Impact of Grace #4 - Societal Benefit
Description
Dr. Kurt Bjorklund examines Romans 13:1-14, showing how grace shapes a Christian's public life through submission to authority, genuine love of neighbor, and urgent living. Discover practical ways faith moves from private belief to positive impact on the world around you.
Summary and Application
Societal Benefit: How Grace Shapes Public Life
If someone asked you to define faith, what would you say? Most of us stumble through an answer — "it's what I believe," "it informs my life" — something true but smaller than what faith actually is. Because faith is hard to pin down, we tend to treat it as private: something spiritual that shapes our inner world but doesn't really belong in public life.
Romans 13 pushes back on that. Kurt walked through this chapter arguing that if you follow Jesus, your life should have a positive impact on the society you live in — not just your own private world. And that argument matters, because if faith is purely personal, then Christians have no real obligation to the broader culture. Romans 13 says otherwise.
This passage sits inside the "impact of grace" section of Romans — chapters 12–16, where Paul moves from what God has given us (grace) to what that grace produces in how we live. Kurt used the image of a hiking group where everyone is handed far more water than they could ever drink: the obvious response is to share it, because everyone's thirsty. That's grace. Once you've received more than you need, you start looking for who else needs it.
Romans 13 lays out three postures for living that out.
Posture 1: Be Subject (Romans 13:1–7)
Paul writes, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established" (Romans 13:1). The word "subject" is a military term — falling in line, even when you disagree with the command. Kurt was careful to note how uncomfortable this verse can feel: whichever administration you're currently unhappy with, this text still applies.
That doesn't mean blind obedience in every case. In Acts 4, the apostles were ordered to stop preaching about Jesus and responded, "We must obey God rather than you." When government commands something Scripture forbids — or forbids something Scripture commands — believers have grounds to resist. But Kurt was clear that most of what Romans 13 addresses doesn't rise to that level. It calls for a posture of honor and submission, not a checklist of laws to legislate. As Kurt put it, you can't legislate hearts — the gospel is after internal transformation, not external conformity.
Posture 2: Be Loving (Romans 13:8–10)
"Love your neighbor as yourself... love does no harm to a neighbor" (Romans 13:10). Kurt pointed out an uncomfortable truth: when people outside the church picture Christians engaging culture, they often picture anger before love. Leonard Sweet has observed that too many Christians want to change the world not because they love it, but because they resent it.
Kurt also cited the Roman emperor Julian, who — writing around 360 AD — complained that Christians cared not only for their own poor but for everyone else's poor too. That reputation is the point: love that's visible enough for outsiders to notice. Jesus makes the same point in Matthew 25 — the sheep didn't solve global poverty, they gave a cup of water to the person in front of them.
Posture 3: Be Urgent (Romans 13:11–14)
Paul closes with urgency: "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here... clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:12, 14). Kurt referenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer's warning against "cheap grace" — the idea that grace covers everything so nothing about your life needs to change. Real grace isn't a license to stay the same; it's an invitation into something new, lived out with urgency right where you already are.
Grace, Not a Checklist
It would be easy to walk away from this chapter with a to-do list: be more submissive, more loving, more urgent. But Kurt was quick to name the trap in that. Romans 13 isn't a performance review — it's the natural overflow of grace you've already received. We all fall short of loving people the way we should. The good news isn't that we'll eventually do these things perfectly; it's that Jesus already has, on our behalf. Out of that, we're free to extend the same grace outward.
Questions For Reflection
Where have you seen your own posture toward authority, a neighbor, or your culture shaped more by frustration than by grace?
What would it look like this week to let the grace you've received actually spill over into how you love the person right in front of you?
This post was developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence based on the sermon "Impact of Grace #4 – Societal Benefit" by Dr. Kurt Bjorklund (Romans 13:1-14, August 1-2, 2026). While every effort has been made to faithfully represent the content and intent of the original message, readers are encouraged to engage the full sermon audio or transcript for the complete teaching.
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Leonard Sweet
"Too many Christians want to change the world that we live in, not because they love the world, but because they hate the world."
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Opening Prayer
God, we thank you for how you're working in people's lives around Orchard Hill, through Orchard Hill. As we're gathered here this morning, work in each of our lives, just as you have over the twelve gatherings that are part of Orchard Hill this weekend. If I've prepared things that don't reflect your heart and your truth, prompt me away from them. And if there are things that would be beneficial to those of us sitting in this space that I haven't prepared, prompt me to add those even in this moment. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Introduction: Is Faith Private or Public?
