It is commonly asserted today that there must be a separation of Church and State, that the influence of Christ’s Church should be excluded from civil matters. This is a common pattern of thinking which has grown greatly since the Enlightenment period. It’s often used as a trump card against Christians when they propose any sort of law on a biblical basis. Sadly, these ideas have persuaded the majority of Christians today. However, this idea is built upon a number of faulty assumptions about law and state. For Christians, it displays an inaccurate and low view of God’s sovereignty over creation.

If one is to suppose that religion altogether should be removed from the realm of civil discourse, they must either apply the same rule to worldviews such as secular humanism or establish a meaningful difference by which it cannot be called a religion in the same sense. Obviously the most superficial differences between worldviews such as secular humanism and Christianity are irrelevant to this. The resurrection of Christ, for example, is a belief which would not affect participation in civil matters directly. It would be difficult for any law to be formed on that basis alone. It is rather the source of law in Christianity that is challenged; Christian legal codes originate in divine writings, in Scripture. Therefore, when Christians appeal to these writings, the appeals are discredited on the basis that not everyone accepts these Scriptures.

Secular humanism, many argue, is superior and not “religious” because it begins from a neutral standpoint of reason alone. Everyone can agree on reason, on logic. And so, this is the crux of the issue with “religion” being broached in civil matters. It violates the supposed autonomy of man. Yet, this is a worldview in itself. To keep Christianity out of the state and to posit that man can make his own laws, can define justice himself, is to say that Christianity is false. It’s not to be neutral. There’s no neutrality when it comes to worldviews. Either God is the source of morality, justice, and all that is good and the Sovereign Creator who demands obedience in every area of life, or He is not. When the Creator God is ignored, man is made to be the god of this world. Man, collectively represented by the state, is held as the ultimate point of reference. He is the arbiter of truth, justice, and ethics. Either the appeal in support of a law is to man, in which case he is held to be the ultimate standard of righteous law, or it is to God. What is the difference? Many fear a theocracy; however, they must realize that all states are theocracies. The question is who we will worship, God or man.

Let’s suppose for a moment that we choose to allow man to make his own laws. How can man form moral judgments alone in the first place? How can he satisfy from within himself this precondition of law? Some say morality is not legislated, but that is clearly false. Moral appeals are the only reason murder, rape, and theft are criminalized. They are prescriptive statements about what man should do. Some would say these appeal only to what contributes most to the survivability of humanity, but why should we suppose humans ought to survive? Is the basis of civil justice simply men screeching back and forth about their own volitions and nothing more? Given a secular humanist worldview, justice is only grounded in men who deliberate back and forth. It is ultimately only an appeal to the ruinous and arbitrary whims of man. How can this be considered any ground for a virtue so oft put upon a pedestal?

The idea that man is capable of deriving meaningful moral statements and meaningfully just laws (that is, beyond appeal to our volitions) from himself is bankrupt. Autonomy cannot make sense of the preconditions of law altogether, because it is simply men attempting to exercise a transcendental authority upon their equals. There is no reason for us to obey the state, to obey laws, in the autonomous worldview, apart from the physical repercussions that the state will bring upon us. This is interesting, because this is typically understood as tyranny by the dissenting. Are we to believe that those who believe themselves oppressed by the state when it forces them to comply with what seems to be a hideous demand can’t appeal to anything above the state? Are we to believe that the state truly is the ultimate moral authority in the world? When the state is made to be the god of the society, they haven’t removed religion from civil matters, they have defined religion to exclude any idea of god, of an ultimate source of morality, but the state.

Law cannot reliably or obediently be derived from anything but God. It is a wonder, then, that so many Christians believe we should not appeal to God’s Law. They would have us believe that the government is autonomous, that men can make just laws. It is as if Christ’s commandments only apply to the Christians, and not to the rest of society. The fundamental issue with this way of thinking is that it neglects the fact that Christ is the King. He is king not only over the Church, over the believers in the world, but over all other kings. And God has revealed to us a perfectly just blueprint for civil law. The state cannot save society; man is morally incorrigible apart from the work of God in his heart. No amount of external pressure will redeem man. This requires a work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. We cannot depend upon the state for moral salvation, for that is the work of God. God will save us. And indeed, He is our true King. “For the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our king; He will save us” (Isaiah 33:22).

It is time for Christians to realize that we can only depend upon God’s Law if we are to ever achieve justice in this world. Either one submits to God’s commands, or he rebels and chooses his own god, that he may do what is right in his own eyes. When one rejects Christocracy, wherein we are ruled by the laws of Christ, they have rejected the only true Lawgiver, and thus they have become reduced to anarchy. Christians are called to share the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. We are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them all that God has commanded of us (Mat 28:19). Are we fulfilling the entire Great Commission, or are we neglecting the work of the Kingdom?

Grace and Peace