Paying Your Taxes, Part 2

Romans 13:6-7

     We're looking at Romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7, a section of Scripture that we've entitled "The Christian's Responsibility to Government."  And particularly looking at verses 6 and 7, which deal with the Christian's responsibility to pay taxes.  To prepare our hearts to look at this text, let me just remind us of some things that we're already fairly aware of.  We agree, I'm sure, that our world is in terrible condition.  We are face to face with it every day.  Reading the local newspaper is a rather distressing and discouraging experience.  We're all aware of the conflicts and the revolutions and the wars and the crime and the distress that goes on all over the place all the time.

     And our world seems to be in unending conflict.  That conflict rages on every level.  It rages in the heart of an individual.  We have people today who can't cope with life I think to the degree that never in human history have we experienced.  It seems as though mental illness and the inability to cope is at an all-time high.  It starts with an individual who can't get along with himself, and then he can't get along with his spouse, then he can't get along with his family and his neighbors and his country and his world and on and on it goes.

     And very often we hear people offering solutions to this.  They mean well.  Most of them think the reasons for our problems are political or the reasons are economic.  Bad economics, unwise leadership, certain inequities in society, social injustice, ideologies, and various philosophies.  That if all of these things could somehow be altered, and we could sort of clean up our perspectives on life, we would, therefore, be able to deal with our problems and find ourselves in a happier condition.

     But the truth of the matter is, all of our problems stem basically from two things.  One is sin and two is Satan.  The Bible is very clear about this.  We've been studying the epistle to the Romans, and we need only to remind ourselves of what we learned in chapter 1, 2, and 3, and that is that man is hopelessly engulfed in sinfulness.  And it is because of his sinfulness that he does the things he does.  It is because he is bound to fallenness, a depravity that has reached the very base part of his existence, the deepest, profoundest part of his humanness, that he is what he is.  Sin is the problem. 

     And to that we would add also that Satan is a problem, or Satan, as it were, provokes sin.  He has a way of exciting the senses by design in the world to cause men to step into sin.  It's what Ephesians 2 says when it says that men are victims of the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience.

     The problems in our world, then, are related to sin and to Satan.  And because man is a sinner, he finds himself in the domain of Satan.  And in that domain, his sin is excited by everything that Satan can do to excite that sinfulness.  He then is an incorrigible rebel.  He basically is a...an inveterate criminal.  And because Satan dominates the world of man, the problem is not just human, but it is supernaturally intensified.  Man is a product of fallenness and satanic activity.

     And if we look through the pages of Scripture, we are very much aware of the fact that Satan is in control in our world.  For example, we go back in the Gospel of Matthew to chapter 4.  We see Satan taking Jesus aside and saying to Him these words:  "All these things...and he has just shown Him the kingdoms of the world it says in verse 8.  He's shown him all the kingdoms of the world, and he says...All these things will I give You if You will fall down and worship me."

     Now, it's very interesting to me that Satan said that, because it indicates to me that Satan possessed the various kingdoms of the world.  How else could he say he would give them to Jesus?  The kingdoms of the world are in the possession of Satan.  First John 5 says it this way:  "The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one."...In Luke 4, as Luke is giving his account of the temptation of Christ, it says, "The devil said to Him, 'All this authority will I give You, and the glory of them...That is the kingdoms of the world...For that is delivered unto me, and whomsoever I will, I give it.'"

     Satan, you see, is in charge of the kingdoms of the world and has the prerogative to give them to whomever he will.  That's a very important perception.  In John's Gospel chapter 12, and I think it's verse 31 or about there, yes, Satan is called the prince of this world.  Jesus says, "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out."  And Jesus, with His own mouth, affirms the monarchy, in a sense, that Satan has over this world.  It is, in some sense, his world.  In John 14:30, again it says "the prince of this world comes but has nothing on Me."  And, again, Satan is called the prince of this world.  In John 16:11, Jesus again calls him the prince of this world and says he will be judged.

     Now, we wanna keep this in mind, because it is an important balancing point to what we're gonna learn in Romans chapter 13.  Satan is the one who basically is in charge of the kingdoms of the world, and he has the right, by his own testimony, to give them to whomever he chooses...Just to demonstrate this further, turn in your Bible to Daniel chapter 10 before we...get too involved in our text in Romans.  Daniel chapter 10, a very interesting incident takes place that gives us good insight into the matter of Satan's dominion...and it says in verse 10, "And behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hand.  And said unto me, 'O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright; for unto thee am I now sent.'  And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling.  Then said he unto me, 'Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard; and I am come for thy words.'"

