Psalm 72:1-2 Pt. 2: Give the King Your Justice: FAQs and Objections to a Christian Vision of Government

Scripture Reading

Psalm 138:4–5 All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.

Intro

Should we strive to be a Christian Nation in both our culture and government?

Should a nation strive to be Christian and live according to Christian principles?

When you talk about individuals… families… and even cultures everyone says, “Yes! Make disciples of all nations!”

But what about governments?

Should they strive to be Christian and live according to Christian principles?

Psalm 72:1–2 says…

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!

Last week we looked at this verse and other verses from the Old and New Testament and said that The Civil Magistrate… as the Magistrate… is required by God to serve Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords and rule according to His Law.

That… ala Romans 13… the Civil Magistrate is God’s Servant and… as God’s Servant… is under God and called to honor Him.

To put it another way… if the Civil Magistrate is under God as God’s Servant… how does God want him to serve?

However he sees fit or does God want him to serve a certain way?

Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way (Psalm 2:10–12).

Kiss the Son and serve in the fear of the Lord.

Now whenever you start talking about government honoring Christ and obeying Him going back our historic Christian roots and living by biblical principles everybody starts to get a little jittery.

What does that mean?

What does that look like?

How might that work?

When you talking about our government obeying Christian principles the world and even other believers are going to push back.

But my response is does Christ being King of kings and Lord of lords mean anything… or does it mean nothing at all?

So here’s what I want to do.

I want to answer some common objections that you’re going to hear and some questions that you even might have about what it means to have a Christian vision for human government.

We all know intrinsically that we would all be better off if we followed biblical principles for our government, but how do you answer the world’s objections that refuses to be governed by Christ and says, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast their cords away from us?” (Psalm 2:3).

Let’s start with the first and probably most common objection to any Christian Vision of Civil Government where Jesus said…

I. My Kingdom is Not of This World?

Here’s basically the argument.

Jesus’ Kingdom is altogether different and separate from the kingdoms of this world and should have nothing at all to do with politics and human government.

That if you are pressing the crown rights of Christ… you’re just mixing politics and religion and perverting of the gospel.

Well let’s look at that.

In John 18, Pilate asked Jesus Are you the King of the Jews?

To which Jesus answered…

John 18:36 My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.

Now what are Jesus’ words context?

Well, Pilate was a Roman Governor.

He didn’t care about Jewish Religion or Politics.

His only concern was Rome.

And so when the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate they charged Him with insurrection saying that Jesus was making Himself a King trying to raise up an army to overthrow Rome (John 19:12).

That’s why Jesus defines what He means by My Kingdom is not of this world in the second half of the verse.

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.

In other words I’m not here to raise up an army and overthrow the Roman Empire.

My Kingdom is not of this world… It is a Heavenly Kingdom (John 18:23)… a Spiritual Kingdom (Luke 17:20-21, John 3:8)… and a Redemptive Kingdom (John 3:3, 7).

Its not a Kingdom of War and Bloodshed.

It does not come from or grow in power like the other kingdoms of this world.

My Kingdom is not a proclamation of war and the bloodshed of my enemies.

My Kingdom is the Good News of Gospel Peace and Me… the King of kings and Lord of lords… shedding my blood for my enemies.

So Christ’s Kingdom is not one of war or else my servants would be fighting.

But none of that means that Christ Kingdom is not in the world or has nothing to do with this world.

Parables

Jesus said My Kingdom is like a Mustard Seed and like Leaven. Matthew 13:31-33).

It grows larger than all the other plants in the garden… larger and greater than all the other kingdoms of this world…

And like Leaven… it will leaven everything until all is leavened.

Daniel

Daniel says Christ’s is a stone not cut with human hands… not of this world… that smashes all the Kingdoms of this world until they are carried away like dust with no trace of them to be found while His Kingdom grows into a great mountain that fills the whole earth (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45).

Pilate

And not to mention even in John just 15 verses after Jesus told Pilate My Kingdom is not of this world… He said to Pilate… the Roman Governor … the Civil Magistrate of Jesus’ day… (John 19:10).

You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above (John 19:11).

The Civil Magistrate is God’s Servant.

Kings and rulers are not independent of God… they’re authority comes from God.

They are accountable to Him as God’s servant, and as God’s Servant… God calls them to acknowledge Christ as Lord and rule after Him.

