THE COIN CONTROVERSY
Minimally edited from a
Prayer Meeting exhortation by bro Linus Chua on 27 April 2001
“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and
unto God the things which are God’s.”
(Matthew 22:21)
This incident, recorded for us in Matthew 22:15–22, occurs right at the very
end of our Lord’s earthly ministry. In just under two days’ time, He would have
to face that cursed death on the cross. We read in verse 15 of how the
Pharisees took counsel against Him to see how they might trap Him in His words.
The Pharisees hated the Lord and sought to kill Him. See how the words of the
Psalmist were being fulfilled in this very verse—“The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against
his anointed” (Ps 2:2).
Notice in verse 16 that the Pharisees did not go directly to Christ. Instead,
they sent their disciples. Perhaps they thought that they could deceive Christ
into thinking that these disciples of theirs were not tempters but rather
sincere students seeking to learn of Him. Thus, they hoped to catch the Lord
off guard and trap Him before He realised what was happening. Notice again in
verse 16 that the disciples of the Pharisees did not go alone but went with the
Herodians. Now the Herodians and the Pharisees were by no means in agreement
with each other. In fact, these two groups were usually at odds with one
another. The Herodians were a party among the Jews that supported the Roman
Emperor and his representative—Herod. They pledged their allegiance to Rome even though they
were Jews, and they made it their business to persuade the people to subject
themselves to the Roman authorities. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were
haters of Roman rule. They were very zealous for the liberty of the Jews and
wanted very much to be freed from Roman bondage. They believed that God had
made them a free nation and that Caesar was not a lawful or rightful ruler. And
so, although these two parties disagreed with each other on religious and especially
political issues, they wholeheartedly agreed about Jesus and did not hesitate
to unite against Him.
What was their question? It was simply this—“Is it lawful to give tribute unto
Caesar, or not?” And what was their trap? On one hand, if His reply was that it
was unlawful to give tribute or pay taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees, and
especially the Herodians, would have every reason to bring the Lord before the
Roman authorities and accuse Him for being an enemy of Rome. If, on the other hand, He gave an
answer that was favourable to the tax, the Jewish multitudes gathered there,
who until then still highly regarded and respected Christ, would turn against
Him. And so it seemed as if Christ was truly trapped this time, having no way
out.
But the Lord saw through their masks and exposed their hypocrisy. Not only was
He undeceived by their deception, His answer was so astonishing that His
enemies marvelled and went their own way. How then did the Lord answer them? He
first requested that the coin, which was used to pay the taxes, be brought to
Him; and that particular coin used for the poll-tax was the denarius. A
denarius amounted to the daily wage of a soldier or a common labourer in Palestine during those
days. It was made of silver and was minted by the emperor, who alone had the
authority to issue coins in silver or gold. All such coins, including the
denarius, bore an engraving of the emperor on one side and an identifying
inscription on the other. The image and superscription of Caesar on the coin was
especially offensive to the Jews because it reminded them of Roman oppression.
But that was not the only reason. We must remember that Caesar, in Roman
reckoning, was not a mere man but a divine person or, in other words, a god.
Several Roman emperors were known to have accepted titles and appellations of
deity for themselves. Julius Caesar was one. Another was Augustus Caesar, who
even had coins minted proclaiming him to be the son of God. And so the idea of
a divine emperor was repulsive and blasphemous to the Jews.
Now when the coin was brought to Jesus, He said, “Whose is this image and
superscription?“ His opponents immediately replied, “Caesar’s!” Perhaps at that
moment, they were eagerly anticipating the Lord’s next word. Perhaps, they
thought that Jesus would most certainly speak a word against Caesar and Rome. After all, Jesus
had claimed to be the Son of God, making Himself equal with God, and as God, He
would admit no other gods before Him. And so surely He would take this
opportunity to denounce Caesar as a false god, a blasphemer, and openly declare
that it was unlawful to pay taxes to him. Instead, Jesus said, “Render
therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things
that are God’s.” A simple yet extremely profound statement that totally threw
them off and sent them away dumbfounded!
Notice that Jesus used the word render and not the word give,[1] which the Pharisees had earlier used. The
word render means to pay or to give back, implying a debt. It
carried the idea of obligation and responsibility, and was not something
optional. The Jews, for the most part, viewed the payment of taxes as not being
a legitimate duty, and it was done only with great reluctance. Now Jesus
declared that the payment of taxes was not only perfectly legitimate, it was
also morally obligatory. Caesar had the right to demand of them their taxes.
