Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 24:1 (Nov 1961)
Article: The Modern State: The Sociology of Justification by Law
Author: Rousas John Rushdoony

WTJ 24:1 (Nov 61) p. 29

The Modern State:
The Sociology of Justification by Law

Rousas John Rushdoony

Culture and society, as Henry Van Til has pointed out in The Calvinistic Concept of Culture, are religion externalized and made explicit. The concept of justification by faith leads inevitably to a radical reconstruction of society in terms of that faith, which has broad implications for all of life.1

Common to all cultures of antiquity is the priestly character of the state, ruler, or central office of the particular society, so that the works of mediation, remission of sins, intercession and other priestly duties have been central aspects of the life of the body politic. Such a state of things has not been the product of usurpation by the state or merely of confusion, but a healthy recognition of the fundamental nature of law and order. In any healthy society, the courts and all other administrators of law serve to preserve social order and well being, and any serious breakdown of the integrity, validity and enforcement of law leads to the progressive collapse of society. Social sin must be atoned for, and the arms of the law function to effect restitution, punishment, and, by removal, the purgation and purification of society. The law in itself is therefore inevitably a manifestation of religion and in essence, even in the “secular” state, religious. The black and clerical robes of modern jurists are an evidence and continuing witness to its medieval claim to priestly status, a claim from which the church was unable to separate the schools of law. Thus, a functioning society requires a functioning law, effective purgation of the sinner, intercession for the oppressed, and justification for the wrongly oppressed. It is no accident of theology

WTJ 24:1 (Nov 61) p. 30

that the language of salvation is juridical language, and salvation a legal transaction, forgiveness itself, indeed, a legal term declaring that the charges are dropped, satisfaction having been rendered (or, charges deferred for the time being).

The language of salvation, of soteriology, is juridical language because the nature of sin is an offense against the law and covenant of Gog. Not only is law again involved, but this time fundamental law, law which must he basic to state law. The state, together with all creation, is set in the context of this higher law, however the law be construed. Again, the life of the state is inseparable from this basic environment of higher and absolute law. If social health requires the proper administration of law by the state, then how much more basic is the proper regard for the higher law? If disregard of state law leads to anarchy and chaos, how much more so the ...