Romans 13 | Against the Tide of Autonomy | Shaun McGregor

In view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

But what does that look like?

It sounds radical.

It sounds rebellious, even, doesn't it?

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

I want you to see today that we worship God, not just here at church, not just on a Sunday, but every day.

And not in radical declarations, but in everyday choices, in everyday ways of thinking, in everyday love for other people.

Firstly, true worship goes against the tide of autonomy.

Verse one.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.

There's nothing more every day than governing authorities, is there?

People who are over us, who govern our society, who are in charge, our politicians, our public servants, people who have authority.

And here is a simple principle for how Christians are to relate to them.

God's people, verse 1, are to be subject to the governing authorities.

As it's translated in verse 5, it's necessary to submit to the authorities.

To willingly put yourself under their authorities.

Submission has a bit of a bad name in our modern world.

It sounds demeaning.

It sounds like something that only some people need to do.

But we all submit.

Do you ever try to drive under the speed limit?

Do you ever park where you're supposed to park?

In a car park?

When we had a greeting time a little earlier on, we were all chatting with people, and the person at the lecton started talking.

Did you stop talking?

You did.

You submitted to the service leader because he has some authority.

Thank you.

Submission is to willingly put yourself under the authority of someone else who has that authority.

And thankfully, the Bible doesn't just command or give a principle.

It tells us why.

Why should we submit to the government?

Verse 1.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.

Why should we submit to the authorities?

Because they've been established by God.

You see, God is the ultimate governing authority.

And he appointed mankind to be in his image to rule the world under him.

When we rebelled against him, when we sinned, he set up a plan, he established that his son would be his king, would be the governing authority.

Until then, God has established every authority, the authorities, verse one, that exist have been established by God.

Every parent, every local councillor, every mayor, every premier, every prime minister, every Roman emperor, and every US president.

Established by God.

Why should you submit to the authorities?

Because you submit to God if you're a Christian.

And you submit to what He has established.

Secondly, not only established by God, they are God's servants.

Did you notice that in verse 4?

For the one in authority is God's servant for your good.

In Australia we call them ministers.

The word minister means servant.

For the one in authority is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid.

For rulers do not bear the sword for no reason.

They are God's servant.

They are God's servant to do you good if you do good, and God's servant to punish you if you do wrong, which in the end is for the good of society.

Paul knows, of course, that this is not always the case from his own experience.

He is brought before governing authorities and punished unjustly.

Sometimes governing authorities reward evil and punish good.

They even do evil themselves, but in general, their purpose given by God is to do good and to punish evil.

It is good to have governing authorities.

Now, some people would criticize these words by saying that this is just written to justify the status quo, to keep the rulers in charge and the little people subject to them.

Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people, or he might have said here, religion is the chains of the people, keeping them inchained.

How should we think about our governing authorities?

Paul's words here actually subvert, undermine many of the ways we think about governing authorities.

Some people think that God should in the government should enforce God.

So in many Muslim countries, they try and force people to be Muslims, to live as Muslims with Sharia law.

Early on in the days of the Reformation in Europe, people tried that.

Indeed, in the nation of England, the Church of England was enforced on everyone.

And they made the King of England the head of the church.

Was that a good idea?

Should you use the government to enforce God on other people?

Well, governing authorities are established by God, but they are a servant for doing what?

Rewarding those who do good and punishing those who do evil.

Nowhere does it say here that the governing authorities will enforce belief upon people.

How do you come to worship God?

Not through the governing authorities, but by seeing God's mercy.

Romans 12, verse 1.

Romans 12:1

Persuading people of the gospel is the answer, not using the government.

Other people think that the government is God virtually.

That the government should have absolute power, that the government can outlaw religion, that the state owns everything.

As I understand it, this is the approach of communism.

Sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessful.

But the government is established by God, and so the government is not God itself.

Clearly, if it's established by God, the government is to submit to God.

And those who worship God will submit to the government, even if the government thinks it is God.

But when the government tells them to not submit to God, they will disobey.

So imagine for a moment you're in a communist country and they declare that there is no God and forbid you from gathering together as Christians.

What would you do?

They threaten you with jail if you gather together as a Christian.

Well, God says to you, Romans 12, we are one body.

We are to love one another.

It is so good and essential that we gather together.

We know that, don't we?

And so, unless we're sick or out of town, we will be here to gather with our family.

