Christian Culture and the Story of Great Britain

Editor’s note: The article below is adapted from a recent lecture delivered by Dr. Joe Boot to the Protestant Truth Society. A printed version will be physically distributed to all Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

Good evening, everyone. I want to start by thanking the board of the Protestant Truth Society and our sponsoring MP for hosting this evening and for the kind invitation to address you all.

My work is that of a Christian apologist. Specifically, my vocation and focus are that of cultural apologetics or worldview apologetics, which, for those of you who are not familiar, concerns the explanation and defence of the Christian philosophy of life for every area of life, including the political sphere.

Now, it would be tempting to think, as we gather here today and look around this room, that we are little more than a sort of antiquarian society—a kind of Christian Rotary Club—gathering at the House of Commons because we have some archaist interest in Christianity and its historical relationship to the British state. But I want to suggest to you that this is not the case.

Actually, Christian groups and organizations like this—though they may seem small, insignificant, and frequently ignored—are going to become more and more important as time goes on. Indeed, we are gathering this evening in a time of undeniable existential crisis for our culture, our nation, and for the West as a whole.

Just look around at what’s going on in the world right now—all the instability, all the challenges, global and domestic, all the problems and difficulties socially, economically, and politically. Moreover, at the moment, our country doesn’t really understand the root cause. The people who govern our land, for the most part, do not adequately understand our situation. They do not know how to diagnose the problem or how to cure the malady. And so, we tend to do what madmen do: the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

All this means what we have to say about Jesus Christ and about God’s Word—and its relationship to society and culture—is going to become increasingly important.

A Generation Looking for Answers

I don’t know whether you saw or read it recently, but a study by the Bible Society in this country was published a short while ago showing that the Z generation—that’s my own children’s age—has seen a very significant increase in Bible reading and church attendance over the last six years. This generation is truly looking for answers—not just to the question of meaning in their own lives, but to pressing questions in the context of the broader culture and the decay of our society. And the root of it, of course—the central challenge— which, for the most part, people working in the political sphere (present company excepted) refuse to recognize or accept, is that the heart of our cultural problem is religious.

In all likelihood, the Latin words religio and religare, from which we get the term ‘religion,’ mean (etymologists believe), “to tie” or “to bind.” It’s a sort of agricultural metaphor. It’s about getting things moving or growing in the same direction.

The word culture, which we are equally concerned with as Christians—especially given the state of our society—is related to the Latin cultus, meaning worship. Culture is best understood as simply religion externalized. It is our applied beliefs. Culture is our most fundamental commitment put into practice in various areas and aspects of life, giving form and direction to our civilization.

The Collapse of Multiculturalism

The myth of multiculturalism—that is, the attempt to give equal room and devotion to many gods—and its impossibility is on vivid display right now in our society. The state-sponsored polytheism of our era is crumbling, and it’s producing division and decay everywhere. We’re not moving and growing in the same direction as a society, because our religious roots have been pulled. As such, we’re being blown about in the wind. We’ve longed for the fruits of our Christian heritage without acknowledging its roots. We’ve sought the benefits of a Christian social order without acknowledging or affirming its foundation in Christ and His Word. And that experiment is now publicly failing—critically and undeniably failing.

We could digress and talk about the crippling national debt load. We could discuss the failure and steady collapse of the welfare state. We could discuss the declining moral quality of many of our civic and political representatives, as well as the deteriorating state of both the upper and lower chambers. We could discuss the widespread discontent and anger in society, as well as the imported religious and ethnic divisions. We could reflect on the grave challenge of political Islam in Britain today.

And yet, in the midst of all that, a little bird told me today—I was meeting with a senior parliamentarian this afternoon—that there was a recent important meeting in these hallowed halls, a committee meeting of sorts. Notable individuals were invited to attend, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury and the faith advisor to the Prime Minister, among others, who discussed the serious threats facing Britain. And their conclusion? Their diagnosis? The great threat was allegedly “Christian Nationalism,” which for them means people who believe the undeniable historical fact that Britain is at root a Christian Kingdom and that a recovery of Christianity for public life is the only path to peace, freedom, justice and prosperity.

Christian nationalists! Those who believe in a biblical conception of nationhood – these people are supposedly the threat! Well, if you know any, I’d like to meet them. If you could pass on their names and contact information, I’d be grateful, because such people in my experience are few and far between. Sadly, what this committee meant was people like you and me—ordinary people who think the Christian roots and heritage of our culture and nation, our Christian constitutional settlement, the established church, the Coronation oath and so forth, are important. And apparently, if you believe that and talk about that, you’re considered a dangerous threat to the modern state.

We’re seeing former police who have served as special constables (I think it was somewhere in Kent, if memory serves) harassed, investigated and raided over Tweets, and journalists questioned and intimidated at their homes for articles in the press. It’s been in the papers these last few months. In one case, multiple officers were sent to this former constable’s home over Twitter posts, and they were concerned about his “Brexity” books! And, while we’re trying to silence and intimidate these sorts of people, our prisons are full to overflowing with serious criminals – many of them foreigners. So, we’re letting hundreds of convicted felons out while looking to put citizens in prison for Tweets. One of my colleagues mentioned today that around 30 arrests a day in this country are made for Twitter posts.

