Power needs to be kept on a leash. We struggle with this in our society. We don't like to be restrained. We prefer to be able to do just whatever we want, even to the detriment of others. The damage created by this mentality can be quite devastating as we can see in the riots that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland and Ferguson, Missouri. Rioters bused in from elsewhere in Ferguson reveled in a night of looting, which was excused by the racial animus inherent in the system. This was a classic case of two wrongs don't make a right.

 

Politicians and law enforcement leaders struggled to respond appropriately to the violence and destruction caused by the rioters. Why was this? Why was this social temper tantrum permitted to go on for several days? Why was this unreasonable force not met with reasonable force? In part, I believe that politicians and law enforcement officers were hamstrung by the idea that kindness and a false restraint on their part would diminish the rage and violence of the rioters. Instead of quelling the rage, it merely gave permission to those who desired a night of looting and burning.

 

From the perspective of Luther's doctrine of the two kingdoms or two governments, it is government's God-given task to restrain evil and to stop such outbursts with restraining force. There just are some people who need to be restrained. Indeed, all of us at various times - whether we are Christian or not - need such restraint. The first use of the law threatens punishment and retribution against those who permit their wickedness to run amok to the detriment of society and community. Please let me be clear: I do not mean that the restraint applied by civil government should itself be unrestrained. The rule of law applies as much to government and its servants as it does to private citizens (even more so!). However, the law requires the unruly to be restrained for the safety of others. When government fails to do this it is failing in its primary task; the reason it actually exists and is constituted. When it fails to restrain, it is usurping the authority of God's other government; the government of the church with its primary task of preaching the gospel. The church gives away God's gifts to God's people, suffers their abuse, and proclaims divine mercy upon the wicked, as her Lord did. Her weapon is the gospel, not the law. The law is in the hands of the other government to the restraint of evildoers ( 1Ti 1:8-11), and especially us when we do external evil.