When Paul wanted to teach the church how to live under a government, he did not begin with policy or politics. He began with God. Romans has been described as the constitution of Christianity, the letter where we learn that all have sinned, that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and that whoever confesses Jesus as Lord will be saved. By the time Paul reaches chapter 13, he has already established the gospel, and now he applies it to one of the most practical questions a believer faces: how do I relate to those in authority over me?
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God." (Romans 13:1)
One Ultimate Authority
The principle underneath the whole passage is simple and steadying.
"All authority ultimately belongs to God."
God is in charge. God is ruling. Every other authority in the universe is derivative, borrowed, and accountable. That truth does not shrink government to nothing; it puts government in its proper place, under God rather than in the place of God. When we forget this, we either idolize the state or despise it. When we remember it, we can respect authority without worshiping it, because we know Who stands above every ruler.
Three Realms of Authority
In establishing His authority on the earth, God has distributed it into three realms. The first is the home. God made the man and the woman, brought them together, and established the family as the foundational building block of human society. When the family weakens, every other institution weakens, which is why God designed the home to be a place of truth, order, discipline, love, and spiritual formation.
The second is the church. The church is not a random relic of tradition. It is called to proclaim truth in a world filled with confusion and error. It does not rule by force or legislation but by truth, conviction, and witness. Charles Colson said it well: Christians are not in the power business, they are in the truth business, and the church must never surrender its prophetic voice in any generation.
The third is the government, and Scripture is clear about why it exists.
"Government exists for the good of society, but it is not intended to become a god unto itself."
Government is established because people are broken and the world is fallen. It exists to create some measure of order in a world where hearts can be violent, dishonest, and cruel. That is a good and God-given purpose. But it is a limited purpose. There are finally only two ways to see the state: as existing under God and accountable to Him, or as trying to replace Him. As Pastor Josh Howerton has observed, when a society rejects God, government eventually becomes God; politics becomes religion, candidates become saviors, and rallies become worship services.
Living Responsibly Under Authority
Because all authority ultimately belongs to God, He calls us to live responsibly within every realm He has established, in the home, in the church, and in the government where we live. This is not blind allegiance to any particular leader or party. It is submission to God, expressed through honoring the structures He has ordained, right up to the point where an earthly authority would command us to disobey Him directly. There Peter drew the line: we must obey God rather than men. Short of that line, our respectful submission to lawful authority is one of the ways we demonstrate our submission to the ultimate authority of God.
Understanding these three realms guards us from two errors at once. It keeps us from expecting the government to do what only the family and the church can do, and it keeps us from neglecting the responsibilities God has genuinely assigned to us as citizens. Every sphere of authority affects the others, and every believer has a responsibility to each. When we honor lawful authority rightly, we are, in the end, honoring the God to whom all authority belongs.
Adapted from the message preached at Warren Baptist Church on June 7, 2026, in the Foundations of Freedom series.
