So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then Festus gave the order and Paul was brought in (Acts 25:23).

Among the special hells experienced on this earth surely must be having your fate in the hands of a pompous, but indecisive bureaucrat. Every lawyer appearing before a judge who refuses to read the papers submitted in the case and rules out of convenience rather than understanding will know what I am talking about. Consider their client whose case is snared in the procedural maze of a legal system in which the difference between being right and proving it is money.

Hardworking employees who can’t get a project completed because an administrator dithers over whether to get them the extra help or equipment they need can understand such an ordeal. Students who have studied hard and met every challenge only to have their graduation rest on a committee’s deliberation over an irrelevant technicality know this frustration. So will patients with life-threatening medical conditions who can’t obtain permission from their health insurer for a needed treatment.

I have a client with a major life-saving project on hold because a mid-level bureaucrat refuses to release funds on a contract that has been approved by a public commission, validated by two court decisions, and is supported by precedent and by financial and legal experts. As the bureaucrat’s arguments have been refuted one by one, the arbitrary and capricious nature of her denial has emerged, but has proven surprisingly difficult to dislodge.

There is little doubt that the decision will be reversed in time, but tell that to the millions of children and families who will be delayed in their receipt of vital healthcare services.

I am sure you can think of your own examples of waiting for a decision that will not come while unfairness plagues your days and no one seeks to really care.

The text above describes the Apostle Paul being taken into protective custody by the Roman Army and then falsely accused of stirring up sectarian strife. From that point on he is passed from centurion to tribune to governor to king– a cast of bureaucratic characters worthy of a comic opera. None of them makes much effort to understand his case, or exerts himself to make a finding and render justice (Acts 23 -27).

Jesus uses the image of a hard-hearted, self-absorbed judge refusing to rule in the case of an aggrieved widow to draw a contrast with how quickly God answers the prayers of his children.

Where most would seethe with frustration and a growing cynicism, Paul finds his opportunity for witness. His long imprisonment takes him to places where he would never have entry as a tent-making rabbi. He is able to proclaim the Gospel in prisons, council chambers, courts and Caesar’s palace.

All along the way, Paul astutely refuses to play the power game. Those who assert power over others and those who resist it are really driven by the same thing– power. Generally, power is asserted harshly against those who challenge it, but Paul willingly accedes to Rome’s authority to judge his case (Acts 22:25-29; Acts 25:11-12).

The charges against him were laid by Jews alleging violations of their religious beliefs and practices (Acts 24-25). Paul knew that this gave no cause to take action against him under Roman law. The Jewish leaders’ demand for Paul to be summarily sentenced to death for religious blasphemy would deny Paul the due process of Roman law (Acts 25:13-25).

Somehow through all the smoke of religious tradition and practice that fed the arguments and disputes about him, Paul was able to lay out the central question: will we argue about our theories and ideas of God or will we respond to God’s gift of eternal life through the resurrection?

Paul said, “I have a hope in God–a hope that they themselves (his Jewish accusers) accept–that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. . . Let these men here tell what crime they had found when I stood before the council, unless it was this one sentence that I called out while standing before them, ‘It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today'” (Acts 24:15,20-21).

Paul maintained his dogged hope in the resurrection throughout all the years of buck-passing, corruption, moral cowardice and indecision by those with power over him. But while Paul lives on in his God-breathed writings, the identities of centurions, tribunes, governors, kings and the emperor remain static on the pages of Scripture, Though each of those officials was deemed to have the power of life and death in their time, they are only bit players in an ancient drama played out between religion and state

It is Paul’s testimony of faith–for “dogged hope” is faith–that lives on and inspires us still. He lived for something more than the “here and now” out of love and passion for the Lord.

For all who must live captive to circumstances they can do little about, who suffer under the conceits, posturing, cruelty and thoughtlessness of those who assert power over them, Paul shows that truly free life is found when we give faithful obedience to God alone. Such allegiance makes irrelevant the compulsions and strictures of human power (Eph 6:7-8).

Such obedience is not passive piety. It is a stand taken that God alone is true and worthy of worship. This stand is expressed in love for the unlovely and compassion for the broken. It resounds in integrity maintained against moral compromise and liberty and justice championed against exploitation and oppression. It is the stand of those who conquer Satan “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to their life even in the face of death” (Rev 12:11).

The worst that can befall us under Satan’s power is bodily death. Christ holds power over our soul. It’s Christ’s life revealed in us and for us by which we enter eternal glory (Col 3:1-4). That’s why we are to obey and revere Christ, and not fear Satan (Matt 10:28). This is what David had in mind when he wrote, “With the Lord on my side I do not fear. “What can mortals do to me?” (Psalm 118:6).

Those immunized to the blandishments and punishments of human power by the indwelling life of Christ are viewed as truly dangerous in this world. They are persecuted because their faithfulness is a rebuke to the powerful. Christ rising from the grave to life ended the effective threat of that power over those who put their trust in him (1 Cor 15:45-56).

Jesus promised, ‘Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19b). May we live secure and free in that promise.

Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.