Emancipated from its ministry of justice under God’s rule, the modern state has turned away from Scripture’s moral law as the standard of political and legal obligation within society.

By redeeming and restoring man in God’s image, Jesus Christ restored man to his creation mandate, to subdue the earth by means 1 See Robert L. Dabney, Discussions: Evangelical and Theological, reprint, 2 vols. (London: Banner of Truth Trust, [1890] 1967), 1:168-213. xii Foreword of science, agriculture, the arts, commerce and industry, education, a

Since the Fall it has always been unlawful to use the law of God in hopes of establishing one’s own personal merit and justification, in contrast or complement to salvation by way of promise and faith; commitment to obedience is but the lifestyle of faith, a token of gratitude for God’s redeeming grace. 2. The word of the Lord is the sole, supreme,

John Calvin broke with the view that the state was autonomous, arguing for the sole rule of Christ over both church and state (as well as the noninterference between the official bodies). He reopened the way to a Christian view of the state, taking it to be subject, not to the church, but only to the laws of God.

Joachim Jeremias outlines the three basic interpretive approaches to the Sermon on the Mount,1 labeling them “the perfectionist conception,” “the theory of the impossible ideal,” and “the interim-ethic.” In the first case Jesus is seen as laying down an obedience ethic as rigid as that of the Older Testament. The second view holds that Jesus knows

With respect to doctrine, we must not imagine that the coming of Christ has freed us from the authority of the law: for it is the eternal rule of a devout and holy life, and must, therefore, be as unchangeable, as the justice of God, which it embraced, is constant and uniform.

Since the rule of Christ and God’s law has been restricted to individual commitment and (if anywhere) private conscience, man has seen himself as free to generate or reject, as his own ethical authority, moral ideals and obligation. Individualism and liberty become the only absolutes which govern interpersonal relations.16 To “be yourself ” and do

Adam was created in the image of God to exercise dominion over the earth and to subdue it to God’s purposes through man as God’s priest, prophet, and king. As priest, man was ordained to dedicate himself and his activities to the triune God. As king, man was to rule the earth as God’s vicegerent, and, as prophet, to interpret all things in terms of

8. Civil magistrates in all ages and places are obligated to conduct their offices as ministers of God, avenging divine wrath against criminals and giving an account on the Final Day of their service before the King of kings, their Creator and Judge. 9. The general continuity which we presume with respect to the moral standards of the Old Testament ap