     Now what this tells us is that Daniel has been praying a prayer.  That prayer has been lifted to God in the first 23 or so verses of Daniel 9.  He prayed to God on behalf of his people.  And the answer comes that there will be a response on the part of God.  And a messenger from heaven is sent with an answer to Daniel, but verse 13 says, "The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days."  Now, here is the picture of an angel come from God to bring a response to Daniel, and that angel is stopped in his process of coming to Daniel in heaven by the prince of the kingdom of Persia.  This is some demonic agent who works for Satan who is assigned a special role in the area of the nation of Persia, so that when Daniel is the one who is the object and the target of this mission from a holy angel, the holy angel is stopped.  This angel who is identified somehow with the nation of Persia.  Holds up this holy angel for 21 days until "Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me," he says.  So Michael, who was always seen as champion angel or super angel, is sent to...to speed this angel on his way, lest he be held up further than 21 days by this particular unholy being.

     Now, what this tells us is several things.  First of all, about an angelic conflict, but also about the fact that certain demons identify themselves with certain nations.  And by Satan's design, they function in generating evil within a certain nation as this one did who is called the prince of the kingdom of Persia.  Further, I want you to look in the Old Testament to the 14th chapter of Isaiah.  And this will be even a more familiar text to you.  The 14th chapter of Isaiah...and here we find a judgment of course coming against Babylon's king.  And then there's a transition.  It talks about Babylon's king, verse 11, "His pomp is brought down to the shields of the grave, the noise of thy lutes, the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee."  In other words, you're gonna die and be eaten by worms.  And then immediately, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"  And it goes into a discussion of the fall of Satan.  An interesting parallel which, in a sense, identifies Satan with the king of Babylon.  Which is to say that satanic forces were involved in the Babylonian Empire.

     You find it again in another very familiar passage related to Satan, and that's in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel, and I'm just touching them lightly.  In Ezekiel chapter 28, the very same thing.  As you study that passage in 28, it seems as though sometimes the Prophet Ezekiel, with a message from God, the Word of the Lord it says in verse 1, is speaking to the prince of Tyre it says in verse 2.  To the prince of Tyre.  That is some being that...that rules Tyre that is, in some way, connected to Tyre.  And it says in verse 2, "His heart was lifted up, and he said he was a God, and he sits in the seat of God."  And so forth and so on, and, as you begin to read this, you realize that it is talking about none other than Satan.  And, again, Satan is identified with the king of Tyre, as Lucifer was identified with the king of Babylon.  And another prince of Persia is identified with the underworld of demon hosts.  Well, all of this lets us know that Satan is a pervasive influence in the nations of the world. 

     Now you can go back to Romans chapter 13.  You can get further detail on that by listening to the tapes that we did on that passage in our study through the Book of Daniel. 

     But Satan is a pervasive world power influencing individuals and systems of men.  We need to know that.  Now here's the paradox that I'm bringing us to.  National governments, while they are ordained by God...Romans 13:1, "The powers that be are ordained of God."  National governments, by...while they are ordained of God, are nonetheless expressive of and infiltrated by Satan's system of influence and activity.  They are filled with demonic activity.  Now, it is kept in bounds by those governments.  And, yet, in a sense, the governments themselves are under some controls of Satan, as well.  It is an interesting paradox.  God has ordained government for the preservation of man.  But because man is basically evil, and everything about man is evil, his government is evil, as well.  And Satan is active and aggressive in human government.  And, yet, he is limited by God who has set the boundaries of government to maintain a preserving influence in human society.

     So the nations of the world, then, while we say they are ordained by God as to government, we are not saying that they are necessarily being run by God or are reflective of God's will.  Since man has unlimited potential for evil incited by the world and the flesh, government is an essential restraint.  And God has ordained it to restrain the inherent satanic activity that is within a national group of people...

