Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 1 Study # 5
October 25, 2020
Humble, Texas
(Download Audio)
(073)
Thesis: Resisting God's authority brings about a "decision" of true guilt that is not to be treated lightly.
Introduction: In our considerations of Paul's insistence that believers are, generally, to be subject to the decisions of human authorities, we have noted that the principle of submission to the decisions of others is a major underpinning of all human society in terms of "relational" harmony. We have also seen that, though men exercise a great deal of authority, God is to be considered the Primary Authority behind the scenes and any violation of human authority is a defiant stance against divine authority except in the cases where the two are in conflict. The biblical principle in a "conflict" situation is succinctly stated in
Acts 5:29: "We must obey God rather than men".
This evening we are going to consider one of the underlying realities that come into play when men refuse to submit to divinely extended authority.
- I. Another Element in the Pursuit of Paul's "Authority" Concept.
- A. On the face of it, "authority", as Paul addresses it in this paragraph, is the ability to make "agenda" decisions, "methodology" decisions, and "enforcement" decisions for others.
- 1. The greatest danger here is not the fact of "authority" having been dispensed by God to fallen creatures: this is simply the nature of the reality.
- 2. The greatest danger here is the fact that those to whom God has dispensed "authority" to act in His stead have turned the responsibility into an idol and infused it with the ability to produce "Life".
- B. Paul's unacknowledged awareness of the major "problem" with God's establishment of the authority that is exercised by fallen men.
- C. Paul's warning of "condemnation to come upon those who resist the ordinance of The God".
- 1. To begin: the verb translated "will receive" is a middle voice, future indicative.
- a. The verb itself means either "to take" or "to receive", with the context being determinative as to whether the person is "taking" or "receiving".
- b. In Paul's use in Romans (8 times) there is no clear example of the meaning "to take"; it is most likely used by Paul in terms of "to receive", not on the basis of "power to take", but on the basis of "receiving because of the actions of another".
- c. As a "middle voice", the verb means that the person "taking/receiving" is doing this with him/her self at the center of focus: he/she shall do this "to him/her self".
- d. As to the "thing" that is "taken/received", there is no prejudice as to whether it is a good or an evil "thing": in this text, it is not a "good" thing that he/she "receives" ("judgment" is visited upon the recipient by reason of their own behavior under legal examination).
- e. All in all, Paul is warning his readers that deliberate resistance to the ordinance of The God will, at some future point, result in powerfully negative consequences brought on by the choices and actions of the person involved in the resistance.
- 1) This is in particular contrasting-harmony with the statements by Jesus, as recorded by Luke: "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much" (Luke 16:10); and "Well done, good slave. Because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities" (Luke 19:17).
- 2) The resistance to God's ordinance, because of the idolatry involved, may well be "a very little thing", but it will ultimately show itself in the "judgment" that is decreed to come.
- 2. Then, to continue, we must weigh Paul's word "krima" as the word the NASB translates as "condemnation".
- a. Interestingly, in Romans, Paul does not signal "condemnation" by his use of this word.
- 1) There is a perfectly clear word for Paul to use to indicate "condemnation", and he uses it in 5:16 (among other places) to differentiate between the concepts involved in "krima" and "katakrima".
- 2) This prior text is illuminating for two reasons.
- a) It reveals Paul's distinction between "judgment" (as a "decision" made based upon Law) and "condemnation" (as the "execution" of that decision in terms of the imposition of the penalties determined under Law).
- b) It also, then, reveals that the translators are being too emphatic in their translation when they call "krima" "condemnation" (of the six uses of "krima" in Romans, the translators acknowledge it as "a judgment" under Law in four of those uses, and, for no good/apparent reason, then intensify it in two.
- i. This issue of "over emphasis" is important because of the issues involved: "krima" is a legal decision, but "katakrima" is the actual imposition of the Law's determination of what should be done on the basis of the "decision of guilt".
- ii. Paul was not trying to get his readers to fear the imposition of the Law's determination of what is to come because of true guilt; he was trying to get them to see that their "resistance" to God was going to be called what it is: a decision of true guilt.
- iii. The difference is this: by grace, "condemnation" has been, as far as God is concerned, eliminated from His dealings with His people for their true guilt (8:1); but "judgment" has not been (if we "sow" it, we will "reap" it to a limited degree).
- iv. Paul's meaning is this: "judgment" is to be a real concern because it often does lead to "condemnation" in some settings (men with men under human authority, and God with men under divine authority).
- b. In Romans, "krima" is used by Paul to indicate genuine "liability" with "katakrima" following if that "liability" is not seriously addressed by the one under "krima" (the decision of real guilt).
- 3. Our "takeaway" is this: believers are to submit themselves to human authorities because those authorities have some ability to impose consequences for resistance.
- a. Human authorities are given, by divine authority, a limited ability to impose consequences (Matthew 10:28).
- 1) These consequences are of relative severity, but they are only of relative severity.
- 2) The degree of severity is limited to the body and the spirit; the soul is independent of the abilities of human beings.
- b. Paul is cautioning the Roman believers to be careful to not flaunt their immunity to the abilities of men, because they have their place and their place is not without certain significant abilities to inflict "pain".