So no… These verses in no way say that Christ’s Kingdom has nothing to do with the kingdoms of this world.

They say Christ’s Kingdom is over this world and not one that grows by revolution or bloodshed.

He’s the Prince of Peace!

All Authority

Besides this… the same Jesus that said My Kingdom is not of this World is the same Jesus who also said All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me… Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

Part of making disciples is teaching them what God says about Civil Government.

And as King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus cares about politics because politics have to do with issues of Righteousness and Justice.

Kiss the Son! (Psalm 2:10-12).

And this is where you get verses like Psalm 72:11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!

Psalm 22:27–28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

Three Options

Doug Wilson really coalesces this down to a fine point.

We basically have three options for when it comes to a Christian vision of human government

Doesn’t Care

Either, Christ doesn’t care what kind of government we have and what standard we should use for justice and righteousness.

To which… if Christ is indifferent… why wouldn’t we want a Christian government?

Why wouldn’t we want people be ruled by light rather than darkness?

Doesn’t Want

Or maybe Christ doesn’t want it… My Kingdom is not of this world.

To which we would need to seriously ask ourselves what does disciple the nations actually mean?

At what point in the culture does the Lordship of Christ stop?

Wants

Or maybe…the third option, Christ does want it… in which case we should to.

I mean… He told us to pray for it.

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

How does the King of kings want kings under Him to serve?

Not Revolutionaries

My Kingdom is not of this world does not mean He has nothing to do with this world

It means we are not revolutionaries.

We are not called to take over and overthrow human governments in the name of Christ

We are called to be subject to the governing authorities that God has ordained (Romans 13:1).

But it doesn’t mean we don’t teach the nations.

As the gospel goes out it grows like a mustard seed and leavens like leaven… not until just a little bit is leavened… until all is leavened… ever aspect of life from the way we dress and the way we talk all the way to the Oval Office.

Second objection…

II. We Are Not a Theocracy/We Are Not Old Covenant Israel

So here is where you basically say that the Freedom of Religion and Separation of Church and State say our government should be totally atheistic and totally disconnected from any god or religion.

But… here’s the problem… someone will always rule… something will always be worshiped.

There will always be a god over the system.

Its the inescapable rule of the universe.

You might not call it a god… but there will always be some higher truth or ultimate meaning over every form of human government.

Its not whether you will have a god over the system, but which.

And so when you throw out any god of the system… like we’ve tried to do… you’re left with Secular Humanism where the highest god is the State we become a law unto ourselves.

Where there is no objective standard… there is no objective rule… and instead of being governed as free men under God… we are governed at the mercy of the Despots.

If there is no god over the state then the State is God.

And our rights no longer come from God… they come from the State.

And the State gives and takes away (Job 1:21).

This is why communist dictatorships always try to stamp out religion.

Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us (Psalm 2:3).

Government is ordained by God to protect our rights… not grant them.

This goes all the way back to the founding of our country in the Declaration of Independence which says We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.

Without a God over the State we are at the State’s Mercy.

This is why our government… built out of a Christian worldview… had a system of checks and balances.

They understood the depravity of man and man’s desire to make himself God over others.

So its not a question of whether or not going to get a Theocracy… the only question is which one?

This idea of Secular Neutrality is a myth.

Its Christ or Chaos.

In a completely secular government we make ourselves god and become a law unto ourselves.

We determine for ourselves what is good and evil just like Adam and Eve did in the Fall.

And then your standard of justice and righteousness becomes whatever satisfies our sins and desires.

This is how you get a “right” to an abortion… a “right” to gay marriage… “trans rights” and no fault divorce.

Who cares what God says we want what we want!

And without some objective standard of righteousness you get wickedness.

Its Christ or Chaos…

Its not whether, but which.

Old Covenant?

Now the other argument regarding Theocracy that you’re going to see is that we can’t be governed by God’s Law!… We aren’t Old Covenant Israel!

They’ll we don’t need the Law… Natural Law is enough.

To which I would say what is Natural Law except the Moral Law… the 10 Commandments… written on the human conscience but suppressed in unrighteousness (1689 19:2).

Its the same Law just less clearly defined.

And when we say that Kings as the Civil Magistrate are called to uphold God’s Law we’re not saying that you just take the Law of Old Covenant Israel and drop it on any modern nation.

Now to be clear… you could do a lot worse.

