One of the prevailing myths that has plagued the Christian church for decades is that the Bible does not belong in politics. For many, the Bible is a church book that deals with the private spirituality of the saints as they gather on the Lord’s Day for congregational worship. This is a deficient view of Scripture’s authority because it undermines a believer’s basic commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 

For the Christian, Jesus is the Supreme Potentate that reigns over all creation. His resurrection is proof that God will judge the entire world by the righteous standard of God’s law (Acts 17:31). The redemption Christ accomplished is cosmic in its scope and encompasses far more than merely the personal salvation and forgiveness of individual believers. Christ’s claims are binding on all men everywhere. There is no area of life that exists outside of His rule.

Lord Of All Magistrates 

This comprehensive dominion reaffirms that the God of Scripture rules everything He made and has the right to command obedience from all His creatures. The home and the church are not the only spheres of jurisdiction made by the Creator to advance His purposes in the world: civil government was created by God as a ministry of public justice (Genesis 9:6-7). 

Scripture is adamant that God installs and deposes earthly rulers (Daniel 2:21) and that they are to govern in accordance with His revealed will (Deuteronomy 17:18-20) because they are ultimately accountable to Him for how they discharge their office (Romans 13:1-4). The king’s heart remains in the hand of his Sovereign Creator, who is pleased to turn it according to His good pleasure (Proverbs 21:1). Those in authority are to rule in the fear of the Lord (2 Samuel 23:3), paying homage to the Son, lest he consume them in his wrath (Psalm 2:10-12). Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 1:5, 17:14).

Draining the Swamp

As glorious as these truths are, Christians have come to view involvement in politics as dirty, so they check their Christian commitments at the door of public discourse. There is a reason our nation’s capital is unceremoniously referred to as “the swamp” and denounced as a hotbed of corruption where all manner of injustice reigns. To be sure, this is often an appropriate description of national politics, due to its pollution by sinners who worship power and love bribes. Christians have come to view politics as an unworthy pursuit because it “feels unclean” to be yoked with a process that has been wielded for such evil.

Unfortunately, the result is that as believers abdicate public responsibility to love their neighbors by establishing righteous laws, nature abhors a vacuum. Non-Christian philosophies rush to fill the void and promote lawlessness. Injustice begins to take ground, and good policies that recognize God’s norms for creation are steadily pushed into irrelevance. The common good only lasts as long as law accords with truth; but when good is exchanged for evil, chaos and societal rot set in with a vengeance.

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. 

-Isaiah 59:14

Checking out of politics is clearly not an option for the concerned Christian who wants to live in a functioning nation. So why have believers largely abandoned the public square to the enemies of God? Bad theology and passivity have had disastrous consequences. Believers have hidden behind the imminent return of Christ to justify their position. They have also imbibed the unbiblical notions already mentioned that confine the applicability of the Bible to Christians alone. In both cases, they are shunning fidelity to the Great Commission.

Conclusion

Jesus commanded His followers to disciple the nations and teach them obedience to all that He commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). Politics is not a neutral area governed by common ground principles that all can agree are “reasonable.” The public square, and everyone in it, is subject to the authority of God’s word. It is the standard to which the civil sphere answers. Government must obey God or else it will be left to its own devices. This is the honor given to all the Lord’s saints, that they restrain wickedness by binding kings with the chains of Scripture (Psalm 149:8-9). Politics is to be made holy, which means that Christians must recover the basic belief that the Lordship of Christ is over all of life, including the affairs of civil government.