Douglas Wilson

Romans 53: The Heart of the Law (13:8-10)

Douglas Wilson on May 2, 2010

Introduction

A very popular mistake among Christians is that of contrasting love and the law, as though we had to pick and choose. Will we live according to love, or according to the law? But if we must love, isn’t that a law, a great commandment? And if we keep the law truly, won’t we realize that love permeates all of it? Love God and love your neighbor—this is the law and the prophets.

The Text

“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:8-10).

Summary of the Text

In the previous verse, we were told that we should render to all their due. The word used there is the noun form of what we have here in v. 8, where it says not to owe anything. Not to owe here does not therefore mean that we are never to have obligations. It means that we may have no obligations inconsistent with the obligation to love (v. 8). If you love your neighbor, then you have fulfilled the law with regard to him, which means that you have fulfilled your obligations (v. 8). The apostle Paul then lists five of the ten commandments, and then includes all the others, and says that they are all summed up in the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself (v. 9). Love does no harm to his neighbor (v. 10), which is why we know that love is the fulfillment of the law (v. 10).

Debt Itself

As with so many passages of Scripture, to take a snippet out of its context and absolutize it, is a good way to distort the Bible. “Owe no man any thing” has a nice ring to it, and is right up there with “neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Unfortunately, this absolutist view collides with Scripture. Jesus commands us to lend, for example. “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again” (Luke 6:34-35). Not only does He command loans, He commands dumb loans to our enemies. The ability to lend is a profound covenantal blessing (Dt. 15:6-8). Charging interest for need loans is lawful outside the covenant, and is prohibited within (Dt. 23:20). Moreover, the law presupposes the lawfulness of borrowing (Ex. 22:14). The law does not slam the person who is in need of a loan, but rather protects him (Lev. 25:35-36). At the same time, it is better to lend than to borrow, just as it is better to be warm and dry than cold and wet (Dt. 28:12). The borrower has the weaker hand (Prov. 22:7), which relates to our text here—unwise debt interferes with the obligation to love.

Different Kinds of Debt, One Kind of Love

Before considering some common problems with our obligations, we need to settle one other issue first. The biblical laws with regard to loans and interest, brothers and non-believers, are laws that apply to poverty-relief loans. They are not laws that apply to a business investment, for example. But, having said that, the obligation to love your neighbor applies as much to your neighbor with whom you are working a business deal as it does with a poverty loan. If a poor man cannot pay back a loan, and he avoids his benefactor, he is not loving him. And if a man has a business deal blow up on him, and he does not return his investors’ calls, he is not loving him. There are different kinds of debt, but there is only one kind of neighbor love.

Some Don’ts of Debt

When we understand love the way we ought, we must always begin with what our love should look like when extended to our brother, and not what his love extended to us should look like. Perhaps it should look like that, and perhaps you are quite right. But that is also not your principal business. First, don’t abuse your family. “Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer” (Prov. 28: 24). The fact that you haven’t paid back family members makes it worse, not better. Second, don’t abuse the Golden Rule. Just because you wouldn’t mind if that were done to you doesn’t mean they don’t. Don’t exercise other people’s generosity and forgiveness toward you on their behalf. That’s another form of taking. Third, don’t refuse to pay what you can pay. Words are free, communication is free, even if you are flat broke. When love is there, the debtor initiates communications before the creditor needs to, and is persistent with it. Fourth, don’t abuse the passage of time. A poor memory is not the same thing as a good conscience. And fifth, don’t measure his love with the yardstick of your debts. Measure your own love with it.

The Heart of the Law

The Lord Jesus teaches us (Matt. 22:40) that the entire law is summed up in these two commandments— love God (Dt. 6 :5) and love your neighbor (Lev. 19:18). The apostle Paul teaches the same principle here. He says that certain specific commands, and any others you might be able to find, are summed up or “comprehended” in this one command. The Decalogue sums up the whole law (Ex. 34:28), as do these two commandments, which means that these two sum up the Ten Commandments as well.

Love does no harm to his neighbor. The great lesson for us here is that this harm is defined, not by our intentions or motives, but by the law of God. Just as love fills out the law, so the law defines love. The law is the riverbed and love is the water. If you have no riverbed, but a lot of sentimental water, what you have is a swamp in which a lot of fornication occurs. If you have no water, but a long riverbed, you just have something for the tumbleweed to blow down the length of.

