Romans 13:1-5 “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (2) Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. (3) For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. (4) For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. (5) Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.”
Although the above quoted passage of scripture is written to the church it doesn’t only apply to the church, it applies to everyone, both believer and unbeliever alike, for the scripture says that “whoever” resists the authority resists God’s institution. And so in effect those who resist their governments are in fact resisting God Himself, and as a consequence they bring God’s judgment on themselves. God is not a God of disorder but of peace, and so He does not condone any disobedience to a nation’s laws (1 Corinthians 14:33). For example, if a nation’s law states that people must drive on the left-hand side of the road God expects the citizens of that nation to obey that law. And so if an individual decides to drive on the right-hand side of the road they are now promoting lawlessness, which God will not condone and He will therefore judge that person. This principle of God’s judgement does not extend to religious laws however, for as we have already mentioned earlier, God has nothing to do with the religions of the world and He therefore doesn’t acknowledge any of their laws either. Therefore when people do not adhere to the man-made laws of the various religions in the earth, they do not incur God’s judgement for they have not transgressed against Him in any way. And so we see that it is only when we transgress against the laws of a nation’s government that we sin against God and thus incur His judgement. However, when a nation’s laws contradict the laws of God things are different, for God expects men to obey His laws rather than the laws of men (Acts 5:29). For example, if a nation were to pass a law that mandated their medical practitioners to perform abortions on demand, God would expect those citizens to disobey that law for it violates His law which states “you shall not murder”. In such instances, individuals that disobey the man-made laws that contradict God’s laws will not be judged by God but rather they will be blessed by Him. The Egyptian midwives Shiphrah and Puah, learned that lesson when they refused to obey their government’s law to kill all male Hebrew’s at birth. The scripture tells us that because they feared God rather than the laws of men, that God dealt well with them and provided households for them (Exodus 1:15-21).
Michael E.B. Maher
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