We have been told a lie.

We have been told that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a private, pietistic self-help program: a spiritual escape hatch designed to get individual souls to heaven while the world burns around us. We have been told that faith belongs in the prayer closet, but the public square belongs to the godless, that the church must remain quiet in the gallery while secular ideologues rule the stage.

We have been deceived.

When the early Christians declared Jesus is Lord, they were not offering a polite personal opinion. They were making a politically disruptive statement. In the Roman Empire, Caesar was called Kurios, Lord. To proclaim Jesus as Lord was to say, “Caesar is not.”

The gospel is not a spiritual suggestion. It is a royal announcement from the throne room of heaven: Jesus Christ has lived, died, risen, ascended, and been crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. And if this is true, and it is, there is no neutral ground in all of human existence. Jesus left no middle option: “He who is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30, RSV).

Neutrality is a myth. It is Christ or chaos. It is light or darkness. It is the covenant of life or the culture of death. As Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

The Cosmic Vision of Christ’s Kingdom

Consider how Holy Scripture describes the reign of King Jesus.

In Revelation 11:15, when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, heaven roars: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (RSV). Not will become but has become.

In Revelation 1:5, John calls Jesus “the ruler of kings on earth” right now, in real history. He is the ruler of presidents, governors, senators, and representatives.

Separation of Governance, Not Sovereignty

How does this apply to the civil magistrate? We must be clear: the separation of church and state is a separation of governance, not a separation of sovereignty.

God has established distinct spheres. The church holds the keys of the Kingdom and wields the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The state is ordained by God in Romans 13 to hold the steel sword to maintain public order, suppress evil, and execute justice. But both institutions are under the supreme sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

The magistrate exists under the sovereignty of Christ. The president, the governor, the Senate, and the House are called by God to be his civil servants. And when a magistrate enacts godless laws, approves tyranny, or legalizes evil, he is committing high treason against the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth.

The church, then, is called to be the prophetic voice to the state. Like Nathan confronting David, like Elijah standing on Mount Carmel against Ahab, like John the Baptist speaking truth to Herod, the church must stand before civil rulers and declare: “Thus says the Lord.”

Three Pillars

If the church is to fulfill her prophetic duty to the nation, our convictions cannot rise and fall with the polls. They have to rest on three things.

1. The Authority of God’s Word

We do not negotiate with the spirit of the age. Scripture is not a collection of pious suggestions; it is the infallible, inerrant Word of the living God, sharper than any two-edged sword. Human laws are only valid to the degree that they conform to the Law of God.

Scripture says judgment begins in the household of God. I pray God grants his church deep repentance for being led astray by ideologies and convictions that oppose his Word. And I pray God grants the state repentance for not governing according to it. We live in a culture of death, and our only way out is by the word of life.

2. Salvation by Faith Alone in Christ Alone

Christ is the source of living water that flows forth to the nations bringing transformation. Political and cultural renewal flows from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaimed and embodied by his church. Political reform without faithful allegiance to Christ is merely repainting a sinking ship. Apart from faith in Christ, cultural renewal is impossible. Apart from faith in Christ, there is no hope.

The church has been entrusted with the one message that will transform this world: the gospel of the King of kings, the gospel of reconciliation and forgiveness. She has been given it to proclaim to kings and outcasts alike. The obedience of the gospel is the only hope for our state and nation.

3. The Foundation of God’s Throne

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne” (Psalm 89:14, RSV). Here is where the rubber meets the road.

If the magistrate’s God-given purpose in Romans 13 is to wield the steel sword to punish evildoers and protect the innocent, then there is no greater systemic failure in our land than the legal butchery of the unborn. Abortion is not merely a political debate or a health care choice. It is an abomination that cries out to heaven for judgment. And the soil of Kansas is soaked in the blood of the unborn. May God grant the church and the state repentance for allowing such evil.

The church’s prophetic message to the magistrate must be loud, clear, and relentless: God gave you the steel sword to defend the innocent. Use it.

One party has told us plainly it will leave the sword sheathed while the innocent die. One party openly champions laws that defy the Law of God. But no platform can save us: salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, and no election returns a nation to God. I pray our elected officials, whatever their party, have the conviction and courage to stand on these three pillars.

Who Gives You the Right?

A church that speaks this way to a hostile culture will be met with a demand: Who gives you the right to speak on politics? Who gives you the right to oppose our laws? Who gives you the right to condemn our morality?

There is only one answer: Jesus Christ, the ruler of the kings of the earth. The one who disarmed the powers at Golgotha, burst forth from the tomb on the third day, and ascended on the clouds of glory has sent us as his ambassadors.

So, we do not flinch. We do not apologize. We do not bow to the idols of our age. We must repent of our cowardice, take up the Sword of the Spirit, put on the armor of light, and march forward as the army of the living God, bringing the crown rights of King Jesus to bear on every sphere of society.

For his is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Kyle Lammott is lead pastor of Exodus Church in Wichita, Kansas.