Well, this is all just another expression of the religious crisis we’re facing.

The Word of God as Central in the Crisis

So then—how do we begin to address this cultural crisis? Can I suggest to you that the importance and centrality of the Word of God in all of this is not going to diminish? It is going to grow. Interestingly, Christians who believe we should talk about the Word of God concerning the nation are being perceived by these committees as a threat.

Jesus, in Matthew chapter 5, tells us something about the calling of the believer. He says this:

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13–16)

How do we go about that? Well, Jesus goes on in the very next verse, “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”

The ancient Greek word there for fulfill—plēroō—means “to put into force.”

For I assure you: until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the Law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:18–20)

Jesus as the Greater Moses and the Role of God’s Law

Jesus is here depicted as the greater Moses. You may know that the life of Jesus in some respects recapitulates the journey of Israel. He goes through the waters of Jordan, like Israel went through the waters of the Red Sea. He comes out of the waters of baptism, and he goes out into the wilderness. There, He is tested—just as Israel was tested in the wilderness – by the enemy of our souls. But unlike the people of Israel, He is victorious in the testing and the trial. And how does He do it? With the Law-Word of God. He cites the Law of God. Jesus then comes in from the wilderness and goes up, as the greater Moses, onto the mountain, and there He expounds His Kingdom law. He teaches how we are to be salt and light as Christians—by obedience to the law of God.

The Law-Word of God is an essential anchor in the Christian vision of reality. What is the Law of God? First of all, we have the creation Law. In the beginning, God said… and it was. In many respects, everything God says is a Law-Word. Our understanding of creation is then deepened in the New Testament. At the opening of the Gospel of John, we read:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

St. Paul also talks about Christ the creator and the creation law in Colossians chapter 1. So, we have God’s Law-Word established in creation.

Then there is the incarnate Word. The incarnate Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnate Torah—so he is the incarnate Law, the incarnate Word. (Torah means instruction.)

Then, finally, we have the inscripturated Law-Word, the bible. As such, we have the creation Word, the incarnate Word, and the inscripturated Word. The inscripturated Word became necessary in history because of the problem of our sin and rebellion. In many respects, it is a republication of God’s creation law—and a revelation of how that law-order is going to be restored. It’s the message of redemption and renewal through the living Word, Jesus Christ.

And these expressions of God’s Word—His law—do not contradict one another. The creation Word, the inscripturated Word, and the incarnate Word cannot be understood apart from one another. They are a seamless garment and imply and presuppose each other as the foundation for individual and societal life.

Biblical Law in History and Worship

That’s why, in the 9th century A.D., King Alfred the Great began to codify English law, starting with the Ten Commandments. It is noteworthy that the Ten Commandments used to hang on the walls of many of our public buildings. As such, it was common law. They were displayed in our Crown Courts and our churches. It was part of Protestant liturgy—pretty much every week.

When I established a church in Ontario, Canada (Westminster Chapel, Toronto)—I was in the former colonies for 19 years, from 2003 until my return for the “Battle of Britain” in 2022—we used the older Anglican prayer book. And in the communion service, the Law is cited every week:

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
The second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
(Mark 12:29–31)

We displayed the Ten Commandments at the front of the church. We taught and preached the good news about Christ, including the gift of the Law of God for the nations. And I can tell you, our church was packed with young people and families Sunday by Sunday for the preaching of God’s Word—sermons were about an hour. And that wasn’t down to my oratory—it was down to the power and significance of the Word of God when it is given unvarnished, explained, and its relevance made manifest.

But the law of God was not just relevant in liturgical matters historically. In A.D. 1540, King Henry VIII established seven cities of refuge based on the biblical model. The Puritan settlers who went out from here to New England—Cromwell was invited (I believe by John Cotton, if memory serves) to go to New England but decided to stay in England and played a vital role in bringing freedom from tyranny and advancing our Christian character as a people – established their colonies in terms of biblical law. My favourite monument here at Parliament—when you’re walking in toward Westminster Hall—is that huge statue of Oliver Cromwell, one of my heroes. In his left hand, he holds the Bible; in his right hand, the sword. It’s like the sword and trowel of Nehemiah rebuilding the city.

The Biblical Basis of English and American Law

Well, as I said, the Puritan settlers in the colonies self-consciously planned their commonwealth after the pattern of biblical law. You can see that in the Order of the General Court of Massachusetts in 1636, and the General Laws of the Plymouth Colony in 1658. Moreover, English canon law was so substantially drawn from biblical law that, about biblical regulations regarding English inheritance law, the 19th-century jurist Sir Frederick Pollock said of Numbers 27:1–11 that it was, “the earliest recorded case which is still of authority.” The Common law was God’s Word. But now, you need an expert lawyer in every given field of law to figure out what the law even is. Most of us accidentally break the law for half the day. But this previous era was a time when ordinary people could know the law.

