God and Masters

Session 4

February 16, 2020

Sean Higgins

C.S. Lewis argued that God doesn’t find man’s desire for pleasure too strong, but too weak. I think it’s also true that God doesn’t find the Christian man’s interest in politics too powerful, but too pathetic.

I know that the “Idol of Politics” is a favorite model of rented car to abuse for preachers who say that Christians act like politics and politicians can save them. But I have not met any Christian who actually thinks that the government is the Savior, and most of the preachers who fear the dreaded “Inevitable Compromise” from Christians spending too much time talking about politics are ignorant. They know how to speak accurately about the gospel, but they do not know how to disciple their people to obey all the Jesus commanded, which is the Great Commission, which includes how to obey Jesus when we live together with our neighbors in a city, state, and nation. It is a lot easier to say that someone else is wrong for messing with something that you don’t know about than it is to say that you are wrong for not getting messy.

Politics is messy. That’s because politics is a whole lot of neighbors, “individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power,” and every last one of those neighbors is a sinner. Even the saved neighbors aren’t as mature in Christ as they will be, so the best case scenario is immaturity, and the slide to the side of immorality is short, but a long way down. Thanks be to God that He enabled our founding fathers to plant some trees, and collectively we are grabbing onto (or bouncing off) some of the roots rather than falling all the way to the bottom of the cliff at once. But, we are falling.

Like I said, I think this is because Christians have not cared enough about politics, government, laws, justice. Not everyone has the same experience, of course, but many of us have been told that we would be wrong for being interested in, let alone participating in, political life. We’ve been lectured that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We’ve been commanded not to set our minds on the things of earth (Colossians 3:2). But this is too simplistic, and in fact, it is disobedient to God who made us citizens of heaven while leaving us here, on earth, with responsibilities.

I really enjoy J.I. Packer’s introduction to John Owen’s The Death of Death. Packer unpacks a three word statement that challenges so much man-centeredness today, including in the church and concerning salvation. Packer’s point: God saves sinners. That is gold, smelt seven times, stamped with an image of a tulip. “God saves sinners” is like the long, deep the ballast of your boat. But there is another three word confession that is better, it comes directly from the Bible, and it more like the ocean for all the boats: Jesus is Lord.

Every Christian has to confess it to be saved (Romans 10:9). Obviously there is much to explain about who Jesus is and what He has done, including that God raised Him from the dead. But our basic confession is not God—who is far away in heaven, saves sinners—but primarily for eternity in heaven. Rather, Jesus-who is God made flesh and who walked on earth, is Lord–right here, right now, and for all people and places and ages. The Jews persuaded the Romans to execute Jesus because of His claim to be Lord; that’s how they blackmailed Pilate.

Jesus is Lord is a first principle. From this ocean an almost limitless network of reverse tributaries flow, tributaries for our obediences and our interests and our investments. Of course this means that we must obey Him rather than men, and of course this means that we acknowledge Him before men. It also means that we serve Him in our relations among men.

In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) Jesus describes a master, that is, a lord (kurios), who gives his servants an unequal amount b[...]