The political world today is in chaos, so the relationship between the people and government has been near the forefront of my mind regularly.
Coincidentally, I’ve been reading John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. The passage I read recently used the builders of the Tower of Babel as an illustration of a free people that were without a central power.
For reference, the text from Genesis is as follows:
“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” — Gen. 11:4
Locke used the passage to show these people freely chose, as a collective, to build the city and tower; no authority appeared to have done so.
This put the concept that Locke is famous for into mind: governance by the consent of the governed. We can do this because, according to Locke, every person is born free. By extension, he can use that freedom to choose how he is governed and whose laws he submits to during his lifetime. Sometimes this isn’t possible due to monarchs and dictators, but from an American perspective, this is possible with some of the mechanisms that were set in place at the founding and as America grew.
Yet, I hadn’t considered is how much like salvation, and the subsequent Christian life, this concept resembles. It’s no surprise. Locke has clearly spent a great amount of time studying Biblical text.
In this case, I think Christians are akin to representatives running for election. Coincidentally, this language is used in the KJV translation of the Bible,
“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.” — I Thess. 1:3–4
Christ has said what he wants in his Word. We have the opportunity to accept our election to office as representatives of his commandments and the work of the cross. When we’re in our office, and we don’t perform the duties of our office correctly (i.e. we lie, steal, misrepresent the Gospel, etc.), we’re voted out.
In the end, we can be relieved from our office and be separated from Christ if we don’t fulfill our duty to him. We can enjoy the office and privilege of service to him if we keep our promises.
At first blush, I thought we offered our consent of governance to Christ as Lord. Which is true, but it’s not only that. He has at once offered to be our governor and elected us to be his governed. He nominated us, chose us, set us apart with his offer of deliverance from our sins and direction for our lives. We simply need to take it.
Unlike the changing whims of the American electorate, his desires don’t change, his goal for his people is definite, and he doesn’t even require his candidates to figure out how to achieve them. He’s laid it out in his Word. He wants to know and love us, and tell others how to know and love him, so we can all be with him in his Kingdom on that final day.
The only thing I can think of that doesn’t neatly fit into this analogy is candidacy. We didn’t, of our own volition, declare we were worthy to serve the Lord. The Lord did that. When he sent his Son to die for us, he declared our worth. From this perspective, it is clear there are two systems at work and they will change with the age and the location of our occupation.
There’s a switch from republicanism to monarchy, from representatives to subjects.
In this day, we have a choice. Serve him in our office or rescind our candidacy. In the final day, we don’t. If we’ve fulfilled the duties of our office, then we can enjoy being the royal subjects of Christ’s Kingdom. If we’ve rescinded our candidacy and took no office, we can be assured we’ll be a traitor to the Crown.
This leaves us with two important questions we must answer: Will we accept our candidacy? Will we live a life worthy of our office?
The choice is ours. Answer carefully. The future of our lives in the Kingdom is at stake. Our relationship with our benevolent Elector in the future hangs on how we live today.