Let me ask you: if somebody asked you to define faith, what would you say? Chances are you'd struggle to come up with a good definition. You'd say, "Well, it's what I believe. It informs my life. It's something..." You'd have a way of describing it that would be less than what it deserves — even though it's something you'd love to be able to talk about clearly.
Because of that, faith often becomes something we treat as a private matter — something spiritual that informs our lives but doesn't feel like part of our public life.
Today we're looking at Romans 13, continuing our study through the book of Romans. Romans 13 argues pretty persuasively and straightforwardly that if somebody is a follower of Jesus Christ, their life should have a positive impact on the society in which they live. It talks about government, relationships, and society as a whole.
That matters because if faith is purely private and personal — something that might impact only me — then, in essence, I have no obligation to the broader society. But according to Romans 13, Christian people should have a positive impact on the culture in which they live.
If you've been tracking with us through Romans, you know that the "impact of grace" — the instructions in chapters 12 through 16, full of direct "you shoulds" — follow the earlier chapters, where the emphasis is on what you've been given. There's a gift: grace. And then there's an overflow. This is where the apostle Paul begins to say, "Here are the implications. Here's how this impacts how you live, and here's why that matters."
If you were on a hiking expedition and everyone was given water, and everyone was running low, but then you were given so much water you couldn't possibly drink it all — what would you do with the extra? The obvious answer: share it, because everybody needs water. That's the idea of grace. As you experience God's grace personally, you begin to say, "I don't want this grace to be mine alone — I want to share it with anyone who's thirsty, anyone who wants it."
So how, according to Romans 13, do people of faith have a positive impact on culture? There are three postures, taught in three sections of this chapter.
Posture 1: Be Subject
The State's Authority Is God-Given (Romans 13:1–7)
Let's read it: "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities."
The word subject in the original language is a military word meaning to fall in line, to be in rank with. The idea: you may not always agree with your leader or with what they tell you to do, but if you're in the military, you say, "I'm working toward the outcome you command, in the way you command it, even if I don't like it or agree with it."
"For there is no authority except that which God has established." This is a striking verse. It means that whoever won the last election — or the one before that, or the next one — is, in this sense, within God's sovereign establishment. (You may already feel resistance to that — "No way, maybe the last one, but not the one before that," or vice versa — notice how it cuts both ways.)
The problem is that when you look around, historically, you see authorities who have done horrible, evil things. How can God establish that? Well, that's what the text says. This isn't me — this is the Spirit of God inspiring the apostle Paul to write something that became Scripture, the word of God for all people, for all time: "There is no authority except that which God has established." So — be subject.
Now, some of you may push back: how does a good God allow some of the worst rulers in history? Look back to the Old Testament — when the Israelites wanted a king, God said, "You don't actually want a king." They insisted, "We want a king." So God essentially said, "Here, have a king" — and gave them the kind of government they wanted.
This is one reason voting and political engagement in our culture are actually good things. This doesn't mean stepping back from politics altogether. You have the privilege of living in a country where you get to help select your leaders. When Romans 13 was written, leadership typically came through military force — whoever had the stronger army took power and did as they pleased. That was the context. There was no authority "ordained" in any democratic sense — which makes this passage even more striking than how we might read it in our modern context.
The text continues: "The authorities that exist have been established by God" — just in case we missed it the first time. "Consequently, whoever rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves" (v. 4). "For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath, to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment, but also as a matter of conscience."
So Paul is saying: authority has been put in place for your good, and you obey not merely out of fear of punishment, but as a matter of conscience.
Are there instances where we don't submit? Yes. In Acts 4, the followers of Jesus were imprisoned and, upon release, told not to speak about God anymore. Their response: "We must obey God rather than you — so we're going to keep speaking." In other words, if government authorities command you to disobey what Scripture commands, you're right to disobey the government. If the government forbids or compels something contrary to Scripture, you have the right to say, "I will obey God rather than the government." That's part of rightly understanding this passage.
But most of what this passage calls for concerns things that don't rise to that level — it calls for a posture of reverence and submission. The passage ends: "If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue [another kind of tax]; if honor, then honor." Give honor to the people around you.
