Romans 13 Living 100% in a 99% World

[HKHaugan]

Romans 13 Living 100% in a 99% World

The context for this chapter is the answer we give to the following question: Where did Jesus spend 99% of His time?

The issues Paul addresses here are based on reshaping images of God who believe in Jesus. It's all about attitude, the style we allow to shape our mind, heart and spirit. That's what Chapter 12 was about. The mindstyle in 12:1-2, the heartstyle in 12:3-8 and the spiritstyle in 12:9-21 combine to be like that attitude Jesus had as the Holy Spirit led Him to focus His every next moment on His Father's will. It's this balanced attitudinal Spirit life in Jesus that sets the pace for our personal growth, our relational ministry in the Body and our mission outside the Body. We fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb.12:2) in every next moment. 99% of those moments will involve relational encounters.

So the real call of a disciple is not based on what happens when we die. Rather it is based on who we follow in every next moment. When Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men (Mt.4:19)” it was “at once they left their nets and put their lives in His hands (vs.20).” Right after that James and John left their boat and their father and immediately followed Jesus (vs.21-23). The point here is that their every next moment was given to Jesus. Everything they had done in the past like follow family tradition, cultural occupation, culturally directed life, they left behind for every next faith-in-Jesus directed moment. Where was Jesus leading the disciples to spend 99% of their time?

Following the disciples' lead there are three reasons to fix our eyes on Jesus:

First, He is the way, the truth and the life (Jn.14:6). He is the perfect person whose balanced mind, heart and Spirit are the exact image of God (Jn.1). He is the definition of what it means to be an image of God in a human body. He is its perfection showing through His humanity what spiritual reality is all about. It's personal and relational. He gives us a vision of Heaven in the 'here and now' for each of us in our every next moment. It is these next moments for which we were created to bring the spiritual dimension into all our relational experiences (Mt.28:18-20).

Second, the real world inside the secular world is the spiritual, personal and relational one in each of us. It is not out there somewhere, it is within the believer in Jesus. As Jesus said “It is not there, it is not here, the Kingdom is within (Lk.17:21).” In other words it's not out there waiting for you to travel around and find it or can it be observed nearby, so make the most out of what you have. No, it's the Jesus within our mind, heart and spirit letting Him direct us.

What human experience without God says is that your identity is found in the world of nations, governments and their social institutions, leaders and people that make them work. This is your social context. So find your place in it, conform to its patterns and do your best to fit in. That's your destiny. Bleak, to say the least.

As Jesus' disciples we have a totally different foundation and identity. Our citizenship is heavenly (Php.3:20) which means it is first spiritual, then personal and relational. Our identity is being an image and child of God following Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Our job description is to bring His Kingdom into the world. That reality means our opportunity is to use our worldly citizenship and its structures as places to be spiritual, personal and relational witnesses to reconcile the people within them to God (2Cor.5:19, Col.1:20). Where, then, are we called to spend 99% of our time?

Third, and here is where Ch.13 comes in, submission to world authority allows us to witness within it. The world is in the free fall of self-centered evil. We are born into it but in Christ we are not of it. In Him we are above it. Remember, what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal (2Cor.4:18). Paul's teaching here gets us to avoid being distracted by the world's imperfect fractured condition. Allowing the world's constant political controversies to influence, define and identify us distracts us from our personal mission to bring Jesus into every next moment because that is what transforms the institutions under whose authority we live. That is why Paul starts Ch.13 by saying “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God (13:1).” If you get all worked up in fighting distant figures and problems, 'straw men', second and third hand suppositions and speculation, it only allows sin to reign in the mind and heart and our energy is wasted in frustration and despair. That's when we get distracted and our local mission, where we live 99% of our time, fades in the background.

But the question always arises, 'What about unjust authority?' How far does the 'second mile' go? When does an unjust government become intolerable? Especially when it is not clearly so. It is attitude that is being shaped here. The attitude of our heart is the issue. Our sinful heart reacts out of fear. Submission is not compatible with its pride. Therefore, it is our attitude that needs transforming from sin to faith and Paul is directing his teaching to that end. If there is injustice in the hearts of governing authorities and we react to it with hostility we have to be ready to take the consequences our reaction will bring regardless of the intention behind it.

