Romans 8:33 Christ Justified Us

The Introduction

Romans 8:33 (CSB) Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.

This world and its inhabitants, princes, rulers, and principalities crouching, and ready to pounce and devour your heart and soul. They are not always going to do it with outright accusations, but they might resort to that.

“Look at your life! Look at all the mistakes you’ve made! You can’t even stay married.”

“You are a failure! How many times have you switched jobs in your lifetime? Pathetic.”

“Why are you so fat? You are disgusting. No one can love you. No one is going to look at you.”

“Why are you so stupid? You can’t figure out shit!”

“Why even try?”

“Why do you think such wicked and evil thoughts? Why do you call yourself a Christian? Surely, you are not saved.”

“You are a fake and everybody knows it. God knows it.”

I have sinned! I have sinned against countless people. I’ve worked in the porn industry. I have trafficked women for pleasure and profit. Who can out sin me? NOBODY! And if the Bible is correct (bonus: it is), then all of my sins are ultimately against God himself.

Psalm 51:4 (CSB) Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.

Was Paul is the chief of sinners? Try again, chief! Paul couldn’t out sin me on his best day. I stand at the top as the chief of all sinners past and future. I have brought wickedness, destruction, chaos, hostility, evil, and trespass against God. I have railed against God. I have warred against the Almighty. I was the greatest enemy of God because I sinned and continued to sin all the while thinking I am saved by Him while displaying no fruit of that salvation.

And I had Satan, and his demons, and the world to constantly remind me of my failures and sins—those still remain against God alone.

Our God

But in his great love for me, God saw my wickedness, my depravity, my continuous evil thoughts and actions, and traitorous acts and definitely and defiantly declared, “That is my son! I want him in my family! And I will do so sacrificing my only begotten Son to make it happen!”

Let the charges pile up. Let the accusations come. I stand accused as the adulteress thrown at the feet of Jesus or the prostitute who saw the armies of the Lord approaching her home. I stand charged as Stephen before the Pharisees and an all-approving slayer of Christians. I stand condemned as a man born evil and always has done evil against the only God who is just and right and good.

But in the furious flames of charges that are poured upon me, Christ alone is my Rock of Ages that protects me as I rest on the cool side as His elect.

I have not sinned against the Devil, demons, hell, death, or even the world. I have sinned against God alone! All of my sins—past, present, and future—was a clear statement that I have hated God and his people.

The Gospel

And yet, it was God who saw me in my great evil, depravity, wickedness, and vileness and only because He loved me, He sent his Son to die for me:

Romans 5:8 (CSB) But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And it was God who has chosen me before the world began:

Ephesians 1:3–14 (CSB) Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

And it was God who stepped into creation, called my name and raised me from the dead:

Ephesians 2:1–3 (CSB) And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

While I was doing nothing but evil:

Titus 3:3 (CSB) For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.

Our Response

And yet:

Titus 3:4–7 (CSB) But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

And it was God who is rich in mercy:

Ephesians 2:4–7 (CSB) But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

And it was God who gave me grace and faith:

Ephesians 2:8–9 (CSB) For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

And it was God who overflowed his grace with the same faith and love that are in His Son, Christ Jesus, my Savior, and Lord:

1 Timothy 1:14–16 (CSB) and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them. But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life.

And it was God who gave me a new heart and His Spirit so that I can walk in his statutes and obey him by loving Him and loving others:

Ezekiel 36:25–28 (CSB) I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

I am elect and justified and saved all because what Christ has done for me:

Galatians 2:20 (CSB) I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I have sinned against God alone but it is God alone who justifies.

Who is like our God and who compares to Him? He alone is love.