Relation of Law to Moral and Civil Duties.
By Cyrus Simmons
TWO KINDS OF CITIZENSHIP.—A citizen as generally regarded is one who owes allegiance to some government or sovereignty. He is entitled to certain rights and privileges. Some personal rights are surrendered when he associates himself in a corporate capacity with others; and he receives in return a protection of life, limb, and property, the inalienable rights that he might not enjoy if he lived in a community unorganized. There is another kind of citizenship which is taught in the Word of God. It also accords certain rights and privileges to all allegiants to Christ as king. The rights, we may say, are in becoming, of their own choice, members of the heavenly family (Eph. 3:15); in being the “sons of God” (John 1:12, margin; 1 John 3:1); in being “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4); and in being heirs with Abraham “of the world” (Rom. 4:13), or of the “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:13). “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Eph. 2:19. The privileges of a heavenly citizenship, we may say, are in following Christ (Matt. 16:24); in passing from “death unto life” (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14); in becoming “a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17); in being “kings and priests unto God” (Rev. 1:6); in sitting with Christ in His throne (Rev. 3:21); and in judging fallen angels and the wicked world (1 Cor. 6:2, 3). These are some of the glorious promises revealed. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” 1 Cor. 2:9. Behold the possibilities of such a citizenship. This unparalleled exaltation is the reward of humility. James 4:6. “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.” 2 Peter 1:10. Whose reward is an “incorruptible” crown. 1 Cor. 9:25. “For our citizenship is in heaven.” Phil. 3:20, R.V. Civility and Morality.—Good citizenship on earth is obedience to laws prohibiting incivility. Good citizenship in heaven harmonizes with the ten precepts of the moral code. These two relations of man to law co-exist while the Christian passes the time of his sojourning here on earth. God has so ordained it that all may worship Him without doing violence to the civil rights, or, for the matter of that, any rights of others. He has distinctly and indelibly drawn the line that demarcates the duties one owes to his fellows from the duties he owes to his God. And the duties we owe to our fellows do not and should not conflict with the duties we owe to God. Nothing that God has told man to do will interfere with the civil rights of others nor his civil duties to others. Faith Not Law.—The adoption into the family in “heaven and earth” is a question of faith. It is a reception of the Holy Spirit by the mental operation of the believer; therefore, no human judge can righteously decide when one is perfidious or faithful, when one thinks loyally or treasonably with regard to the Sovereign of the universe. “But ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Rom. 8:15. A breach of allegiance is treason. The shameful trial and condemnation of Christ evidenced to the world the everlasting inability of sinful man to interpret the law of God, and the inability of the State to pass upon questions of religion or to punish such alleged actions of infidelity. Christ was convicted of blasphemy. “The Jews answered him [Pilate], We have a law; and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” John 19:7. Is not this the privilege of all? “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God.” 1 John 3:1. In passing upon the question of blasphemy, or what the Sanhedrin decided to be derogatory to the power and to the reverence of God, they ignorantly condemned to death the very God who “giveth breath unto the people” (Isa. 42:5), and who gave them life. After such ignorance and worse than blasphemy, who will dare to be an arbiter of another’s conscience? Christ was condemned of treason. The alleged crime consisted in asserting that he is King. “The Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this Man go, thou art not Cæsar’s friend; whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar.” “We have no king but Cæsar.” John 19:12, 15. The crucified, this same King lives. And because He lives, all who overcome shall sit with Him in His throne (Rev. 3:10); shall receive a “crown of righteousness” (2 Tim. 4:8); shall be also “kings and priests unto God” (Rev. 1:6). What was adjudged to be treason in Christ has proven to be an eternal truth to which every follower of the crucified Saviour is privileged to testify. This egregious and dreadful blunder3proves that there is a dual obligation of fidelity resting upon every subject; that these obligations do not conflict, and that neither man nor the State can righteously judge of the duty we owe to God. Our subjection to earthly powers ought not to interfere with our obedience to the “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” 1 Tim. 6:15. Cæsar and God.