The Fall has affected government in a myriad of ways. Tyranny and corruption are two common ways that sin has corrupted governments. David Koyzis points out that the Fall has affected our approach to governing in ways that we may not think about at first: political ideologies.

According to Koyzis (Political Visions and Illusions):

Every ideology is based on taking something out of creation’s totality, raising it above that creation, and making the latter revolve around and serve it. It is further based on the assumption that this idol has the capacity to save us from some real or perceived evil in the world (kindle loc 156).

For instance, liberal ideologies make liberty the ultimate good, socialist ideologies do the same with equality, democratic ideologies make the voice of the people the ultimate good.

When ideologies do this they become idolatrous:

If ideologies deify something within God’s creation, they inevitably view this humanly made god as a source of salvation. Thus each of the ideologies is based on a specific soteriology, that is, on a worked-out theory promising deliverance to human beings from some fundamental evil that is viewed as the source of a broad range of human ills (kindle loc 338).

Koyzis does not deny that every ideology has grasped a part of the truth. They have each grasped something good in the creational structure. The problem is in elevating that good part of the creation out of its rightful place.

Ideologies also make the equal and opposite error: “ideologies tend to locate the source of this fundamental evil somewhere within the creation” (kinde loc 347).

The Christian worldview, by contrast identifies sin, not some aspect of the creational order, as the fundamental problem in the world, and it looks to Christ for salvation, recognizing that salvation cannot be achieved through the political process.

Traditional conservative Russell Kirk makes much the same point in his critique of ideologies:

Ideology, in short, is a political formula that promises mankind an earthly paradise; but in cruel fact what ideology has created is a series of terrestrial hells. I set down below some of the vices of ideology. 1) Ideology is inverted religion, denying the Christian doctrine of salvation through grace in death, and substituting collective salvation here on earth. . . .

Russell Kirk, The Politics of Prudence, 5.

Kirk’s point was that there is a certain kind of prudential approach to politics that has the more limited goal of seeking to retain what is good in a society and seeking to reform what is evil as we are able. Some of these reforms have a life-and-death importance to them (literally, in the case of abortion), and deserve a great deal of political effort. But achieving such reforms must be seen as a means of glorifying the heavenly Father though good works (Matt. 5:16) and not as a step on the way toward saving the nation.

McClymond and McDermott list Edwards’s first four purposes of government as “secure property, protect citizens’ rights, . . . maintain order[, and] . . . ensure justice.”

In reality the first three are all aspects of ensuring justice. This really does rate at the top of the list for biblical purposes of government, as the following passages make clear.

Deuteronomy 1:10–18—10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. 11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! 12 How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? 13 Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ 14 And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. 17 You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. (ESV)

1 Kings 10:9—9 Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” (ESV)

Psalm 72:1–7—1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! 2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! 3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! 4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor! 5 May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! 6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! 7 In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more! (ESV)

Psalm 72:11–14—11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him! 12 For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. 13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. 14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight. (ESV)

Psalm 82:1–8— A Psalm of Asaph. 1 God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers. 2 How long will you judge unjustly And show partiality to the wicked? Selah. 3 Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. 5 They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods, And all of you are sons of the Most High. 7 “Nevertheless you will die like men And fall like any one of the princes.” 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth! For it is You who possesses all the nations. (NASB)

Proverbs 29:4—4 By justice a king builds up the land, but he who exacts gifts tears it down. (ESV)

Proverbs 29:14—14 If a king faithfully judges the poor, his throne will be established forever. (ESV)

Jeremiah 22:2–5—2 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. (ESV)

Jeremiah 22:15—15 Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. (ESV)

What does it mean to say that government is a structure that God built into creation? It means, in part, that not all of God’s creation is physical. God created the physical world: land and seas, moon and stars. But God created more than just the physical world. He created non-physical realties, such as marriage (Gen. 2:18-24). When people try to live contrary to God’s design for marriage or government they societies experience negative consequences just as surely as people who tried to live as though gravity did not exist would experience consequences for trying to live contrary to the way God designed His world to work.

Proverbs speaks of this reality in terms of wisdom being built into the very creation. Proverbs 3:21 says, “The LORD founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding” (HCSB). Proverbs 8:22-31 (HCSB) makes the same point:

The Lord made me

at the beginning of His creation,

before His works of long ago.

I was formed before ancient times,

 from the beginning, before the earth began.

I was born when there were no watery depths

and no springs filled with water.

I was delivered

before the mountains and hills were established,

before He made the land, the fields,

or the first soil on earth.

I was there when He established the heavens,

when He laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean,

when He placed the skies above,

when the fountains of the ocean gushed out,

when He set a limit for the sea

so that the waters would not violate His command,

when He laid out the foundations of the earth.

I was a skilled craftsman beside Him.

I was His delight every day,

always rejoicing before Him.

I was rejoicing in His inhabited world,

delighting in the human race.

