That might sound like a strange question, but I think it's an important one for Christians to answer well because it impacts on how we interact with our government.
Often I hear sermons, or read articles, that seem to operate on the assumption that the answer to the above question is yes, Britain is a nation in covenant with God. But is that actually the case? No. Under the new covenant, God's covenant people are Christians, collectively known as the Church, made up of people from all different nations and ethnicities, under the kingly rule of Christ. God's covenant people are not a nation state like Britain. That's different to how things were in the Old Testament, under the old covenant. Then, God's covenant people were Israel, a nation state, with a king specifically appointed to rule over them. The king was to rule with and under God's authority, according to every stipulation of the covenant. Sometimes those old covenant kings ruled well, very often they didn't. When they didn't it was quite appropriate for prophets and others of God's covenant people to remind them that their job was to lead in complete accordance with God's covenant - no room was to be made for any religious compromise.
Very often I hear direct parallels being drawn (perhaps inadvertently?) between Old Testament Israel and Britain, between the kings of the old covenant people of Israel, and the government of Britain. But is that a correct parallel? One involves the appointed king of God's covenant people, the other ... well the other doesn't. The king of God's covenant people now is Christ, not David Cameron (or the Queen for that matter!)
Of course it's true that our governing authorities are appointed by God (Rom. 13), but as heads of nations (and we should be subject to them as such) not as heads of God's covenant people, the Church.
It is our government's job to restrain evil, and it's part of our job as Christians to encourage them in that task and pray for them. But let's not confuse them with the king of God's covenant people - they aren't there to enforce every aspect of God's covenant on the whole nation, on people who aren't even part of God's covenant people, which is most people in Britain.
Our king is Christ, and his covenant people, the Church, are always under his gracious rule no matter what laws our national government may be passing. And Christ's kingdom and reign is extended not through national laws brought in by our national government, but through the good news of the gospel. It is Christ's people's responsibility (not the government's) to spread the gospel, so it's important we concentrate primarily on that, rather than investing the majority of our time in muddled expectations of what our national government should or shouldn't be doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment