The Imperative of Sphere Sovereignty For Political Theology: God’s Authority Over All Of Life
This article is an adapted chapter from the author’s book Servant Not Savior: An Introduction to the Bible’s Teaching About Civil Government.
As described in my book, the upper/lower story division finds its current expression in the secular/sacred divide. Secularism divides life into two fundamentally different spheres: the secular and the sacred. It aims to liberate life from the authority of God. Yet, removing God only creates a vacuum that will be filled by something else. The highest authority in any system becomes that system’s god. Thus, in the place of sphere sovereignty which places the Christian God over each area of life, we now have two spheres that both have man as their highest authority. In the sacred sphere, the individual reigns supreme. In the secular sphere, it is the state.
In the West, we live in this secular wasteland that provides no foundation for personal liberties and is moving us inevitably toward statism. Because secularism prioritizes the lower story, the state becomes the de facto god. The state becomes divinized. It invades all of life, and so politics looms over everything. With no God above the state, there is nothing to limit the state’s reach. The authority structure of statism is that the state rules over every other sphere (See Figure 1). Everything must bend its knee to the almighty state.
The preeminence of an ever-growing state is the behemoth of our day. The only way to slay it is to overthrow the secular/sacred divide it is constructed upon. Christians must build a comprehensive alternative, a worldview that is unified under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture. How do we offer this vision without falling into the tyranny of prior ages when the church consumed all of life? Is there a way to maintain a healthy distinction between the church and the state that does not banish God from the public square?
This chapter expands on the doctrine of sphere sovereignty that was introduced in Chapter 5. The West needs a robust understanding of sphere sovereignty to counter our malignant secularism. To limit the state, we must recover the vision of the God who rules over the sphere of the state and who has established other, equal spheres. Without this doctrine, our political theologies will slouch either toward a “Christian” version of secularism or an unhealthy blending of the church and the state.
SPHERE SOVEREIGNTY: THE GOD WHO IS THERE
Sphere sovereignty begins with the God who is there. This doctrine recognizes that God has established different spheres, or areas of authority, in life. These spheres have different God-ordained governments (authority structures), and different ministries (assigned roles). Sphere sovereignty assumes the existence of God, not just any God, but the God who rules over each sphere. Note, that no individual sphere is divine, as each is established by and accountable to God.
Therefore, the doctrine of sphere sovereignty begins with the God who is there. It is not a god who is deistic and thus detached from these spheres. Rather, it is the Christian God. The one who speaks and expects his creatures to obey. The one whose providence is meticulous and who is sovereign over everything.
In the place of the secular/sacred divide, Christianity tells the story of the world through creation, fall, and redemption. Each of these three movements has a comprehensive impact that rules out the secular/sacred divide. First, God creates everything by a word of command. All things were made by God through Christ (Gen 1:1; John 1:3). This God is not distant, but intimately upholds his creation (Col 1:17). In creation, there is no fundamental division between the secular and the sacred as God rules over everything. But man, who was created to rule God’s creation under God’s authority, fell into sin and everything was cursed (Gen 3:14-19; Rom 8:19-20). Like with creation, the impact of sin is comprehensive. Therefore, Scripture opens with a comprehensive beginning and a comprehensive problem. Such an opening demands a comprehensive solution.
In redemption, Christ deals with the cosmos-wrecking reality of humanity’s sin (Rom 8:19-25). He dies for our sin, and in the process, he unites all things (Col 1:20) and possesses a universal authority (Matt 28:18). Through his work, Christ makes all things new (Rev 21:5). Christ’s redemptive act is not limited to the “sacred” parts of life, but rather brings all things under his redemptive reign. The Christian worldview is unified and complete at each step of the creation, fall, redemption storyline.
Sphere sovereignty begins here—Christ is the Lord of lords and King of kings. He created every sphere of life, he is redeeming every sphere, and he is the head over every sphere (Eph 1:22). Christ rules over all.
In the Christian faith, there is no room for a fundamental division of the universe. There is no secular/sacred divide because God created all things, sustains all things, and is reconciling all things by the blood of Christ’s cross. To acquiesce to secularism is to functionally deny the gospel.
SOVEREIGNTY: WHY SHOULD ANYONE HAVE AUTHORITY OVER OTHERS?