Romans 52: Governmental Tax Cheats (13:6-7)

Douglas Wilson on April 25, 2010

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Introduction

When considering the subject of our duty to pay taxes, the Bible seems plain enough. But a lot rides on where you place the emphasis—where do the italics go? Governments exist by covenant, and governments like ours explicitly claim to exist by covenant. The word federal comes from the Latin word foedus, which means covenant. But covenants have terms and stipulations. They have conditions, just as our text before us has conditions.

The Text

“For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour” (Rom. 13:6-7).

Summary of the Text

The payment of taxes is linked to the reason that went before—“for this cause.” Your conscience is bound to pay taxes to the extent that the magistrate is serving as God’s deacon or minister in the execution of His wrath (v. 4). This is the foremost reason given for paying tribute, because they are functioning as God’s deacons. Paul mentions this for the third time, only this time His ministers are His liturgoi (v. 6), the word from which we get liturgy.

Remember that liturgies are prescribed. Free form interpretive dance is not “a liturgy,” even if you are waving a copy of the Constitution. We pay tribute because the magistrate is “attending continually” to this very task (v. 6). Render your obligations, therefore (v. 7). Render tribute, render custom, render fear, and render honor (v. 7).

What We Are Told to Render

We are told twice to render tribute (vv. 6-7). The word is only used elsewhere in Luke. Jesus is asked if it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not (Luke 20:22). He answers in the affirmative, but with a striking exclusion. Later, He is accused of teaching that it was unlawful to pay tribute to Caesar (Luke 23:2). We are told to render custom (telos) to whom custom is due. The other place where this word is used in in Matt. 17:24-27, where Jesus interestingly pays a tax that He says is not owed. The last two obligations to render are not monetary. We are told to render fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due. Remember that Paul is writing this when Nero is emperor—and even in his relatively good five years of rule, he was no believer.

Naboth’s Vineyard and Land Reform

We need to get the theology of this thing straight first. If governments can steal, as we see with Ahab and Naboth, then they can obviously do so through the tax code. Tax codes can be passed illegally and unjustly. Legislators can be bribed to get them to vote for it. The agents charged with enforcement can throw aside all biblical rules of evidence, and so on. If this can in fact happen, and it clearly can, then there can be circumstances in which a tax dispute between the government and the citizenry is a dispute which exists because the government is cheating on taxes.

In other words, we should not assume that whenever the government says that money is owed, and blood-donating turnip says that it isn’t, that it is the turnip who is cheating. In short, it is quite possible that the biggest tax cheat in America today is the federal government. If you say it is not even possible, then you are missing a basic biblical truth about government, and have forgotten the nature of man. If it is possible, then it becomes important to determine where the line is—because that is the line where conscience leaves off and practical considerations alone make the determination.

There is taxation which is not theft (see our text), and there is taxation which is. Where is the line? In this text, Paul firmly anchors the lawful payment of taxes to the lawful functions of government.

How Then Should We File?

When the government is recognizably fulfilling the functions that God has assigned to it, paying taxes for Christians is a moral obligation before God. We should pay our taxes dutifully, and with gratitude toward God, and we should do so “for conscience sake” (v. 5).

When it starts to become evident that the “powers that be” have corrupted the process, then another round of decisions have to be made—and the criteria here would be pragmatic and tactical. But when this starts to become clear, we should not approach it in an autonomous way—“every man to his tents, oh, Israel!” Remember Calvin’s doctrine of the lesser magistrates.

Basic Applications

The old Chinese curse is “may you live in interesting times.” Well, we do, and here we are.
· You bear God’s image and Christ’s name. That cannot be rendered to Caesar lawfully.
· Scripture teaches the appropriate boundaries of government and appropriate responses when they are transgressed. If you don’t know what that teaching is, then set yourself to learn.
· You are citizens, not subjects. Christian history matters.
· You are members of a corporate body. Learning how lawful resistance functions is a question of social theology. Individual cussedness should never be confused with godly individuality. Obedience is rendered to God by ones, but it should be obedience rendered to God and His people, and not to your own opinions.
· Worship God, you and your family, in Spirit and in truth every Lord’s Day. This is the source of all true reformations.

