The New Testament’s Great Commission begins not with a task but with a declaration. Before Christ commands his followers to teach and baptize the nations, he states the foundation upon which their mission stands.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18).

His reign is not theoretical or distant. It is present and active. He rules over the church and the nations, over private hearts and public institutions.

This authority defines the shape of Christian witness in every sphere of life, including politics. The Republican party, which often appeals to Christian voters and borrows the moral language of scripture, cannot hope to defend what it refuses to confess. A conservatism detached from the Kingship of Christ will inevitably speak in moral fragments. It may resist for a season, but it cannot reform.

Nations Under the Authority of Christ

When Jesus commands his followers to “make disciples of all nations,” he does not envision a purely private spirituality. He calls for the formation of peoples, institutions and laws that reflect his reign. The early church understood this, as did the ministers and magistrates who shaped colonial New England. Men like Thomas Shepard – a pastor and theological voice behind Harvard’s founding – and John Eliot, who evangelized and organized Native communities into “praying towns” governed by biblical principles, saw no division between the Gospel and civil life (Miller 1953; Grigg 2020).

They were not building private communities of belief. They were establishing moral societies. Their sermons shaped laws, their theology shaped education, and their doctrine laid the groundwork for generations of civic life. These men built institutions with the conviction that Christ rules over both the pulpit and the public square. Education was pursued so that men might read the scriptures and govern their households and communities under the authority of God’s Word (Kimnach 2010).

Modern America has abandoned that foundation. The normalization of abortion, which ends lives made in God’s image (Ps. 139:13–16), and the cultural revolution advanced under the LGBT banner, which redefines marriage and gender against creation itself (Gen. 1:27; Rom. 1:26–27), reveal a civilization that has severed its roots. These are not political preferences. They are rebellions against divine order.

Kingless Conservatism and Its Limits

Crowds chanting, “No kings,” express the modern spirit: the rejection of hierarchy, truth, and moral constraint. That same rejection quietly infiltrates the rhetoric of American conservatism when it speaks only of liberty, but never of lordship. A movement that worships freedom without defining its purpose becomes unable to speak about what is good, just or true.

The Republican Party has seen recent surges in popularity, but these should not be mistaken for evidence of moral strength. The gains are modest. A handful of leaders have recovered clearer moral language, and some states have taken serious steps to restrict abortion or defend the family. But these remain exceptions rather than the rule (Rauch 2023).

In truth, the party’s current momentum owes more to the rapid degradation of the progressive left than to any substantive moral renewal. Its rise is less about conviction than contrast. The excesses of gender ideology, the rejection of parental rights, the celebration of lawlessness, and the collapse of economic realism have driven millions to seek refuge – not because the alternative is bold, but because the alternative is less broken.

This is not a sustainable posture. Public outrage is volatile, and political winds shift quickly. A party that merely benefits from the left’s unraveling will one day find itself stranded when cultural memory fades or when a more competent version of progressivism returns. Lasting influence will only come through clarity, courage and confessional coherence. A movement that cannot name Christ will not long defend what Christ alone defines.

If Christ is not named, then authority belongs to whoever controls the moment. A party that cannot oppose abortion as a moral evil, or defend the family as a divine institution, will eventually retreat into irrelevance. Liberty requires order, and order requires a standard. Without that standard, conservatism offers instinct without direction.

A Strategy Rooted in Authority

If the Republican Party is to offer a meaningful alternative to the moral collapse of modern progressivism, it must recover a political vision grounded in the present authority of Christ. This is not a call for theocracy, but for clarity. The Moral Law is not invented by consensus. It is revealed by God, and good governance must reflect that reality.

Moral Clarity on Life and the Family

Abortion is not a matter for pragmatism. It is a matter of justice (Exod. 20:13). To permit the killing of unborn children is to desecrate the image of God. Likewise, the cultural celebration of sexual identity apart from biological reality denies the created distinction of male and female. Marriage and the family are not social contracts. They are God-ordained institutions. Policy must uphold – not apologize for – these truths.

Strengthening Institutions That Shape Conscience

Nations are not discipled through elections alone. They are shaped through churches, families and schools. These institutions teach citizens what to love, what to fear, and how to live. Political strategy must therefore be aimed at empowering the local structures that preserve moral formation over generations. Religious freedom, parental rights, classical education, and local civic engagement are not ancillary. They are central.

Biblical Economic Principles

Scripture speaks clearly about economic life. It affirms private property (Exod. 22:1–7), honest work (2 Thess. 3:10–12), and community responsibility (Lev. 25:35–37). It condemns theft, fraud, and systems that exploit the poor (Amos 8:4–6; Prov. 11:1). A party shaped by biblical truth should resist the extremes of state centralization and corporate monopoly. It should promote local economies, free enterprise rooted in virtue, and laws that reward diligence rather than dependence. Economics is not separate from ethics.

Reformation Over Nostalgia

It is tempting for conservatives to appeal to the memory of what once was. But mere preservation will not sustain a nation. The goal is not to return to a former time, but to recover the moral foundation that made earlier strength possible. That foundation is not sentimental. It is doctrinal. The early settlers of New England understood this. They built institutions because they knew who Christ is and believed his authority extended beyond the church pew into every aspect of public life.

Their example is not to be copied in form, but in substance. They labored under the conviction that Christ is King now – not merely in heaven, but on earth. They planted churches, wrote laws, and established colleges because they understood that the truth of the gospel was not a private matter, rather, it was the center of civic function.

Conclusion

Christ’s final words in Matthew 28 are not a metaphor. They are a mandate. His authority is comprehensive. It claims the mind and the law, the soul and the schoolhouse. Political movements that draw on the moral language of scripture must be willing to submit to the authority behind it. Otherwise, they will speak without power and govern without direction.

The Republican Party cannot conserve what it will not confess. It cannot offer a moral vision while denying the King who defines morality. But if it will bow, speak truth, and build accordingly, then it may yet serve as a vessel – not merely of resistance, but of renewal.

The Commission has been given. The nations belong to Christ. It is time to speak and govern as though that were true.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

References

— Kimnach, Howard, ed. 2010. The Sermons of Thomas Shepard. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

— Miller, Perry. 1953. The New England Mind: From Colony to Province. Harvard University Press.

— Rauch, Jonathan. 2023. “Why the GOP’s Culture War Wins May Not Last.” The Atlantic, May 16, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/05/republican-culture-war-wins-supreme-court/674033/

— Scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV), Crossway, 2016.

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