     You go back to Genesis chapter 6, and you read about the Flood, and it says that the wickedness of man had reached an absolute limit, and God drowned the whole world.  There were some limited elements of social order before the Flood.  There were no national governments as we know them.  But there were families, and families were really responsible for holding society together.  But, basically, it wasn't sufficient, and the whole world went amok, and God had to drown the entire world in the Flood.  And after the people came back out of the Flood and began to repopulate the earth, the Lord instituted capital punishment, which is the first major emphasis of human government.  Because it was proven by man's sinfulness that a social order based upon man's control within a family couldn't...couldn't handle it.  So God instituted a governmental authority with the right to take a life of one who took a life.  And, of course, it developed from there.

     So I just want you to know, as we approach Romans 13 again, that while government is an institution of God, it is basically ordained to confine the activity of sin, which is almost limitless in man, and the activity of Satan, which is equally limitless in terms of its potential for evil.

     So God ordains government, and what does He call us to do?  Remember back in verse 1?  First thing is to be subject.  We are to submit.  The second thing is we are to support, verses 6 and 7.  We submit to government because it is ordained of God.  That doesn't mean that it isn't satanic.  That doesn't mean that it reflects the will of God.  It simply means that God has ordained it to hold in check the rather limitless evil of Satan, his demons, and men, as well. 

     And so we are called then, in verse 1, to submit to those that are in authority, "For there's no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God."  And we've gone through that.  But I wanna give you just a little bit of an illustration further of that principle.  So go back to the 16th chapter of Numbers, because it's, again, back to the Pentateuch, where God is...is sort of laying down the guidelines for governments and how men are to respond.  And you get a little picture of how God feels about rebellion.  It is a very serious sin. 

     We can't read the whole chapter.  I think there are 50 verses, yes.  Lemme just tell you what happens in the 16th chapter and pinpoint some verses.  Moses was designed by God to be the ruler of this...this entity of...of government in which the people of Israel existed.  He was the judge of the nation.  He was the ruler.  But there were some people who wanted to lead an insurrection against Moses.  There were people who wanted to overthrow Moses.  In verse 2, it says, "And they rose up before Moses."...It names them in verse 1, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and then it names others and mentions in verse 2 that there were "two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation and men of renown."

     So Korah, Dathan, and Abiram really pulled together a coup to turn...to thy to throw Moses out as the leader.  They enlist about 250 key leaders who are famous men of renown.  They gather themselves together...verse 3 says...against Moses.  They complain that Moses had too much authority.  They did not like the fact that he had unilateral authority, at least in some degree, and they wanted it differently.  They complained about his authority.  And then they began to undermine Moses.  In verse 13, for example, they would speak about Moses like this, "It is a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land that flows with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, except thou makest thyself altogether a prince over us?"

     In other words, they say, "It's no big thing that you brought us out of Egypt, the land where we had everything, to let us die in the wilderness."  They began to undermine Moses and question what he had done.  Small thing that he had done, and they say he did it to elevate himself, so that he could be their leader.  So they are systematically undermining him. 

     In verse 16, it says, "And Moses said to Korah, 'Be thou and all they company before the Lord, thou and they and Aaron, tomorrow."  I'll meet you before the Lord, he says, and we'll let the Lord decide.  The whole rebellion ended suddenly when Moses proposed they all come before the Lord, and we'll let the Lord choose whether He wants me to be the leader or whether He wants you to be the leader.  And, as you know, remember the story?  The Lord chose Moses, and the ground opened up and swallowed up everybody else.  Verse 31, "Came to pass, as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground split open that was under them; the earth opened its mouth, swallowed them up, and their houses and the all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.  They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the Sheoul, and the earth closed upon them; and they perished from among the congregation."

     That is a frightening scene.  You talk about the San Andreas fault.  I don't know what in the world that was, except that the ground opened up, and they went right down to death in the grave, and it closed over the top of them...And it says, "All Israel that was round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, 'Lest the earth swallow us up also!'  And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense."

     So the whole rebelling group was just literally consumed in a moment of time...Oh, God was giving a good illustration of what He thinks about rebellion, insurrection.  Seemed as though the people didn't learn too well.  In verse 49, the Lord had to send a plague and kill "fourteen thousand seven hundred more of them, besides the one that died about the matter of Korah."  Do you know why?  Because the very next day after the ground had swallowed these people up, and after the fire had come and consumed the 250, the people started complaining against Moses.  They complained about the previous day's holocaust.  They complained about what had happened the day before, and so the Lord just came down and killed 14,700 of the complainers. 

