Law Of Freedom Part One
Category: Law and the Bible
Regardless of religious or political persuasion, there is a universal understanding among men of the need for law. Man forms civil governments for individual and mutual protection of life and property. Without life and property, there is no necessity for social order. Therefore, men submit to civil jurisdiction for the protection of life and property.
God established law to be just. Because law is impartial and it is harsh, it serves as mans' instructor and it is this instruction-or fear of the law-that lends toward a prosperous civil order. Tyranny may lead to a semblance of order but it will not protect life and property nor will it establish prosperity but just law promotes a respect for civil authority, a respect for our neighbors' property and healthy self-government.
In America, we have been preserved from outside oppression and we have been so prosperous for generations that we have forgotten these basic principles, the reason of our law. Because we have grown lazy in the vigilance of maintaining foundational laws, our civil government-with our law-has been converted into a nanny. We want to be cared for from the time we are born until we die, and possibly thereafter, and our only concern appears to be that we are getting the best service for our dollar. Therefore our society looks to civil authority, or law, as a benefactor rather than an instructor; we have abandoned self-government and think little of confiscating our neighbors' property (for a greater good, of course).
Our understanding of law has been skewed. There is confusion even among good men, for our views have been distorted by decades of the constant manufacture of laws. Civil lawmakers have reached outside their authority and encompassed self-government, family government and church government as well as political thought under the jurisdiction of the state. The courts have abetted the cause by building upon this deformation case-by-case. We have forgotten what is lawful and are persuaded by what is legal.
The essence of modern law is economic as opposed to the Biblical concept of holiness. We have lost our sacredness and have become economic units. For the sake of the welfare state, we take from the producers to prop up the lazy. For the sake of the environment, we "balance" property interests with that of preserving the earth (which God has promised man is unable to destroy). From a skewed perception of fairness, we place communities at risk to violent criminals. In our First Amendment we find protection for pornographic enterprise and bind up political and religious speech. Justice is thrown out the door and we protect the guilty from accountability to God (or at least postpone it). Furthermore, God is not allowed to rule over the affairs of men because we license every activity and livelihood.
This new series, The Law of Freedom
In this series of articles, The Law of Freedom, we will endeavor to demonstrate the practical application of Biblical laws in the civil arena by evaluating current laws and legal theories. We will be reviewing laws from a moral perspective because all laws are either moral or immoral. That's right-there is no such thing as an amoral law and even what is legal can be immoral and unlawful. The character of law is such that it will promote morality by following the framework given by God in Scripture, or it will promote immorality by elevating man and rejecting the canon of the Creator of all things.
As I read the Scripture, it appears to me that law can be divided into six categories:
- the law of God, the Ten Commandments, which form the basis of all law and will not be revoked;
- the law of Moses, the religious requirements for a chosen nation looking forward to Jesus Christ;
- the law of property, necessary for the fulfillment of God's command to take dominion of the earth;
- the law of equity, practicing morality toward our fellowman;
- the law of civil governing, protecting national boundaries, preserving social order and morality; and
- the law of spiritual warfare; the real place of battle where the other five areas of law are constantly distorted.
We will be examining these categories, and specific laws that apply within them, in the course of time. Today, we will take a quick evaluation, or summary, of the foundation of civil authority. That is, we will examine where the authority for law comes from and the responsibilities of those who make law.
The Authority for Law
Every nation forms their law according to their religion; their perception of God or their gods. It is impossible to separate law from God because it is God Who established law. In fact, everything He created operates by law and every covenant He has made functions under law. This is true from the covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and on through the new testament of grace. Jesus Christ is the Creator of the world, the Redeemer of mankind; when the Bible tells us He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, it is because He, alone, is the highest authority and all law rests upon Him.
At this point, some of you might be thinking this is sounding a bit too religious. We often try to shy away from religious conversation in political discourse but it is a statement of fact: "Every nation forms their law according to their religion." America was founded upon the laws of the Reformed Christian faith because that was the prevailing view of the Founding Fathers. India's laws are based upon the Hindu religion, which equates all life, man and animal, as equal (or holding animals to be more equal). Arab nations base their laws on a severe god who punishes the smallest of crimes in the harshest manner and calls for genocide of their enemies. A book could be written examining the religions of the world and the laws of the nations. The fact remains, man recognizes a foundation for law that is higher than himself.
My sympathies go toward those of the modern mindset that man is the source of law, because he can never arrive at a foundation for those laws. For if man is the highest authority, which man determines what is right and what is wrong? and if there is no right or wrong, what foundation is there for law? At His trial, Jesus said, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me." [Joh 18:37] But the humanist, like Pilate, can only respond, "What is truth?" That is a most hopeless state.
