Order or Chaos

Self-Government & the Body Politic

Introduction

Civics is the “study of the rights and obligations of citizenship,” derived from the Latin word cives which means “citizen.” So civics, properly speaking is the study of the rights and obligations of individual citizens of various nations. To be “civil” is to be a good citizen, a good neighbor, and therefore, incivility strictly speaking is not merely anti-social behavior, but it is to be bad citizen of your city and nation.

Obviously this will vary somewhat from nation to nation (e.g. which side of the street we drive on, currency, systems of measurement, and other customs), but to speak of “civics” and “rights and obligations” in general, assumes that there are some universal principles that apply across the board, a right and a wrong in this world, that there is an essential order to the world, such that there is a better or worse way to organize a city or nation, and therefore better or worse ways to function as citizens.

In order to understand your rights and obligations as a citizen of your city, state, and nation, you need to understand its order. You need to understand how it works, how it should work, how it can work better, what role you play, and the various temptations and disorders that often occur. But we really do need to begin with this notion of order, otherwise nothing else really makes sense.

Where Did Everything Come From?

One of the most fundamental questions in human existence is: where did everything come from? And the reason this question matters is because it directly affects how we think and act in this world, especially in our communities and nations. There are really only two possible answers to the question: either everything came into existence on purpose as an act of intentional creativity and order, or else everything is an accident and chaos. You really cannot split the difference. The universe really is a “uni-verse,” a true unity, or else it is random chance, churn, and irrationality.

Even if someone claims they don’t know the answer to the question, they must immediately decide which version to assume in how they think and act. If everything is chaos, then nothing really makes sense, and methods and reasons are just random acts of force. In a chaotic worldview, only might makes right and it’s survival of the fittest, or at the very least, it’s entirely utilitarian — whatever works — which turns out to be variations on power. In such a universe there is no inherent reason to prefer democracy over tyranny, or monarchy over anarchy, or constitutionalism over socialism. On the other hand, in a creationist worldview, there can be chaotic forces, but order and meaning are more fundamental. If there is a fundamental coherence and order to the universe, you can compare systems and organizations reasonably.

Similarly, in the so-called problem of evil, if you do away with God, there can be no evil since God is the transcendent standard of good that reveals what evil is, but while evil may be a puzzle within the existence of God, at least it can still be defined and thereby resisted so long as there is a supreme goodness in God.

The Nature of the Order

The Christian worldview therefore asserts that this universe was created by the Triune God, the Creator of heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1). This means that there is an order to creation and therefore to human societies. This is implied not only be the orderly account of creation (e.g. Day 1, Day 2, evening and morning, dividing, naming, etc.), but also by the repeated appraisal: “and it was good” (1:4, 10, 12) and finally at the end of the seven days, it was all “very good” (1:31). This progression of creation implies progress and a scale of value: good, better, best.

The creation of the first man and woman establish similar principles: the man is good, but “not good” alone, and therefore better when the woman is created and becomes his wife (Gen. 2:18-24). A good order is established in the natural world, and a good order is established among those entrusted with the care and glorification of that natural world. The Garden of Eden functioned as a training ground and blueprints for Adam and Eve to see what maturity could look like for the whole world.

In that sinless state, dominion and rule were entirely good things. The authority that God exercised to call creation into being was mimicked by Adam in the naming of the animals and then in high poetry, naming his wife. From the beginning, we see the blessing of wise rule, the power of words, and the blessing of human community. In that state, the first command of God was actually a blessing: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28). While many in the Reformed tradition have argued that civil government only came into being after the Fall, I would argue that we have all three governments (family, church, and civil state) in the Garden prior to the Fall, but the civil government is certainly the most muted.

Likewise, there were some future glories out in the world hinted at by the river flowing out of the garden, dividing into four heads leading to new lands, and the gold and other precious metals would be used to glorify the garden and world further (Gen. 2). Just as God took the “good” world and used His authority and power to make it better each day, the clear implication is that Adam and Eve were to do the same thing, taking the “good” that God had made out in the world and slowly bringing all things to a state of “very good.” Just as Adam learned that he did not initially have a helper well suited to himself, and that was “not good,” God’s image bearers are to study the world and learn to see what is needed, what is missing, given the overall structure and order that God has established in the world. And then using the creativity and skills the Creator has given us, we are to seek be fruitful and rule for the blessing of the world.

