“Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I have received a speeding ticket on time in my life. It was while I was driving through a small town region in a county that is otherwise pretty sparsely populated. I was actually talking to someone on the phone and had missed a speed limit change. It is a stretch of road where the speed limit changes back and forth between 45 and 55 several times over about 30 miles. I thought I was in the correct zone, but it turns out that I wasn’t. I think the officer posted me as going 9 miles over the limit. He wasn’t even sitting and running radar. He was driving the other way, happened to have his radar on, and flipped around to get me. Ultimately, the judge had me do a round of driving school online and dismissed the case, which was inconvenient, but welcome. While the ticket was pretty irritating given the circumstances (and especially now that as a police chaplain I’ve seen how much leeway some departments give on speed limit infractions), the fact is that I was over the posted limit. I was in the wrong. I deserved the ticket. My conscience still occasionally bothers me about that. Before shifting gears to some other implications of God’s sovereignly assigning authority as He wills, Paul offers one more reason why submitting to the governing authorities over us matters. Let’s take a quick look at what he has to say.

Paul offers two reasons for our submission to government authority as followers of Jesus matters here. The first reason is wrath. He mentioned this at the very end of v. 4. The government “is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.” If you want to avoid an experience of the wrath of God, submit to the authorities under whose purview you fall. Okay, we can perhaps understand that breaking the law will result in some kind of legal consequence, sure, but the wrath of God? Really? Doesn’t that seem a bit excessive?

Well, let’s think about it. Yes, there are circumstances when a particular government wields its God-given authority in a way that violates His character and command, and it becomes necessary for committed followers of Jesus to submissively resist following certain laws. When and where this happens, we need to walk forward fully aware that we are in all likelihood going to experience legal consequences for our refusal to obey. We may even experience social or economic consequences depending on how far a particular governing body has exceeded its authority. Those kinds of circumstances are generally exceptional not normal, but they do exist.

But the fact that they are exceptional is the point I’m trying to make here. The rule is that governments pass laws that are intended to be for the good of their people. They do this as a proper exercise of their God-given authority to extend to us the grace of a well-ordered society, and to provide helpful guardrails to keep our sinful impulses in check. These laws are not just a handful of people arbitrarily imposing their will on others because they have managed to concentrate power for themselves. They are, consciously or not, acting as God’s agents for our good. Because their authority ultimately comes from God, resisting their authority in most cases (with the exceptions I’ve already noted in mind) is the same thing as resisting God’s authority.

Connect the dots here. What do we call efforts to resist God’s authority? Sin. Thus, in the vast majority of cases, resisting the authority of legitimate governing authorities is sin. And what does sin bring? God’s wrath. God hates sin and will bring His judgment and wrath to bear against those who dwell in it and refuse to accept His invitation in Christ to repent and walk the path of righteousness instead. So, we should submit because of wrath, just like Paul says. We should submit because we want to avoid the wrath of God. Because, let’s be honest, for most of us, the lawbreaking we do isn’t for just and noble reasons, but for reasons of convenience or of laziness or perhaps even of spite. None of those are legitimate reasons for followers of Jesus to violate a legitimate exercise of God-given authority.

The other reason Paul gives here is “because of your conscience.” For a person with a conscience that is operating properly, sin should be a bother. It should make you feel badly. The Holy Spirit will prompt you to feel convicted about it. Well, consider everything we have just been talking about. Breaking a law that has been legitimately enacted by a properly functioning government body is a sin. When I sped that day, I was sinning. When I occasionally speed today, I’m sinning then too. I am making the decision that my convenience is more important than honoring a command that carries divine force. I may not like a particular speed limit, but I also don’t always like the fact that God has called me to love my enemies. Yet both commands carry the force of His authority, and thus if my claim to be following Him as Lord is going to mean anything I am obligated to follow them both. I don’t get to pick and choose when He is going to be Lord and when He isn’t. That means He isn’t really Lord at all.

Okay, but is breaking a law sin every single time we do it? What if we have a good reason? That’s ultimately a matter to sort out between you and God with the understanding firmly in place that the heart is deceitful above all else and a world of evil. You will work to convince yourself that your reason for breaking a particular law is totally legitimate every single time. That’s why being invested in the Scriptures matters so much. You need things like Paul’s insistence here that all authority comes from God and thus that command you are breaking for reasons of convenience carries divine force. You don’t actually have a good reason to do it. You’re just sinning. So stop it. Don’t let your conscience be convicted.

And, if your conscience isn’t bothering you at all about it, that’s an indication of a problem in and of itself. Sin should bother us. A lot. Jesus is the one who said that it is better to go into God’s kingdom lame or maimed or blind than to keep ourselves physically whole and be cast into Hell. He was speaking figuratively and hyperbolically, of course, but He was also speaking seriously. Resisting the authority of God puts us in line for receiving His wrath. We don’t want that. And, yes, in Christ there is forgiveness, but that forgiveness comes with the prerequisite of repentance. If you are actively sinning, you are not repenting, and thus you cannot count on forgiveness to act like a safety net for your high wire show of sin. It’s better to just not sin in the first place.

Neither wrath nor guilt are particularly enjoyable experiences. If you want to avoid them, submit to the governing authorities God has placed above you. Where possible, work to change the nature and makeup of that authority if you don’t agree with it, but submit and trust God with your submission in the meantime. That will lead to a more peaceful life for you and for the people around you. That seems pretty worthwhile.