There’s nothing in God’s Law that’s wrong or evil although many modern day people want to paint it as such.

Romans 7:12 The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Three Uses of the Law

When we talk about being governed by biblical principles and following God’s Law what you need to understand is the Reformed tradition of the Three Uses of the Law and the General Equity Principle.

Because tell me if you’ve heard this one before… “Oh, you think homosexuality should be illegal? Well do you still eat shrimp or pork? That’s against the Law too!”

“So if you think homosexuality should be illegal why don’t you follow the rest of the Law too you hypocrite!”

Which again… don’t get jammed… if someone is quoting the Bible at you but at the same time they’re not willing to follow the whole Bible they are not a serious person and you don’t have to listen to them!

They don’t care about your holiness or what God’s Word says.

They are just weaponizing your faith against you?

But how do you answer that?

The answer is you understand the Three uses of the Law and the general equity principle of the Law as fulfilled in Christ.

Pedagogical

Put it like this… the First Use of the Law is a Mirror…

The Law exposes our sin and shows us our need for Christ (1689 19:5).

Civil

The second use is the Civil Use.

That’s what we are talking about here.

The Law serves to restrain evil in a society by providing a standard of justice and righteousness for civil law that civil magistrates are to follow.

Rule of Life

And then you have the Law as the Rule of life (1689 19:6).

It shows us God’s will and what it looks like to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

Interpreting the Law

But to do that for the Civil and the Law as a Rule for life… you have to know how to interpret the Law in the New Covenant Age as fulfilled in Christ.

For example we don’t have the Temple and the sacrifices anymore because those are fulfilled in Christ.

Those were the parts of the Law that always pointed forward to Him (1689 19:3).

Because in addition to the Three Uses of the Law you have three types of Law of the Law found in the Bible… Moral… Judicial… and Ceremonial.

Moral are the 10 commandments… true at all times everywhere.

Judicial are are the Moral Laws applied to society that were particular to Old Covenant Israel that focused on crime and punishment like a case law system.

And Ceremonial Laws… which were laws associated with the worship of God and ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

So to interpret the Law what you do is you take the principle of the Law… the General Equity of it… and apply it to your life.

The Ceremonial Laws are fulfilled in Christ.

So when you have food laws about what foods that make you clean and unclean like pork or shrimp that’s God pointing to Jesus saying you need to be clean to draw near to me and true “cleanness” comes from Christ (Mark 7:19)..

The Civil and Judicial laws on the other hand are a case law system have general equity principles that define for us what justice and righteousness looks like today.

For example… two or three witness.

Innocent until proven guilty.

Paul even quotes an Old Testament animal husbandry law about feeding an ox and without qualification says it means to pay the one who works a fair wage (1 Timothy 5:8).

That’s general equity principle.

So no you don’t drop the Law of Old Covenant Israel on a modern nation or try to reestablish Israel’s Old Covenant Theocracy (1689 19:4).

Those particular laws were there to establish justice and righteousness and eventually bring about the Messiah.

What we do is look at the General Equity Principle of the Law and apply it in its Civil Use to restrain evil and honor the good and promote peace in a society… the very thing God ordained the government to do (Romans 13:1-4; 1 Timothy 2:1-6).

Its not whether but which and what law could you do better then the Law that is from God’s own mouth that is holy and righteous and good?

Number 3…

III. What about Freedom of Religion and the Separation of Church and State?

First of all the Freedom of Religion and the Separation of Church is state is a Christian principle born out of a Christian Worldview.

Separation

The separation of church and state is not in the Constitution like they say, but was written in a letter by Thomas Jefferson to ensure a group of Baptists that the wall of separation would keep the government from coming in and interfering with their faith and practice.

Again its that sphere sovereignty idea.

No one wants a Church-Run-Government or a Government-Run-Church (2 Chronicles 26:16-23).

People must be free to worship according to their own conscience and a Government-Run-Church is the fertile ground of tyranny where you lose your freedom because the church says so in the name of God.

That was what the 1st Amendment was directly working against.

It says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What the Founders wanted was to limit Congress from setting up some formal “Church of America” like you had with the Church of England because the Founders wanted to protect the right of every man to worship according to His own Conscience and not disenfranchise every other Protestant denomination.

