THE Christian Church has the favour and authority from God, not only to believe in and adhere to the precious truths of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but to testify to and also propagate these truths publicly, without let or hindrance. Now Paul on his final visit to Jerusalem was found in the temple by Jews from Asia, who “stirred up all the people and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help, This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place . . .” (Acts xxi, 27, 28). But he was preserved, in the providence of God, by the chief captain and soldiers, from being murdered by these Jews; and while being taken into the castle for his personal safety and inquiry by the captain, replied to a question as follows: “I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people” (Acts xxi, 39). Having thus assured the captain that he was no foreign revolutionary, permission was granted him to address the multitude, which he did in defence of his person, character and conduct. Paul principally related in his speech, the facts regarding his being a Jew, his pre-conversion persecution of the followers of Christ, the wonderful steps in his conversion, and the terms of his commission from the Lord to go unto the Gentiles (Acts xxii). And when he had uttered the words of his divine Master, “Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles” (Acts xxii, 21), the multitude gave him audience to this word, “And then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live” (verse 22). At this stage Paul was again brought into the castle by the captain’s command, and was “to be examined by scourging,” that is, information was to be extracted from him by the application of this rigorous and cruel treatment. Without delay Paul asserts his relationship to the Roman civil government and his claim to enjoy the privileges and protection of that same civil authority, as a Roman citizen. He said to the centurion that stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?” And thereupon the centurion warned the chief captain, saying, “Take heed what thou
doest, for this man is a Roman.” Then the captain asked Paul, “Art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born” (See Acts xxii, 25-28).
And here we must pause to indicate with emphasis, that from this point Paul was being deprived of that which belonged to him legally, as a man and a Christian, namely, his civil and religious liberty in the society of men, under the prevailing civil government of the Roman Empire. Neither man nor devil could deprive him of that spiritual and soul liberty which he possessed and enjoyed in Christ Jesus, His Lord and Saviour. With this the Apostle was not now particularly concerned, nor when later he appealed unto Caesar.
Leaving aside much of the graphic narrative of this period in Paul’s experience, we pass to another outstanding phase in the withholding from him of that which belonged to him. Forty men formed a conspiracy to kill Paul, which was exposed and frustrated by the providential intervention of “Paul’s sister’s son,” who privately related the details of the wicked plot to the chief captain (see Acts xxiii, 12-21). Thereafter Paul was sent to Felix, the Roman governor, at Caesarea, who announced to the Apostle, “I will hear thee . . . when thine accusers are also come” (Acts xxiii, 35). And still deprived of his liberty, Paul was kept in Herod’s judgment hall.
Five days later, “Ananias the high priest, descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul” (Acts xxiv, 1); and charged Paul falsely and maliciously with being a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition among the Jews, a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarines and one who had profaned the temple. Then Felix, the governor, permitted Paul to speak in answer to the charges preferred against him. He denies the charges, declares they cannot prove them, but confesses, “. . . that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers . . . and herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” (Acts xxiv, 12-16). After this hearing of the case, Felix defers proceedings, and Paul was kept by a centurion in custody, although allowed limited liberty as a privileged prisoner; and yet what was legally his, was still being withheld from him, by the procedure and determination of his and Christ’s enemies, and the compromising caution of the civil magistrate, Felix. Following upon this, the inspired record reveals that Paul was further deprived of his personal liberty and legal rights for the lengthy period of two years; for, “After two years Porcius Festus came into Felix room; and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound” (Acts xxiv, 27). Here we see the bias of Felix toward the enemies of Paul and the cause of Christ for his own carnal popularity and selfish ends, as a provincial and inferior administrator and legal officer in the Roman order and organisation.
Festus soon visits Jerusalem, and the Jews immediately inform him against Paul and desire that Paul would be taken up to Jerusalem from Caesarea that they might lie in wait by the way to kill him (Acts xxv, 1-3). Truth, justice and a regard for the rights of others, are conspicuous by their absence, when the devil stirs up and agitates the wicked hearts of men against the Lord Jesus, His Truth, and His people and Church in the world. But Festus orders the case to be reviewed by him at Caesarea; and on this occasion Paul again answers for himself, thus, “Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all” (Acts xxv, 8). In nothing had he forfeited his claim to personal liberty as his civil right, as a Roman citizen, and under the supreme civil jurisdiction of Caesar, the Roman Emperor.
Compromise, that evil mode of handling matters where principles of a righteous nature are being opposed by unscrupulous men, was recommended by Festus to Paul, the injured party, with a view, not to administer justice, but to panders to and please Paul’s enemies. “Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?” We understand this to mean that the Apostle would be thrown back upon trial by the Jewish Sanhedrin, under the supervision of Festus, an ecclesiastical body of religious men, whose religion and authority had no place in the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had been unchurched by their rejection of Christ and His truth, and Paul knew well that they would determine that he should lose civil liberty and life itself.
Although Paul was an eminent soldier of Jesus Christ and prepared to hazard his life for the sake of Christ and His Gospel in particular; he reveals that it was not his duty to permit wicked men to flech from him without just cause shewn, his civil claims and rights to possess freedom of speech and action, within the requirements of the prevailing civil law. He was not prepared, even as a Christian, to forfeit his just claim to what was his within the realm of matters civil, when the forfeiture of such a claim would but cater to the diabolical designs of his and Christ’s enemies. Therefore Paul rejects the recommendation of Festus in these words, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged . . . but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them” (Acts xxv, 10-11).
Finally, Paul utters these memorable words, “I appeal unto Caesar” (Acts xxv, 11). He thus carried his case to the highest civil authority and court in the Roman Empire to present his righteous and legal claim for the restoration of that which belonged to him as a Christian and a Roman citizen, even the right, the freedom, to labour, to teach and preach as a servant of Jesus Christ.
There are not a few important principles which emerge from a due consideration of the Apostle’s conduct and example in appealing to Caesar, with which we cannot now deal. But we would quote the following: “God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people, for his own glory and the public good; and to this end, hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defence and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil-doers” (Confession of Faith, Chapter XXIII, Section i). And “… Infidelity, or difference in religion, doth not make void the magistrates’ just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to him, from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted…” (Confession of Faith, Chapter XXIII, Section iv). These statements from The Confession of Faith are, as we hold, based solidly upon the Word of God. Dr. A. A. Hodge, commenting on the aforesaid part of The Confession of Faith, Section i, states, “The specific way in which the civil magistrate is to endeavour to advance the glory of God is through the promotion of the good of the community (Rom. xiii, 4) in temporal concerns, including education, morals, physical prosperity, the protection of life and property, and the preservation of order.” And Paul had indeed the mind of the Spirit when he appealed to, and made use of, the authority and power of Caesar, when his circumstances as a Christian, justified this procedure.