Common Grace, 3.24

This post is part of a series walking through the third volume of Abraham Kuyper’s Common Grace

To summarize the source of a Christian statesman’s view of politics “is anchored in

1. common grace,
2. the entirety of Holy Scripture, and
3. the word of Christ and apostolic teaching (or, if you will, the gospel).” (195)

This brings us to a new question: what does the statesmen get from this source? There’s a two part answer here:

1. He desires to understand the role and organization of government;
2. He gets a “proper view of the human person and the human condition” to help him shape policy (195).

That is, he gets a view of the connected points of government’s self-perception and how it sees people. Starting with government’s self-perception, we have to begin with the government’s relationship to God and to the people.

In terms of the government’s relationship with God, where does the government’s authority come from? God? Or the people? Historically, magistrates said God; today it’s more likely they’ll say “the people.” Even the “state sovereignty” folks mean a version of popular sovereignty, and everyone rejects the idea of God’s sovereignty.

Historically, the best states  have been tied to religion–however false the religion may have been. This is clear in Scripture too–Jesus before Pilate (John 19:11) and Paul in Romans 13 clearly state God’s sovereignty rather than popular sovereignty. But this doesn’t mean that the people can’t or shouldn’t govern! Just that rulers should confess the rule of God.

Experience [and I assume Kuyper would place ‘experience’ under the heading of common grace] confirms this truth–the rule of law requires and obedience citizen body, which is created by religion and cannot be created by force.

“With the exception of instances of insurrection, the authority of government does not depend on the force with which it keeps its citizens under control, but rather on the respect for authority and law that exists among the people. And this respect for authority and law among the people always finds its support in religion.” (198)

Specific questions follow from this: was government from creation? Or post-sin? Is monarchy God’s ideal government? Is government absolute by nature? Or should the people rule once they are able? These can’t be answered here–though we see a hint in the fact that even David wasn’t an absolute monarch.

Our second question is over how governments see the human condition. Again, the source is common grace and Scripture through the Gospel, but here we see more detail. We must know whether people are fallen or “merely imperfect.” (201) We must know whether we have free will as commonly understood or are “enslaved to sin”, and if the latter, by how much. We must know what aspects of human nature facilitate the “smooth running of the state,” and which don’t. We must know what the role of religion in public life is. And so forth. (201) Wrong views of the answers to these questions lead to bad policy.

But we must also understand human relationships–especially those that God has defined. Likewise our place in nature must be understood–government is involved here as well! Finally, we must understand the government’s moral obligations, which is the subject of the next chapter.

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO