The Relation of Christ to the State.--He was an intense patriot. He
loved His country. The names of His great countrymen, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Joshua and David, were ever on His lips. He offered Himself as
the national Messiah (Matthew 21:1-17), He was rejected (John
18:38-19:16; Luke 23:27-30; 13:34) and crucified (John 19:18), after
He had been unjustly condemned to death both by the Jewish and Roman
authorities. Upon the cross and over His head was placed the
inscription, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews."
What Jesus Taught About the State.--The ancient idea of the state was
that it was everything and the individual nothing. The first question
was, "Is the state strong and prosperous?" The happiness or
unhappiness of the individual was not considered. The purity or
impurity of the life of the individual was of little consequence. The
citizens existed for the state and to serve it and its ruler. This
idea has lingered long and is not entirely yet extinct.
1. Jesus discovered the individual in the state. He taught that the
soul of one man is worth more than the whole world (Matthew
16:26). Jesus put the individual first and the state second. This
teaching was entirely new and revolutionary. Christ's principle was
make the man, the unit, right and the state will be right. He insisted
that the test of the state is the kind of individuals it produces
(Matthew 7:16). "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20).
Formerly the state was thought of as an institution to minister to the
comfort or happiness of the ruler or ruling class. Christ reversed
this when He declared that rulers existed to serve the state. He said,
"Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them,
and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not
be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you let him be your
minister; and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your
servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:
25-28). He is the greatest in the state who renders the greatest
service.
2. "He laid the foundation of a true state." In the time of Christ the
common people had no choice in the selection or election of any
officer of the state, of high or low position. Popular government in
any form was unknown. If things went wrong people must endure
them. When Jesus laid the responsibility upon the individual He made a
basis for a popular government of some form. If things are not right
now in a Christian state the people have the power of protest and
change. It is for the people to send their representatives to the
legislature, to congress, to parliament, etc., and to make and alter
the laws when new laws or changes are needed.
3. He was a civil reformer from the inside. Jesus taught the necessity
for the moral and spiritual regeneration of men before much could be
done by the state in weeding out its evils. He saw plainly the folly
of trying to transform the character of the state solely by the
coercive power of law. "Satan tempted Him to take the short
cut,--seize power over men and then change the character in men
(Matthew 4:8). To have become the kind of a king the Galileans
proposed in John 6:15 would have frustrated His mission. He sought in
society and politics what He sought in each man's life (Matthew 12:36;
23:26; Luke 6:45; John 10:10). Jesus was a true reformer."
4. Jesus taught obedience to the state and Himself strictly observed
what He taught. He paid His taxes (Matthew 17:24-27). He declared that
it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-21). When He
was unlawfully arrested, on a trumped up charge, He made no resistance
(John 18:1-9); this was not because He was not able to do so, for He
could have summoned more than twelve legions of angels to aid Him
(Matthew 26:53). Jesus thoroughly understood the corruption of His
times, and the character of the rulers. He said of Herod, when it was
told Him that he would kill Him, "Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I
cast out devils and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I
shall be perfected" (Luke 13:32,33). He obeyed the law for a purpose
and the bringing in of a new order of things--the abolition of force
and the substitution for it of service in the kingdom of God. He
suffered the Just for the unjust. He was a Martyr for His country. He
died that it might live in a new order of men, under the banner of
Christianity.
5. He taught the right principles upon which the universal state
should be founded. Up to and at the time of Christ nations were
separated from each other not only by natural boundaries of rivers,
seas, plains, mountains, languages and racial differences but by
religions. One people worshipped one set of gods, while another
people bowed down to other gods. Jesus set forth the large ideal of
uniting all races and all peoples in one great spiritual kingdom (John
18:37; Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 17:24-27). It is only as different
peoples and nations are united in a common religion that there can be
a proper political federation or union (John 4:20-24; 10:16). Jesus
taught His disciples to pray that God's kingdom, a reign of
righteousness, justice and peace, might come, not to one people only,
but to all peoples. This prayer, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done
in earth as it is done in heaven" (Matthew 6:10) means that the earth
and no one restricted part of it is to be occupied by the kingdom of
God. Jesus looked beyond the Jewish state and the Roman state and saw
the beginning of a kingdom of God which would embrace all nations. It
is this kingdom which is to permeate, purify and control the
governments of the earth.