Our Battle Plan

Intro

Context of where were at in Romans. Chapters 1-11 are Paul simply outlining the gospel and all of the beautiful and incredible realities and implications of it. From our Sin and God’s revelation of himself to Jesus stepping into our world and dying the death we deserve and our victory in him, to how salvation is applied in the election of God’s people, all of it and so much more Paul masterfully lays out for God’s people to bask in. And then we move from those theological truths in 1-11 to the basics of daily Christian living in 12-15.

Romans 13:1–7 ESV

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

As I was preparing for today I came across a testimonial video of a man named Dr. Paul Lim. Dr. Lim is from South Korea and is now a church history professor at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Lim said of this his experience in the church as a teenager: “People’s problems with Christianity more often then not are the stories of hurt and rejection caused by people who are supposed to embody the gospel in a more compelling and enduring way, yet they end up doing the opposite.”

Do you see what he is actually saying there? The way Christians live their lives matters. The way you live your life if you are a follower of Jesus actually matters. You simply cannot throw your life into the hands of grace and not live as if you’ve never experienced the God of that grace. The way you live your life matters. And so Romans 13:1-7 is a perfect text that points to the reality that we as Christians are to be in this world but not of this world. So what undermines this text is the reality that this world is not our home! This simply isn’t home. And gosh i’ve felt that reality more this year than I ever have before in my life. Like this year has been the hardest year for my wife and I and it’s the middle of March! And this life is hard, living in this world is hard for the Christian because this simply is not home. And Paul recognizes that and that’s why he’s giving the Church these instructions. Time and Time again in Paul’s writings he reminds us we are aliens and exiles in this world and our citizenship is in heaven:

Philippians 3:20 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Colossians 3:2–3 ESV

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

And Peter speaks on this same exact topic in 1 Peter 2:11-17

1 Peter 2:11–17 ESV

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

And so how are we, given all of that and keeping all of that in mind, to live and walk in this world? In Submission. So this morning we’re going to look at three different ways in which our submission matters.

1. Submission is an Apologetic

I know this isn’t a text that just makes you ready to lock arms together and run headstrong into the world ready to push back darkness by any means possible. I get that and I see that, but this text is so incredibly necessary for us today. And so, number one, why is Paul addressing our submission to governing authorities? Because Submission is an Apologetic for the gospel. Submission is an apologetic for the gospel.

And so I want to quickly remind you where we’re at in Romans. from the beginning of chapter 12 Paul is giving instructions on the conduct and life of followers of Jesus. And so in a sense he is making the assumption that we move from a head knowledge of the gospel to a heart that is overflowing with action because of the effects of the gospel. So the conduct of your life Paul would say is equally and maybe even more valuable than the words in which you use. And that is why I worded this point the way I did, Submission, the action we take in being obedient to the commands of God in Scripture are an apologetic for us to use in the world today.

Listen, people today aren’t nearly as concerned with facts as they are being changed. Facts are facts, they cannot be argued, they’re concrete. But displaying a life that’s been radically changed? Thats attractive. You can give people facts for the resurrection and the authenticity of the bible all day long, but if it never moves from your head to your heart, if people don’t see a difference in how you conduct your life and the way you live, why would they give their life to Jesus? The question isn’t is submission an apologetic? The question is does your submission point to the profound reality of Jesus’ love for people.

Through out history there have been prime examples of men and women who have simply taken serious the commands of God and used them as a means of Apologetics to the world around them. I want to give you some examples from history both inside of the bible and outside of it:

- The Hebrew Midwives in Exodus 1. The king of Egypt commanded them to throw away the male children that were born. They feared God and did not do as the King said.

- Daniel. This one is one of the more obvious ones. Daniel stood up for that he believed in and used his faith in God as a means to point to the profound reality of God in Babylon.

- Harriet Tubman worked the underground railroad to do what was right in the sight of God.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who may be my favorite historical theologian, sacrificed his life and ultimately died to save millions who suffered under Hitlers horrific dictatorship.

And so one thing I think we really need to talk about is what do we mean when we use that term submit? We’re talking about a profound obedience to God’s moral and ethical laws that he’s put in place for the joy of his people that we may flourish where he has us for the sake of baring witness to the reality and beauty of Jesus. That people can see the way we obey and submit and say simply by the way we live, “there is a God!”

2. Submission is Profound Obedience

So thats the second thing I want us to see this morning, Submission is Profound Obedience. And I put it that way because I think we can often read through this text and think, especially in America, and certainly under the current administration, “Seriously? Be submissive, be subject to them? Heck no.” And I want to let you know a few things:

This text tells us that God’s sovereignty over those in office is a reality. It’s not a means of voter fraud or Russian collusion, we are talking about God in his sovereignty having all authority to set up kings or presidents or administrations and tear them down.

But number two, and more importantly, when God in his word gives His people commands like this, to submit to governing authorities over us that he has set in place, its for your joy and good. And we’ll get deeper into this in a minute but for now, thats what I want to focus on.

Matt Chandler puts it like this: “The moral law of God is all about God’s glory and your joy. God is not after your begrudging submission to misery.”

God’s not glorified in that! So the commands and way that God calls his people to live by and surrender to are not for you to half-heartedly walk in, they are for your full fledged joy in Him as you see the beauty of who he is in them. Thats profound obedience. When we begin to the see moral and ethical laws of God laid out in the bible we begin to see that God establishes them for our Joy in Him! He is after your delight, thats why we calls us to submit. And it’s that submission remember that draws others into this beauty and reality of following Jesus.