Romans 51: An Armed Deacon of God

Douglas Wilson on April 18, 2010

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Introduction

We are taking care to work through this passage of Scripture deliberately and slowly, and there are at least two reasons for this. First, the issues involved are complex and important, and are more complex and important in our day than they usually are. Second, the misunderstandings that surround this portion of Scripture are legion. We have to be very careful here.

The Text

“For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake” (Rom. 13:4-5).

Summary of the Text

Contextually, we are talking about civil rule, civil power. Paul has called the magistrate the “powers that be.” The word here is the word for authority. All authorities whatever are from God (v. 1), and so it follows that civil authorities are from God (v. 1). The word is authority in vv. 1-2, and in verse 3, Paul calls those we are dealing with here “rulers.” What kind of rulers we are talking about becomes plain here in vv. 4-5, given their tools and what they do with them. For he (the ruler) is a minister of God, a deacon of God, and his assigned task is to do the Christian good (v. 4). If a person is an evildoer, then he should be worried and afraid, because the ruler does not bear the sword in vain (v. 4). He is again called the deacon of God, and his job is to execute vengeance and wrath upon evildoers (v. 4). The Christian needs to be obedient to the law, not just because he is afraid of this wrath (v. 5), but also because he is being obedient to God—that is, for conscience sake (v. 5).

A Task and Tool

God has given these rulers two things—a task and a tool. The assigned task is to administer avenging justice to those who do evil, and the tool for this task is the sword, an instrument of lethal violence. The word for sword here is machaira, and it was an instrument of warfare. It was not used for spanking bad boys with the flat of it. This was a double-edged sword, usually about 18 inches long, and commonly used by Roman soldiers. Peter used one to cut off an ear (Matt. 26:47); James the brother of John was executed with one (Acts 12:2); however sharp, it is incapable of separating us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35); it provides us with a figure for the Word of God (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12). It was not a toy, and God gave it to His civil deacons to kill bad people with. However much our pacifist brothers might sweat over this passage, it says what it says, and it is not in the Old Testament.

Vengeance Is Still the Lord’s

Remember that this book is written just a few years before a rebellion breaks out against the Romans. The Jews, who would erupt in rebellion, were under a prophetic statement as old as Moses that they would lose this battle, and that God would humiliate them through a people of strange language because vengeance for all their idolatries belonged to Him. The Christians were being instructed here that under no circumstances were they to join this revolt. If God is coming after a people with vengeance in His eye, don’t you jump in between.

From this circumstance, we can and should render general by induction. After all the Romans and all the Jewish rebels were dead and gone, there were still evildoers in the world who needed to be restrained generally, and they need to be restrained by force. One of the uses of the law is to give guidance to the magistrate as he considers what to do (1 Tim. 1:9-11). All we are doing here is distinguishing the first century application from our own (necessary) applications—to muggers, terrorists, rapists, and so on. We won’t need the sword anymore when we don’t have crime anymore.

What It Means to Be a Deacon

So the state is God’s deacon (Rom. 13:4), and God never leaves His deacons without instructions. A deacon is, by definition, under authority. We should measure his appropriations and expenditures over against what he was told to do. When servants use the master’s resources for tasks unassigned by him (Luke 12:46-47), what is the result? When the Lord comes back to evaluate His deacons in the Congress, what will He do? He will not be indiscriminate; the punishments will fit the crimes. Some He will cut in sunder, and others will simply be beaten with many stripes. This will not happen because our rulers are not His deacons; rather, it will happen because they are. By definition, the armed deacons in this passage of Romans are under authority. Their authority does not originate with them, as much as they would like it to. Whose authority are they under? God’s. We obey them because God tells us to (for conscience sake), and not simply because we fear their punishments for wrongdoing. And if they are levying punishments for righteousness, we are not to fear them at all—and conscience is still operative.

A Hermeneutic of Fun

The apostle Paul tells the believers of his day that he advises against marriage because of the “present distress” (1 Cor. 7:26). He also is telling believers here in our text to stand back and let the Romans do to Jerusalem what they are going to do to it (Rom. 12:19; 13:). And yet, many believers have abstracted his principle here in the latter instance, and applied it to every situation throughout all time, which they haven’t done to the first passage—which was just as contextually situated. And why is this? We grasp the importance of limiting context in 1 Corinthians because it is fun to get the girl. A lot more fun, say, than standing up to tyrants is.