So, my friend, any discourse on law must establish a foundation and the foundation for law must begin with God. He, alone, is the Creator; that gives Him the authority to establish law. By His blood, He redeemed fallen man from a destiny to hell; that gives Him the authority to establish the law. As the Bible tells us, He is the King of kings and Lord of lords; that gives Him the authority to establish the law. And He has done just that. When man takes law into his own hands and circumvents the laws of God, he is claiming to have authority higher than God, which is rebellion against God. "Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker." [Isa 45:9]
Here is another problem: At this point, there are many watered-down Christians who would come to the rescue of the humanist dissenter and argue that we cannot uphold Christ's sovereignty, at least not within the political and legal arenas, because this world is the dominion of Satan and Christ's rule is over a future kingdom. This, too, is Satan's claim-that he has been given all the kingdoms of the earth and that he can grant authority to anyone he chooses (Luk 4:6), which is in direct opposition to God's claim that He, alone, sets up kings and deposes them (Dan 2:21). And do you remember what Christ's answer to Satan was? "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'" [Luk 4:8]
Yes, it is true, at His trial, Jesus declared His kingdom was not of this world. He said if it were, His servants would fight to prevent His arrest (Joh 18:36-38). However, before that time, He promised the prince of this world would be driven out and condemned (Joh 12:31; 16:11; Luk 10:18) and, later, at His resurrection, he defeated the one who held the power of death (Heb 2:14-15). "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." [1Jo 3:8] Satan is alive but he is living on borrowed time; he is defeated and he does not possess the authority that many would ascribe to him. The Bible tells us that Christ will reign (that includes now) until He has put all His enemies under His feet (1Co 15:24-26). If Christ reigns over all things, including the kingdoms of the world, it is a serious error for us to diminish His authority for the sake of political expedience.
Nevertheless, Satan has not relinquished his claim to authority and he will continue to deceive the masses until the end. The Bible tells us that he will rule in the person of the antichrist but that kingdom will be short lived (Rev 12-19). Many world-pleasing Christians deny Christ's authority and argue that Christ will rule only after He defeats the antichrist and in this respect we should rejoice as we see the time of the one-world government approaching. They have the attitude of "why fight it if it is inevitable." However, the Apostle Peter would argue that abetting the world's system to speed the kingdom of God is antithetical to Biblical doctrine. He counseled us to "live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." [2Pe 3:11-12]
In other words, we don't speed the kingdom of God by aiding the kingdom of the world but through holy, godly living. Don't be confused, holy, godly living is not a compartment for our religion, it is our life-what we do, whom we obey, who we recognize as the highest authority-it is not something hidden, it is our open promotion, as it was for the majority of those who founded our nation. The whole world has been in rebellion to the Creator since the beginning but He will prevail (Psa 2). After His resurrection, Christ declared all authority in heaven and earth had been given Him, therefore, it is our duty to stand, it is our duty to teach all nations (Mat 28:18-20). We are called to make disciples, certainly this involves preaching the Gospel but discipleship goes beyond mere religion and involves our whole being, including our law; "Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Peter and John declared, "We must obey God rather than man." [Act 5:29; see also 4:19]
It is important to understand that our nation was founded upon the laws of God. Our Founding Fathers had no preconceived notion that everyone must be "saved," or become "Christian" to have an orderly society, nor were all our Founding Fathers Christian themselves. But every one of them understood the importance of conforming society to the laws of God as essential to true liberty and prosperity. Likewise, in this respect, my purpose in this treatise is not to force my religious views upon anyone, nor to propose a theocracy but to remind the reader of our foundation and get our nation back on the road to true liberty and prosperity-and not for the sake of our own wealth but to hand these principles down to the following generations.
The Origin of Civil Authority
When God created the beginning, He expressed no provision for civil authority. Adam alone was responsible to live in accordance to God's law and succeeding generations were accountable, individually, to the same. This is illustrated in the life of Cain. When God refused Cain's sacrifices, He warned him that obedience is acceptable but to refuse God's law is to make sin master of your life (Gen 4:6). Thereafter, Cain refused to listen and his anger provoked him to take his brother's life. When God confronted him on the death of his brother and banished him to roam the earth, Cain was concerned that someone would avenge the death of Abel. But God put a mark upon Cain and declared that if anyone harmed him, he would be avenged seven times over (Gen 4:15). This is significant because God affirmed there was no provision for civil authority but that all men were accountable solely to God.
However, sin continued to increase upon the land and Cain's descendant, five generations later, bragged to his two wives that he had killed a man for injuring him. Furthermore, he construed Cain's protection to apply to him eleven-fold because he had been provoked (Gen 4:23-24). Sin reigned upon the earth and violence became a way of life. For this and other sins that God finally destroyed the whole world, save Noah and his family (Gen 6-8).