Wild horses couldn't keep us away.

The same with the government.

If the government forbids us from gathering together, then we will find some way.

Perhaps it is a secret way to gather together as God's people.

What a precious gift that we can gather without that fear.

No, the government is not God.

Some people react to that view and say what we need is a mini-God.

Government is not the solution to our problems.

No, government is the problem.

And so they want the government to be as small as possible.

The extreme of this is anarchy.

My uncle was an anarchist in his early days.

Abolish government altogether.

But the governing authorities are established by God for our good.

We need government big enough to care for the poor, to reward those who do good, and to punish those who do evil.

Government is good.

Finally, some people think that there is an ideal system of government.

Whether it is communism or a monarchy or a republic or democracy.

Do you think democracy is the ideal form of government that we should spread around the world?

Paul doesn't mention any political system, does he?

But he says that every political system is established by God.

What political system was he referring to?

The rule of a pagan emperor that had conquered the world.

He thought even that was established by God.

No, there is no ideal political system.

Paul's words here do not maintain a status quo, they actually subvert, they undermine the ideas that we might think about government.

Have you taken them seriously?

In your views, they change the way we think these words about governing authorities, but what will we do?

How do we worship God today by submitting to our governments?

I think in Australia submitting to our governing authorities is remarkably easy.

I can't remember in all my years a time when it was actually difficult, when there was a moral ethical issue to confront in order to submit to the authorities.

What a blessing that is.

And when it does happen, we can speak up and vote the government out, or at least try to.

Sometimes people say that Australians have a problem with authority.

It all comes from our convict past.

I don't think our convict past affects me at all.

And I think Australians are remarkably compliant.

Have you ever driven overseas?

We drive in the lanes mostly, don't we?

And do you remember COVID?

The government, would you believe, told us we could not leave our homes?

Who would have thought that was constitutional, but it was.

And what do we do?

We didn't leave our homes.

We are compliant.

That's our culture.

But there are two challenges in verses six and seven, difficult challenges.

Verse six, this is also why you pay taxes.

For the authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing.

Give to everyone what you owe them.

If you owe them taxes, pay taxes.

If revenue, then revenue.

If respect, then respect.

If honour, then honour.

How do you feel about paying your taxes?

Australians do not like paying taxes, do we?

I think it's okay to minimize your tax.

The system is set up for that.

We know one another, and so we have all these sorts of systems to try and legalize and make clear how you can minimize your tax.

Go ahead, but do not avoid it.

When a tradesperson offers a cheaper price if you pay tax, what are you avoiding?

Pay cash.

What are you avoiding?

Tax.

Offer to pay him 10% more instead.

If there's a way in your investments or your tax returns to actually avoid paying tax, that's tempting, isn't it?

For some of us, our tax bill can be very large.

But if you worship God, you will submit to the governing authorities, be thankful for them.

They give their time to serving us.

The last one is harder, I think.

If taxes pay taxes is revenue, then revenue.

If respect, then respect.

If honour, then honour.

This attacks our national sport.

Not cricket, not tennis, not football.

What is our national sport?

Criticising politicians.

How often do you have a conversation about this?

And now not in Australia, but in the world, we have the most likely candidate to criticize.

President Trump, I think, lacks complete integrity in every way.

You may agree with his policies, okay.

But in his personal life, his business life, and as president, how can you take seriously anything he says?

Sorry.

And I have an opportunity to bash him in conversation several times a week.

That's how often it comes up, doesn't it?

How do you speak the truth in a way that gives him the honor as president that he deserves?

Peter said in 1 Peter 2, honor the emperor.

The emperor was called Nero.

Have you heard of him?

He was a pedophile, a murderer who persecuted Christians.

Far worse than Trump.

And Peter says, honor the emperor.

We need to work out how do we speak the truth, be honest about what we think, and yet honor someone who has been appointed, established by God, and given by God the responsibility to reward those who do good and to punish those who do evil?

How are we submit to authority?

It's a matter of the heart, isn't it?

Not just of your wallet and your words.

Do you love God more than you love money?

Do you love God more than your own Western ideas of autonomy?

Then you will go against the tide.

Because you want to worship God.

True worship, of course, goes deeper than this.

For we owe more than taxes and more than honor.

Secondly, true worship goes against the tide of limited love.

Have a look at verse eight.

Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.

Do you have a mortgage?

Is that a burden, that debt, on you?

