Give to Caesar What Is Caesar's and to God What Is God's (Luke

The Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus with this question: “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” (Luke 20:22). If Jesus said they should pay the tax, it looked like He supported Rome, but if he said they should not pay the tax, He would be considered a traitor to Rome and arrested. He responded, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what Is God's” (Luke 23:25). Just as the coins with Caesar’s image belong to Caesar, people with God’s image belong to God.

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00:00 Give to Caesar What Is Caesar's and to God What Is God's
18:17 Lesson One: Bitterness unites people.
31:09 Lesson Two: Christians have dual citizenship (Part One) on earth.
43:10 Lesson Two: Christians have dual citizenship (Part Two) in heaven.
46:48 Lesson Three: Fulfilling earthly citizenship is not disloyal to God.

So, if Jesus says they should pay the tax, first, He isn’t just supporting the Romans occupying Judea, He is encouraging Jews to support their army doing so. Second, He is encouraging Jews to engage in idolatry. This will ostracize the most devout, religious Jews who, at this time, are filling the temple. These would be some of His most committed disciples, and they would want nothing to do with Him. But if he says they should not pay the tax to Caesar, he will be considered a traitor to Rome, arrested, and possibly executed for treason.

Christians Have Dual Citizenship: On Earth

You can imagine why the spies were so confident they trapped Jesus, but look what happened:

Luke 20:23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.”

I know you know this account, but what would you expect Jesus to say if you never read this before? “Correct! This is Caesar’s image. Right above it, he is called the Son of God. And it gets worse because he’s identified as the high priest on the other side. This is idolatry and blasphemy. You must honor the Lord and use copper coins. You should throw this coin away and every other gold and silver coin that bears Caesar’s image.” But instead, we read:

Luke 20:25a He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,

Unbelievably, Jesus told them to pay taxes to Caesar. Caesar’s image and name were on Roman coins, so in that sense, they were his.

Paul’s Teaching that We Should Submit to Government

We will start at verse one and go through the verses quickly for context:

Romans 13:1a Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

This is similar to what Peter said:

1 Peter 2:13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

Look at the next part of verse 1:

Romans 13:1b For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

The word “For” introduces why we should submit to the government: God gives them their authority. Because all authority belongs to God, if people have authority, He gave it to them. You say, “Even bad people?” Yes, even bad people. Who’s worse than Pilate? Not many people listen to what Jesus said to him:

John 19:11 “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had BEEN GIVEN YOU FROM ABOVE.”

Even the authority given to the man who sentenced Jesus to die came from God Himself. Now, let’s imagine a hypothetical situation for a moment. Imagine Paul wrote this, and there was a moral, or even Christian, emperor. What might we say? “Paul told them to submit because the emperor was halfway decent. But we’re being told to submit to ungodly people.” But who was the emperor in Paul’s day? Nero.

Similarly, it could be argued that we should only pay taxes to moral governments. When I was going over the sermon with Katie, she said, “Good luck finding that.” In Jesus’ day, the Roman government wasn’t good or moral, yet Jesus still said to pay them taxes.

We Should Have Clear Consciences Paying Taxes

And let me be clear about why...

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