When the civil government of ancient Israel was established—and it’s interesting, isn’t it, that whether you look at the United States or Britain, biblical Israel was the model—God provided the constitution. And why not have scripture informing our model? God Himself established a nation. And if He established one, perhaps we should look at how He did it to see what ours should look like.

According to scripture, when Israel was established, God addressed the seventy elders of the people and poured out His Spirit upon them. So actually, the first Pentecost in Scripture was a civic event—at the ordination of the civil authorities—in Numbers 11:16-17.

Interestingly enough, a similar Pentecost occurred during the anointing of Saul, which marked the beginning of a second form of civil government in Israel—a transition from a commonwealth to a monarchy. That’s found in 1 Samuel 10. So, at the first establishment of civil authority in Israel, and then in its transition from a commonwealth with judges to a monarchy, God the Holy Spirit was directly involved.

Coronation, Charity Law, and the Constitution

The early church continued such rites of coronation and anointing, following the biblical model. The form of that rite—which highlights the role of God’s Word in our national history—actually remains with us even today. One of our organizers, Duncan, has already alluded to that this evening: the Coronation Oath Act of 1688. From then on, for all future monarchs, this law was binding.

Let me give an example of the relevance of this. I recently had to explain this reality when trying to register the Ezra Centre for Christian Thought in this country. My organization has small offices in Canada and in the United States (Ezra Institute), and I split my time between these three offices. We were struggling initially with the Charity Commission here. They were looking at my books, and our articles on the website, and they were saying, “Well, you’ve got articles about politics… how is this the spiritual advancement of religion?” You see, this is the typical secular religious mindset – saeculum meaning of this age or world. The idea is that Christianity is a ‘spiritual’ belief that exists between your ears and nowhere else. And it only becomes a problem when it is transferred from between your ears into your words and actions in any given area of life.

We were using a very good law firm in London that specializes in charity law to help with our application. After months and months of arguing with the Charity Commission, the lawyers were skeptical we would ever be granted charity status. They said to me, “We’ve never seen anything like this before. Never. We’ve never had a harder time registering a simple Christian charity.” So, I said, “Well, let me write a final letter to the Charity Commission.” And I did. What did I do in that letter? I tried to explain the English constitution to them. I said that the Word of God—the claims of Christ, that He is Lord of heaven and earth—means that we have articles about almost everything, including education, law, and politics, because Christ’s Word addresses all these areas of life. I explained that every time there is a civic, public event in this country, it is a Christian event—because we are a constitutionally Christian land. I also explained that the coronation of our monarchs involves swearing to uphold the law and gospel of Christ as the foundation of our law and national identity. And I went on to provide various details. A short time later, we received a letter approving our application.

Why was it so difficult?  There may be various reasons. But I think principally because the people in these civic offices appear to have a minimal idea about what the English constitution is and its Christian character.

Canadian Secularism and the Threat of Christian Faith

The situation is similar in Canada, where I lived for 19 years, and am now a dual citizen.  A parliamentary committee recently met and recommended to the new Liberal government that all charities whose object is the advancement of religion be stripped of charitable status. Of course, that would capture a vast—or at least very significant—majority of Christian charities in Canada. And that is the goal.

The CBC (which is the Canadian equivalent of the BBC) published a front-page article along with a short radio documentary the year I departed Canada, having sent undercover journalists to some of our conferences. It was about pastors and Christian leaders who had been resistant to state mandates during the COVID era. The Ezra Institute was identified in these pieces as the “think tank of the Canadian Christian right.” The lengthy article argued that we, and others like us, should be deprived of our charitable status. Now, why would a tiny little Christian charity in Southern Ontario be perceived as such a threat to the Canadian state that it would warrant such time and attention, along with a handful of faithful pastors? Because Jesus Christ is Lord, and we were prepared to say so.

Competing Lordships—Caesar or Christ

The claims of Jesus Christ are—and always have been—a threat to an anti-Christian political order. The early church wasn’t persecuted because the Romans didn’t like their pyjamas. Or even because they had their form of worship. The Romans understood that when you conquer a people, you should let them keep their gods. What mattered was primary allegiance to the state. Early Christians were persecuted because they refused to put incense on the altar and say, “Caesar is Lord.” They would not offer incense to the genius of the emperor, to the state as god. Had they done that, they could have received a state license, hung it on the wall of their place of worship, and worshipped whomever they pleased. But the Christian church said we will not pay homage to Caesar because Jesus Christ is Lord. We’ll be good citizens. We’ll pay our taxes. But Jesus Christ is Lord. And because of that, they were viciously persecuted.

And you may have noticed in St. Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi—he’s writing from Rome—that he concludes it with an exciting phrase that you could miss easily, “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” The gospel had already penetrated the household of Caesar.

