Politics 101 from a Christian perspective part 4: The image of God and the law
12  “Woe to him who builds a town with blood
and founds a city on iniquity!
13     Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts
that peoples labor merely for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14     For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:12–14)
Last time, I wrote about the ontological flow of the political sphere and how it gives rise to vocation, economy, and to civil law. I referred to the created order of being, which is an immutable principle running throughout all of Scripture. God created that universe and all that is in it for His own glory, including the political sphere. He created man to bear His image, witnessing His glory, and to respond in praise in worship. This is the purpose of humankind in all the he says, thinks, and does.  When this order of being becomes distorted or perverted, such as in politics, the purpose for even having laws and people in authority to enforce them become undermined. When the substance behind the expression vanishes, so too does its expression.
Simply put, what this means is that civil laws cannot undermine divine law. If it does, it is illegitimate. If a man builds a structure, but destroys the foundation, the structure falls with it. Civil law and politics are no different. Castles cannot be built in the sky, without plummeting to the ground.
In the biblical model, the order of being (the ontological flow) begins with 1) God’s glory. 2) Man as the image-bearer exists to notice and reflect that glory, in his life and worship. 3) Since man is made in God’s image, he is given dominion over the earth, commanded to be fruitful and multiply (to increase that image), to subdue the earth and have vocations (to increase God’s glory), and 4) to place sanctions on evil (to protect God’s image).  These four things flow out of God, following a logical progression. They are NOT subject to political “innovation” without creating idolatry, sin, death and destruction. Such “innovations” corrupt the understanding and knowledge of the citizenry. They lead to great wickedness and human suffering within a political body.
Civil law is a species of divine law. God’s law communicates the civil laws to us, meaning that within the law of God is a civil law. And whether anyone understands that or not does not change one iota of God’s universal and objective law. In order for anything to be true, then the truth must be what it is. It is not subject to human interpretation or desires. God’s law is no different in that regard. Human beings cannot create laws out of thin air. For then they are merely arbitrary, where might makes right.
So, if God’s law is objective and universal, in other words, binding on all people in all places, and in all times, then what are we to do with Old Testament laws, which are “no longer relevant to us today?”
The answer here is that they ARE RELEVANT to us today. Anyone who says that they are not relevant has some very serious biblical dilemmas to solve. For example, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 it says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (ESV). However, if massive chunks of Scripture—and the writer was referring to Old Testament Scripture here—are “irrelevant” to us, then this verse cannot be true.
In the Old Testament, we have three different dimensions of divine law. We have 1) ceremonial laws, which were binding upon the priest, the life and rituals of the temple. There were 2) moral laws and 3) civil laws. These dimensions of divine law, communicate something about God’s character to us because they are expressions of God Himself. For example, the Ten Commandments (The Decalogue) establish the life, the worship, and the property of mankind, God’s image-bearers and convey to us some of the particulars of the Creator as a moral agent. These are moral laws and, as Christians know, they are applicable today.
On the other hand, we no longer sprinkle blood or adorn an ephad, which are ceremonial laws. We also do not build tabernacles, arranging the most precious metals in the holy of holies to the plain, bland fabrics on the outside. The reason for this is not because these things are “irrelevant” to us, but because they were expressions, temporary manifestations of an eternal, invisible reality.
Jesus Christ is now our high priest, who makes intercession on our behalf to God because His blood was shed for us. We do not build tabernacles because our body is the temple of the Most Holy God. Rather, we are to sanctify Him in our hearts, as more precious and holy than everything else, dressing ourselves in modesty on the outside. The value was not in the gold, but God was the treasure that we separate from the rest of the world.
The truth that these laws teach is still relevant to us today. They are still profitable for teaching, correction, and training in righteousness. They are applicable even today, normative in what they teach about God, universal and objective. Indeed, in Matthew 5, Christ tells us that those who relax even the least parts of the law will be called the least in His kingdom. Jesus was not telling His followers to obey rituals which were fulfilled by Him, but pointing us away from the letter of the law to the Spirit of the law.
“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:1–11)
The old, Mosaic Law has passed, not because it has no bearing on us today, but because it was fulfilled in Christ, and exceeded by Him. It still instructs us concerning the things about God. The visible applications of these laws point to an eternal significance, which is still normative to all of us. The Spirit behind that letter is what is universal and objective. As stated before, in Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus says that whoever relaxes the least of law will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
However, the letter of the law was not enough. It was, and is, our instructor, but not our savior. And because of our weakness in our flesh—our sinful nature—it condemned all of us. This does not mean, however, that the law is bad. Jesus submitted Himself to it, earning our righteousness on our behalf. It has not been abolished, but fulfilled in Christ, who lived for us, died for us, and rose again so that we might inherit eternal life.