The very fact that the money they used bore the image and superscription of
Caesar implied his authority over them. We learn from here that religion in no
way exempts us from our civil duties and our obligation to obey the earthly
rulers.
But more importantly, Christ went on to teach that we must “render to God the
things that are God’s.” Now Christ was not separating the secular from the
spiritual. He was not saying that one owes allegiance to human government in
regard to material things and allegiance to God in regard to spiritual.
Instead, He was saying that the things which are God’s do not belong to Caesar
and should never be offered to him, but only to God. We see an example of this
truth being applied during the first three centuries when the Church suffered
great persecution under the Romans. Many Christians were required by Roman
officials and soldiers to burn incense at the altar of Caesar and to say the
words, “Kaiser Kurios” or “Caesar is Lord”—implying that Caesar was a
divine person. And many, who refused to do so, were put to horrible tortures
and deaths. These early Christians had obeyed our Lord’s teaching—never to
render to Caesar the things which belong to God.
Application
What lessons may we learn from this incident? I’ll like to draw our attention
to four:
Firstly, we ought to marvel at the infinite wisdom of Christ. Surely
none but He could conceive of such a wise answer that utterly silenced His
opponents. Eliphaz, one of Job’s three friends, described God in this way—“He
disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform
their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel
of the froward is carried headlong” (Job 5:12–13). These words are especially
applicable to Christ in this incident.
Who is a wise Counsellor and Guide like
unto Christ? Christian, are you faced with difficult circumstances in life or
situations that require wisdom beyond yourself to deal with them? Are you faced
with a dilemma at work or at home that threatens to overwhelm you? Are you in a
strait betwixt two, not knowing which way to turn? Then turn to Christ for
wisdom. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He shall direct your paths (Prov 3:5–6).
Secondly, we must examine ourselves to see if our lives indeed bear the
image and superscription of God. We are the Lord’s coins (Lk 15:8–10). Just as
the denarius bore the image and superscription of Caesar, we too must bear the
image and superscription of Christ. Whom do we belong to? Whom do we resemble?
If we belong to God, we should resemble Him. But if we do not belong to God,
then we belong to the Devil and will resemble him. Remember the Lord’s
indictment of the people in John 8:44 when He said, “Ye are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” In this world, we will either
resemble God, our Heavenly Father, or Satan. Whose image and superscription do
we bear? Are we like those described in Colossians 3:10, “And have put on the
new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him…,” and again in
Ephesians 4:24, “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness”? In this life, all who truly belong to God
will receive His grace of sanctification—whereby we are renewed in the whole
man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and
live unto righteousness. May all of us be found to be true believers, and may
the image of God be more and more renewed and restored in us.
Thirdly, if we belong to God, then we must render to Him the things
which are His. The Apostle Paul wrote, “What? know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not
your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor 6:19–20). We must be careful to
render to God the things which belong to God. Christian, are you very careful
and meticulous in ensuring that you render to Caesar the things which are
Caesar’s, for example, in filing your income tax? Will you not also be
meticulous in rendering to God that which is rightfully His? Remember that the
word rendercarries the idea of an obligation, not an option. But
remember too that God loves a cheerful giver, and we ought to render to God out
of a grateful and willing heart like the Psalmist, who uttered those precious
words, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” (Ps
116:12). Let us take time this day to consider all of God’s gracious benefits
towards us. And let us render to Him all the glory, honour and praise due to
Him. There will be no end to praising God. In fact, praising God will be our
chief employment in Heaven for all eternity. But let us begin even now and so
enjoy a foretaste of Heaven.
Finally, we must pray that God would gather in all His lost coins and
that the glorious light of the gospel may still shine in our dark and decaying
generation. Samuel Rutherford, in one of his letters to a friend, wrote, “I am
sorry for our desolate kirk [i.e., church], yet I dare not but trust, so long
as there be any of God’s lost money here, he shall not blow out the candle.”
Indeed we must pray without ceasing and labour all the more diligently for the
salvation of God’s lost coins scattered throughout the world. And for those of
us who have already been found, we must pray that we will be more and more
renewed after the image of our Heavenly Father, and may bear His image and
superscription, to the praise and glory of His Name.
—Linus Chua (edited by J.J.
Lim)
Bro Linus Chua has expressed a subjective call to the ministry and
is under the care of the Session in preparation for seminary training.
Endnote
[1] The word render in Greek is apodidômi,
which is a compound word made up of a preposition apo meaning
“from” and verb didômi meaning “give.” Although it is
translated 9 times as “give” in the KJV, it almost always carries the idea of
debt or recompense. The Pharisees and Herodians had used the word didômi,
which means no more than “give” or “grant” (ed.).