Consider how our nation was founded. What was the Revolutionary War over? Most historians would say excessive taxation (some would add religious liberty, but taxation was central) — specifically, taxation without representation. Excessive taxation can become immoral when a government takes too much. But even in a culture with no checks or balances on taxation, the instruction was: pay tax, give honor, and do it as one who is subject to governing authorities.
These are strong words, and important ones for our culture. Sometimes people are uncomfortable with Christian engagement in the political arena — some might even say this is why they don't want to be part of Christianity, because of Christians' political agendas. I understand that reaction. Often what happens is Christians try to get "Christian laws" passed to make the nation more moral — an attempt to use power to coerce behavior.
This is a challenging issue, because on one hand, power can and should be used for good ends. Consider Abraham Lincoln's use of power to end slavery — a proper and good use of power. But here's the danger: some argue the Ten Commandments should form the legal moral foundation of our country. There's real value in natural law and God's law — "don't murder," "don't steal" are good laws for everyone. But do we really want a nation that legally enforces all Ten Commandments?
Think about it: Do you want to live in a nation that says everything must shut down on the Sabbath, that you must go to church, and if you don't, it's a crime? Or a society that monitors your internet search history and charges you with a crime for "coveting" if you look at an item too many times? Or one that criminalizes using the Lord's name in vain?
The point: you can't legislate hearts. When we try to, we miss what the gospel is about — pursuing external conformity rather than internal transformation. This doesn't mean power should never be used appropriately, but don't count on power to accomplish spiritual change.
The call here: there is authority that is God-given, and if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're called to be subject — to give honor to whom honor is due.
Posture 2: Be Loving
The People Around You Are God's Children (Romans 13:8–10)
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments — 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'you shall not murder,' 'you shall not steal,' 'you shall not covet' — and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
In the New Testament, "neighbor" referred to someone you lived in community with — there was an expectation you'd care for the well-being of the people around you. When Paul speaks of a "debt," he means you have an obligation to God that you fulfill through your neighbors. You have a bigger obligation — to God — which you demonstrate by how you love the people around you. To love meant, as he says, to do no harm, to be of benefit, to care for the people in your life.
Here's a challenge: when people in the broader culture think about Christians' engagement in culture, do they think of love, or of anger? I'd suggest anger. Leonard Sweet, who has written about faith and society for decades, said: "Too many Christians want to change the world that we live in, not because they love the world, but because they hate the world."
The call here is to love people around you, because that's where the love of Christ becomes visible. There's a quote from the Roman emperor Julian, written around 360 AD, about Christians in his culture: he complained that the "impious Galileans" (his term for Christians) supported not only their own poor but others' poor as well, while his own people lacked such aid from their own community. In other words, Christians were known for extending such visible care to their neighbors — and beyond — that everyone saw their love.
That's challenging: how do I do that in my own sphere? At Orchard Hill, we support Light of Life Ministries as a church — one of the ways we care for people on the margins of our own city. We're still, I believe, the single biggest church supporter of that institution.
But you might ask, "Have I done that?" Consider the story in Matthew 25, where Jesus separates the sheep from the goats. It's a haunting story in one sense — there's a final separation. But the point is that the sheep ask, "When did we do these things you're describing? When did we feed the poor?" And Jesus answers: it was when you gave a cup of cold water in my name, when you visited someone in prison. He wasn't describing some grand, comprehensive solution to a systemic problem — he wasn't saying, "When you solved the water crisis for the entire Middle East," or "When you solved the prison system." (If you're in a position to solve global water access, by all means pursue it. If you can help reform the prison system, do it.) But what Jesus emphasized were direct acts of care for the person right in front of you. When you do that, you're loving the person in front of you, and your love becomes an extension of his love. That is how you have a positive impact on society.
Posture 3: Be Urgent
The Culture Is God's Mission (Romans 13:11–14)
"And do this, understanding the present time: the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."
This is end-times language. When Paul speaks of "the present time," "the hour," and then contrasts darkness and light, some people get very excited about end times, scanning the news for signs that this must be the end. Others take the opposite approach: "I know today is closer to the last day than any other day we've lived" — true, but often really just a way of saying, "I don't care."