Sphere sovereignty relies on a big view of God’s sovereignty as it directs us to see the relation between his reign and the authority of the state. The concept of sovereignty forces us to ask, “Who gets to demand obedience?” As Kuyper notes, sovereignty is the “right, the duty, and the power to break and avenge all resistance to its will.”[1] Whoever has sovereignty has the power to require obedience. Does the state possess that authority? If so, why? If there is no sovereignty, then there is no power to compel obedience. If there is no sovereignty, there can be no state.
Therefore, every governing authority must answer the question, “What gives us the right to demand obedience from others?” This question is further complicated by Christianity’s belief in the funda-mental equality of every person (Gen 1:27). If we are truly equal, then why should anyone obey anyone else?
How we answer this question matters. For many unbelievers, the solution comes in the form of might makes right. With no God above, there is no universal right and wrong, and thus there is no such thing as equality. The strong rule over the weak. Survival of the fittest. Those in power make the rules. If might makes right, either through voting or conquest, then human rights are illusionary. They become privileges granted to the weak by the powerful. A truly terrifying proposition. If the powerful get to determine what is right and wrong, they will often use their strength to do whatever they want. With no God above, the state is the highest power as it owns all the guns, tanks, and missiles. It makes the rules. Military strength is not a suitable foundation for establishing a righteous government.
Others have answered the question of the sovereignty and power of the state by claiming some connection to the divine. Why should citizens obey the state? Because the rulers are somehow connected to the divine. Deifying the state is a tale as old as time and can happen in many ways. For secularism, the state fills the role of God but does so without any overt claims to divinity. In the ancient world, rulers boldly asserted their divine status. Both of these options must be rejected by faithful Christians. Only by denying the state’s claims to divinity can the foundation for limited government and human rights be established.
Sometimes, Christians have supported the idea of the divine rights of kings. This political theory asserts that the monarch stands in God’splace on earth. By granting royalty divine rights, this idea places them above a! other earthly authorities. The implications of such a theory are as clear as they are ripe for abuse. The king becomes functionally autonomous (a law unto himself). No one on earth can question him. He has no equal because he stands as God’s unmatched earthly representative. Therefore, anything he does is right and even divinely ordained. Moreover, the divine right of kings denies any equality between rulers and citizens. In this life, citizens are to obey the state because it stands in the place of God.
This view exchanges the God-given rights of the people for the divine rights of rulers. Ideas have consequences, and throughout world history, this philosophy brought tyranny with it. The state, pretending to be God, swells beyond its God-given role and the people inevitably suffer.
This theory is not wholly dead. It has merely shifted forms. Today, many wrongly use texts like Romans 13:1-7 to argue for the divine rights of the state. I call this view Christian statism. It argues that since the stateis divinely ordained, it is owed a near-complete submission. Through a shallow and selective exegesis of Scripture, many Christians espoused this ideology in the years surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Allegedly, the state as God’s representative on earth, must be submitted to no matter what. In Christian statism, there is no functional limit on the state’s authority. Unlike secularism, Christian statism recognizes there is a God above the state. Yet, in concert with secularism, it asserts that the state reigns unrivaled over the rest of life (See Figure 2). In some ways, Christian statism is more dangerous than secularism as it elevates the state to an unrivaled position as God’s sole representative on earth.
The problems of Christian statism are numerous because it ignores the totality of Scripture’s teaching. It undermines the inherent equality between ruler and citizen. It uses God’s presence over the state only to legitimize the state, but not to limit its authority. It fails to see that the state is not God’s representative, but his servant (Rom 13:4). Finally, it also fails to recognize the state is only one government that God has ordained among many. Just as God has given authority to the state, he has also granted authority to the family and the church. What are we to do when these different God-ordained authorities are at odds with each other? Christian statism dangerously relies on the preeminence of the state over all of life.
The Christian worldview rejects the preeminence of the state and replaces it with the preeminence of Christ. God, through Christ, is sovereign over everything. He is the one who possesses the right to demand obedience from everyone at all times and in every sphere. God indeed ordains the state, but he also ordains the authority structures in the home and the church. In doing so, God places limits on each sphere’s authority. Each sphere is equal and yet distinct. Equal in that God established them all. Distinct in that each has a different God-given ministry. God’s universal sovereignty cannot be shared with the state. Rather, it naturally limits all other earthly authorities.
