Having previously noted the key passages in Scripture which provide us with important Biblical references with regard to the Christian attitude towards the State, we now need to draw some conclusions.
The first and most essential thing we must keep in mind is that God is the Creator. Perhaps we forget this, or at least don't consider it with sufficient importance. We tend to focus more on God being our Saviour. After all, He sent His only dearly loved Son into the world in order to die, and in so doing, make right with God all who turn to Jesus in trust. There is salvation in no one else and by no other means (Acts 4:12; 2Cor 5:19).
It is patently true. But how often do we leave this truth out of our consideration of a matter? We must always start our thinking and the development of our understanding with God!
In the beginning God created, and His creative works were a reflection of Himself - good. Only later when the pinnacle of His creation rebelled against Him and introduced corruption and decay into His creation did He also become the Saviour. However at no point in His declaration of grief and anger over the sin of mankind, or in the declaration of His love for His people did God ever cease to be the Creator.
Sometimes we may get the impression from the way Christians speak about the world that God lost interest in His creation when He entered it, or that God is only interested in Christian people. However, as Jesus himself reminds us (Matt 5:43-45), God's desire and longing for those who oppose Him is that we still love and pray for them because this is what the sons of the heavenly Father do, and He Himself continues to "cause His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
Whatever mankind may think, or the attitudes of godless people may be, this is still God's world. Leaders of nations and industry may stand upon the podium of their power and wield immense influence and even appear to manipulate the wellbeing or death of many people under them, but for all the power they have, the world still belongs to God and remains under His special oversight. We may think that sin would cause our Lord to lose interest in the world, and yet, though the sin of the world grieves Him deeply, and though mankind has fallen and is born into sin, God is still doing something very special for His people. God is calling a people for Himself out of this world into His kingdom even as He remains deeply involved and interested in the world.
We need only to remember that God has set certain things in place which form the very foundation of stable and healthy life in the world. These measures which are often referred to as God's creation ordinances and which we have already noted are ignored at the peril of those who choose to live in rebellion to them.
God ordained, for example, that a man and a woman are to form the most fundamental unit of society (Gen 2:24). He was quite specific and made sure we could never be confused or misunderstand this most fundamental building block to healthy living when He rejected the possibility of homosexual unions (Rom 1:26-32). Is it possible that this is only for Christians, and doesn't apply to those who are enemies of God? Some may try to argue this way, but the truth of God's ordinance cannot be rejected so easily. It is an absolute measure God set down for all people, irrespective of whether they are Christian or not.
Likewise the authority and place of the state is not an invention of clever people. How many times do we hear that sort of argument? If you want to discard a fixed fact of life which the human race has lived by for as long as people have existed, then you declare that thing an invention, and if humans invented it, others can reject it. The problem is, marriage, family, the State, the sanctity of human life, the cycle of six days work, and one of rest and dedicated worship; these are all absolute declarations and established ordinances from God. It was God who divided up the limits and extent of people into nations. It is God who determined the place and function of the state, and the powers people may exercise. He is the One who ordains states, kings and presidents.
What we do not have in Scripture is a clear idea of the particular form of state we are to have, but that God ordained government is clear.
Ignore God's decrees, and we must suffer and accept the consequences. This was and remains God's creation - God's world.