When the Constitution was signed 9 of the 13 states had some formal association with one denomination or another so the 1st Amendment was about limiting the Federal Government from growing into a Beast by trying to grow their power through the formal establishment of a religion or the crack-down of the freedom of speech or the press.

It was not there to kick God out of the State… the Separation of Church and the State never meant that.

In fact… the day that Congress approved the First Amendment to be sent out to be ratified by the states… Congress itself called on President Washington to proclaim a national day of prayer and thanksgiving to God.

It read… and keep in mind this is Congress… That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness (The Annals of the Congress, The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Compiled From Authentic Materials by Joseph Gales, Senior (Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1834), 1:949-50).

(Historical References from above from: https://americanvision.org/posts/the-first-amendment-what-it-says-what-it-means/).

It would be weird if they kicked God out of the government and then asked President Washington to pray for it.

The Freedom of Religion never meant a totally secular state.

And in fact… the Freedom of Religion was never about disconnecting the State from specifically Christianity in the first place!

19th Century Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story specifically said that the First Amendment was not about a free-for-all of other religions, but about tolerance within inter-Christian denominations…

He wrote The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance [that is support], much less to advance Mohammedanism [Islam], or Judaism, or infidelity [sin in general], by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects [meaning Christian denominations] and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which would give… the exclusive patronage of the national government (Quoted by Judge Brevard Hand, in Jaffree vs. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, 544 F. Supp. 1104 (S. D. Ala. 1983) in Russell Kirk, ed., The Assault on Religion: Commentaries on the Decline of Religious Liberty (Lanham, NY: University Press of America, 1986), 84).

It was about not establishing a Federal State Church but allowing all Christians to worship as they see fit.

Its about particular denominations… not Christianity itself.

Listen to John Jay who was one of the Founding Father and served as the First Supreme Court Justice of the United States.

He said “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

(Tom Ascol, “The Perils and Promises of Christian Nationalism,” Timestamp 37:20).

Do you think he might have known anything at all about the 1st Amendment?

The point is a Christian Government born out of a Christian worldview is not antithetical to the Freedom of Religion… its the foundation of it!

Sins and Crimes

So no… a government following Christian principles would not be going out arresting people for worshiping the wrong way.

That’s not their sphere.

God has entrusted to them the Sword of Justice.

The Church has the Sword of the Spirit… we deal with sins… we deal with worship.

When it comes to the Freedom of Religion the State’s sphere is to deal with crimes.

To punish the evil doer.

So their not converting people at the point of the sword.

They are maintaining peace and order and guarding individual rights… that your rights might not be trampled on by others.

“Well,” the Homosexual would say, “You’re taking away my rights because I can’t get married.”

No… Marriage is defined by God.

And the Government as God’s Servant can’t redefine marriage just cause someone wants it.

What Its Not

However… at the same time… the Freedom of Religion does not mean Absolute or Ultimate Religious Freedom.

It never has.

For example you can’t have child sacrifice or cult prostitution in the name of Freedom of Religion so there are some things like Sharia Law at a Civil Level or Muslim Calls to Prayer that should be out of bounds.

The Freedom of Religion is a product of the Christian Worldview and you can’t have the Freedom of Religion without it.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

And its not just any religious people.

Specifically it was the religion that made up the worldview of their day… Protestant Christianity!

So what does that mean?

You can’t take out Christianity and still have Freedom of Religion.

How much freedom would you have in a Muslim country or how many Christians have been persecuted in India?

“Well,” you say, “Secularism would never do that! We don’t need Christianity! We’ve grown beyond that”

Well, have you ever been asked to bake a cake?

Its not whether but which.

And the irony is that every other faith… even the atheist faith… would have more religious freedom under a Christian government than any Christian would ever have under theirs.

Because the Christian religion is the only one that necessitates it.

Well it hasn’t! Don’t you know you’re history?

Yea… and who says that was wrong? God.

That was a perversion of it!

High Places

This is why I say the Civil Magistrate must honor Christ and be outwardly and explicitly Christian.

There is always going to be a God over the system and true liberty only comes from Christ.

He must not allow High Places to be built in the Land!

This is why its not a violation of the 1st Amendment to say we’re not going to build giant Hindu Statues or have Muslim Calls to Prayer blaring over the city.

Those things only lead to slavery and death.

But isn’t that Religious Freedom?

No. They are High Places that would actually destroy Religious Freedom.

Sharia

Imagine this.

