19 Romans 13:1-7 Submission, Fearlessness and Conscience

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Paul is continuing in his application of how we should live in light of the gospel, and in this often-discussed and debated passage, he explains how to be good citizens.

In Romans 1-8 Paul explained the glory of the gospel and the greatness of God — how no one can be saved by keeping the law; we can only be saved by trusting that God, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, will forgive us and solve the problem of sin in our lives.

In Romans 9-11, Paul examines how God treated Israel. He argues that God did not fail Israel, nor reject them and that proves he will be faithful to Gentile believers as well. In a great crescendo at the end of Romans 11 he extols the living God with dynamic praise. Then in Romans 12 he turns to believers and says, “It is only reasonable that we worship this God with our bodies.” The rest of the book then talks about our practical response to the greatness of the gospel: How should it make our lives different?

Chapter 12:3 has implications for everything that comes after it: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” – Romans 12:3 ESV

In Romans 13 the issue is still learning not to think too highly of ourselves, or seeing ourselves accurately in relation to the authorities that govern any nation. There are three words in this passage that summarize its themes: submission, fearlessness, and conscience.

13:1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.- Romans 13:1-7 ESV

Submissiveness helps give us proper perspective about ourselves.
Submission is not slavish obedience.
Submission is an attitude in which we are predisposed to let God, through government and other authority structures, put limits on where we go, what we do, and how we spend our resources.
Compare with Acts 4:18-20 and James 4.
Fearlessness is not the same thing as safety.
Being fearless means not being guilty of anything.
If we are going to be punished for anything, it will be for righteousness.
Compare with 1 Peter 2:11-20.
Punishment is one means by which we are impelled to do right. But Paul says there is a better reason, and that is your conscience.
Conscience demands that we keep the record clear for God’s sake, and not for man’s.
We are free to submit because God is in control. We are free from guilt and anxiety if we practice what is good. We honor God when we keep our conscience clear in dealings with authorities.