What if the state ceases to be God’s ministry of justice? What if it becomes a terror to good works, rather than to the evil? (Rom. 13:1–5). Their obedience had to be “for conscience sake” (Rom. 13:5), i.e., in obedience to God, because of His Word, for “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). As a result, Christians

In this situation, real resistance came from only one source, the Christians. The Christians were prepared, and believed in terms of Scripture, that they were required to be obedient to all human authorities in the Lord, i.e., in terms of His law-word and His prior authority. Thus, parents, masters, authorities, and rulers were to be obeyed and

The passage Paul quotes from to support his doctrine of righteousness by faith, as opposed to righteousness by law as Moses taught, starts out with “If you obey…and keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in the book of the law.” Notice that Paul totally leaves this part of the “scripture” out (about keeping the law) and instead