     Now God was getting a message across, and the message was simply this:  You don't rebel against the authority.  And by the way, Moses went back to ruling after that.  The message is very clear.  We are to submit.

     Now, let's look at Romans 13.  We understand then two things in...in an introduction tonight.  First of all, we understand that Satan is very active in the nations of the world, even though they are ordained by God, governments are, to keep things in some level of control.  And, secondly, we learn that God looks very, very seriously on rebellion as illustrated in the rebellion of Korah from Numbers chapter 16. 

     Now, we've been learning that then we are submit in the first five verses.  And then in verses 6 and 7, that we are to support the government.  We submit.  We support.  Both are very essential.  The principle, do you remember it verse 6?  "For, for this cause pay ye tribute also."  The principle is pay your taxes.  It is an unqualified command.  And last time we considered a rather wide range of Biblical teaching that supports that command and gives fullness to our understanding of it, both in the Old and New Testament. 

     Sanctified citizenship involves paying your taxes, and that is a result of justification.  The great theme of justification beginning in chapter 3, ending in chapter 11.  The great section of dedication in chapter 12 leads us to good citizenship as Christians and that involves paying our taxes.  Now, the principle then was in verse 6, pay your taxes.  The purpose, please notice it in verse 6 again.  "For this reason."  And what is the reason?  For they...that is they who collect it...are God's ministers attending continually on this very thing.  So we are to pay our taxes for the reason, the purpose that these who collect it are God's ministers. 

     Now, this takes us right back to where we were, doesn't it, in verses 1 to 5.  Do you remember it?  It says, in verse 4, "For he is the minister of God to thee for good."  And later on, it says, "He is a minister of God and avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil."  In other words, those who are in authority are either ministers of God for good, or ministers of God for wrath, depending on how you handle them.  How you respond to them.  But they are ministers of God.  

     And it is a beautiful word used here in verse 6, minister.  It is the word liturgass, and we get the word liturgy from it.  It is a word that speaks of religious service, of service to God.  It is used in, for example, Hebrews chapter 1 of the service of angels.  Hebrews 1, it says in verse 7, "Of the angels He says, 'Who makes His angels spirits and His liturgass a flame of fire.'"  Angels there are called ministers in the sense of a liturgical ministry to God.  Verse 14, it says angels are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister."  And again he uses the same word.  And there are different words for ministry, but it is the chosen word that refers to a ministry specifically to God, a religious service.

     And so what we learned then in verses 1 to 5 is that public servants who exercise authority in a national government are in a very unique sense serving God.  It is an act of religious service of sorts.  That is because government is ordained by God and resistance to government, then, is resistance to God.

     So we are to support government in paying our taxes, because they are serving God.  Government is ordained by God for the preservation of life and property, and those who serve in it to collect our taxes, to keep the government going do so as ministers of God.  Now that isn't to say they're all Christians.  That isn't to say they all do everything they oughta do.  It is to say that, in the design of government, they serve a divine purpose.

     And Robert Culver, who has written a very, very helpful book, basically a book on civil government according to the Scripture, is correct when he says this, "Where theistic religion grows weak, that is where religion related to God grows weak, justice will weaken.  Crimes, then, are defined as antisocial activity which, in turn, then is merely what the majority says it is.  Then punishments seem to be the result of the majority's ganging up on the minority.  This, in turn, seems inconsistent with democratic feelings.  The result is a decline in uniform application of penalties for crime, resultant miscarriages of justice, trampling on the rights of law-abiding people, together with an increase in what oughta be called crime."  End quote.

     He's right.  It's a very clear presentation.  As soon as government, as soon as the principles of government are detached from God, and it is not seen as a reflection of the divine mind, then justice weakens, and we're seeing it in our society, aren't we?  We've seen justice weaken.  Crimes are defined not anymore as crimes, but as antisocial behavior.  And now it is a question...it's not a question are you guilty.  It is a question of were you psychologically sound when you did it.

     The Bible knows nothing of that, absolutely nothing of that.  You commit a crime, you pay a penalty.  Whether or not you are psychologically sound is not an issue.  But it is an issue now, because we see crime as antisocial behavior rather than a reaction against a holy law, because we have, no longer, a holy standard.  We have no longer a God behind our law.  And as a result, just as Culver says, "Punishment seems to be the result of the majority ganging up on the minority, and then everybody wants to fight for the rights of the criminal...And all of a sudden, there are miscarriages of justice and an increase in crime."  We're living in the day when it's happening all around us.