When Augustus—Caesar Augustus—was in power, his government had published a claim that there was no other name under heaven given to men by which they must be saved, except the name of Caesar Augustus. Now consider how the claim of St. Peter in Acts 4:12 stands in contrast: “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved than the name of Jesus.” As such, the preaching of the gospel was seen as a political offence. Just consider the first few verses of Acts 17. What is the charge brought against the apostles?

These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too…They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus. (Acts 17:6-7)

That was the charge. And the charge was accurate. They were proclaiming another King. It was because of this claim of total kingship over all human authority that in the early centuries the church continued these rites of coronation and anointing, and the form of those rites highlights the role of God’s Word in our history.

The present challenge is this: our nation doesn’t believe—our current political establishment, for the most part, doesn’t believe it would seem—that God takes oaths seriously. Yet as recently as 1996, the Prime Minister at the time, Sir John Major, said to his ministers, and I quote, “I would not advise Her Majesty to sign into law any provision which contradicted her oath.” That was 1996.

Oaths, Anointing, and the Authority of God’s Word

The oath required of Queen Elizabeth II—and now of Charles III—which, by the way, is a legal obligation in our constitution – is framed in the form of questions:

• Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel?
• Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed religion established by law?

And after this oath, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland brings the Bible to the monarch and says:

Our gracious Queen, to keep Your Majesty ever mindful of the law and the gospel of God as the rule for the whole life and government of Christian princes, we present you with this book—the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom. This is the royal law. These are the lively oracles of God.

And of course, the Bible is kissed afterward as a symbol of submission to God’s Word. This anointing rite, which has gone on for centuries in our land, has its roots in the anointing of King Solomon in Israel. At the very beginning of the ceremony, King Charles III comes to Westminster Abbey. As he walks down the aisle, there’s a little page boy—wearing one of those red uniforms with the royal crest—who says to the King, “We, the children of the kingdom, greet you in the name of the King of all kings.”

Now, this isn’t pantomime. Some of them may have thought they were participating in pantomime—but this isn’t pantomime, any more than wedding vows are pantomime. God takes oaths seriously. After the Archbishop of York presented the monarch with the Sword of State, during which the monarch is charged to wield the sword of justice in God’s authority—by stopping the growth of iniquity, protecting the Church, defending orphans and widows, restoring, punishing, reforming where required—in the service of Christ, the orb with the cross is given to the monarch. There’s a wonderful picture of him holding the orb representing the earth, with the cross on top of it. The Archbishop then declares, “Receive this orb, set under the cross, and remember that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer.” There isn’t a constitution like this in the world. Not even the United States has a constitution so explicitly and fundamentally Christian.

A Christian Constitution and the Accountability of Civil Order

Granted, genuine faith would have been absent for some, but this entire service bears witness—bears testament—to this ancient coronation service in Israel. And so, the abiding relevance and authority of God’s law-word to cultural life and the political sphere is affirmed. It declares that the civil order is under and directly accountable to God, being established by His decree as part of His kingdom reign. The ultimate message it communicates is this: the whole world is under Christ’s empire, and the monarch is simply a vice-regent—a servant. That is the meaning of stripping off the robes of state and kneeling privately, essentially in an undergarment, for the actual anointing. That part of the coronation isn’t even televised.

A similar act acknowledging God’s authority occurs when the incoming President of the United States takes the oath of office; you’ll notice it’s always done on a Bible. It used to be done on an open Bible. Do you know where the Bible was traditionally opened to when the President took the oath in the past? – Deuteronomy chapter 28, invoking the blessings and curses of God upon the nation for obedience or disobedience.

These oaths were taken with great seriousness, because God’s law is a serious matter. And this all points to the fact that God’s law word has had a continuous history as an object of relevance and study—something that makes it unique among all the legal systems of the world. God’s law gives us as Christians and as a nation a claim to historical influence unmatched by any other legal code from antiquity. You can trace it back to Moses in the late second millennium B.C. But its relevance is not merely limited to historical study. That’s why we have noted—this is not an antiquarian special interest group. Its relevance is not confined to people with an interest in constitutional history.

Biblical Law and Its Enduring Cultural Relevance

Biblical law has not only shaped the history of the Western world—it remains relevant to solving all of the dilemmas we have today. It will continue to be a source of inspiration and debate long after these modern legal empires have been forgotten.

A good friend of mine—and a Fellow of the Ezra Centre for Christian Thought (Institute in N. America)—Dr. Jonathan Burnside (some of you may have heard of him) is a professor at the School of Law at the University of Bristol. He wrote a marvellous book called God, Justice, and Society, and in that important work, he points out that:

Biblical law continues to exert a hold over popular culture at a basic level—including the structure of the working week and the idea of a day of rest, the constraints placed upon political authority, the use of everyday language such as references to a scapegoat, the idea of mercy, employee rights, and the special significance historically attached to marriage and the monogamous family unit. The word ‘covenant,’ which is prominent in biblical law, used to be the standard word for a contract in English law—and it is still used in the law of property today. Biblical law is also remarkable for its revolutionary breadth and depth of vision. It has the imaginative power to disturb the world. A great deal of modern law is an indirect engagement with biblical law. For example, the abolition of the English laws of blasphemy in 2008…

(And by the way, we haven’t abolished blasphemy laws—we’ve transferred them to the progressive, woke religion of our time, or to Islam. Blasphemy laws are always fundamental to any society. You don’t abolish them—you merely shift them to protect another god.)