After God brought Noah out of the ark, He reaffirmed His original covenant to Adam-that man should take dominion of the earth, including its resources and animal life (Gen 9:1-3). By the way, this is a covenant that has never been revoked, though man constantly works to circumvent God's will through zoning laws, environmental laws, property taxes and regulations. In addition to affirming the prior covenant, God imposed a new responsibility upon man; the duty for civil authority. He declared that He would hold man collectively responsible for the violence of bloodshed and that man was responsible to enforce punishment upon those who shed innocent blood (Gen 9:6).
This authority was expanded upon in later declarations and covenants but never is man given ultimate, final authority, nor is he allowed to fashion laws to further his own end or to conform to his own image. God reminds Noah at the beginning of this authority that man is made in God's image (Gen 9:6). We are the reflection, God is. In this respect, it is reasonable to assert that all man's laws must conform to God's. When we allow law that exceeds mans' authority we are participating in direct rebellion to God.
The prophet Micah said, "All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever." [Mic 4:5] This affirms our earlier assertion that man makes laws according to his perception of God but it also affirms our conclusion that our laws are subject to God's. There is a tension between God's laws and mans' but God demands we obey Him (Mic 6:16). Even our best intentions cannot override God's commands (1Sa 15:22). It is important to understand that all nations are required to conform to the laws of God (Eze 14:13; Amo 9:8).
All Lawmakers Are Under God's Authority
Having established that God is the authority for all law and that He has established civil authority among man we should be content in knowing that man will naturally govern in a manner pleasing to God. Right? Wrong. I remember years ago, during the Republican revolution of 1994, talking with House leaders and several professing Christian lawmakers: they claimed that because they had daily prayer and Bible study together, they had to believe that anything they did, including writing law, had to come from God and was, therefore, in God's will. On several occasions I had to confront them on laws they were proposing that violated God's Word and this was their usual response.
To elect Christians to be our lawmakers is not necessarily sufficient in itself. Lawmakers must have a firm and honest respect for God's law. David complained, "Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge uprightly among men? No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies." [Psa 58:1-3] Or, as Lord Acton put it more recently, "Power corrupts and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely." God made it clear that kings, rulers and elected officials are under the law, they are not a law unto themselves (1Sa 10:25). Civil leadership is not an open checkbook; it is not for personal gain (1Sa 9:25).
God warned us to appoint leaders who were not foreigners and would not sell the nation to foreign influences. They must not use their position to gain power or wealth. They must not be womanizers. They must know God's laws and they must not consider themselves better than the people they serve. This is found in Deuteronomy 17:14-20.
Our Founding Fathers understood that our rulers were subject to a written constitution and accountable to God's laws (1Sa 9:25). When civil authority abandons God's commands and gives way to political pressure, even to satisfy the people, this is a rejection of God on their part and God will reject them as leaders (1Sa 15:24-26). God is not slow in keeping His promises and even if it appears to us the wicked are prospering, the day of our nation's fall will eventually come. This does not give us the luxury to transfer the blame to our leaders for the Bible tells us that even if our leaders abandon God, the people are still responsible to obey Him (1Sa 12:13-15).
God's Law is Freedom
Part of our problem in America is that we are a generation of self-indulgent spoiled brats. We want everything easy and even our churches have conformed to modern thinking. We don't want any law and have convinced ourselves that even God, in this age of grace, has abandoned law. Nothing could be further from the truth. God's law still stands (Mat 5:17-19).
The plain truth, is we have rebelled from God's laws, all one thousand pages of them (depending on the print size of your Bible), or which actually number between six and eight hundred laws, including the religious laws fulfilled by Christ. In their place we have substituted millions and millions of pages of federal codes and statutes and federal, State and local regulations. Our taxation laws, alone, are more than a hundred times the length of the Scriptures-and we say we are the land of the free!!
Isaiah warned that when we leave the laws of God, our bureaucrats and lawmakers will overwhelm us with rule upon rule, law upon law, until we return to the ways of the Lord or become destroyed for our arrogance (Isa 28). Who's laws are the greatest burden anyway, God's or mans'? Consider the regulations set against our business, our property, our family inheritance, our travel, our wages, our associations, the administration of our churches, the things we say. . . Consider that God said to honor Him and do not take His name in vain, make no idols, remember the Sabbath, honor our parents, do not murder, steal, lie, covet or commit adultery (Exo 20:3-17). Which of the two is the law that gives freedom?
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke [law or obligation] upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. [Mat 11:28-30] Only God's law gives freedom (Jam 1:25; 2:12).
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