Grace For Your Day January 11

At the time the New Testament was written, the Roman Empire ruled over 100 million people or one fifth of the world’s population. It also covered more than two million square miles of land and was connected by an intricate set of roads. The phrase “All roads lead to Rome” was almost true because, by the end of the Second Century, the Romans had built 200,000 miles of roads that went all the way back to the capital. The city of Rome dominated everything. It was beautiful, luxuriant, and terribly, terribly evil.

For example, all the Roman Caesars were either bisexual or homosexual. They were enslaved to lust because they slept with whoever they wanted to: slaves, married people, the young and the old. No one was free from their advances. They were also violent because, of the 70 Roman emperors that we know of, 50 were assassinated. Many of them sipped poison on a regular basis to build up the tolerance to it just in case someone slipped something into their drink. Their lips were full of ulcers and painful sores because of the habit.

They were also covetous because they were notorious for taking things that did not belong to them. Yet the Apostle Paul says this to the church in Rome in Romans 13:1-2

Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 

This is a shocking thing to read because Paul tells the Romans that their governing authorities have been established by God. He says their leaders were ultimately appointed by Him. Such a statement might make sense concerning other government leaders but not these guys. They were horrible and yet Paul says it to remind us that God is sovereign over them all. Even the most evil rulers are under his authority which means that we can submit to them. We can be subject to them knowing that it honors the Lord which is what we are going to talk about this Sunday morning at Grace Fellowship Church.

This week, we are going to continue our series on “The Christian & The Government” by talking about “The Role of the Government.” We are going to look at a topic that is on everyone’s mind right now and that is the responsibility of a nation to its citizens. We are going to discuss the duties that God has given the state and how we should respond to it as a church.

As you know, there has been a lot of discussion about the government in recent months. People have been wondering why our leaders are making certain decisions with regards to the Coronavirus. Some are even becoming hostile over it. They are becoming rebellious towards the government but Paul says that a Christian should not do that. We should not be hostile towards our leaders because they have been established by God. He is the One Who appointed them and we are going to talk about what that means this week on our You Tube Channel. Please join us for this important message! – Jeremy Cagle