Instituted By God † Romans 13:1-10 † Sunday, September 6, 2026

The Debt That is Never Fully Paid: Authority, Submission, and the Love We Owe

There is a question worth sitting with before anything else is said. What debt do you carry that can never be fully paid? Not a mortgage. Not a credit card balance. Not a favor owed to a friend. The debt in question is the one Paul points to in Romans 13 -- the debt of love. It is the kind of debt that does not diminish with each payment. It grows, it deepens, and it calls us back again and again to the same posture: one of humility, submission, and genuine care for the people around us.

That might sound abstract at first. But it becomes remarkably concrete when you start to trace where authority actually comes from -- and what our relationship to it is supposed to look like.

Where Authority Really Comes From

Romans 13 opens with a statement that is either deeply comforting or deeply unsettling, depending on where you are standing. Paul writes that every person should be subject to the governing authorities, because there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God (Romans 13:1).

This is not a popular idea. In a constitutional republic where the founding documents begin with the words "We the People," it is easy to conclude that authority flows upward from the governed to the government. The people grant power. The people can take it back. The people are, in some sense, the source.

But that line of thinking carries a danger that stretches all the way back to the opening chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 3, the temptation placed before Eve was not merely about fruit. It was about authority. The serpent's promise was that she would be like God -- that she could seize for herself the kind of knowledge and power that belongs to God alone. The desire to be in charge, to be the final authority, is not a modern invention. It is one of the oldest impulses in human history.

When we assume that governing authority originates with us rather than with God, we are not just making a political argument. We are quietly placing ourselves in the seat that belongs to someone else.

Two Kingdoms, Two Hands

One helpful way to think about how God exercises authority in the world is through the image of two hands -- or two kingdoms.

God's right hand, his primary desire and deepest expression, is the kingdom of grace. This is the church, the place where forgiveness is proclaimed, where sins are washed away, where God's love is extended freely to people who have done nothing to deserve it. Grace is what God most wants to give. It is his first impulse, his defining characteristic, the thing he would do above all else if the choice were entirely uncomplicated.

But God also has a left hand. The kingdom of the left is the kingdom of power -- the realm of governments, laws, courts, and consequences. This is not where God prefers to operate. It is where he must operate, because human beings in their brokenness require restraint. The sword that governing authorities carry is not carried in vain, Paul says in Romans 13:4. It is carried as an instrument of God's wrath against wrongdoing, so that law-abiding people can live in peace.

When voices in public life call for the elimination of law enforcement, prisons, and governmental structures, they are not simply making a policy argument. They are attempting to cut off the left hand of God -- removing the very instrument through which order is maintained and the vulnerable are protected. The kingdom of power is not God's preference. But it is his provision, and dismantling it has consequences that fall hardest on those who can least afford them.

Conscience, Not Just Consequences

Paul makes a striking point in Romans 13:5. He says that submission to governing authority should happen not only to avoid punishment, but also for the sake of conscience.

This shifts the entire conversation. It is relatively easy to obey a law when the penalty for breaking it is severe and certain. What is harder -- and more revealing of genuine character -- is obeying when you are confident you will not get caught. Driving the speed limit when no one is watching. Paying what you owe when no audit is coming. Honoring those in authority even when you disagree with them, even when it costs you something.

The conscience that Paul is describing is not a social construct. It is the inner voice that reflects the moral order God has written into creation. When it convicts you, that conviction is worth taking seriously.

Render What Is Owed

Jesus was once handed a coin and asked a trap question about taxes. His answer, recorded in Matthew 22:15-22, cut through the political maneuvering with elegant simplicity. The coin bore Caesar's image. Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Give God what belongs to God.

Taxes, revenue, respect, honor -- Paul lists all of these in Romans 13:7 as things owed to the appropriate recipients. But the ones that linger are the last two. Respect and honor are not limited to what we give governments. They describe a posture we are called to carry into every relationship.

And then there is the debt that underlies all of it. The debt of love, which Romans 13:8 identifies as the one obligation that is never discharged. To love one another is not a transaction that reaches completion. It is a continuous calling, a daily return to the same commitment.

The One Who Submitted First

Before his crucifixion, Jesus stood before Pilate and said something remarkable. He told Pilate that the authority Pilate held over him had been given from above (John 19:11). Jesus, the Son of God, submitted himself to human authority -- corrupt, compromised, politically motivated human authority -- in order to absorb the wrath that belonged to us.

He did not resist. He submitted. And in that submission, he made it possible for God's primary desire to be fulfilled: that grace, not wrath, would have the final word.

That is the foundation beneath everything else. We submit to authority not merely out of fear, and not merely out of civic duty. We submit because we have been shown what it looks like to lay down power for the sake of love. And we love because we are carrying a debt that the grace of God has made it possible -- and beautiful -- to spend a lifetime repaying.

(Blog content generated by PulpitAI from sermon transcript)