DELEGATED AND DERIVED AUTHORITY
Sphere sovereignty also recognizes that all human authority is dele-gated and derived. Christianity asserts the equality of every human, but it also commands submission to authorities in the state, home, and church. Instead of making some authority figures greater than others, it maintains a basic human equality. Christianity solves this tension between authority and equality by recognizing God’s delegation of power. The authority of a king is not inherent to him but is delegated and derived from God. Likewise, the authority of a father or pastor is not intrinsic to the individual, but is given by God and therefore dependent upon him.
The idea of a delegated and derived authority has two important effects on all earthly authorities. First, it legitimatizes that authority. The world is not egalitarian in the modern sense of the word. Some do possess more authority than others, but this is not an inherent evil. Hierarchies are inevitable, but God has given them for our good. We are called to obey these delegated authorities precisely because their authority is not rooted in their status or power; but rather, because their authority comes from God for our good (Rom 13:4). While man often abuses these power structures, he does so in rebellion against God’s good design. According to Christianity, you should submit to the state, not because it has an inherent power, or because it is divine in some fashion. Rather, we submit because God instituted the state for our good.
Second, an authority that is derived and delegated from God is necessarily limited. The state is not autonomous. It is given a specific and narrow authority to fulfill its mission as a servant of God (Rom 13:4). God is the state’s master, and the state is his servant for our good. There are, as Jesus said, some things that the state has a right to, and other things that it does not (Matt 22:21). Therefore, the state’s authority only extends as far as its God-given mission. The state has only the authority God has delegated to it. When a sphere claims an authority God has not given it, the Bible does not require us to obey it. All authority individuals possess is limited to precisely what God has given—nothing more and nothing less. This glorious truth confines the state’s power and prevents the idolatry of statism. Finally, recognizing that all authority is delegated from God means the power he gives to one sphere must be respected by the other spheres.
EQUAL SPHERES OF SOVEREIGNTY
Each of these spheres of authority—home, church, state—is equal to the others because each receives its authority from the same source. God has assigned a specific role, or area of authority, to each. For the state, God has delegated it the power to accomplish its primary ministry to execute God’s wrath upon the evildoer (Rom 13:4). God gives the state a sword of justice to carry out this ministry. Outside of its sphere, the state possesses no God-given authority. God has not given the state the ministries of healthcare, education, child-rearing, doctrinal instruction, or the redistribution of wealth. All attempts by the state to expand its reach are invalid trespasses of a power delegated elsewhere.
This reality is at the heart of sphere sovereignty—God has equally established each sphere. Within the state’s sphere, God has given the state the power to enforce obedience. Likewise, the church and the family also have spheres where they possess a similar sovereignty. God has instituted equal and distinct areas of life, and he delegates the necessary authority to each one. None of these spheres are autonomous, as God is sovereign over each one. God, as the chief sovereign, has the right, duty, and power to demand obedience in every area of life. Sphere sovereignty declares that God rules over each sphere and that each sphere is equal in standing before him and yet they remain distinct in their primary roles. The below diagram demonstrates the equality found in the doctrine sphere sovereignty (Figure 3). Note that each sphere is equal in standing beneath God’s ultimate authority.
SPHERE SOVEREIGNTY: THINK MINISTRIES, NOT LOCATIONS
What are the practical realities of the doctrine of sphere sovereignty? How does it differ from the modern understanding of the separation of the church and the state? For secularists, the separation of church and state means religion has no role to play in the affairs of the state. Society must remove all references to religion from public life (e.g., the Ten Commandments in courthouses). Sphere sovereignty rejects this separation of the church and recognizes that religion is inseparable from statecraft—there is no separation between God and the state. There can be no fundamental separation between the servant and his master. Instead, sphere sovereignty recognizes the different roles of the church and the state, while firmly keeping God above both. The church must not seize the state’s role, and the state must not infringe upon the church.