—The words of the Saviour are, “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Matt. 22:21. This quotation shows that man is in subjection to two sovereigns; that there are “things” or duties to be rendered to Cæsar, or to the State, and there are “things” or duties to be rendered to God. The text also shows that there are duties which belong exclusively to the State, and there are duties which belong to God alone. Has the Christian divine authority for disobeying the law of the land if it commands him to do contrary to the law of God? In the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the king passed a law that at a given time all in his kingdom should “fall down and worship the golden image” (Dan. 3:5) that he had set up. All violators of this law should be “cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” Verse 6. Three Hebrew captives, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, refused to obey this law. Verses 8, 12. The conflict was evident. God in His law told them, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” Ex. 20:4, 5. Nebuchadnezzar in his law said they should fall down and worship the image he had set up. For their disobedience to the law of the State, and their obedience to the law of God, they were cast bound into the fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. Dan. 3:19, 23. To their miraculous deliverance let the king himself testify: “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Verse 25. God approved of this violation of the law; for upon their “bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.” Verse 27. While Daniel was prime minister of the Medo-Persian Kingdom (Dan. 6:1, 3), Darius, the king, made a law that for thirty days no one should ask a petition of any God or man save of the king. The one who broke this law should be “cast into the den of lions.” Verse 7. Notwithstanding this law, Daniel “went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.” Verse 10. The law of God says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Ex. 20:3. The laws of the land commanded Daniel to pray to no God or man for thirty days, but to the king. Daniel decided to obey the law of God. He was accordingly cast “into the den of lions.” Dan. 6:16. Early the next morning the king found Daniel unhurt, and he cried with a lamentable voice, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” Verse 20. Altho Daniel disobeyed the law of the king, he related to him that the angel of God had “shut the lions’ mouths,” and he said, “Also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.” Verse 22. God’s approval of Daniel’s disobedience to the law of the land was shown to the king in three ways: First, Daniel’s miraculous deliverance; second, in the fact that God sent His angel to shut the lions’ mouths; and, third, in Daniel telling the king it was not wrong for him to disobey such a law. “Before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.” The Christian’s loyalty to the selfsame law is brought into question nowadays. God states explicitly that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. The Sabbath is not any seventh day, nor any seventh part of a division of time, but it is the identical seventh day of the week. The Lord in the beginning of creation divided time by the week, and called the seventh part of the week as He made it, “His holy Sabbath.” Gen. 2:1, 3; Isa. 58:13. The States, however, have passed laws designating the first day of the week, or Sunday, as the day to be observed for the Sabbath. Whom shall Christians obey, the law of the land, or the law of God? But the conflict does not stop here. The Lord in His law not only tells what day of the week is His Sabbath, but He also tells on what days of the week to work. “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work.” Ex. 20:9. If Saturday, or the seventh day, “is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and all are enjoined to work six days, then the commandment is as plain to work on Sunday, the first day of the week, as it is to rest on the seventh day. The law of the land makes it criminal to work or to do any secular labor on Sunday. The law of God says, “Do all thy work” in six days, which includes Sunday, or the first day of the week. The observance of the Sabbath according to the commands of Jehovah consists in working six days, including the first day of the week, as well as in resting on the seventh-day Sabbath. A law, then, that prohibits secular labor on Sunday, or prevents a citizen from doing his (“thy”) work, interferes with the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath in harmony with the divine will, and is contrary to the law of God. Coercive Sunday legislation involves the same principles that confronted the three Hebrew captives and Daniel. If God sanctioned their disobedience to the State laws which ran counter to His precepts, have not those who conscientiously observe the seventh-day Sabbath a divine right to oppose laws that presume to tell what day of the week they shall keep holy, what day of the week is the Lord’s day, or on what day they shall rest and refrain from doing their work? If Daniel did “no hurt” to the king in violating Darius’ law, is it a derogation of civil duty to disobey State Sunday laws?