What ails you? What gets in your way? What confuses and confounds you? What scares you? What do you need? What do you want?

What if the answers to all these questions could be reduced to one question with one answer? That would simplify things, wouldn’t it? And yet we don’t usually approach things in that way; we don’t look for the common denominator in our efforts to deal with life’s challenges. Or do we? If you were asked to choose one all-important thing that you needed in order to deal with your circumstances, what would that be: money maybe…or love…or credit…prestige? What would it be?

In the ancient world—and I mean the ancient “civilized” world—money was important in the acquisition of things. But the accumulation of commodities could also signify wealth. Precious metals, jewels, hard to get lumber or stone, or goods that were difficult to manufacture such as cloth or silk; all these things signified wealth and were sought, traded for, or hoarded as the case may be. But as important as those things were, they didn’t represent what was most important to ancient culture. What was most important to ancient culture pertained to the supernatural. When push came to shove what ultimately informed life was the supernatural. The understanding of the supernatural dictated how life was conducted. The supernatural was looked to in order to obtain, maintain and recover security. This is illustrated in the biblical story of Jonah. The prophet had refused to obey God’s call for him to warn Nineveh of coming disaster. Instead he got on a ship and went in the opposite direction. When the Lord sent a storm that threatened shipwreck, everyone called on his god for salvation and threw the cargo overboard. (Jonah 1:4-17) It was the supernatural that dictated everything. The Romans of the New Testament era recognized the emperor as deity and trade was conducted in such a way so as to bring glory to the empire and the emperor. Opulence defined greatness among the powerful.

During both the Old and New Testament eras gods of various stripes were venerated and looked to for security and good fortune. Usually there were multiple deities that were recognized in the various cultures of the Ancient Near East. What was so unique about the Hebrews was that they recognized only one God and regarded the deities of the other peoples to be false gods that didn’t really exist—at least that was what they were directed to do by the biblical writings. However the backdrop for both the ancient Israelites and the early Christians was one in which multiple gods were revered. The common denominator was that human existence was recognized and negotiated in supernatural terms; gods or the one true God oversaw the fortunes of everyone. Life was not secure; disaster lurked in the shadows and the powers that be were to be acknowledged and pacified as needed.

The modern world that we Americans know and love is no longer understood in supernatural terms. God is still thought to exist by many, but day to day living is not conducted from a posture that looks to the supernatural for our wellbeing—when a hurricane makes landfall, we don’t try to determine whose sin prompted the disaster. Instead we focus on rectifying its impact and seeking to mitigate that impact in the future. Better warning systems, stronger buildings, and enhanced means of recovering what was lost are all analyzed and assessed.  The underlying conviction is that we can do it; we can come up with a solution for our problems. We can continue to enhance our existence through our own means. The latest innovation will be the key to a better life. That’s our American past and that’s apparently our future. Yet even though that approach continues to be emphasized, our circumstances near and far, are slowly eroding our confidence—or they should be. Denial of the obvious, distraction from what’s presented, or the recognition of a straw man, they are all means for our dealing with the latest predicaments. It’s still all about us, and collectively we have a variety of ways of assessing our existence. What we need is more money, more science, better collaboration, conservation, hoarding, intimidation. We need to be more liberal, more conservative, more truthful, more demanding, more blustering—these are strange, strange times. The church—and I’m thinking of the American evangelical church—so often embraces and advocates a Christian version of any number of these approaches to our present day predicaments. Better government, better security, better laws, better science; they’re all promoted and sanctified with a modicum of prayer and an occasional reference to the Bible. All because everybody deserves the good life; and that life must be contended for through the exercise of our rights, meaning our rights as citizens.

