Last night's Fourth of July celebration was great. The ideas that embellished the entire day may seem pretty obvious to any American, but the only word that really comes to mind is a word that most American's don't think about is "tyranny." I think the word that most would think of is its antonym, "freedom." Why do I write this today instead of yesterday? Well, for many reasons. First, I had to work late; however, let it be noted that I thought about this as I was working. (The people seemed to be caught up in their own little worlds.) The second reason is that the idea of tyranny is blatant, meaning that it places the idea of freedom in its proper context, especially for the Christian. For the Christian, he is freed, by virtue of his faith, from the power of sin; and I want to emphasize that power, for it defines the proper context of the Christian's relationship to the civil magistrate.
These two things stand thus. First, as regards kingship, every Christian is by faith so exalted above all things that, in spiritual power, he is completely lord of all things, so that nothing whatever can do him any hurt; yea, all things are subject to him, and are compelled to be subservient to his salvation. —Martin Luther, Freedom of a Christian |
The Christian, therefore, is totally free from the devil's grip and delivered into God's glorious banner of truth. He sees the world aright because God has given him the spectacles to see the world as it is: God's world. He recognizes that God is the great monarch, and the Christian is his noble servant raised to the status of heirs. That, in short glance, is the gospel. I hope that it galvanizes the joy of the gospel.
We move now to the power of sin, the uses of restraining it via the civil magistrate, and the duty the Christian has to every civil power. I have no doubt in my mind that the founding fathers had in mind a good and Christian polity in matters of civil government. I don't want to say that it is completely religious, for the continental congress was pretty divided. However, there were clerical officers of many churches—mostly Puritans—present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776. One such example was Samuel Rutherford. He was an ardent Scottish Presbyterian minister and also penned Lex Rex (trans.= The Law is King). Rutherford, among his peers, understood the "divine right" doctrine and sought and promulgated his ideas through his proper office, the pulpit. Like him, many of the founding fathers understood that men should and ought to be governed not by men, but by laws—and I would add righteous laws. All the delegates understood the powers and inclinations for power—a grave and power sin. A sin! They understood how far that sin went. It has, through its arts and instruments, played the tune of man's vicissitudes. In light of that information, they sought to divide that power for the sake of restraining evil. They understood the true and honorable use of the sword, namely to keep evil, as much as government can, from gaining too much power over men's hearts.
The Christian, in like pursuit should and ought to do the same for his own governance over his soul. The Christian's responsibility to the State therefore is—solitary too—to maintain that noble estate of restraining evil. Tyranny, if we are to be from its invitations to self-indulgent delectations, is therefore the enemy, the very power of sin Christ defeated.
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