Systematic Theology – The State

The State and Justice

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 08

Dictation Name: 08 The State and Justice

Year: 1970’s

Let us begin our study. Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we come to thee rejoicing that thou art on the throne, that it is not the folly and the evil of men that shall prevail, but thy counsel, thy will shall be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Teach us day by day so to walk that our eyes may ever be fixed upon thy throne, and upon thy sure word, knowing that the gates of hell cannot hold out against thee and thy true church. Bless us now as we give ourselves to the study of thy word, that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law. In Jesus name. Amen.

We have been studying the theology of the state. Because God is the Lord, every aspect of life must be under his dominion and according to his word. We are told by St. Paul that “Whether we eat or drink we must do all to the glory of God,” and if our eating and our drinking is to the glory of God, how much more so should the state, should civil government, be to the glory of God.

Now, let us look very briefly at some verses. We’re going to return to them in a month or two, to analyze them in much greater detail, but for the present, let us glance at Romans 13:1-4. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

Paul tells us that it is the function of the ministry of justice, that is, civil government, to be a terror to evil works, a terror to evil-doers. In other words, to further justice. The state, therefore, has as its central, its basic, its necessary concern, justice. It must be a terror to evil works. A civil government undermines itself and is a traitor to itself when it rules with injustice. The sad fact is that in the modern world, the state is more concerned with power than with justice. The modern state is bent on increasing its power, not increasing its ministry of justice, and so today, what we see is that the powers of the state over us grow progressively, and the protection that the state gives us from evil-doers is diminishing steadily. Crime increases, and is less and less punished. We saw recently a man who tried to execute the president receive a ridicules sentence, treated as mentally sick. All sin can be called sickness. Does that mean sin must go unpunished? We see incredible travesties of justice. Earlier this year, a judge in New York refused to convict a man of rape, although the evidence was clear-cut. Why? He asked one question of the girl, a bank teller, who was raped in the course of the bank robbery. “Did you see him penetrate you,” and because the man had tied her up and thrown his jacket over her face, she had to say, “No.” She wasn’t allowed to say anymore, and so the judge ruled it was not a rape. This is injustice.

Instead of being a terror to evil works, the state is becoming a terror to good works. It is ministers, it is Christian school teachers, it is Christian children in Christian schools and their parents who are now being threatened by the state. No revolutionary group in the United States can do or has done more damage to the United States than the United States has done to itself by its failure to give righteousness, justice to the people. So that we must say there is not a revolutionary group that can claim a fraction of the damage done to the United States that we have done to ourselves.

It is therefore, important for us to understand some foundational facts about civil government. First of all, throughout history, the state has been, more often than the church, man’s basic religious institution. Outside of Christendom, the state has been man’s church, and man has sought salvation through the state. Rulers have been seen as gods, and their rule as a plan of salvation, and hence, the church was viewed by Rome as a threat to itself, because Rome saw itself as the saving power. Rome advertised on its coins that its emperors were saviors and gods, and therefore, it could not tolerate Christ as Lord and Savior.

The requirement of the Christian church was the confession “Caesar is lord,” but the confession of the early church was “Jesus Christ is Lord.” The state has, through most of history, seen itself as the religious institution par excellence, and the one that brings salvation to man, and the modern state believes that it can bring salvation by works of law.

Second, the basic concern of the state should be justice, and to punish evil works. A social order cannot long endure if criminals have the advantage. In courts today, only one percent of all crimes committed result in any kind of conviction, and a great deal of the effort of the state is directed against us, to shake us down for taxes, to tax us more in one way or another, and to punish us every time we turn around, but the basic concern of every civil government should be justice.

Now, it is important for us to understand what justice means in the Bible. Let me quote from a work of the last century, a great English scholar, Robert Baker Gertlestone. He wrote, “It is unfortunate that the English language should have grafted the Latin word ‘justice,’ which is used in somewhat of a forensic sense, into a vocabulary which was already possessed of the good word ‘righteousness,’ as it tends to create a distinction which has no existence in scripture. This quality indeed may be viewed, according to scripture, in two lights. In its relative aspect, it implies conformity with a line or rule of God’s law. In its absolute aspect, it is the exhibition of love to God and to one’s neighbor, because love is the fulfilling of the law, but in neither of these senses does the word convey what we usually mean by justice. No distinction between the claims of justice and the claims of love is recognized in scripture. To act in opposition to the principles of love to God and to one’s neighbor is to commit an injustice, because it is a departure from the course marked out by God in his law.”