     You see, every principle of justice and every principle of social order must be based on a creed, on a foundational rock bed of righteousness.  And when that foundation of what is right and wrong is gone and removed, and all you've got is majority opinion, the result is a loss of justice.  And everything goes amok.  So government really should be government, not only as a service to God, but government by the standards that God has established.  Because of this divine purpose behind government, we ought to do all we can to maintain a godly standard.  And that's why we take issue with the morality of our time when it...when it begins to decline, because we lose our foundation.

     But the fact of the matter is, even when government abandons the divine and Biblical foundation, or orders are the same, and they are to submit and support with our taxes.  So the Apostle Paul, you see, is pulling Christianity right out of the insurrectionist, Judaistic attitude that says we're gonna rebel against the government.  And it shows that Christians are bound together by a common commitment to be models of order and peace.  And they were in the early church.  In spite of hostile governments and persecuting governments, the Christians maintained a marvelous testimony of integrity in submitting to the government and paying their taxes. 

     There was a man who lived in about 100 to 163 AD by the name of Justin Martyr.  He's well...well-known and well-read among theologians.  And in a particular thing that he wrote, which is called his Apology, he said this, "Everywhere we...and he was speaking as a Christian...more radically than all men endeavor to pay to those appointed by you, both the taxes ordinary and extraordinary, as we have been taught by Jesus.  We worship only God.  But in other things, we will gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men and praying that, with your kingly power, you may be found to possess also sound judgment."  End quote.

     Now that's the Christian's attitude.  We give our worship to God, but we'll support our government also.  Tertullian, who was a Carthaginian theologian who lived in 160 to about 230 AD wrote this, "Without ceasing for all our emperors, we offer prayer.  We pray for life prolonged, for security to the empire, for protection for the imperial house, for brave armies, for a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest, whatever as man or Caesar, our emperor, would wish, the emperor is called by the Lord to his office."

     Now, what an attitude.  Even in a time when the empire was hostile toward Christians.  Toward the end of the first century, a leader in the Roman church, remembering Nero's persecution, prayed in a way as to reveal to attitude of Christians at that time.  His prayer is a beautiful prayer.  Listen to it.  "Guide our steps to walk in holiness and righteousness and singleness of heart, and to do those things that are good and acceptable in Thy sight and in the sight of our rulers.  Yes, Lord, cause Thy face to shine upon us in peace for our good, that we may be sheltered by Thy mighty hand and delivered from every sin by Thine outstretched arm.  Deliver us from those who hate us wrongfully.  Give concord and peace to us and to all who dwell on earth, as Thou didst to our fathers when they called on Thee in faith and truth with holiness.  While we render obedience to Thine almighty and most excellent name, and to our earthly rulers and governors," and he continued to pray.  "Thou, O Lord and Master, hast given them the power of sovereignty through Thine excellent and unspeakable might, that we, knowing the glory and honor which Thou hast given them, may submit ourselves to them in nothing resisting Thy will.  Grant them, therefore...speaking of the leaders...O Lord, health, peace, concord, and stability, that they may, without failure, administer the government which Thou has committed to them.  For Thou, O heavenly Master, King of the Ages, dost give to the sons of men glory and honor and power over all things that are in the earth.  Do Thou, O Lord, direct their counsel according to what is good and acceptable in Thy sight, that they administering in peace and gentleness with godliness the power which Thou has committed to them may obtain Thy favor.  Amen."

     Now, this is the spirit that Paul is after, and the spirit that did reside in these leaders of the early centuries of the church and should reside in us as well.  Paul says, "What Jesus taught, we are to respect the government."  And Paul adds, "Because they are the ministers of God."  Now, we have to keep in mind that all authority held by anybody in government of any kind is delegated from the Lord, right?  That's the point.  And it is important for us to remind our leaders of that.  That they have a divine trust.  That they are granted what they are granted because God has granted it to them.  In a sense, they rule under Him. 

     Turn in your Bible for a moment to Psalm 92, and there's a most interesting section in the Psalms.  It really runs from 92 to 99...And there's a recurring theme through these Psalms 92 through 99, testifying to the nations,