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” (Romans 8:3–9)
We have a normative use of the law of God because, while we no longer have the same form of government as ancient Israel, its moral truths inform our ethical behavior, as per Romans 8 above, the law is fulfilled within us though the Spirit. It is the invisible things that give rise to the visible: The Spirit of the Law–>Letter of the law, the substance of the law–>the form of the law.
Switching gears, the city is the concentrated, collective expression of the image of God. Just as God calls and raises up men for their worship and vocation, He also calls and raises up the city to do those things which are pleasing to Him. The city is the concentrated reflection of His glory, since it is constituted by His images gathering together in a location, in cooperation with one another, in a civil union.
The state is the collective expression of the physical defense of the image of God. The image-bearer (man) comes first, the state is the expression of man’s image. Therefore, the state is to protect that image. The city is to be fruitful and to multiply—we have more children so that more of God’s image might express itself on the earth and subdue it (Hab 2:14). When we devalue children, we are hating God Himself. The state exists to protect these activities. To devalue that dominion is to devalue that image. To have a totally different political program is to oppose God and His image. Thus, the city and the state are intimately connected.
So what we have emerging here is a Trinitarian expression of God in the political sphere. We worship a triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is the Father who decrees, the Son who executes as King of Kings what the Father has decreed, and the Holy Spirit who enables the image bearer to respond appropriately. The fact that God is one divine being in three separate persons is known in theology as “the ontological trinity.” The fact that these persons cooperate, live in communion with one another, as the Son subordinates Himself to the Father, and the Holy Spirit points us to the Son is known as “the economic trinity.”
The elements of the civil sphere (of politics) seem to be triune as well. We have 1) the law, which its decrees stand over everybody. We have 2) the king (state/government) who executes those laws. And there is 3) the citizenry, who are to honor and support the lords of their land.
In the city, we have the densest concentration of image bearers, which gives rise to the state. The order/flow is God–> God’s image (the citizenry)–>the protection of God’s image (the State). This, I have reiterated many times, but so far I have been vague about what God has ordained the state to protect. We have seen already that rulers are a terror to bad conduct, but not to good conduct, in Romans 13. But what does it mean to “protect God’s image?”
1)      Life
To protect God’s image is to protect the life of the image-bearer, which Genesis 9 has already made clear. The murderer attacks the very image of God, and is to be put to death by other image-bearers. This does not nullify the state’s ability to yield the sword, executing law-breakers. It does, however, limit the state in the sense that it cannot kill at will, for its own schemes and purpose. This would be murder. It would give the rest of the citizenry just cause to erect another body to put murderous, renegade statesmen to death. The state is just the billy-club that mankind sets up in order to administer divine justice, and nothing more. The statesman is just another fellow citizen called upon to execute God’s law.
2)      Liberty
This refers to image-bearer’s activity in worship and expression. In Latin, “libertas,” or liberty, refers to the will, being free from coercion. That which demands the will—the liberty—of men, also demands the worship of men. God made man to worship Him, and Him alone. Since we are not God, then we are demanding the idolatry of a person when we demand their liberty. To liberate is to unshackle the will from bondage or coercion. Human beings are to be free in their pursuit of truth because it is truth which makes people free.
3)      Property
Property is the product of man, his creativity. It speaks of God, either accurately or inaccurately. It is the product of a man’s will and work, and, therefore, of his worship. What we do with it—how we are stewards over creation—will either lie about God or tell the truth about Him. Thus, it is never, ever neutral. Nonetheless, in order for the image-bearer to have stewardship, he must have dominion over his own things.
When any of these are compromised, one cannot worship God in purity. These three things—life, liberty, and property—precede any human law. They are the basis for any human law. A man’s life is invisible (liberty, his will) and visible (his property, that which he creates). When these are compromised at the directive of other masters, then we have idolatry, which is the kingdom of the devil.
“Life, liberty, and property. This is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. If every person has the right to defend, even by force, his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus, the principle of collective right, its reason for existing, its lawfulness, is based on individual right.”—Fredric Bastiat, “The Law,” 1850