When the few moments of our lives that we are really called to deal with authority figures, what is our calling then? We humble ourselves before the will of God in the presence of authority. So many who hold positions of authority are not spiritually led. Our witness can change that. And this is important, our reaction is not to the person in authority. We are submitting to the authority the person has been given. This is the witness we give in the moment of our contact with them. We are not fearfully reacting out of a temporary survival mode. Our reaction is always measured in the context of our eternal relationship with Jesus. We are witnessing to His spiritual reality that is eternal, everlasting, without end. If we are willing to die being good for Him even in the most unjust circumstance it is because we are led to take the martyr's role. Martyrdom is not a choice. It is a spiritual gift (1Cor.13:3) that can be exercised only once and that 'once' being prompted by the Holy Spirit.

The bottom line here is not to worry about what is happening in the larger world environment but how we can be a witness in that part of the world we live in and not be drawn into issues we can't personally solve or be effective in. Reality is right where we are as disciples with the people and issues in which we can make a difference as witnesses for Jesus. That's where 99% of our time is spent.

To emphasize the real location of our witness vs.8-10 Paul centers our thinking on how we maintain our spiritual attitude right where we are. Again, think of where 99% of our time is spent. That is our primary mission field. That is where we love. Love (Grk. agape), God's active presence, is mentioned five times in these two verses. It is not a sentiment, a feeling, or even an emotion. It can evoke those responses but is far deeper in its substance being God's nature. The best way to experience it is to see what Jesus says about it. “Love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12).” Knowing man's inability to love like God, Jesus tells His disciples, “If you love me you, keep my commandments (John 14:15).” In essence, love on the human level is obedience to His Word. This means that if we obey His Word then He loves through us right where we are relationally.

Vs.8-10 The Commandments define the borders of relational integrity. The do's and don't's show three things, the aloneness of every individual because of sin, their relational need for forgiveness and the God who defines and answers both. Whereas God defines, the devil defies. God is the ultimate relational being as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The devil is the ultimate picture of aloneness and his goal is to sow distrust, division and isolate each human being from God and each other so that they end up like him. His plan is to cut all people's ties with God and all people's ties with each other through fear and pride, the handmaidens of sin.

Sin is the devil's spirit which he uses to accomplish his goals. The Commandments and the Law reveal God as the vertical source of spiritual, relational and holy life while at the same time exposing the devil and his anti moral being and plan. Since sin works from within it deceives and tempts each person to act apart from God and use every moment for horizontal self satisfaction. The Commandments are the checks in that process. Without this vertical safeguard each sinner would slide into the eternal cave of lonely horizontal self justification and rationalization.

Note immediately here the Cross of Jesus who brings the vertical into the horizontal as the perfect blend of spiritual, personal and relational life to counter the anti life of the devil's sin. This is why Paul uses the debt idea as an analogy for acting spiritually through God's love. The only real debt is to love God and one another. God paid that debt for us on the Cross. So the Law's goal to love was fulfilled by the Jesus on the Cross. It is taking up our cross, faith in every next moment, that fulfills our goal for Him. That is our 100% faith in our 99% relational environment.

Vs.11-14 “And do this understanding the present time.” What makes this a contemporary message is the fact that each of us is born brand new into the world and now is our present time. Every next moment is what we face in the now. The final piece of the puzzle is our death in and to this world of sin and evil which is the darkness. The Lord Jesus is our light. Our relationship with Him is the armor with which we clothe ourselves in secular nighttime. He is the motivation for our behavior. When Paul used the word armor here it would be detailed in his later letter to the Ephesians, Ch.6:10-18. This would be how we neutralize the desires of the sinful nature, the devil's tempting, the fear of not being in control, right where we are.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.......

Stand firm then,

Our defensive posture
with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,
with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

In addition to all this,

Our offensive posture
take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

This is spiritually standing against the devil's attacks. They will come from without as you move through the secular downdraft of relational barbs and traps, cultural shifts and changes, the stuff of this world that is so ready to challenge your standing, your position in Christ. “Having stood, continue to stand.” We are always looking forward to every next moment with a 100% faith-in-Jesus attitude in the 99% relational world in which we live.