What we deserve is destruction, what we get is grace; grace that is available to all who would receive it on God’s terms. We didn’t deserve it, and it doesn’t qualify us for priority of place; at least not in this life. Which means that all of the turmoil, all of the posturing, all of the intimidating cannot be associated with the Lord’s provision on the cross. All of our excess and comfort and material security are a bonus that we don’t deserve and which shouldn’t be recognized as an appropriate focus of our energies. But given our history as Americans, that’s a hard sell. As Americans, our very existence is derived from the conviction that we should be able to decide for ourselves how to live our lives. And from the beginning it was through contention with one another that we determined the nature of our country’s government and the means whereby we could acquire our own fortune. The problem is that when the foundations of American culture were being established the substrate of the culture was considered to be Christian. It was a culture informed by a protestant Christianity that contributed to the establishment of modern evangelicalism. Both the American Revolution and England’s Glorious Revolution in the prior century were informed in large part by a view of scripture that failed to recognize the Bible’s call for humility in this life. An example of this is the Apostle Paul’s admonition to submit to the governing authorities of the ancient world, that is the Roman Empire. (Romans 13) In order to justify the beheading of the English king and the taking up of arms against the subsequent monarchy that was established, a serious rethinking of the biblical rhetoric had to be considered. Which is to say that submission to authority was not to be based on the recognition of the divine origin of all authority; instead it was to be based on the nature of that authority. Meaning only governments that promoted biblical values were to be considered legitimate. All others could be rebelled against.

What has resulted is a secularization of government that relied increasingly on human reason to establish it. However, our lot as modern believers is the same as that of the ancients. It’s the supernatural that informs human existence. Christians need to recognize this and live out their existence from that vantage point. Not praying for the good life, but praying for the Lord’s purposes to be realized throughout the world. If anything our abundance should be somewhat humiliating. We make use of it because that’s our lot, but it shouldn’t be all about frivolous expenditure; it should be about wise utilization and an effort to get a handle on what the Lord is saying here and now. There’s a supernatural bent to everything; that should be the modern Christian perspective just as it was for the ancients. Whether its adversity or prosperity, any and every circumstance should be assessed from a supernatural perspective because everything is ultimately under the jurisdiction of the supernatural. That’s One and Done! When you recognize that everything else comes into focus.

What would that look like in our current circumstances? If you’re a believer who’s been informed by the faith for any length of time, you should know that our basis for understanding anything is the careful handling of the Bible. But how does the Bible pertain to the exercise of our rights as citizens in the here and now? The first thing that comes to my mind is point of view, meaning the angle from which we view things. And the second has to do with posture, meaning the manner in which we engage the discussion. The Bible tells us that God superintends everything; every form of government is under the scrutiny of the Most High (remember Romans 13). Whether it’s tyrannical dictatorship, oppressive socialism, monarchy, or liberal democracy; all forms of government are informed by the Lord’s authority. He was working through the Roman Emperor of the ancient world, the Kings of England, France and elsewhere, and now the Politburos in Russia and China. And He even works through the current President of the States regardless of what party is represented. There may be qualifications for our submission to government, but the principle is there: God works through the governing authorities and we should acknowledge that authority as established by the Lord. That should be our point of view. Only if the government is insisting that we, as individuals, engage in sinful activity are we to resist that authority. Granted that the influence of sinful activity on our lives and the lives of our family, needs to be gauged in order to consider the level of our resistance; but it’s still the case that our baseline point of view should be one of submission to established authority whether we like it or not.

Our posture has to do with the manner in which we engage the government. If we don’t have a role to play in government then all we can hope to do is appeal to those in power and submit to their authority within the confines of our faithfulness to God and His Word. When it comes to our participation in a republican democracy such as the United States, our posture toward government is twofold. First of all we do get to be part of the process whereby policy is established. We get to vote, we get to contend for our views, and we get to influence policy.  But we also need to submit, after a fashion, to everyone else who is part of the process. We contend for our views as those who have a measure of authority, and we acknowledge the views of others who also have a measure of authority as well. And we do this in a manner that reflects the love of God for all people, recognizing that His agenda trumps our own. We may not get our way, but the Lord is greater than our system of government and He should be our confidence in the midst of a wayward world. As the Apostle Paul admonished us:

Do all things without grumbling and disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life… (Philippians 2:14-16)