Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
33Who
will bring a charge against [the] elect of God? God [is] the One justifying. 34Who
[is] the one condemning? Christ is the One who died, rather even was raised
from death; who is also to the right hand of God; who also is interceding on
behalf of us.
Beginning back in v.17, the issue in view has been our suffering in this world. Having established our “Abba, Father!” relationship with the Lord in v.15, He has since focused His inspired Word on this inevitable reality that “in this world you shall have tribulation” (John 16:33). He has assured us that the entire Creation is groaning under the curse of sin and that our groaning is in part simply a matter of our presence here. He has assured us that we have even the very Holy Spirit Himself taking the worst of our groanings and carrying them to the ears of the Father. He has assured us that “all things work together for good.” He even told us very specifically what that good would be – that “we should be conformed to the image of Christ” and that we are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. The sum of it all, in v.31, is to give us the greatest assurance of all – that “God is for us.”
If you and I should bear up under the afflictions of this world, we desperately need that assurance. We need to be convinced in our hearts that our God truly is infinitely greater than all the powers of hell and is Himself determined to carry us home.
Now, even if you and I have drunk deeply from the well of Romans chapter 8 and believe its words with all our hearts, there is one last challenge that will undermine it all – my sins. Yes, I am without a doubt my own worst enemy, and I know it. Under the burden of our sufferings, we are all haunted by the knowledge that I have and do fail miserably to be what I know Jesus desires of me. “How then can I claim all these glorious promises?” my soul asks. “Surely, this time I’ve gone too far. Surely I’ve abused His grace and He’s fed up with me now. All those ‘very great and precious promises’ don’t apply to me. I’ve failed too much.” Or perhaps we might be thinking, “God is punishing me for my sins!” These very thoughts will completely upend the confidence you or I should have gained from all we’ve learned in Romans 8.
In His great kindness, He for a
moment leaves this context of suffering which has been the focus since v. 17
and returns to that fundamental issue behind it all – our sins. And what do we
learn? He has injected vv.33.34 specifically to address these very thoughts. And
what does He say? He asks, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?
It is God who justifies.”
First of all notice what He calls you – “God’s elect.” This is the first time He has called you this in the book of Romans. You’re one of His “elect,” one of His “called out ones.” Here is another place where the supposed theologians go berserk. “Elect!” they cry. “That means some people are not!” May I remind you again, it.does.not.say.that. God is not talking to anyone but His children, to people who have come to faith, who have been born again. He is not talking to anyone else. When He talks to the rest of the world, He tells them “Whosoever will may come,” If the “theologians” really gave a hoot about what the Bible says, they’d stick to the text, explain for people what the Lord actually says, and stop “darkening counsel without knowledge.”
The plain simple fact is, if you
are born again, if you really have through Jesus entered into a personal relationship
with the living God, you get to enjoy this incredible truth that you are one of
His “elect.” This takes us back to vv.30, that you and I are saved not because
we somehow rose above everyone else and had faith. No, that verse told us it
was God who predestined, called, justified, and glorified us.
That assurance was intended to bolster our faith and our hearts when we face the difficulties of this world. Now in vv.33,34, He wants to remind us this assurance goes beyond our troubles and actually addresses our sins. “It is God who justifies.” God is the judge. God is the very One who ultimately decides our fate. Yet, He is the very One who declared you and me “justified.” So, the question remains, “Who shall bring anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Actually, the answer is there are plenty who are more than happy to bring charges – the devil who accuses us day and night, a world full of hateful, judgmental people, and, unfortunately, our own consciences. However, what good is it to take charges to the very One who has already declared us justified, made us His children, and who, we discover, determined to do all of that in eternity past!!! Remember, God demonstrates His love toward us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
That brings us to v. 34, “Who is He that condemns? It is Christ who has died, who rose again, and who is even at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.” It is something of great value to stop and pause over each of those phrases and milk them for the jewels they are. However, if nothing else will lift you or I out of our doldrums of despair, may we look fully into the face of Jesus Himself and remember He saved us “to the uttermost.” In the book of John, we learn that all judgment has been committed to the Son. In reality, it is Jesus Himself who will ultimately judge the world – but He is the very One who took your sins and mine to the Cross, suffered that horrible death, rose again, and now “ever lives to make intercession for us.” Though, as in Job’s case, the devil himself may accuse us to the very throne of God, there to His right hand will always be Jesus with those nailed scarred hands, reminding eternity that, though true, those accusations are meaningless, because our debt is already paid!
No. Even our sins cannot stand in the way of our God’s “very great and precious promises” of His eternal love to us.
I suppose I need to address some people’s objection, “But if all this is true, then that means I’m free to just sin!” That objection has already been thoroughly and completely refuted by the book of Romans, but I will respond by saying people who really are born again simply don’t think that way. As the old saying goes, if a pig falls in the mud, he’ll stay there as long as he can and love every minute of it. However, when a lamb falls in the mud—and he may—he cannot stay there. He must get out and get cleaned. So it is with God’s children. We’re not pigs anymore. We’re His sheep, and though we may (and do) fail miserably, we cannot stay there. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in churches who claim to be saved and even rise to high positions, yet have never truly entered into a personal relationship with God. Those people may hear these promises and take them as a license to sin. However, the failure is not in God’s Word or His promises, but rather in those to whom those very promises do not apply.
If you’re born again, the good news is that all these promises do apply to you. Romans 8 would assure you His promises are yours no matter what troubles you face in this world, and then goes on to assure you that even your absolute worst enemy—you—cannot stand in the way of those promises. It is all of grace and ours for all eternity!
Even in the worst of our troubles, even when we feel we’ve failed the most, may we crawl into our Father’s lap, look into His kind eyes, enjoy the warmth of His embrace, and say, “I love you. Help me love you more.” He alone can clean off the mud and show eternity who we really are—His.
