On Counting Votes and Justifying Kingdoms
As of 5 November 2020, the U.S. presidential election remains undecided, with vote counting (and likely recounting and legal challenges) continuing in battleground states. Eyewitness and video accounts document election crime. Should we be surprised? As Harry Reid once famously said, when exposed after the fact for openly lying to destroy the reputation of a presidential candidate, “Well, it worked!” For him and so many others today, the end justifies the means. Such people justify lying, deceiving, threatening, rioting, falsifying vote counts, and corrupting legal process on the grounds of achieving “higher,” desired ends. This is the sad and inevitable result whenever society abandons the moral and natural law given by God to government for life in community.
As Christians, this gives us pause. First, we can take heart, for “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision” (Ps. 2:4). Laughing at the devil and the sinful world is a good thing. God’s purposes cannot be frustrated. His spiritual kingdom achieved in the God-Man Christ Jesus, exercised by His Almighty Word and Sacrament, and cloaked now in weakness, lowliness, and suffering, will be fully revealed in all its power, glory, and beauty at Jesus’ final coming. Societal corruption reminds us that the kingdom of this world is not our kingdom. We are to look up for our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, and the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. These are drawing nigh.
Second, the election ruckus calls us to remember the purpose of government. Responding to Elector John of Saxony’s request, Luther wrote his most extensive treatment of the purpose of government in 1523: Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed. Luther distinguishes two kingdoms, or forms of government, each with its own purpose. In the kingdom of God (the spiritual realm), the Holy Spirit is active through the preaching of the Gospel and the gifting of His Sacraments to produce Christians who by forgiveness and faith stand righteous before God. In the kingdom of this world (the civil realm), God is active in a hidden way through temporal law and punishment to restrain evil and achieve a measure of external peace. Without the spiritual, the world would produce hypocrites at best. Without the civil, anarchy and chaos would ensue. We see this today.
With such a stark distinction between the two kingdoms, why in the world should Christians bother to vote or participate in other civic duties, such as serving in the military? Certainly not to bring in the kingdom of God, for only the internal power of the Word can do that. Some Christians might do so to contribute to a more moral society. Law, protection of what’s right, and punishment of what’s evil are moral goods, even if they cannot change the corrupt heart.
As Luther saw it, what moves Christians to serve in the kingdom of the left is the love of Christ. The obedience of His holy life, the bitterness of His atoning sacrifice, and the glory of His justifying resurrection have freed Christians from the bonds of sin and death and made them citizens of the kingdom of God. Here they find their true identity and community. Christians are not under the law of threat or compulsion, they are above it.
Nonetheless, the love of Christ compels them. They willingly bend low to serve others in the kingdom of this world. They do this because they desire to help others, reflecting the love first shown them. For Luther, this explains why the apostles regularly preached obedience to earthly authorities. This world needs the sword of governmental authority to protect the good and punish evil. This is God’s authorizing word for civil government with its legal, moral, and coercive powers (Romans 13:1-10). This is what government is for, and why Christians submit willingly to the rule of the sword, to serve, help, and do all they can to assist the governing authority—even when the government is flawed—up to the apostolic red law line of God’s holy law, “We must obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29).
Christians support the government and its elective processes not to achieve the fullness of their human aspirations, not because of elective process perfection, and certainly not to create any proximate heaven-on-earth, but to love their neighbors in a very concrete way by supporting God’s exercise of law in the civil realm. This reflects the life of Christ.
The Christian serves and honors governing authorities in the same way that he performs all works of love: not for his own sake or his own need, but to help others. He does not visit the sick because he needs to be made well, or feed others because he himself hungers. He gives not for his own sake, but for the sake of others. Even so, he honors and serves government only for the sake of his neighbors—to protect the good, and so that the wicked might not become worse. I summarize Luther’s understanding of the two kingdoms at the table below.
In the midst of election turmoil and corruption, it is helpful to remember the purpose of God’s two kingdoms, or forms of government. God established the civil government for Law, to protect what is right and to threaten, beat down, and punish evil. Let all Christians pray for such government and law, and work hard by words and deeds of truth toward such ends. This is loving our neighbor. But the government of this world will never satisfy the deep aspirations of the faithful, who know God’s spiritual government of Gospel, righteousness, and peace. Because we are Christ’s body in this world, we support and serve in the civil realm as an expression of love for our neighbor. In such service, we know full well the frailty of man, of every civil government, and of our own sinful flesh. We await the consummation of our hope in Christ, and the life of the world to come.
