Bible Text: Romans 13:1-10 | Preacher: Rev. Angus Stewart | Series: Belgic Confession 36, The Magistrates | Charles Hodge: “There is no limitation to the injunction in this verse, so far as the objects of obedience are concerned, although there is as to the extent of the obedience itself. That is, we are to obey all that is in actual authority over us, whether their authority is legitimate or usurped, whether they are just or unjust. The actual reigning emperor was to be obeyed by the Roman Christians, whatever they might think as to his title to the sceptre. But if he transcended his authority, and required them to worship idols, they were to obey God rather than man. This is the limitation to all human authority. Whenever obedience to man is inconsistent with obedience to God, then disobedience becomes a duty” (A Commentary on Romans, p. 406).
Robert Haldane: “The doctrine of unlimited submission to civil government in temporal things appears a hard saying. Who can hear it? If this sentiment prevails, it may be said, rulers may tyrannize as they please. They who speak thus do greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God in the ruling of the world. It would be a hard thing indeed if God did not rule the rulers. But the Christian has nothing to fear, when he considers that every plan and proceeding of government is overruled and directed by his God. If he puts His children into the hands of men, he retains these men in his own hand, and they can injure them in nothing without his permission. ‘The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whither so ever He will,’ Proverbs 21:1. So far, then, from being a doctrine that fills the mind with discomfort, it is the only view that gives peace. Have not Christians more security for their safety in the care of their Almighty Father, than in a permission given by him to defend themselves against the oppression of rulers? They have peace whatever party gets into power, because they know that in everything God fulfils his purposes by them. God rules on earth, even in the councils of his enemies, as completely as he rules in heaven. When God chooses to overturn the empire of tyrants, he is at no loss for instruments. He is not obliged to employ the heirs of glory in such scenes of blood: He uses the wicked to overturn the wicked” (Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, p. 585).
Herman Hoeksema: “Do you ask, ‘Will the magistrate praise us?’ If they kill us, persecute us, and use the sword against us, will they still praise us? In the first place, you will have in your consciousness the feeling that they should praise you. And they in their consciousness will have the divine testimony that they ought to praise you. When the Antichrist will come, you will have praise in the deepest heart of Antichrist. In the second place, you must remember that Christ is Lord. Because of his lordship you shall have praise of the magistrate. Christ will come again. Once he stood before the magistrate and was subject to the magistrate. He committed himself to him who judges righteously. As it was with him, so it has been with his people in the past. When Christ shall return, all will be justified, and have praise of the magistrate. The higher powers will forever say that Christ and his people were the well-doers, and you will be justified” (Righteous by Faith Alone, p. 625).

Article 36: Of Magistrates.
We believe that our gracious God, because of the depravity of mankind, hath appointed kings, princes, and magistrates, willing that the world should be governed by certain laws and policies, to the end that the dissoluteness of men might be restrained, and all things carried on among them with good order and decency.
For this purpose He hath invested the magistracy with the sword, for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well.
Their office is not only to have regard unto and watch for the welfare of the civil state, but also that they protect the sacred ministry, and thus may remove and prevent all idolatry and false worship;* that the kingdom of antichrist may be thus destroyed and the kingdom of Christ promoted. They must therefore countenance
the preaching of the Word of the gospel everywhere, that God may be honored and worshiped by every one, as He commands in His Word.
Moreover, it is the bounden duty of every one, of what state, quality, or condition soever he may be, to subject himself to the magistrates; to pay tribute, to show due honor and respect to them, and to obey them in all things which are not repugnant to the Word of God; to supplicate for them in their prayers, that God may rule and guide them in all their ways, and that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
Wherefore we detest the error of the Anabaptists and other seditious people, and in general all those who reject the higher powers and magistrates and would subvert justice, introduce a community of goods, and confound that decency and good order which God hath established among men.
*NOTE: This phrase, touching the office of the magistracy in its relation to the Church, proceeds on the principle of the Established Church, which was first applied by Constantine and afterwards also in many Protestant countries. History, however, does not support the principle of State domination over the Church, but rather the separation of Church and State. Moreover, it is contrary to the New Dispensation that authority be vested in the State to arbitrarily reform the Church, and to deny the Church the right of independently conducting its own affairs as a distinct territory alongside the State. The New Testament does not subject the Christian Church to the authority of the State that it should be governed and extended by political measures, but to our Lord and King only as an independent territory alongside and altogether independent of the State, that it may be governed and edified by its office-bearers and with spiritual weapons only. Practically all Reformed churches have repudiated the idea of the Established Church, and are advocating the autonomy of the churches and personal liberty of conscience in matters pertaining to the service of God.
“The Christian Reformed Church in America, being in full accord with this view, feels constrained to declare that it does not conceive of the office of the magistracy in this sense, that it be in duty bound to also exercise political authority in the sphere of religion, by establishing and maintaining a State Church, advancing and supporting the same as the only true Church, and to oppose, to persecute and to destroy by means of the sword all the other churches as being false religions; and to also declare that it does positively hold that, within its own secular sphere, the magistracy has a divine duty towards the first table of the Law as well as towards the second; and furthermore that both State and Church as institutions of God and Christ have mutual rights and duties appointed them from on high, and therefore have a very sacred reciprocal obligation to meet through the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and Son. They may not, however, encroach upon each other’s territory. The Church has rights of sovereignty in its own sphere as well as the State.” Acta. Synod, 1910.