Maybe you have paid off your mortgage.

Do you remember the day that you made the last repayment on your mortgage?

What a joy it is to have a debt that comes to an end.

Paul says here that there is a debt that never comes to an end.

And he speaks of it as a joy.

Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.

I love conducting weddings.

I conducted one recently, and the couple are here, and they make promises to each other.

To love and to cherish as long as we both shall live, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.

They make a promise, like you make a promise to the bank, and then they have a debt.

To love one another, no matter what happens.

And there's such an encouragement to me, it is gorgeous as they promise it, and it is such an encouragement to me when I see older couples who've been married for a long time, when chronic sickness comes, when there are difficulties, when the other person simply does not love you more as much as they did on that day.

And yet the debt remains outstanding.

And you continue to love.

Paul says here it's far wider than your spouse or your children.

It is your church family, verse eight.

Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.

Look down to verse 9.

Not just one another, the church, but your neighbour, that's everyone.

Why do you have a continuing debt to love everyone?

Verse 8.

For whoever loves has fulfilled the law.

Romans tells us that the law does not save us, does not make us holy, and we are no longer under the law.

But verse 9, the law informs love.

The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet.

And whatever other command there may be are summed up in this one command, love your neighbour as yourself.

You see, people tend to take two different approaches to love.

One is to just go with the laws.

Love means you will not commit adultery against them, you will not murder, you will not steal, you will not covet.

It's limited to those things.

Others say no, you've just got to go with what feels good.

John Lennon, all you need is love.

Yet I'm not sure his first wife, who we he repaid for Yoko Ono, thought he had loved her.

This week, Blanche Dalgett, who was married to our former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, her final message to the world that her family released was love one another.

Sadly, that was not that was not how she treated Bob Hawke's first wife, Hazel, if you know the story.

Intuition without law will not show you love either.

We need law, God's law, to inform our intuition of what it means to love other people.

In fact, we need more than that.

Jesus said, Love each other as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this than he lay down his life for his friends.

There is a tide of limited love, but we just love those who love us.

We just love those who will do good to us.

We just love up to a point.

And we need more than that.

What does it look like to love a workman, a tradesman who comes to work in your house?

Intuition would simply tell you that you'll be nice to him and friendly and pay him, not cash, at the end.

The law, God's law, will inform that a little.

You won't steal his tools.

You won't covet his tools.

You certainly won't murder him while he is in your house or commit adultery with his wife.

It's not a limited love, do you see?

The law tells you, but do you need to know more than that?

You do.

If you've been loved by Jesus, then you will welcome him in your house.

Give him food or drink if it's that time of day.

You may listen to him as he sometimes.

Sometimes this happens to me, he wants to share what's burdening his heart, even though I have plenty of other things to do.

You'll be looking for an opportunity to share Jesus with him while he's in your home, won't you?

I used to leave out tracks when I was a teenager, little booklets about the Christian faith, hoping that someone would pick them up.

Love will mean that you're patient when he turns up late or takes too long to do the job.

Certainly, love will not be entitlement.

I'm paying him, so I'm entitled to everything.

It will not be that you look down on him.

Christian love is not a limited love, but a continuing debt.

What does that look like today?

Parents of small children, you know what that looks like, day in and day out.

Parents of older children, adults' children, who have rejected you, a continuing debt, even when you think they're grown up now.

They should be looking after me.

That's a challenging love, isn't it?

An ongoing continuing debt to love, serving here at church, such an encouragement to see people serving week in and week out.

Simply being here, what an encouragement.

Continuing debt to love, even when you are in pain.

When you are grieving, you know you are loved by Jesus, and so you continue to love other people.

And so you can keep on loving others.

This is difficult, isn't it?

How could you have a love that goes on loving and does not stop?

I fail to do this regularly.

And I'm so glad that Jesus loved me and continues to love me and forgives me.

True worship goes against the tide of autonomy and limited love.

I wonder in what sense is your love for other people?

How is it limited?

What boundaries do you set around your love?

Finally, God's mercy that leads us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices is not just in the past, but in the future, and there is a real urgency to it.

Thirdly, true worship goes against the tide of gratifying our flesh.

Have a look at verse 11.

And do this.

Understanding the present time.

The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

I was visiting a family member a couple of weeks ago.

He knew he understood the present time.

At 89, with a terminal illness, he had days to live.

