Cedarville Magazine
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9
In difficult times, Christians express anger at the mission field that
God has given us, or we respond with a siege mentality in which
we lament and bemoan culture. The Apostle Paul does not respond
that way. The Lord Jesus did not respond that way.
We are not playing for the approval of American culture. We
are pointing to something more permanent than American culture.
We are part of the kingdom of God that is a goal of the redeemed
of every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. That gives us a steeled
spine and a confident tranquility as we move forward.
InActs 26:19–29, Paul is not afraid tomake themost controversial
claims he could possibly speak in this context.
He understands no matter what happens in
Agrippa’s court or the Roman Empire, he is
not a loser. He knows he is part of the body
of Christ. He knows he is seated with Christ
at the right hand of the throne of the Most
High (Colossians 3:1–3).
Paul is standing before Agrippa with
confidence because the worst thing that can
possibly happen to Paul has already happened.
He has already been crucified under the curse
of God, hidden in Jesus Christ. The best thing
that could happen is not his freedom or an
audience with Caesar; the best thing that can
happen to Paul is to be raised from the dead and crowned with glory
and honor. That has happened in Jesus Christ. If you and I believe
that, why are we fearful and frantic?
Transcendent Motivation
Some secular people object to our claims of religious liberty, but
not because they’re plotting our destruction like super villains. They
don’t really understand the motivation of someone who would say,
“I will stand one day before the judgment seat of Christ and I will
give an account.”They assume there must be some other motivation.
It must be about money or political power. It can’t really be about
honoring the Lord.
We must fight in the courtroom, advocate in public opinion,
and work in the culture, but the most important thing we can do to
safeguard religious liberty is raise up a new generation of Christians
motivated by the fear of the Lord and the advance of the Gospel.
They will not be vulnerable to the sort of discount store-prosperity
gospel that we see so often in American culture.
If you have been called to speak what Jesus has given to you to
say and to speak in the way Jesus speaks, then venting outrage is
not enough. Paul is seeking to persuade. Agrippa notices this: “Are
you trying to persuade me to be a Christian?” He’s not only trying
to persuade in terms of evangelism, he’s also trying to persuade in
terms of his own freedom. That is exactly the sort of posture that
we are going to have to have as we seek to engage with people who
disagree with us about our theological claims. We have to persuade
Kingdom of God citizenship
should increase our resolve
Excerpted from remarks made by Russell Moore at the Religious Freedom Summit on October 10, 2014
people why religious liberty matters to everybody,
even to those who don’t agree with us.
The Authority of Christ
An attitude can emerge within the Church that
says we should hand over our religious liberty
rights. That sounds really spiritual and pious. It
sounds almost as though we’re doing what Jesus
did when He stands before Pilate and He doesn’t
offer a word in His own defense. In a democratic
republic, we’re not standing where
Jesus stood. We’re standing where
Pilate stood. And in a democratic
republic, we’re not standing
where Paul stood, we’re standing
where Agrippa stood, because
the ultimate accountability, the
Caesar of Romans chapter 13,
rests with the people of the United
States of America.
We have to be the people who
are constantly saying that the
conscience is not an abandoned
building that can just be moved
out of the way of the government. If we do not
speak for liberty of conscience, religious liberty, and
the freedom of the church, we are handing over a
new generation to government power setting itself
up as a god.
Culture is going to be more and more alarmed
by the things we believe. We’re seeing that nowwith
human sexuality. There are many who would say,
“We can make our way in the culture much easier
if we just throw overboard what we believe about
human sexuality and about marriage.” We don’t
have the authority to rewrite a Christian sexual
ethic because we didn’t make it up. It was given to
us by a resurrected King Jesus.
We have to stand and articulate the Gospel with
which we’ve been entrusted. But we don’t do that
as those who are angry and outraged. We don’t do
that as those who somehow think we are entitled to
be in charge. We do that as those who are bearing
witness to a truth that has found us on our way to
whatever Damascus we were headed toward.
Russell D. Moore
is the President of the Ethics &
Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern
Baptist Convention, the moral concerns and
public policy entity of the nation’s largest Protestant
denomination.
