 Different in Origin

— The State comes from God

— Reminded of that here in Rom 13:1 “the powers that be are ordained by God”

— The state belongs to the order of nature

— The state belongs to the realm of “common grace”

— The Church

— The church came about by the mediatorial or saving work of Jesus Christ

— The Church from “special grace”

#2 The Primary Object for which they were Instituted

— The Church

— For spiritual purposes

— In order to preach the Word to the unsaved

— For the welfare of believers

— Provide fellowship for believers

— To give instruction in righteousness

— To offer help and aid and administer the sacraments

The State

— Preserving peace and external good order

— It is not concerned with spiritual matters

#3 In the power that has been committed to them by God

The Church

— The power of grace

— She has no coercive power

— Of course, the Roman Catholic Church has not always said that

The State

— Coercive power

— Romans 13:4 “for he beareth not the sword in vain”

#4 The way that functions are carried out

The Church

— Lists are given in various places in the NT: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” ( Eph 4:11 )

— “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondary prophets, thirdly teachers...” ( 1 Cor 12:28 )

The State

— When you come to the church you find something very different

— Here you have the magistrate, the chief magistrate, the king or the queen or the emperor

— Various dignitaries working under one supreme authority

A Brief Historical Survey

The Puritans

— From the very beginning of the Protestant Reformation, there were people in the Church of England who were not satisfied with what had been accomplished

— They felt that the Reformation stopped short, that while matters of doctrine had been put right, there had been a failure to carry through the principles of the Reformation into matter of ceremonies, ritual, the government of the church and so on.

— These men became known as Puritans because they felt that the church must be purified through and through

— Many who spoke out against the Elizabethan Settlement and the Anglican Church were persecuted, imprisoned or put to death

—It was the outcome of this persecution that the Pilgrim Fathers crossed the Atlantic in the Mayflower in the year 1620

— They left England to escape the ecclesiastical tyranny which they suffered in England

— And yet, having arrived and having started a new life in that colony, they in turn proceeded to bring about the same situation from which they were escaping: they themselves became religious and ecclesiastical tyrants

— Only church members had the right to vote or take part in government

— Like Calvin and Know, they expected the state to enforce church discipline

— They were utterly intolerant

The Free Church idea

— A group of people who believed the church was separate from the government

— First appeared in the 1580s during the reign of Queen Elizabeth

— The Presbyterians broke off from the Puritans 10 years earlier (1570)

— They bitterly opposed the Puritans who believed in staying in the Church of England but reforming it

Roger Williams

— A pivotal figure in American History and religious tolerance

— An Anglican pastor and crossed the Atlantic in 1631

— He came to Boston and taught that the Government (the magistrate) had not right to punish a breach of the Sabbath or any other offense because it was a breach of the Ten Commandments

— Williams left Boston over these disagreements and moved to Salem

— Unable to stay in Salem because Boston had jurisdiction

— He went to Plymouth and returned to Salem after two years and an arrest order was issued and ordered to be deported

— He escaped to Providence and founded the state of Rhode Island

— Roger Williams did all this because of his religious ideas

— He believed in complete freedom of worship

— He held that the state had no right to dictate religious beliefs

The Church and the State and the New Testament

— Since the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the union between the church and the state has ceased to exist

—The Lord taught this way: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto the God the things which be God’s” ( Luke 20:25 )

— This is what you do with your money; this is what you do with your soul: two different realms

— In 1 Corinthians 6, the Apostle upbraids the Corinthians for taking their personal disputes to the public courts ( 1 Cor 6:1-5 )

— So this is the argument, if we are not even to take private, personal matters of dispute between Christians to the public courts, how much less are we to take matters like prayer books or matters of doctrine

— The idea is entirely contrary to the NT

Additional Resources

Lloyd-Jones, D. M. Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 13: Life in Two Kingdoms. Banner of Truth, 2002.