He continues:

…but often it’s so implicit—that is, God’s law—that we are not aware of it. We have taken our understanding of biblical law for granted for so long that it has become unfamiliar. This is the immanence of biblical law: it’s part of our culture, but it’s alien. Biblical law does not function in relation to English or U.S. law as an external or parallel body of law, like Islamic religious law or Sharia. This is because, unlike Sharia, biblical law is nascent in the history of English law, and so it continues to be an influence on many citizens. It is simply unrealistic to suggest that we live in a wholly secular legal system, nor have politicians been successful in finding a dominant alternative discourse to the ethical language of the Bible.

Cultural Amnesia and the Marginalization of God’s Law

This alien yet imminent character of God’s law is not only true in the political sphere, it is also true in general, throughout the culture and the population, and sometimes even within the churches. And we must acknowledge that the churches are partially responsible for our cultural amnesia. The reason we displayed and recited God’s law in the churches was so that people would know God’s law—God’s commandments.

We had a particularly tough time living in Canada during the COVID-19 lockdown. It was a challenging time here in the UK as well—until those twenty-seven or so pastors in Scotland took the government to court and won. I’m told that on the day the case was opened, the QC stood and said, “I make no apology for opening my case by saying: Jesus Christ is Lord!” The reason we had such a tough time in the West is that people do not know the law of God. We no longer know our freedoms under God. We don’t understand the relationship between church and state. In many congregations today—and in much of the culture—the Torah, the law of God, is completely pushed to the periphery. And when it’s moved to the periphery, you no longer have a God-fearing society.

This is implicit in the very idea of law. Law is a form of command whose validity is derived from social facts—chiefly, the fact of sovereign power and the point of habitual obedience on the part of most of the citizens. The law is therefore a value-processing system that is bound up with the character and goals of a society. So, when you see radical changes in the law, you are seeing a change of sovereign. Which is to say, you are seeing a change of gods in that society. All law is rooted in some idea of sovereignty, and all sovereignty is rooted in some conception of the divine.  For us as Christians, if the divine goals for the world remain those of the kingdom of God, expounded in Scripture, then the Word of God—the Bible—gives us God’s value-processing system, based on His sovereign authority. And we are called to obey it for human flourishing.

Law as Precept and Penalty—A Mirror of Value

The reason that law can, in part, be understood as a value-processing system is that it involves both precept and penalty. Law isn’t just a piece of advice. You don’t get pulled over by the police for doing 120 on the M1 and hear the officer say, “We’d really appreciate it if you could consider slowing down.” No—they’re not simply advising motorists to slow down. You get hit with a penalty. And at that speed, they’re going to seize your car, and you’ll almost certainly have your driving license suspended. The nature of a penalty always illustrates the value of the precept. We reserve our severest penalties for those precepts we value the most. The institutions we wish to protect the most, we protect them with a hedge of the most severe penalties.

For example, in Canada—though I believe it’s very similar here in the UK—rape was punishable by a maximum sentence of death until 1950. Today, if you’re even prosecuted for it at all, what kind of jail term are you looking at? In the UK, you can receive as little as four years, rising to an average of ten years. In Canada, the maximum is now ten years with just 18 months for a summary conviction. Now, what does that radical change say about the value of women in our society? Law is thus a value-processing system. If, in a given society, you were to get 10 years for jaywalking, what would that tell you? Well, that society values the flow of traffic. We, in contrast, are delighted to murder the innocent in the womb—and now also kill people at the end of their lives under euphemisms like assisting dying. We’re comfortable with killing the innocent, but we won’t obey God’s law and execute the incorrigible murderer, kidnapper or rapist. Instead, the members of our society themselves are punished by having to pay for their lengthy incarceration. So, law teaches people values. It teaches them what matters, what is essential, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable.

Covenant, Consequence, and the Moral Order

The doctrine of the covenant-law is fundamental to Scripture—it is central to the Christian view of reality. The Bible is a covenantal document. In this respect, it’s a legal document. It’s about God establishing a relationship with His people. There are terms, sanctions, blessings, and curses. And this is true of the New Testament – it too is a covenantal document involving God’s oath to bind himself to his covenant. Consider what Paul says to the church in Corinth?

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. So a man should examine himself; in this way, he should eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 11:27–30)

There are blessings and curses described here for keeping and breaking God’s Word. These are indicators of God’s covenant faithfulness. So, violating oaths—God takes very seriously.

