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As Christians grow more politically engaged, a deeper question emerges: should Scripture merely inspire our values, or actually define the role of government?

At a time when politics is rampant in the culture, the church needs to address it. Since Covid especially, Christians have been gaining an interest in the role of Government and what they ought to be doing.

But there are also camps where Christian thought does not influence the Christian’s political philosophy. I can think of particular Reformed men who would vote for the Labor Party in spite of their rigorous theology. So, should Christians use the Bible to inform their politics?

I’m not asking if the Bible should give Christians some mere influence or some ideas about the behaviour they need to have, if they so happen to be placed in that position by God. I’m asking if the Bible is the sole ethical standard for both conduct and for the prescribed role in engaging politically.

It would be the Reformed Christian, one whom I think of, who would vote for the Labor Party because the Party has a larger emphasis on social welfare, which could be argued that Jesus Himself would want the Civil Magistrate to reflect aspects of His earthly ministry. In other words, their view of the state would be one of an assumption of what God requires of the magistrate, and not seeking what God prescribes for them directly.

What does God require for politicians seeking to be put into the magisterial position?

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.
— Proverbs 14:34

What God requires of nations is righteousness; this is presupposed by having a righteous people who uphold righteousness. Christians would agree that the Bible, particularly God’s law, is the standard of goodness according to which God judges men. Ought then Christians use the Bible to inform their politics? Absolutely.

Moreover, the Bible gives the office of magistrate for the sole purpose of being a “minister of God, an avenger of wrath on the one who practises evil” (Rom. 13:4). The idea of politics in the matter of political campaigning and appealing to the public to get votes is, I believe, lacking good sense since it perverts justice (as we have been seeing, in one sense, the instability of the Liberal Party’s ethical compromise). If magistrates are there to serve God, those who are entering into the political sphere are obligated to serve God — prior to their establishment, and during their appointment.

What I find to be the case with the Bible not informing Christian politics, is that the Christian has an idea of the magistrate that isn’t biblical. I speak of myself here, where I did hold, at a time, a kind of Christian government that is a centralised state; a “Christian totalitarianism”. This evidently was not considering the jurisdiction given in scripture for what the government ought to be doing.

The role of welfare, for instance, is assumed by a majority of Christians to be provided by the state rather than the church. And so these Labor-voting Christians are informed by what the church ought to be doing, and apply that to the magistrate — a whole different institution! The Bible separates the two spheres; clearly, they have different objectives, but both are still under God and are obligated to serve Him in their capacity.

What separates the magistrate from other institutions

The magistrate bears the sword in punishing evildoers. What is evil? Evil is anything that opposes God’s law — lawlessnes and sin. If the magistrate is to punish evildoers, and whatever is evil is defined by God’s standards, are the crimes and punishments found in the Bible valid?

Absolutely, and it is this standard, moreover, that must inform Christians in politics. Christians, then, are to uphold the law of God without partiality if they campaign and run faithfully rather than pleasing different audiences that do not uphold God’s law.

One common objection raised when it comes to the law of God being the standard for crime and punishment is that “it is too harsh”. I’ll briefly answer with these points:

1. According to what standard would these criticisms judge these penalties by? Surely not a standard that usurps the authority of scripture.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

2. Looking at history, in England for a time, where penalties for destroying property and thieving, to name a couple, were punished by the death penalty prior to theonomic reform, was visibly much harsher than the law of God’s prescription.

To judge, then, the penalties from scripture according to subjective severity, or another extra-scriptural standard, isn’t making a strong argument. The penology of scripture is clear that every crime enacted deserved retributive justice, or just restitution.

Scripture verse and concluding exhortation

The author of Hebrews describes the law of God in Hebrews 2:1-2,

“For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.
For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every trespass and disobedience received a just penalty…” (emphasis added)

The book of Hebrews reveals a remarkable assumption: it is clear that every act of disobedience or trespass that was revealed by the word of God, which includes the law Moses was given (Acts 7:53), all received a just penalty, which would subsequently include the judicial laws!

Whatever was just in the Old Testament is therefore just in the New Testament, and even after the ascension of our Lord Jesus. Because God’s law reflects His own unchanging character, all peoples for all times, and in all places, are obligated to conform to His will for nations, and are given a greater obligation in light of the great commission to “disciple the nations” (Lit.), and, “teaching them to keep all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Christian, should the Bible inform our politics? By all means, or else Lord Jesus is being put to shame whenever a Christian is campaigning independently of God’s righteous requirement. What is justice? What is evil? What is good? It is not left ambiguous, God has already revealed it through His perfect word, and has revealed His unalterable standards.

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.
— Psalm 119:142

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