The entrance of sin and death into the world established opposite principles. As opposed to merely an immature absence of some things in the pre-fallen world (“not good”), sin introduced the principle that certain things can harm the good order of creation and be complete affront to God’s goodness and holiness (Gen. 3). Sin is an actual attack on the good order and good progress that God has begun in the world. And this comes initially in the form of words: Did God really say? The serpent asks. God’s Word is the foundational basis for all good order in this world. Reformed civics is base on this foundational principle: “to the law and to the testimony” (Is. 8:20).

The labels of “conservative” and “progressive” are only meaningful in an orderly world that can be evaluated as “good” or “better.” What are you conserving? What are you progressing toward? Without an ultimate standard (a measuring stick) of truth, goodness, or beauty, such labels are simply propaganda.

My Brother’s Keeper & Self-Government

By Genesis 4, we are introduced to the practical consequences of sin and disorder: Cain kills his brother Abel. We have the first murder in the history of the world, the first recorded human crime and therefore the first clear need for human civil government.

While this comes in the context of a family, the fact that a crime has occurred introduces the challenges of civil society. In this case, God plays the part of the judge and sends Cain into exile (Gen. 4:14). In the midst of bearing his sentence, Cain founds the city of Enoch, and his descendants develop a number of cultural advances alongside increasing bloodshed and violence and corruption (Gen. 4:17-24, 6:1-5). This is often the story of civilization (cf. great good growing up with and alongside of great evil), and broadly, we might say that the goal of good governments is to make room for those cultural advances while limiting and restraining the effects of sin.

Following the flood, God renewed covenant with Noah and established the most basic principle of civil justice: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man” (Gen. 9:6). This is perhaps a somewhat delayed answer to Cain’s question regarding Abel’s blood. Yes, with regard to his blood, you are his keeper. In addition to the reaffirming the principle of the image of God in all human beings and their consequent high value, the other principle established here is that of self-government. Each human life has an intrinsic value before God. That value, known as the image of God, fundamentally includes the freedom and responsibility to live before God and for God and for the benefit of the world He made.

Murder defies, invades, and overthrows self-government. The prohibition of murder protects the God-ordained responsibility of every human being to fulfill the dominion mandate: to be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over it (Gen. 1:28). Therefore, self-government is not autonomous – that is, not a subjective law unto itself, but rather, true, godly self-government submits to the objective order and government of God established in creation and articulated in His Word. This self-government is established directly by God and may be recognized and honored by other governments, but it is not the gift of any other government and therefore may not be limited or infringed upon. Self-government (or self-control) is in this sense “unalienable.” Self-government is the “right” before God to use your life for God’s glory and this means fulfilling the dominion mandate. Notice that in the biblical context this “unalienable right” is in the first instance a God-ordained “responsibility.”

Conclusion

So this is where all government begins. If there is no Creator, the concept of government is meaningless. But if there is a Creator, then there is an order to creation and human society. That order, if there is one, begins with self-government. This is because all governments are made up of individual people.

The advent of sin throws a massive wrench into this task from within and without the individual. All sin seeks the overthrow of God’s order and government of the world. As we progress further into the various spheres of human government (family, church, and state), it must not be forgotten that the individual remains at the heart of every form of government. A corrupt individual will necessarily bring that corruption with him into any other form of government. And at the same time, God has established the various human governments to restrain that corruption and encourage individuals to have a right relationship to their Maker, so that we might all live in peace and under His blessing

While governments can put godly restraint on human corruption or encourage further corruption, all governmental problems ultimately come back to the problem of sin and the necessity and inescapability of self-government. This is why the Christian worldview teaches that natural man cannot govern himself apart from being given a new heart by the Holy Spirit, which includes the fruit of self-control or self-government.