This is exactly what Paul Lim was talking about right? People aren’t drawn to the gospel today because they don’t believe in a God, that could be the case for some for sure, but the majority don’t see a compelling case for surrendering to Jesus because they don’t see us living out a compelling lifestyle that draws them into this beauty.

And so I want to read for you Psalm 19:7-10

Psalm 19:7–10 ESV

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t necessarily see people today talking about rules and laws like that. Right? like I don’t see anybody saying Oh God thank you for all of these rules I have to follow, thank you for calling me to submit, thats like sweet honey on my lips! I wanted you to hear me read Psalm 19 because for most of us I think we lose sight of what God’s commands are for, remember they are for your joy! For us to treasure more than fine gold and to experience something more sweet that honey from the drippings of the honeycomb.

And I think for most of us, if we are honest, we deeply want to live profoundly obedient lives of submission yet we feel unable to because of our lives. Because of our sin. And I’ve got good news for you today, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the reality that if you feel like your life is so far broken and shattered, Jesus steps into our mess and puts us back together in a much more beautiful way than we were before.

The message of the gospel isn’t if you’re divorced you get shamed, if you’re an alcoholic or a drug addict or through some addiction or compulsion you’ve made a mess of your life, the good news of the gospel is this, you haven’t outsinned the grace of God. Through Jesus you can be picked up and made whole again in a more beautiful and compelling way as you live a life that bares witness to that very reality. But you have to live it, you can just say thats true and never be changed by it.

Like I’m serious, some of you have some stories in here ya’ll should be so eager to share because of the beautiful reality that Jesus Christ through his submissive obedience, which by the way is where we really get our acts of submission from, but thats coming, because of Jesus all of us have something to share with a world around us because he’s made us whole again.

We’ve been redeemed! And when we submit to the moral and ethical laws of God that he has for us we begin to step into who God is forming us to be as the Church and followers of Jesus. And so that leads me into my last point. Submission is the Churches Battle plan.

3. Submission is the Churches Battle Plan

Submission is the Churches Battle Plan. This is where I want to emphasize again, this text is incredibly complex and all I’m trying to do is make it as simple as a I can. And this message contrasts with society today right? You want to make a statement in the world today? You want to really make a difference in boldness? Submit. This is the very reality of the paradoxical Kingdom.

The kingdom of God operates much different than what we know in the world today. We see this when Jesus steps on the scene in Matthew 5 preaching the sermon on the mount. If you knew nothing about Jesus you’d likely expect him to come on the scene and start an uproar to overthrow the Roman empire, but that’s not what happens the first words that come out of his mouth are blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! The point of the sermon on the mount wasn’t for Jesus to go look for those kind of people, it was to create those kind of people.

And so lets use that and talk about our government real quickly. And we all know they are listening to us so keep your phone on.

Our battle plan, we submit to Jesus and the beauty of his moral and ethical laws and teachings and walk in the life he has for us, that means we are to be the best citizens we can possibly be. We live out our civic responsibilities as best we can, we vote according to the moral and ethical laws of the Kingdom of God and His word. We obey the laws of this country as best and as faithfully as we can. However, we do not do everything that our government says is good or right.

And so I want to emphasize, this text doesn’t tell us a few things:

It does not directly or explicitly tell us what to do when a government instituted by God’s sovereignty goes against the role God intended for it

it also doesn’t tell us what to do when the government is committing moral wrongs

So when the government is acting in tyranical ways that oppose the kingdom, we hold fast to the convictions we have grounded in God’s revealed word to us for godly living and following him. So just like the Hebrew midwives and Daniel and Harriet Tubman and Dietrich Bonhoeffer we stand up for the convictions of the Christian faith for the sake of being the prophetic voice of God because it’s not only our calling to do so, but it’s an apologetic for our faith.

So when Jesus says we’re salt and light as Christians this is a way in which we get to prove that. We live our lives as best we can to apologetically give defenses for following Jesus, we profoundly obey all that God calls us to as a means os seeing the gospel on display in our lives and we’re the best citizens we can possibly be until our submission contradicts God’s clear laws and commands. And our reaction when that happens doesn’t need to be “COME AND TAKE IT” but to resist. What kind of apologetic is come and take it? That wont win people over to follow Jesus, let your life be lived on mission as a defense for the gospel.

and you’ll likely be accused of things like being homophobic or far too conservative, but our battle plan today? Be the best citizens we can be in this land and let our lives bare witness to the profound reality of Jesus and his transforming and redeeming grace in our lives.

Conclusion

As we close today I just want to invite you into this. Again, some of us feel so unable to be used by God to live a life that bares witness to the reality of Jesus stepping into our mess and breathing life into us and enabling us to walk in that new life. And this idea of submission is anchored first and foremost in our submission to Christ. Us relenquishing being god in our own lives and letting God rule and reign in our hearts. And maybe some of us need to wake up to the reality that we make really crappy gods. And that’s what sin is, complete and total rebellion against god because we want to be god. And it’s that very reality that makes us broken, not the drug addiction, not the alchoholism, not the lust, those are deep repercussions of the rebellion we have against God and the only thing that can give us life and satisfy us is Jesus.

Jesus can give you life, he can take your brokenness and make you whole, and use you as a means of witness to the world around you as you walk in the life God has given you!