By Stephen Green<\/p>\n
(First published in Christian Voice: May 2005)<\/p>\n
Matt 22:15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. 16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. 17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto C\u00e6sar, or not? 18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? 19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? 21 They say unto him, C\u00e6sar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto C\u00e6sar the things which are C\u00e6sar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. 22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was one of those occasions where hostile Pharisees in Jerusalem tried to trip Jesus up with a seemingly impossible dilemma.\u00a0 The woman in adultery was another such. (See article in index) The woman and the brothers in the resurrection which was demanded immediately after this of C\u00e6sar was one as well, although it was a much poorer test.<\/p>\n THE PROBLEM<\/p>\n Here, if the Lord had said, \u201cYes, it\u2019s just fine to pay taxes,\u201d he would have put the people against him, and if he had said, \u201cNo, don\u2019t pay it,\u201d he would be reported to the Roman Governor.\u00a0 So what can he do?\u00a0 The answer startled them, and echoes down the ages.<\/p>\n \u201cWhose is this image and superscription?\u201d he asked. The only possible reply was \u201cC\u00e6sar\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 The coin was the denarius, worth a day\u2019s wages.\u00a0 Then he said, \u201cRender therefore unto C\u00e6sar the things which are C\u00e6sar\u2019s, and unto God the things that are God\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n There are those who maintain that this verse limits God.\u00a0 There is the realm of C\u00e6sar, which is the material world, or the political world, in this way of thinking, and this realm of C\u00e6sar is over here.\u00a0 Then there is the spiritual world, which is what God is concerned with, and that is over there.\u00a0 Never the twain shall meet and God should just butt out of what appertains to C\u00e6sar.\u00a0 More particularly, they argue, you Christians, or even, sad to say, some of them say \u2018us Christians\u2019, must keep our noses out of anything political and keep our focus on those higher, spiritual matters, which is what God is interested in.<\/p>\n HOW MUCH BELONGS TO GOD?<\/p>\n Does that for a moment stack up?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 For a start, we have to render unto God the things that are God\u2019s.\u00a0 So how many things are God\u2019s?\u00a0 A quick look at Psalm 24 shows that \u201cThe earth is the Lord\u2019s and the fullness thereof.\u201d\u00a0 That seems to be everything.\u00a0 Or is it just inanimate objects that are the Lord\u2019s?\u00a0 No, \u201cthe world, and they that dwell therein.\u201d<\/p>\n So every single thing and every single person belongs to God, and if we render unto God the things that are God\u2019s, we render unto God everything.\u00a0 We are to give to C\u00e6sar merely the coins which enable him to govern.\u00a0 This verse does not limit God at all.\u00a0 It limits C\u00e6sar.<\/p>\n Indeed, if Christians had to keep out of talking about public affairs, then what were the prophets doing?\u00a0 Isaiah was in the government.\u00a0 Jeremiah was at home in the company of kings and not shy to pass on the advice which the Lord had given him.\u00a0 The idea that they should keep quiet about the big questions of their day would have shocked Amos and Hosea, and would have made no difference to them \u2013 in fact they would have prophesied against it, just as Zephaniah did:<\/p>\n Zeph 1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.<\/strong><\/p>\n The men spoken of by Zephaniah had the same approach to those who say today that God is not interested in the realm of \u2018C\u00e6sar\u2019.\u00a0 They thought God was far distant, if alive at all, and was not in any way involved with the affairs of men.<\/p>\n GOD\u2019S PLUMBLINE HASN\u2019T CHANGED<\/p>\n It is possible to find really high-up evangelicals, let alone ministers of the established church and all shades in between, talking of \u2018the secular\u2019 or our \u2018liberal democracy\u2019 as if the public domain owes nothing to God whatsoever.\u00a0 But if God is capable today of doing good and doing evil to a nation, as Zephaniah says He was then, we Christians ought to be out there with Amos\u2019s plumbline, measuring our laws and our practices to see if they accord with those of God, mindful of what He did to the gentile cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the gentile nations of Canaan, and the empires of Nineveh and Babylon.\u00a0 And we should be warning our nation.<\/p>\n Paul gave a description of the functions of rulers in Romans 13, writing under Roman occupation:\u00a0<\/p>\n Romans 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6 For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.<\/strong><\/p>\n STATE SEPARATE FROM CHURCH, BUT NOT FROM GOD<\/p>\n Paul is speaking of the keeping of law and order almost exclusively.\u00a0 Government today tries to do a lot more, and gets a lot more wrong.\u00a0 C\u00e6sar is interfering into things which are not his concern, and we have a duty to say so. And when the state actively starts to do evil, it is certainly time to warn that C\u00e6sar is overstepping his mark.<\/p>\n It is interesting that Matt 22:15-22 was the Gospel reading at Her Majesty’s Coronation.\u00a0 Its very presence shows an understanding that God is indeed interested in the affairs of men, and demands obedience to his laws from every human institution of government.<\/p>\n Just as each individual is responsible to God for his actions, and every family, and every church, so is every nation state.\u00a0 Each of those \u201cspheres\u201d, to borrow from Abraham Kuyper\u2019s idea of \u201csphere sovereignty\u201d, derives its authority from Almighty God alone.\u00a0 Church might in one important sense be separate from State, but neither can separate itself from God.<\/p>\n So keep in your place, C\u00e6sar, stay out of what is not your business, and stick to what God has ordained you to do.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Stephen Green (First published in Christian Voice: May 2005) Matt 22:15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. 16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":96,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"template-onecolumn.php","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5887","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":5,"rttpg_category":null,"rttpg_excerpt":"By Stephen Green (First published in Christian Voice: May 2005) Matt 22:15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. 16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}