Now, let me interpret that. What was Gertlestone saying in terms of a study of the Hebrew words in scripture? It was this: justice and righteousness are the same words, and he says it’s too bad that we have the word “justice” because righteousness conveys the meaning more clearly. The law should be righteous. Moreover, he says there is, in scripture, no distinction between justice or righteousness, and law and love. Why? Love is the fulfilling of the law. It is the keeping of the law. It is putting law into force. Now, I have gone into this more than once before, but it is important to remind ourselves of this fact. When we love someone, we keep the law in relationship to them. We respect their right to life; we do not kill. Their property; we do not steal. The sanctity of their home; we do not commit adultery. Their reputation; we do not bear false witness and we do not covet by violence, or fraud attempt to seize anything that is rightfully theirs. We do not love someone if we violate God’s law in relationship to them. Justice, or righteousness, law and love, are one and the same thing, only they’re viewed from different perspectives.

In all religions, everywhere in the world, a justice is a religious fact. It is what that particular religion believes is right in terms of its faith. We cannot, therefore, say that a concern with justice and a concern with civil government is not scripture. If God is the Lord, if God made heaven and earth, it is he and his word which must govern the individual, the family, our work, our church, the arts and sciences, and civil government, and yet, we live in an amazing time.

Just this past month, I read in one supposedly evangelical magazine, the statement that the idea of a Christian state is an unscriptural and dangerous view. Can you imagine that? What the writer believes is that we must have nothing to do with the state. Let it go its own way. Let it be as demonic as it wants. By that surrendering what belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, because he says, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Every area of life and thought must be brought into captivity to Christ, and should we leave civil government to the Devil?

As a result, we cannot say that a man can live as a Christian in a church and as a pagan in civil government, which is what these people are saying when they say we cannot try to Christianize the state. That’s outside the reach of the Gospel. Is there anything outside of the reach in the government of God and of Christ? It’s blasphemy to think so.

Moreover, righteousness, or justice, is inseparable from atonement. Our righteousness is from God through Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and therefore, we are just before God in Christ. Now, if any men and if any institutions seek righteousness apart from Christ, they are going to be anti-Christian, are they not? And if a state is going to have a concept of justice, or righteousness, which is not from the word of God, it is going to be anti-Christian, and it is going to go to Satan for its ideas of what constitutes justice, what constitutes righteousness.

As a result, when men do not put themselves under God and Christ’s atonement, and live in terms of the law-word of God, they seek justification, they seek righteousness through self-righteousness, and that leads, as we saw when we were studying the doctrine of the atonement, to sadomasochism. To either laying your sins upon someone else, or trying to make atonement by yourself by punishing yourself.

What we’re seeing today all around us is the world trying to seek justification and righteousness apart from God, so we’re going to beggar ourselves by foreign aid, giving to all the world without any righteousness in our giving, and giving to the poor as we do, which reminds one of the words of scriptures, that “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” So we try to exercise tender mercies towards the poor and towards the minority groups through Washington and the state houses, but the tender mercies of the wicked are always cruel, and so the modern state is seeking a justification apart from Christ. It is seeking a justice apart from Christ, and those dissenting with the modern state are seen as immoral men, and so the savage attack upon anyone who criticizes the modern state and its ways, but for us, justification is by God alone through Jesus Christ and justice, or righteousness, is only what God specifies in his word. There is no justice apart from God. There is no true law apart from God’s law, and so we have to say that we must apply God’s righteousness to the social order, God’s law to the social order. Just as we seek salvation and justification from God through Christ, so we must seek righteousness, justice, in every realm from God and his word.

The humanists are telling us as they legislate in Washington and Sacramento, and elsewhere, “This is the way, walk ye in it. This do and live,” but Jesus Christ says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” We cannot have a righteousness in our lives or in the state apart from Christ and the word of God. The justified will always live by God’s justice, his word, his law-word, his righteousness as revealed to us.

Are there any questions now? No questions?

End of tape