 

In the past this passage has often been read as if it spoke of the pre-incarnate Christ. The chief difficulty with this is that Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is created. Because קנה in 8:22 has a disputed semantic range, the versions translate the word variously: “The Lord possessed me” (KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV); “The Lord created me” (RSV, NRSV); “The Lord made me” (HCSB); “The Lord brought me forth” (NIV). But from the use of חיל, “be brought to birth” (CHALOT), in vv. 24, 25, it seems clear that “created” is the appropriate sense here. (Passages that indicate “create” is within the semantic range of קנה include: Gen. 14:19, 22; Ex. 15:16; Deut. 32:6; Ps. 78:54; 104:24; 139:13. See also NIDOTTE, 3:941; TLOT, 3:1152-53.)

Translating “The Lord made me” (HCSB) is only problematic if Wisdom here refers to the Son or to an attribute of God. But neither is likely here. Garrett correctly notes, “Woman Wisdom of Prov 8 does not personify an attribute of God but personifies an attribute of creation. She is personification of the structure, plan, or rationality that God built into the world. She is created by God and fundamentally an attribute of God’s universe” (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, NAC, 113).

Though most translations locate this “in the beginning” (KJV) or “at the beginning” (HCSB, ESV, NASB) there is no beth prefix in Hebrew, making the NIV’s translation of v. 22 preferable: “The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works.” Garrett notes that “may imply that Wisdom herself is the ‘beginning’ of creation” (108, n. 65), the idea being that “Wisdom is claiming to be the first principle of the world and the pattern by which it was created” (Garrett, 108). Consistent with this, I would prefer the NIV’s translation of verse 23, “I was formed ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be” (cf. HCSB), over the KJV’s “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Or ever the earth was” (cf. NASB). (This requires translating עוֹלָם “ages ago” rather than “everlasting” and translating נסך “formed” rather than “set up.” On the former, see NIDOTTE, 3:346. On the later see Longman III, Proverbs, BCOTWP, 205.)

In what follows, Wisdom affirms that she was prior to the ordering of the world and present at the ordering of the world. Wisdom concludes in v. 30 that she was an אָמוֹן beside God during the creation. The translation of אָמוֹן is highly contested, with “skilled craftsman,” “blueprint,” “child,” “foster-father,” binding,” and “faithful” all being suggested (see R B Y. Scott, “Wisdom in Creation: The ’Amôn of Proverbs 8:30.” Vetus Testamentum 10, no. 2 [April 1, 1960]: 213-223). If there is a favored translation by commentators and Bible translations, it is probably along the lines of “skilled craftsman.” If this translation is accepted, however, it should be made clear that in this passage Wisdom is not doing the creating. God is clearly the Creator throughout this passage, and Wisdom is standing beside God. Since Wisdom is beside the God who creates and is not the creator, Van Leeuwen suggests that Wisdom is “personified as the king’s architect-advisor, through whom the king puts all things in their proper order and whose decrees of cosmic justice are the standard for human kings and rulers (v. 15)” (“Proverbs,” NIB, 5:94). Or, as Bryan Smith has noted, a master craftsman could be the personification of a blueprint (personal conversation, 17 May 2011). Gordon Fee also sees the personification in terms of a blueprint: “Prov 8:22-26 asserts in a variety of ways that Wisdom was the first of God’s creation, emphasizing her priority in time, so that her being present with God when he alone created the universe would thus reflect—as it actually does—God’s wise blueprint” (Fee, Pauline Christology, 611). However the personification is understood, Garret once again captures the significance of the passage: “If Wisdom is here an artisan, the message again is that the principles of wisdom are woven into the fabric of the created order.”

I would argue that some of these principles of wisdom woven into the fabric of the created order are principles relating to the institution of government. Indeed, I would argue that the institution of government itself is woven into the fabric of creation. This, I think, is the teaching of 1 Peter 2:13.

In Federalist no. 51 James Madison wrote, “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature. If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” Madison is right, in part, to note that in a fallen world government must reckon with the reality of fallen human natures. Madison goes on to say, “In forming a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

But is Madison correct to say that “no government would be necessary” if humans were not fallen? I would argue that the biblical answer to that question is, “no.” In Revelation, the eternal state still has government. In the New Jerusalem there remains a throne of God and the Lamb (Rev. 22:3). Kingship continues into eternity, and the reign of the Messiah is not simply the reign of God but is also the reign of man. When Jesus was born he was declared to be both the heir of the Davidic throne and to receive an eternal kingdom (Luke 1:32-33). When Isaiah declared, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,” he is speaking of a real government. This is why the prophets look forward to the Messiah’s rule to bring about justice in the earth.

The kingdom the Messiah rules over for eternity is not ruled over by he alone. Under him others rule. Revelation 22:5 says of the saints, “and they will reign forever.” There is also a structure to this rule. Revelation 21:24 speak of the kings of the earth bringing their glory in to the New Jerusalem. Jesus said to the apostles, “In the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28). Government persists for all eternity.

There is good reason for this. Government was part of God’s created order from the beginning. In Genesis 1:26-28 God promised mankind dominion over the world. The promises of a Messianic king are rooted in God’s purpose to restore the dominion of all mankind that was corrupted by the Fall. Government is not a necessary evil. It is a structure that God built into his creation from the beginning.