Here's what's actually true: in the Bible, the "last days" span from when Jesus walked the earth until he returns — meaning you and I are living in the last days right now, regardless of whether current events look especially dramatic. So when Paul says, "the hour has already come for you to wake up... because your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed," he adds (v. 12): "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here." Now he's speaking metaphorically — night ending, day arriving. "So put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."
Then, in case the metaphor wasn't clear enough, Paul gets specific (v. 13): "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime" — followed by three couplets:
Not in carousing and drunkenness
Not in sexual immorality and debauchery
Not in dissension and jealousy
And then (v. 14): "Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh."
Let's define a few of these terms:
Carousing means going from one good time to another, one party to the next. That might not sound inherently dark — but when this becomes a way of life, where your focus is always "where's the next good time?" rather than something greater, you're actually living in darkness. It doesn't require being an out-of-control frat boy; it can be a quieter, ongoing pattern.
Drunkenness — obviously, excessive drinking, to the point of living for alcohol consumption.
Debauchery (paired with sexual immorality) simply means living for excessive pleasure — not limited to sexual pleasure, but a broader posture of chasing whatever is comfortable or easy.
Dissension and jealousy — getting drawn into constant disputes over irrelevant things, and envying others.
Paul's point: God wants us to live with a sense of urgency — to be identified by something more than pleasure-seeking, party culture, or constant conflict. His solution: "Clothe yourself with Jesus Christ," and "make no provision for the flesh." In the original language, this literally means "make no provision" — the idea of a traveler who packs a backup plan just in case. Paul is saying: don't pack an exit plan back to your old life. I'm calling you to something new.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer — a pastor in Nazi Germany and part of the resistance against Adolf Hitler — spoke rightly to this. He described "cheap grace" as the idea that grace did it all for you, so you don't need to change your lifestyle: the believer who accepts cheap grace thinks he can continue living like the rest of the world, rather than following Christ in a radical way — simply enjoying the consolations of God's grace without transformation. Bonhoeffer's point: you're missing what God is calling you to. He's calling you not just to experience grace, but to live in the reality of grace.
Some of you may be thinking: the light-versus-darkness picture sounds good in theory, but where I live — with my coworkers, my family, the people around me — it's genuinely tough. But that's exactly where light is needed: in the darkest places. God has likely placed you where you are to be a light, which is why there's urgency here. Paul's aim: live in such a distinct way that people around you say you're filled with joy and purpose, even though you don't live the way they do. We're all called to be missionaries wherever God has placed us.
Conclusion: Grace, Not a Checklist
You could hear all of this and think, "Okay, so what I need to do is be more honoring in civil conversation, be more subject to governing authorities. I need to be more loving — how can I love people better? I need to be more light than dark — how can I do that?" And very quickly, this can become a checklist mentality that pulls us back into law.
But this teaching sits within the second half of Romans — one continuous letter. It isn't meant to be read in isolation, leaving us to simply "try harder." (Trying harder isn't a bad thing — I'm not saying no one should try harder.) But the point isn't merely "go and do." It's this: because of the grace that's been given to you, this is how you get to live.
Here's what that means. Have you ever failed to love someone as well as you could have or should have? I'm assuming even the most hardened among us can think of a time we weren't kind to someone who needed help, and we brushed them off. That's the point — we all fall short. That's what the whole book of Romans has been about. We don't gain God's approval by doing these things better; God's approval is given to us because of what Jesus Christ has done.
In that recognition — like receiving more water than you could possibly drink on that hiking trip — if God has given you that grace, you want it to extend to the people around you. Romans 13 tells us this happens as we live as citizens who contribute to the good of the world: by being subject to governing authorities, by loving our neighbors, and by being light in the darkness — living with urgency in our culture.
But it doesn't come from saying, "Let me do this better." It comes from encountering the truth: "I haven't done these things just right, but Jesus has done it on my behalf." And because of that, I can receive grace — and extend that grace to others.
Closing Prayer
God, today as we've gathered and talked about some challenging areas of life, I ask simply that you would help each of us see where we fall short, to make adjustments, but even more, to run to your grace and experience it in fresh and new ways. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Thanks for being here. Have a great week.
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This transcript was cleaned up and formatted with the assistance of AI. While efforts have been made to preserve the original wording and meaning of the message, minor edits (removal of filler words, grammar corrections) were applied and small inaccuracies may exist.