Imagine if all the Muslims organized and voted in other Muslims at every level of political office to institute Sharia Law.

Well that’s Democracy!

That’s Freedom of Religion!

So in the name of Democracy and Freedom of Religion we are going to lose our Freedom of Religion and every other freedom because of it?

That makes no sense.

Freedom of Religion has to be anchored to something… some Higher Truth.

So when it comes to Sharia Law, Muslim prayer calls, or Hindu statues… those things are completely incompatible with western society.

They completely contradict the Christian principles on which our nation was built.

So it’s not a violation of the first amendment to say we aren’t going to have those here because:

A. The civil magistrate is accountable to God and should not allow High Places to be built in the Land.

And B. Because those things contradict the Christian principles that guarantee the Freedom of Religion and will ultimately destroy religious freedom in the long run because those gods cannot sustain it.

“Well that doesn’t sound like freedom or a Democracy?”

Well it was the democracy we had for most of our nations history so were we free or did we just discover it in the last few generations?

Summary

Its not whether but which and you can’t separate the Freedom of Religion from a Christian Worldview.

True Liberty only comes from Christ.

The Freedom of Religion doesn’t get rid of Christianity from Civil Government… it necessitates it… requires it… its essential and baked in.

You can’t have Religious Freedom without it.

So when we talk about Muslim prayer calls or Hindu Statues… we’re not talking about persecuting people or converting them at the point of the Sword.

We’re talking about not building the High Places in order to preserve religious freedom which ultimately can only come from Christ.

We’ve so bought into the lie Secular Neutrality that we look at Dearborn, Michigan and don’t realize that absolute religious freedom for everyone will ultimately end up in no religious freedom for anyone.

That we can reject Christ and still have all the blessings of liberty that only He can give.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, we aren’t talking anything new.

We are talking about going back to the principles our nation was built on in the first place.

So should we strive for a Christian Government that is ruled by biblical principles?

Why would we as Christians want anything else?

Why would we ever want people to be ruled by darkness rather than light.

This is not new.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession says God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under Him, over the people, for His own glory and the public good (1689 24:1).

The Civil Magistrate is under God and accountable to Him.

That is the basic idea of a Christian Vision for Civil Government.

It amazes me how… in our cultural climate… so many Christians say we don’t need a Christian Nation.

Then what does make disciples of all nations actually mean? (Cf. Genesis 49:10).

Where does the Lordship of Christ ever stop?

It touches our thoughts, marriages, families, businesses, economics, work ethic, but not government?

That makes no sense.

Imagine if:

Every Mayor…

Every Sheriff…

Every City Council Member…

Every Senator…

Every Representative…

EveryJudge and every President went to our church or a church just like our church.

Wouldn’t that be better?

Don’t you think that would be a great blessing to our nation and overnight fill our nation with more justice and righteousness and peace?

How?

Well how do we get there?

Prayer… Preaching… and the Power of the Holy Spirit.

The Mission of the Church is the same… Make Disciples of all nations.

Yes… we can pray for righteous rulers.

We should pray for kings and all who are in high positions (1 Timothy 2:1-4)..

Give the King your justice!

And that would be a great blessing.

But just one generation after Hezekiah restored the Temple and led the people back to God… Manasseh came in and rebuilt the High Places.

Top down is not enough.

We need Reformation and Revival.

For our nation to turn back to God they must first turn back to Him with repentant hearts.

To repent like Nineveh did at the preaching of Jonah (Matthew 12:41).

To turn to Christ and trust in Him and from the heart… say Jesus is Lord.

This is the ultimate mission of the Church.

Its not politics.

Its the preaching of the Good News that Jesus died in our place for our sins and rose again three days later.

The Civil Magistrate is required by God to serve Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords and rule according to His Law.

Let me ask you… would it be better to have a Muslim Nation?

A Hindu Nation?

A Completely Secular Nation with no objective standard of Justice or Moral Truth?

… Or would it be better to have a Christian Nation?

One that honors Christ and acknowledges Him?

Which would be the greatest blessing to all people?

For me… A Christian vision of human Government is summed up in Psalm 2…

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalm 2:10-12).

Let’s Pray

Other Ideas

This Will Just Lead to Cultural Christianity

What About Taxes?

What Is the Purpose of Government?

Is there a Christian Form of Government? (Sphere Sovereignty?

How do we get there?