Fool,
I don't understand how you could possibly be missing how this works. In fact, I believe you do understand but are simply being a horses rear, but be that as it may, I will explain it for the sake of all who are reading this with full confidence that you will twist it to say something other than what it says at well.
I am talking about authority structures, plain and simple. Take the military for example. Do you understand that if a General orders you to obey a Corporal's instructions that the General has delegated his authority to the Corporal and if you take it upon yourself to usurp the Corporal’s authority in that context then you are usurping the authority of the General? But if the Corporal tried to get you to obey an unlawful order then you would be obligated to not follow that order even if that order would otherwise fall under the purview of the delegated powers because the General himself is not above the law. Thus "I was just obeying orders." doesn't cut it when a soldier is put on trial for war crimes. And so in this military example you have four tiers of authority. You have the law, you have the General which derives his authority from the law; the Corporal who derives his authority from the General and then there is you.
Likewise, God has delegated certain powers (authority) to the government, and He has delegated certain powers to us as individuals. Those powers are different and separate. I do not have the authority to make the government obey God's command, nor have I been given the authority to take the law into my own hands. In fact, doing so has been expressly forbidden by God. So I am responsible first of all to God, who is the highest authority and who has commanded me to obey the governing official. But the governing official's authority is derived from God who delegated that authority to it and so I must not obey any command given me by the government to disobey God because their authority does not reach that far. Thus to obey the government is to obey God unless that government is commanding disobedience towards God which a government that upheld Biblical law would not be doing in the first place.
Resting in Him,
Clete
