According to Genesis 2, after God created man, He put man in front of Himself to be under His direct government (Gen. 2:8, 15), to live before Him and to be responsible to Him. That was the divine government. At that time there was no separation, hindrance, or frustration between God and man. Man could fellowship with God directly in his spirit; moreover, his soul was under the direction of his spirit, and his body was under the control of his soul. Man lived directly under this divine government, living and walking according to the guidance of God’s presence.
However, man disobeyed God’s prohibition and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, man was constituted a sinner (Rom. 5:19), having a record of sin against him outwardly (Rom. 5:18) and the nature of sin inwardly (Rom. 5:12). At this time, the holy, righteous God had no alternative but to leave man, and man could no longer live before God to be under His direct government. Therefore, from the time of Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the time of Noah’s departure from the ark, God established the conscience within man to represent Himself in ruling over man. Thus, man was ruled by his own conscience and was responsible to his own conscience. That was self-government.
According to the truth of the entire Bible and also according to our experience, when God created man, He created a conscience in man. However, it was not until the time of the fall, when man partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that the function of the conscience was made manifest. Before the fall, man was in an innocent state, like a newborn babe. Therefore, at that time he was not ashamed of his nakedness. This proves that within man there was no concept of good and evil, right and wrong; this also indicates that there was neither the feeling nor the function of the conscience. After the fall, man immediately felt ashamed of his nakedness. This sense of shame was the beginning of the function of the conscience; that is, the function of the conscience was activated. Since then, man’s conscience has borne the responsibility of rejecting evil and accepting good, enabling man to discern right and wrong, to know what God justifies and what He condemns. Therefore, God put man under the government of his conscience to maintain human existence, that man might receive the redemption of God in Christ to accomplish God’s eternal economy.
God had prepared redemption for man that He might be man’s supply, thus enabling man to walk and work with Him; moreover, He had established the conscience within man to represent His rule over man. Nevertheless, man would not be governed by his conscience to receive God’s salvation. Thus he fell repeatedly, and was eventually judged by God through the flood. Man did not remain very long under self-government. The first person to violate the rule of the conscience was Cain. He murdered his brother Abel, lied to God, and was arrogant toward God. Later, because of man’s deeper fall, even the feeling of the conscience was cast aside. Man’s conscience became numb, as if it were seared with a hot iron, so that even when he indulged in licentiousness and lusts he hardly had any feeling at all. Therefore, before the flood the earth was filled with violence, every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually, and all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth (Gen. 6:5, 11-12). The whole human race had become flesh (Gen. 6:3), and man was wicked and corrupt to the uttermost, so that even the most tolerant God could no longer tolerate it. Therefore, the Spirit of God had to withdraw (Gen. 6:3), and man was fully cut off from God and rejected by God. Eventually God used the flood to bring in the judgment of destruction, rescuing only the eight members of the house of Noah.
Fallen man disobeyed his own conscience and was not ruled by his conscience. Therefore, after the flood, God gave man authority over the lawless ones to maintain the existence and order of the human race in order to produce the new race, which was to be chosen and called by God, for the fulfillment of His eternal plan.
Before the flood, there was no human government. It was only after the flood that God established a deputy authority on earth. God commanded Noah, saying, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed” (Gen. 9:6). This indicates that God put man under the authority of others. Because man was neither subject to God’s government nor obedient to self-government, God had to give man authority to rule over others. As a result, soon there began to be nations, and there came into existence among the human race the control of government, the restraints of society, and the regulations of the family. For example, in a nation there are the president and other officials; in a factory, the supervisors; in a school, teachers and a principal; and in a family, parents and elder brothers. All these are deputy authorities set up by God to rule over man. Therefore, Romans 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to the authorities over them.” This is human government. God wants the man who fell from the government of the conscience to be ruled by man and be responsible to man. God uses all the deputy authorities to maintain the human race so that the man whom He has chosen and whom He will call may come into being, that His purpose may be fulfilled.