Jesus broke religious laws, not the civil laws of Rome (2024)

Editor:

I am writing in response to a letter submitted by Mervin Swartzentruber to the Letters from Readers portion of the editorial page of the June 25 Goshen News. The heading for the crux of his letter was that “Jesus did break the law.”

Let me begin by saying that I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Swartzentruber when he wrote that we citizens of the U.S. have a responsibility to treat all people with equality. He used the Bible as his support for the treatment of aliens and quoted from it accurately. I agree with him that legal aliens must be treated with the same rights as national, or naturalized citizens as taught in Deuteronomy 10:19; Exodus 22:19 and 23:9. I add a quote from Leviticus 19:33-34 (NASB) — “When a stranger (alien) resides with you, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as a native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”

I may differ with Mr. Swartzentruber though in the area of illegal aliens. I say “may” because I didn’t get a clear understanding of his views on illegal immigration from his letter. To clarify my position I would propose that if we are going to use God’s Word, the Bible as our guide for our treatment of aliens (foreign citizens who choose to live among us for a period of time), and that is the best guide we could use, we must also apply it to the aliens themselves.

As we look into the same Old Testament Scriptures Mr. Swartzentruber used we see that the alien also has a responsibility to obey and live lawfully in the land they choose to dwell within. Moses, under God’s direction commanded equal and loving treatment by the citizen to the alien as we saw above. But He also commanded that the alien live lawfully in the land of the citizen. In Deuteronomy 30:12, God said through Moses, “Assemble the people, the men and women and children and the alien who is in your town in order that they may hear and learn...and be careful to observe all the words of this law” (NASB, emphasis mine). God expects aliens to be living legally and lawfully in their chosen land.

There is excellent New Testament support for this as well. The writer of Hebrews (11:13), and the Apostle Peter (1 Peter 2:11) both refer to Christians as “aliens” or “strangers” on earth, because of the Christian’s eternal citizenship in heaven as the Apostle Paul stated in Philippians 3:20. Peter goes on in 1 Peter 2, to command we Christian aliens on earth to “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God... Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” — 1 Peter 2:13-17 (NASB). The Apostle Paul also commands obedience to the law for Christians in Romans 13:1-7, where he says, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God;” - (vv.1-2a, NASB). Christians are aliens to this earth but are commanded to obey the laws of where we live on this earth. The point I’m making is this, God expects all people, whether national or natural citizens, or alien to abide by the laws of the land in which they are living. Legal aliens (like my grandparents who emigrated from Sweden) are welcomed as law abiding citizens. Those who choose to enter the land illegally still deserve to be treated with human respect, but must face the consequences of breaking the law.

I am also concerned that there are a large number of people, like Mr. Swartzentruber, who believe that Jesus was a not a law-abiding citizen. I think this comes because of a misunderstanding of the various authorities Jesus and the disciples faced in first century Israel. Although Jesus did break laws it is vitally important to know which, or better whose laws He broke. Mr. Swartzentruber stated in his letter, “My Bible says that many times Jesus broke the law by healing on the Sabbath. This was one of the reasons that the rulers wanted to get rid of Jesus because he broke their laws.” Mr. Swartzentruber is correct and even identified whose laws Jesus broke. Jesus broke the traditional, ceremonial laws of the Jews, but the Jews were not the legal authority in Israel in the first century. No, Rome was the legal authority in Israel and Jesus never broke Roman law.

Proof is in the fact that both Roman Governor Pontius Pilate (John 18:38) and Roman-appointed King Herod Antipas (Luke 23:6-12) could find “no guilt in Him.”- John 18.38 (NASB). Earlier Jesus told his listeners, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” —Matthew 22:21 (NASB). Jesus was clearly teaching obedience to the Roman laws and also to obey God’s laws. The laws Jesus broke were the ones created by the religious leaders, hence religious laws dealing with Hebrew worship and doctrine, and had nothing to do with the civil laws of the land required by Rome.

Also, as Mr. Swartzentruber correctly quoted in Acts 5:29 — “But Peter and the apostles answered and said, ‘We must obey God rather than men”. He goes on to say that the disciples were “arrested because they did not obey the rules.” ut again notice who did the “arresting” and what rules the disciples had disobeyed. They were arrested by the Hebrew religious authorities, not the Roman civil authorities and they the disobeyed the “rule” made by these Hebrew religious leaders that the disciples not preach the Gospel of Jesus (Acts 5:28). That “rule” was a religious rule, not a civil law. Of course the disciples would break that rule, because they had been commanded by Jesus to preach the Gospel to all people (Matthew 28:19-20). They were obeying God’s command, rather than man’s command, but they were breaking no civil laws. Jesus and the disciples were never convicted of breaking any civil laws. They were law-abiding citizens of the Roman Empire. They were opposed to the religious laws of the day that burdened the people with traditions and works that hindered them from seeing and accepting the love and grace of God that leads to forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Even our U.S. Constitution guarantees our right to worship God without governmental interference. The only time we can disobey civil law is if that law requires that we sin against God. Then and only then can we apply Acts 5:29 to civil law, and in my many years of experience as a student and minister of God’s Word, and a U.S. citizen, I have yet to encounter a U.S. civil law that requires me to sin. Therefore, at least for now, I will strive to follow Christ’s example and be a law-abiding citizen. And that is what God commands everyone whether citizen or alien, Christian or non-Christian to do as well.

Rev. Greggory E. Lanzen

Senior pastor, First Baptist Church of Goshen

1011 S. Indiana Ave.

Goshen