And he wanted to talk about what would happen after he died.

What a privilege to talk about that.

Do you realize that every day you are closer to your death?

Do you understand the present day?

The present time?

And you need to be ready?

Not just your own death, but the return of Jesus.

Do you realize that every day is one day closer to his return and you need to be ready?

And if you are a Christian person, do you understand the present time?

As Paul says here, verse 11, our salvation is nearer now.

I tend to think of every day that's gone past.

I see photos from the past and they are in the past and they will not come again.

But I need to look forward.

Are you like this?

To see that our salvation is nearer now.

Each day is one step closer to the Lord Jesus returning.

Do you see that?

How good is that?

And Paul says, with that salvation nearer now than it was before, so we need to be ready, verse 12.

The night is nearly over, the day is almost here, the night, where people live in the way of the world, they conform to the way of the world, they gratify the desires of the flesh, verse 14.

What does that look like?

Carousing and drunkenness, sexual immorality and debauchery, dissension and jealousy, verse 13.

But the day is coming where we will have desires, the desire to please God.

And so Paul says, wake up from your slumber, put aside the deeds of darkness, and pursue the desire to please God.

It's like we're asleep and not realizing that the day is about to begin.

It's like you're about to go on holiday or to move to a new country and you haven't packed yet.

It's like you're about to retire, but you've no idea how you're going to use your time to serve when you're retired.

It's time to wake up, says Paul.

Put aside the deeds of darkness and now live in the light.

And not just a moralism, a trying harder, but verse 14 he says, Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus.

You are united with him, put him on.

What does this look like?

How will we worship God today?

For some of us, verse 13 is very pertinent.

Put off the deeds of darkness, drunkenness and sexual immorality.

Does that cut home for you?

Is drunkenness actually part of your daily life?

Is that something you need to avoid?

You need to put off sexual immorality, both physically, with your mind, with what you do with your screens, do you need to put that off and put on Christ?

If it's not drunkenness or sexual immorality, then the last one I think is for all of us, isn't it, in verse 13?

We need to put off dissension and jealousy.

Jealousy is gratification thwarted, isn't it?

It's when you want something and someone else has it.

And it leads to dissension, resentment, anger, and fighting to get it.

You can be jealous about all sorts of things, someone else's health, the success of their children, the holidays that they go on, or the house that they live in.

We are blessed, every one of us, to live in a beautiful, affluent area.

But there's still a range of houses, aren't there?

Some of us live in beautiful homes and own them outright.

Some of us live in modest houses with a massive mortgage.

And some of us rent a small flat.

That's all we can afford.

How do you deal with that if that's all you can afford?

How do you not be jealous?

How do you put off jealousy?

Paul says, understand the present time.

The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.

Jesus is about to return.

Do you know what will happen to your home when Jesus returns?

No matter how big it is?

Do you know what will happen to North Shore property prices and whatever is owing on your mortgage?

All of it destroyed overnight.

Why would you be jealous about short-term accommodation when you both have the same long-term room in your father's house?

You put off jealousy and you put on Christ, his character.

He left the riches of heaven and became a human being and never owned a home.

He was not jealous of other people, he trusted his father and delighted in serving other people.

And what does he promise you?

If you seek first his kingdom, all things will be given and provided to you.

Perhaps someone in this room?

Is it their house or their health or their children?

Or their holidays?

Do you understand the present time?

When we see God's mercies, we offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

It's ordinary acts of life.

How you submit to authority, is there some way that you're not yet submitting?

That in your heart you reject, you refuse to honor?

Have you worked out how to honor someone in authority even though you disagree with them?

Is your love limited?

Is there someone that you're challenged to keep on loving or to start again?

Because frankly, you stopped some time ago.

And is there some way that you need to wake up from your slumber?

Jealousy.

Do you need to deal with it today?

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great mercy to us in the Lord Jesus.

We thank you for his great love for us in giving his life for us.

Father, we thank you for establishing authorities over us.

Please give us a heart that willingly submits to their authority because we submit to you.

Father, we pray that our love for other people, though we want to draw lines, though we want to limit it, that we might be taught by your law and taught by Jesus to go on loving.

Please give us energy for that each day.

And Father, we pray that we would understand the present time.

We would rejoice that our salvation now is nearer than it once was.

Help us to look forward, rejoicing in what is to come and to put on Christ now.

We pray it in his name.

Amen.