Many Infallible Proofs

Douglas Wilson on April 4, 2010

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Introduction

The last description of Christ’s resurrection appearances is found in the very first part of Acts. As we celebrate His resurrection, we want to take care that we learn everything that the Scriptures teach us about it.

The Text

“The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:1-3)

Summary of the Text

Luke is here introducing the second volume of his work. In the first, also composed for Theophilus, he had gathered up the accounts of eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus, and set them out for us in the third gospel (Luke 1:1). He refers to that here as the “former treatise,” and it was about what Jesus began to do and teach (v. 1). What the Lord continues to do, He will do in and through His body, throughout this second treatise. What the Lord began to do, He did in Luke, and what He continues to do, He continues through the book of Acts. Jesus gave us a lived- out example and He also taught until the day of Ascension—which occurred right after He gave His commandments to the apostles through the Holy Spirit (v. 2). After the Lord’s passion, He showed Himself alive, and this showing was by “many infallible proofs (v. 3).” He was seen by them over the course of forty days, and during that time He taught them about the kingdom of God (v. 3).

A Sure Sign

The word translated here as “infallible proofs” is a word that is used only this once in the New Testament. But from the time of Aeschylus on down, it meant something from which a matter is “surely and plainly known”—it points to “indubitable evidence,” and establishes something beyond all reasonable doubt. And Luke here uses the plural, and says that there were many of these proofs.

This was after His passion, after His suffering. He had been taunted, tortured, flogged, and crucified. A spear had been run into His side to ensure He was really dead. Then He was taken down, wrapped in burial clothes, and placed in a cave for three days and three nights. A heavy rock was in front of the cave, and a guard was posted there. He was dead, and if the disciples knew anything, they knew He was dead.

What then, did these proofs consist of? Clearly, if the disciples knew that Jesus died, and they also knew the one in front of them was alive (moving, speaking, etc.), the thing that would need to be proven is that He was the same one who had died. “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). What is Jesus demonstrating here? What is He proving? Two things—that He is not a spirit or a ghost, and that “it is I,” the same one who had died. They could have touched His back to determine that He was not a ghost, but He shows them His hands and feet—the wounds still visible— in order to show them that the body in front of them was the same body they had seen on the cross. There was true historical continuity—that same body bridged the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection. When they found the tomb empty, it was because the one body that was there had been raised. God didn’t destroy one and create another. It was the same body. Neither did a ghost emanate from that one dead body. Christ’s body was always physical.

Forty Days

Jesus did this for the disciples over the course of forty days. He persuaded them with many proofs. On what basis are we persuaded? If we are persuaded because we are in the Christian line-up, then we are of Christ the same way the Pharisees were of Moses. Once a culture has started, it is pretty easy to stay in the groove—although it is very hard to grasp the spirit of those who made the groove in the first place. But if we are Christians by true, evangelical God-given faith, then two things will be true in our experience. First, we will understand that the resurrection is not so much something that needs to be proven as it is (for us) the proof itself. How do we know that Jesus is the Son of God? The resurrection shows us (Rom. 1:4). How do we know that Jesus will come to judge the world (Acts 17: 31)? We know because He rose from the dead. Add one more thing. The world will know because love has been raised from the dead in us (John 13:35). Resurrection life is here and now.

Words of the Kingdom

What did Jesus teach during this time? Luke tells us that He taught them about the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. This was His great theme throughout the gospels, He taught this after His resurrection, and His disciples taught the kingdom of God all the way through the book of Acts (e.g. Acts 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 28:23).The gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection cannot therefore be separated from a declaration of the crown rights of King Jesus. His resurrection was not ghostly. Why would His reign be?

What is this kingdom? What is it that we should be preaching and teaching? The kingdom of God refers to the rule and realm of the Lord Jesus Christ. His rule refers to His personal authority (John 14:15; 15:17). His realm refers to those places where His rule is legitimate, which is to say, everywhere (Ps. 72:8). The gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection cannot therefore be separated from a declaration of the crown rights of King Jesus. His resurrection was not ghostly. Why would His reign be?