Our own Parliament took an oath to God called the Solemn League and Covenant in 1643. This took place with the Covenanters in Scotland and the English Parliament. The covenant was even ratified by Charles II at the Treaty of Breda in 1650. Of course, they later worked to overturn it. But do you think God takes those historical oaths lightly? What about the coronation oath?  What about our prayers in Parliament? (I’m told half the House sits down in protest during them now, which is a tragedy)

Let me say this. God is not mocked. The decay, decline and collapse of our society is a direct result of our arrogant rejection of God and his covenant, the abandonment of our oaths.

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and cast away their cords from us.’ The Lord laughs in heaven. (Psalm 2:1–4)

He says, “I have installed My King on Zion, My holy mountain” (Psalm 2:6). And to the kings and rulers, the judges and prime ministers, the presidents and magistrates of the world, He says, “Kiss the Son—pay homage to the Son—lest He be angry, and you perish in the way” (cf. Psalm 2:12). What is happening in our nation is thus not an expression of the absence of God. What we’re seeing, as described in the book of Hebrews, is this: “everything that can be shaken will be shaken, so that only that which cannot be shaken will remain” (cf. Hebrews 12:26-27). Christ is on the throne, judging the nations.

The Judgments of Christ and the Illusion of Progress

The session of Christ to his throne of authority is a much-neglected doctrine of Scripture. As Christians, we frequently talk about the resurrection of Christ. We also talk about the ascension of Christ, but we rarely speak of and grasp the full significance of the session of Christ—that is, His being seated at the right hand of all power and authority.

That seat of judgment is important because what we are witnessing in the culture right now is not merely a harbinger of judgment. It is a manifestation of Christ’s present judgment. When God is judging something, He is sweeping it aside to replace it with something else. And that means, at times, we must welcome the judgments of God in our culture because only then are people brought to their senses and wake up to their circumstances.

Today, we find the requirement of obedience to an external and ancient covenant-law difficult—largely because of the modern notion that what is new is better; that what is new is to be valued more than what is old, as though moral laws are like secondhand cars. But antiquity is not a disqualification for the truth or relevance of moral precepts and law. Just because we were born in a century of legal revolution against the Bible doesn’t mean we’ve made progress. In fact, in many areas, we have significantly regressed.

The kingdom of God—and this is clear from the book of Genesis—involves both conserving something and making progress. Tending and keeping, ruling and subduing are all part of the biblical cultural mandate. There are two principles: a conserving principle and a progressive principle. It’s not that we want a static society. It’s not as though we’re saying, “Well, if we could just re-establish the 1950s,” or “if we could just re-establish life as it was in 1650.” There were things better about those times, to be sure. But some things were worse.

True Progress and the Enduring Authority of God’s Word

We wouldn’t have had a spiritual and political giant in England like William Wilberforce if there had been no progress to be made for the Kingdom of God. But the question is: How do we know what is truly progress and what is regression? How do we know what reformation is and not just a reactionary revolution? What is the measuring rod, the standard by which we can judge? The answer is: The Word of God. “Until heaven and earth pass away,” Jesus said, “not a punctuation mark—not one jot or tittle—will pass from my law Word” (cf. Matthew 5:18). Just because something is a certain way in society today doesn’t mean it should be that way—or that it cannot be otherwise. Just because we have been repealing biblical law for seventy years does not mean it is right or has blessed our nation.

For example, repealing laws against Sunday trading—I remember that one, I was just a boy at the time; repealing Christian laws against blasphemy was very recent in England and Wales (2008); repealing laws against sexual perversion in the 1960s; repealing the laws against abortion; now we are in the process of legalizing euthanasia. These are all regressive steps for the social order. Do you know that by 2027, in Canada, they are planning to offer “assisted dying” (euthanasia) to minors—to children—for things like depression? The same legal reality is true with no-fault divorce and other so-called “modern developments.” These things do not become good or just or beneficial simply by being recent. The Christian must always regard God’s Word as the measuring rod of progress or regression. God’s law is superior to all human positive law because it comes from the God who does not change.

The Unique Vision of Biblical Law

In the previously mentioned book, Prof. Jonathan Burnside writes, “We find in biblical rules and judgments a level of insight that has rarely, if ever, been surpassed. Nor do we find in any other legal system a more positive vision for humanity and the world than that found in the biblical legal collections.”

We should not assume that what is must inevitably be—especially when what is is wrong. Biblical law reminds us that the world can be other than it is. The actual is not the ideal or the inevitable. The actual is merely one possibility among others. None of this means there can be no new applications of God’s covenant law-word to new situations. It’s not static in the sense of being wooden, frozen, or unable to be positivized for changing circumstances—that is, made concrete and applied in law for a given people at a given time.