Sphere sovereignty is more concerned with a sphere’s specific ministry than it is about that sphere’s place. Each governing authority in the home, church, or state, is not distinguished by its location. Nor is it primarily concerned with its relationship with the other spheres. Rather, sphere sovereignty points to the role, or ministry, of each sphere within society. Each sphere needs the others. They are neither replaceable nor interchangeable. For example, a courthouse is not a secular space, free from religion, but is rather a place where the ministry of justice occurs. This is a ministry to both God and men. Therefore, posting the Ten Commandments in a courthouse does not violate sphere sovereignty because the church is no more invading the state than the state would be invading the church by requiring building permits. The law of God, as represented by the Ten Commandments, is absolutely essential to the state’s ministry of justice. Thelocation itself, a courthouse, while not a church, is also not a secular space.
Likewise, the church is not given the state’s sword to carry out the ministry of justice (Rom 13:4). The church’s ministry is that of the Word and sacrament. In this, she wields the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God and the keys of the kingdom (Matt 16:19). The church should no more bear the sword of justice than the state should hold the keys of the kingdom. In both cases, one sphere would be rebelling against its God-given role by usurping a different sphere’s authority. Similarly, the family is given the ministry of raising and educating children. The state possesses no such authority.
The limits on each sphere pertain to its ministries, not its locations. Each sphere complements the others. For example, while the church must not use the sword of the state to punish evildoers, it does inform the state as to what is just and unjust. It can, and should, inform the direction of the state’s sword. The state, as God’s servant, is not a law unto itself. It does not define justice on its own. It needs the ministry of the church and God’s Word to do so.
Consider another example. If a murder happens within a church or a family, one cannot point to sphere sovereignty to exclude the ministry of the state. The location of the crime doesn’t matter because the ministry of earthly justice belongs to the state. Giving Caesar what belongs to him requires that families and churches hand over such cases to the God-ordained authority. While the state cannot raise children, it can punish parents or children who break the law inside the home. Likewise, the state is not to interfere with the worship, doctrine, and life of the church as that is not its assigned ministry.
God’s limit on the spheres is not locational, but ministerial. Each sphere needs the others. The state needs the family because the family is the foundation of society. The family needs the church to receive the Word and the sacraments. The church needs the state to punish evil-doers. The state needs the church to provide guidance on justice and to train the people in righteousness. In a healthy society, each sphere functions in its God-ordained ministry with proper deference to the others.
Sadly, such thinking no longer describes our civilization. Many statists desire for the state to rule over everything, provide personal meaning, and even raise their children. This is often demanded under an ill-defined concept of “justice.” Christians are right to reject such naïve thinking. Giving the state more power will not lead to more human flourishing. Yet, some still seek to expand the state beyond its God-given role. Some desire the state to be Christian, as do I, but they want it to do so by enforcing religious belief or speech with its sword. Promotion and punishment of things like belief and speech rightly belong to the spheres of the family and church. The doctrine of sphere sovereignty helps us to recognize how a state can be sanctified (or Christian) without placing it over the church. It also provides the necessary foundation to limit the state, and it reminds us that the civil government is not the most important sphere in life. Most importantly, it reminds us that God, through Christ, is the head of the state.
CONCLUSION
The Christian worldview establishes the only adequate foundation for a limited government because it recognizes God’s authority over the state and God’s establishment of other, equal authorities. If we hope to overthrow modern statism, then the need of the moment is a comprehensive Christian worldview. Christians must reject the secular/sacred divide for the folly that it is. In its place, we need to see the preeminence of Christ as the head of all things—including the state. Only by deemphasizing the state, and understanding that it is one sphere among equals, can sanity return.
Sphere sovereignty, with its recognition of God’s ultimate authority, is the bedrock of a biblical political theology. It is God who is sovereign over all of life, not the state. Now that the ideal of sphere sovereignty is established, we can turn our attention to what sanctifies a government in its ministry to God and its people.
Author Bio
Levi Secord is the founding pastor of Christ Bible Church in St. Paul, MN. He earned a Masters of Divinity (2013) and a Doctorate of Educational Ministry (2022) from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Levi hosts a podcast on the Christian Worldview and has numerous publications including his book, Servant Not Savior: An Introduction to the Bible’s Teaching About Civil Government. Levi and his family live in the St. Paul area.
[1] Abraham Kuyper, “Sphere Sovereignty,” in Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans:, 1998), 466.
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