The Scriptures tell us that "the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor 11:3). There is a necessary order to relationships, even within the divine relationship of the Trinity. This does not mean that Christ is less than God in His nature or being, nor does it mean that a women is less than a man in her nature or being. However, with regards to the economy of relationships, there is a right authoritative order. The Father exercises authority over the Son. The Son exercises authority over man. Man exercises authority over his wife. These relationships are covenantal in nature.
We must not import the radical assumptions of our modern egalitarian world, where authority is seen as oppressive and submission is seen as a form of inferiority. When understood biblically, authority is a blanket of freedom and submission is an expression of gratuitous trust.
When a husband embraces this headship, he will begin to take initiative, serve responsibly, provide for his family, as well as represent them to the church and to the world. This world includes the civil government. And this is where our current topic begins.
As a church, we have not represented the family well - especially in the ways that have been set forth in Scripture (cf. 1 Cor 11:3). Consequently, our government continues to make decisions as if the family unit does not exist. For our civil society, individualistic autonomy has taken first seat. The results have been disastrous. Here is a comment from Wilson concerning abortion:
When our Supreme Court made its infamous decision to allow the slaughter of infants, the Christians of our nation were so covenantally blind that we did not see it for what it was - the abortion of the covenanted family. This is not to minimize in any way the horrific nature of the abortion carnage itself; God is just and He will judge. But why did we not even see the other problem? Consider the result of that decision. When a woman is considering an abortion, the Court informed us that this is a decision between her and her doctor. As far as our civil order is concerned, whether she is married or not is completely irrelevant.
Whether she has a covenant head or not was not worth considering. The fact that a man has taken a solemn vow assuming covenantal responsibility for his offspring was judged by our highest court to be a matter of no legal consequence. It is difficult to understand what is more tragic, the decision of the Court to slaughter the children or the inability of modern Christians to even notice that the Court had declared every child in the nation to be, as far as they were concerned, a covenant bastard.
Many men will rise up and insist that the government officials should be tossed out. But this would be hasty and neglectful. When confronted with the reality of our current situation, we must first go to the Lord, our Covenant Head. We must come to Him with repentance and faith. After that, and only after, we must pray that the Lord would bring light to all of our dark places - even our blind spots.
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