The principles of God’s Word must be applied concretely in each society, and they’re going to look slightly different in form—but not in substance. As one biblical scholar has said, the law is given in three forms:

1. Principles (e.g., the Ten Commandments)
2. Precepts (more specific commands)
3. Case law (specific cases illustrating how principles are applied in real-world situations)

The meaning of God’s law is to be hammered out in experience and in trial. This doesn’t mean the law itself is evolving, but rather that our understanding of its implications develops as new situations arise and bring fresh light to its application. The psalmist in Psalm 119 clearly saw the law as a positive force—a source of personal growth and of the ground of our ability to stand firm amidst the adversities of history. Isn’t it interesting that the longest chapter in the Bible is a celebration of the law of God!

God devotes a great deal of space in His Word to the relevance of His law. “Oh, how I love your law!” says the psalmist. “It is my meditation all the day.”

Biblical Law as a Path to Wisdom and Reform

We might also think of Psalm 1. It summarizes the message of the whole Bible:

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
or stand in the way of sinners,
or sit in the seat of the scoffers,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on His law he meditates day and night.
(cf. Psalm 1:1-2)

Biblical law, then, presents itself as a journey into wisdom for personal, societal and cultural life. And that, in many respects, was the story of Britain—of British law. The common law was a journey into wisdom, of working out the implications of God’s law for society. John Owen, in Oliver Cromwell’s cabinet, looked at the law of England and said, “Too harsh. It’s cruel.” There were over 300 death penalties at the time.  If you hunted a hare illegally on someone else’s land (poaching), they might hang you. That’s unbiblical.

When Christians, especially evangelicals—when God’s people who believe His Word—have been in positions of power and authority, they’ve sought to revise the law in terms of the Word of God. William Wilberforce likewise found injustice in the law. And if you read his letters, when he was dealing with the issue of slavery, for example, he appealed to MPs based on God’s law-Word. I’ve read many of his letters. And he said that if we do not deal with this evil of man-stealing and enslavement—which, by the way, carries a maximum sentence of death in Scripture—then God’s judgment will be upon our nation.

So, biblical law is a journey into wisdom. It speaks to the essentials of justice and righteousness in a variety of literary forms. God gives His law as the constitution of His people as a model for the nations. And when the people disobeyed, He sent his prophets to call them back to His word. What do the prophets say? Remember the law. Remember the covenant-law. You’ve forgotten it again. Go dig it up. Find it. Read it. Exegete it.

The Role of the Law in Reforming Kings and Churches

Do you know where the very first recorded sermon came from? Not Cromwell preaching to Parliament – which he did do! The first sermon recorded in the Bible is found in the book of Ezra. Ezra recovers God’s law, reads it, and preaches it to the people— a people who had become syncretistic. They said, “Yes—Yahweh… and…” They had added to God’s word and then lost it entirely. But the kings of Israel were required by God not only to know God’s law—they were required to make a copy of it for themselves and to read it every single day. Why? “So that their hearts would not be lifted up above the people” (cf. Deuteronomy 17:20). And that’s the origin of the idea of the rule of law. One law for the stranger, the alien, and the native-born alike – God’s law.

Not Sharia law and its courts operating with impunity under British law. Not laws which, with the support of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, allow for parallel legal systems that discriminate as Sharia does against the Kafir (unbeliever).  No, one law for all and equality before the law. It’s only possible to hold a society together when you have one law that applies to all people equally. And so, the prophets were sent again and again to say: Remember My Word. Remember My Word. Remember My Word.

The centrality of this requirement was in part because the law also contains the promise of the Messiah, “the coastlands shall wait for His law” (Isaiah 42:4). And they still do. When thousands of missionaries went out from Scotland and England, especially in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they taught the law of God. And as a result, they ended vile practices in places like India, such as sati, which involved the burning of a wife alive on the funeral pyre of her husband. This is called “Carey’s Law” (after the great missionary to India William Carey) and is still in force today in India.

This covenant law is God’s vision for all societies as understood in and through the person of Jesus Christ. Biblical law is an integration of all the different instructional genres of the Bible, which together express a vision of society ultimately answerable to God.

Wisdom Literature and the Universality of God’s Law

If you open up the wisdom literature of the Bible, in the Psalms, you find songs about God’s righteousness and His law. In Proverbs, you have a father sitting down with his son, applying God’s law to his life — teaching him how to live wisely and justly in the fear of the Lord.

And the apostle Paul declares in the New Testament, “now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19).

In speaking of the law as God’s charter for society, we must not confuse the purpose of the law, “for by the works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). Paul tells us that the law is a tutor—a teacher—and that, in the end, that law leads us to Christ. If we don’t teach the law of God, how can people know they need the grace of God? I think it was John Wesley who said, “Before I can preach love, mercy, and grace, I must preach sin, Law, and judgment. Preach 90% Law and 10% grace,” because he wanted to show people the holiness and righteousness of God so that they might understand their need for grace. It’s not that the law justifies us in God’s sight; rather, the law is like a mirror. But you don’t take the mirror off the wall to wash with it; it simply shows you where the dirt is.

