Monday, October 24, 2011
Romans 13:1, 4 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God ... For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
THE EXTENT OF CHURCH AUTHORITY
When Martin Luther realized that breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church was unavoidable, he published three articles which one church historian has called "the greatest work since the days of the apostles." The first of these works was titled, "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation." In it Luther writes:
"The Romanists have ... drawn three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them, whereby all Christendom has fallen terribly.
"Firstly, if pressed by the temporal (secular government) power, they have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the contrary, that the spiritual power is above the temporal."
In response to this claim by the Roman Catholic Church, Luther wrote:
"Forasmuch as the temporal power has been ordained by God for the punishment of the bad and the protection of the good, therefore we must let it do its duty throughout the whole Christian body, without respect of persons, whether it strikes popes, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or whoever it may be."
The greatness of Luther's writing is this -- it simply put before the eyes of the common people what the Bible had always said. Christians who serve their fellow Christians through the public ministry are not raised above the rest. Nor are they placed in some elite class that is exempt from the laws of the land. Their authority extends only as far as the Word of God. Their job is not to impose their own whims but to faithfully communicate only what the Word of God says.