Palm Sunday and the Greeks

Douglas Wilson on March 28, 2010

Introduction

In the verses immediately prior to our text, we see the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The people received Him gladly in the name of the Lord (vv. 12-13). It is common for preachers to expand on the fickleness of crowds by contrasting this reception with the mob yelling “crucify Him” just a few days later, but we really have no reason for thinking that these were the same people.

Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, fulfilling the word of the prophet (vv. 14-15). The disciples did not understand the import of all this until later, until after Christ’s glorification (v. 16). The word about Lazarus was being spread around (v. 17), and the crowd received Him because of this (v. 18). The Pharisees then said, “Look, this is worthless. The world loves this man” (v. 19). This is how John sets up the episode with the Greeks.

The Text

“And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (John 12: 20-26).

Summary of the Text

It is possible that these were Jews of the Dispersion, but in this context, it is much more likely that they were Gentile Greeks. They were there to worship at the feast, which was Passover (v. 20). They came to Philip, who was from (John makes a point of telling us here) the town of Bethsaida in Galilee. Galilee was “of” the Gentiles (Matt. 4:15), and Bethsaida meant “House of Fish.” Jesus had promised Peter that the disciples would be fishers of men, and He was not talking about a cane pole and a quiet trout stream. He was talking about bursting nets and a fishing industry. So these men came to Philip and said they wanted to see Jesus (v. 21). Philip tells his brother Andrew about it, and they both tell Jesus (v. 22). We are not explicitly told whether these Greeks ever met Jesus, but Christ’s cryptic answer tells us what the conditions would have been if they did. This seems to hint at a positive response, however stringent the conditions. The hour was approaching for Christ’s glorification (v. 23), and in this regard He was here talking about the cross (vv. 27-28). A grain of seed that does not die “abideth alone,” but if it goes in the ground and dies, it brings forth much fruit (v. 24). This pattern of “much fruit” is generational. It multiplies because the seed corn that is produced will itself die, and be fruitful as well (v. 25). Christ then closes the loop on the request of the Greeks. They wanted to see Him (v. 21), but Jesus slides right into “serve me” (v. 26). He who would serve must follow (v. 26). Follow where? To death and fruitfulness. For, Jesus says, where I am (in the ground and in the heavens), there also will His servant be (v. 26). If a man does this, the Father will honor him as well (v. 26). As Christ rose, so shall we. If we die as Jesus did, we are glorified in the dying. If we die with Him we will also rise with Him (Rom. 6:5). And if we rise with Him, then we are honored as He was—and this is the place where the fruit is harvested.

“Not Dying” or “Not Rising”

Jesus came into the world to confront the world, and to subvert its entire system. Worldliness and godliness therefore represent two different approaches to the questions about life and living. The world is dedicated to a life that is based on not dying. Given our sinfulness and the curse that God laid on the world, this is a futile and vain endeavor, an impossible standard. This is the core of worldliness—don’t let go, don’t give up, don’t surrender, keep whatever you have in that death grip. And that is just what it is—a death grip. Once matured, this worldliness is the beating heart of Hell.

The core of godliness is this—Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Who would shy away from abundant life? Well, everyone, just as soon as they discover that this abundant life is on the other side of death. As the old Albert King blues song puts it, “everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.” As that song also notes, everybody wants to hear the truth, but everybody wants to tell a lie.

Now this is not just worldliness as opposed to godliness on the grand scale—dealing with actual death, for example. It is not just the day before you physically die that the contrast between the two kinds of living is made. Jesus said we were to take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23), which means that these issues are present every day, all day long.

Inexorable Fascination

Once the teaching of Jesus at this point is made clear, it would be easy to believe that throughout the course of human history, we might be able to come up with three Christians tops, if that. But the cross is not the ultimate test that we must pass. It is the ultimate test that the Lord Jesus passed, and because He was glorified in passing it, that glorification draws men inexorably to their fruitful deaths.

“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die” (John 12:31-32).

We have been contrasting this fruitful death and resurrection with the way of the world. Here it is explicitly. How did Jesus save the world? He did it by judging the world. Now is the judgment of the world, and all its clinging-to-life ways (v. 31). Now the prince of the world was to be cast out—and we are to have a new prince, one who died and rose, not one who clung to everything. And Jesus, lifted up in agony and death, would be glorified, and would draw all men to Him. And this He is in the process of doing, even down to the present hour.

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