The law justifies no man, but the law points us in the direction of life. It is interesting how Jesus conducted evangelism— a model which we often don’t follow. In one case, when a man came to Him and said, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said, “What does the law say?” The man rattled off a few commandments. Jesus then said, “Do this and you’ll live.” That man then said, “I’ve kept all these since I was a child.” So, Jesus said to him, “Go, sell what you have, give it to the poor, and come follow Me.” And we are told he went away sad because he had much wealth. In short, he was an idolater, and Jesus had to show him that he was, in fact, a sinner, someone who had violated the law of God.

The law is thus a tutor. It teaches people. There’s a direct correlation between the resistance to the Word of God in our land today—especially the gospel of grace in Christ Jesus—and the fact that people do not know the law. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3, cites the law as a collection of God’s commands and wisdom drawn from across the Old Testament. His quotations come from Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah. He makes it plain that knowledge of sin comes by the law, and that the whole world stands accountable to God on that basis. So, man’s socio-cultural and civic accountability is made plain in Scripture.

A much-neglected text also makes this clear—1 Timothy 1:8-11. The Apostle Paul says this:

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this: that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine… (1 Timothy 1:8-10).

And then—notice what Paul adds, “…in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (1 Timothy 1:11). Paul does not drive a wedge between law and gospel. He says the law is in accordance with the gospel. God’s law is not contrary to the gospel. It is in harmony with it. And Paul includes here not only the moral use of the law but also its civil use—all as in accordance with the glorious gospel.

The Failure of Humanitarian Justice and the Rise of Lawlessness

We can see all around us that we’ve abandoned God’s law, especially in matters of civil justice, and replaced it with a humanitarian theory of justice.

Perhaps you are aware of the origins of modern prisons, of the idea of the penitentiary where we incarcerate people, not primarily as a punishment (i.e., retribution and to make restitution), but to cure them, to make them penitent, like a monk shut away in a cloister. The belief was that if we could remove the individual from the hostile social environment that supposedly caused their criminal behaviour, they would come to a place of penitence, be remade, rehabilitated by the state and then released. But what about restitution? This does not go into it. Justice is no longer retributive but offered as a cure, a therapy.

How is that going for us as a society? How is that humanistic anthropology working out with the recidivism rates we’re seeing in the West? Our prisons are heaving—they are full and many are reoffenders. This could be a whole lecture in and of itself. But this illustration of humanistic law at work in the prison system is important.

Theologian Christopher Wright makes some key observations in this area. Among them, he notes that the biblical claim of Israel’s uniqueness was made on the world stage, where there were many other systems of law, some of them admirable.

Wright writes, regarding Deuteronomy 4, that:

Old Testament law explicitly invites—even welcomes—public inspection and comparison. But the expected result of such comparison is that Israel’s law will be found superior in wisdom and justice. This is a monumental claim. And indeed, the humaneness and justice of Israel’s overall social and legal system have been favourably commented on by many scholars who have done the most meticulous studies of comparative ancient law. Its social relevance can still be profitably mined today. From our missiological perspective, these verses articulate a motivation for obedience to the law that’s easily overlooked but highly significant. The point is that if Israel were to live out as God intended, then the nations would notice. Here we find that at least one aspect of the blessing of the nations would be providing such a model of social justice that the nations would observe and ask questions.

Why did people want to come to this country for so long? Why did they want to go to America? Was it for the British food and the weather? No—it was for justice, for the rule of law, for peace, for prosperity. To the extent that we obeyed God’s Word, we were a light on a hill for the nations. But today, our failure to understand the relevance of the biblical vision for society—combined with our present social crisis—has left many people, including Christians, without the tools for kingdom work and faithful service. We are surrounded by moral confusion. We see arbitrary moral judgments and injustice in our courts. Some would even argue that we now have an increasingly two-tier legal system—one that promotes lawlessness and social decay rather than true justice.

Biblical law is supremely relevant because without it, moral judgment itself becomes impossible. Without God’s law, the very definitions of justice and injustice collapse, and we end up only with the tyranny of the strong, of those in power.

The Only Alternative—Freedom in Christ

Let me say this in closing: without a Christian vision of God and the human person, without a biblical understanding of life, law, and liberty, socio-political life is doomed to become a mere exercise of power, indifference, and selfishness. It becomes pure instrumentalism—pure pragmatism. And increasingly, that’s what we see. The inevitable result of a liberal, pagan secularism is the decay of all social order. As the European politician Marcello Pera once observed:

Liberal secularism preaches freedom, tolerance, and democracy with its words—but with its deeds, it attacks precisely that Christian religion which prevents freedom from deteriorating into license, tolerance into indifference, and democracy into anarchy.

One theologian recently summarized the desperate situation of the West in these words:

At present, civil government in the West wants liberty without the gospel, morality without Christ, and affluence without covenant. It is willing to do anything—including forfeiting its lands to Mohammedans—except submit the nation to Christ. Civil leadership is even willing to subsidize polytheism.

And I suggest to you that the only alternative to a lawless and decaying culture is freedom in Christ—through His law and gospel. For “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1).

We must return to Christ and His law—for our own sake, and the sake of our nation.

Thank you very much.