At a very young age, Jesus had a
firm grasp on, a profound clarity around, and an intense focus for doing His
Father’s business. And Jesus was relentless in carrying out His mission.
Furthermore, there can be no doubt, upon reading the gospel accounts, about the
exact nature of the mission of Jesus Christ. First of all, Jesus came because
He was sent by the Father. (Jn. 8:42) He did not come of His own initiative but
He was sent by God the Father for a very specific purpose. Jesus came to lay
His life down for His sheep. (Jn. 10:11) Jesus came to save His people from
their sins. (Matt. 1:21) Jesus came in order to explain the Father to us, to
reveal God to His elect. (Jn. 1:18) Jesus came to destroy the works of the
devil. (1 Jn. 3:8) Jesus came to secure eternal life for those believing in Him
by giving His life for them. (Jn. 3:16) Jesus was anointed by the Spirit of the
Lord to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to
announce recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed
and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. (Lu. 4:18) The mission of Jesus
Christ is obvious from Scripture. There can be no possibility of confusing it
without doing tremendous damage to the plain record of Scripture.
When Jesus had accomplished His
mission, and set the plans in place for the birth of His Church, He gave plain
instructions to His immediate followers. These instructions are impossible to misconstrue
when interpreted with the respect they deserve. Jesus left his followers with a
simple and clear command: “go and make disciples of all nations, and baptize
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt.
28:19) In other words, do not limit your work to Israel, but extend your
disciple-making enterprise to all people groups without exception. These are
the final words of Jesus Christ before He ascended to the Father. Jesus also told
his disciples during this time, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would
suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for
forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations,
beginning from Jerusalem.” (Lu. 24:47) The followers of Christ were witnesses
of His personal earthly mission and as witnesses they were charged with preaching
repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the nations. Hence, we see the
mission of the Church: preaching the gospel, which is the good news that
repentance and forgiveness of sins is now extended to all the nations.
Since the mission of Christ and the
mission of the Church is the supernatural conversion of souls through the
gospel of repentance and forgiveness, I thought it would be a good idea to examine
how major spiritual leaders in the NT interacted with their respective
political system when given the opportunity. We begin with John the Baptist.
John the Baptist had an encounter with Herod the tetrarch over his unlawful
conduct with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. John made no appeal to human
law. He never gathered a band of folks together in order to change the civil
codes. He appealed to the law of God and called Herod to repentance. John was
interested in changing Herod, not the laws governing his culture.
Jesus stood before Herod and
Pontius Pilot. Pilot examined Christ and gave Him every opportunity to defend
Himself. Jesus never opened His mouth except to inform Pilate that he had no
power over Him that had not been given to him by His Heavenly Father. Jesus
never sought to change a single civil code. He never told His disciple to
attempt to change a single civil code. Jesus called men to repentance toward
God and faith in Himself.
Peter and John were called in by
the Sanhedrin, and threatened not to preach in the name of Jesus Christ any
longer. Peter nor John argued that they ought to be free to practice their
religion as they see fit. They did not proceed to start a movement in support
of a law making it illegal to persecute Christians. Rather than do these things,
the disciples gathered together and corporately petitioned God for even greater
boldness to speak out in the name of Christ. Later in Acts 5, the Apostles are
once again threatened, imprisoned, and even beaten for preaching the gospel. Yet,
their response was not to start a movement for religious freedom, to end
religious persecution and suffering or anything like that. Instead, they
rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer directly for the name of
Christ.
Stephen is another example of a NT leader that had the opportunity to engage in the legal authorities in his culture. He stood before them and gave them the gospel and preached repentance. Stephen was unjustly murdered simply for preaching the gospel. No one started a movement to change the civil codes. Immediately after Stephen’s martyr, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. And they scattered. They got out of dodge. They did not engage in civil disobedience, demanding their right to worship freely without persecution. They did not have the same foolish expectations that modern American Christians have.
Paul was another NT leader that
experienced the unpleasant experience of being on the wrong side of the civil
authorities. When given the opportunity to make his defense, Paul gave his
personal testimony and shared the gospel with Felix. Paul did the exact same
thing with Agrippa. It was clear that Paul was interested in converting Felix
and Agrippa. He showed not even the slightest interest in changing the civil
codes or dictating how the governing authorities ought to govern. He was after
their heart!
Christians in America are suffering
from the delusion that the constitution is a document to which Christians ought to appeal to defend themselves.
Those who say that Kim Davis ought not resign but instead, resist, do so not
from an exegetical standpoint but rather from a political one. The entire
argument for Kim Davis’ defense is political at its core, not exegetical. The
presupposition is that Christians ought to fight for their constitutional
rights! Additionally, there are others that think Christians can be salt and
light by changing the civil codes. Such changes are external only and at best
provide an outward show of morality. Additionally, there is no hint of this
behavior in the New Testament Church. Even though John the Baptist, Jesus
Christ, Peter, John, James, Stephen, and Paul all had the chance to speak to
the injustice of the civil code in their day, not one of them did so. They had
other interests, other priorities. And so too should we. The message that the
Church has for America is simple: repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
