No Accusation and No Condemnation

Is there a possibility that believers in Jesus Christ can find themselves ultimately condemned by God? Is there a possibility of God saying to them on that day, “I never knew you. Depart from me!”? Is there a possibility that believers can lose their salvation, or that some new charges will be brought against them, reversing their justification? The answer to all of these questions is, “Not at all!”

In Romans 8:33-34 Paul gives us five solid reasons for our total security and final salvation on the last day: 1) God the Father justified us; 2) Christ died for us; 3) Christ has been raised; 4) Christ is seated at the right hand of God in heaven; and 5) Christ is making intercession for us in heaven.

1. God the Father Justified Us

Paul asks, “Who will bring any charge against God’s chosen ones?” The answer is that there are many who will bring charges against us, but the idea is that the charges cannot stick. For instance, our enemy Satan brings charges against us. He is called the accuser of the brethren. John writes, “For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down” (Rev. 12:10). Job was blameless, yet Satan accused him before God as being full of blame: “Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.’ ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied” (Job 1:8-9). Satan had a sound argument. Most Christians serve God to get something, for some temporal benefit. But God argued that it was not true of Job.

The devil hates our salvation. He hates our justification, sanctification, and glorification. Therefore he tempts us and accuses us to God himself. When God tests us, he wants us to succeed, and he helps us do so. But the devil only wants us to fail.

See what Satan did in reference to Peter. Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). Satan wants to sift us as wheat. He tells God that we are not wheat, that we are not children of God, but that we are just chaff.

Remember what Satan did to Joshua the high priest:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.” (Zech. 3:1-4)

Satan accused the high priest Joshua of being full of sin and guilt. How can he function as high priest? But God gave Joshua new garments, standing for righteousness.

Not only does Satan accuse us, but false brothers also accuse and slander us. Paul says,

For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. . . . For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. . . . I have been . . . in danger from false brothers. (2 Cor. 11:4, 13-15, 26)

This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. (Gal. 2:4)

The world of unbelievers also accuses God’s people all the time. Jesus told his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. . . . I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 15:18-19; 16:33).

Moreover, our own consciences can accuse us-sometimes correctly, but other times falsely. What do we do when we are falsely accused by our own consciences? John writes, “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20). We must argue to our consciences that, having known everything about us, God still justified us.

What, then, should we do when we are accused by Satan, by false brothers, by the world, and by our consciences? We must resist the devil by doctrine, through understanding God’s declaration concerning us. We must resist the devil by the truth of the word of God. That is why those who refuse to learn the truth of the gospel cannot stand when they face such accusations. Resist the devil, who comes as a roaring lion to devour us. Resist him by faith in God. John writes, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev. 12:11). Resist him by remembering the facts of our salvation, the great indicatives of doctrine. Tell him, “Yes, I was guilty as charged, but my sins have been blotted out.” The Lord himself says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. . . . I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Is. 43:25; 44:22). In Jeremiah 50:20 we read, “‘In those days, at that time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare.'” Who is searching? It may be Satan or false brothers or the world or maybe our consciences. But they will find nothing; the case is closed. No charge brought against us will stick, either now or on the last day, because we are God’s beloved, foreloved and chosen in his beloved Son. Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?

We are God’s peculiar people, a people of God’s own possession. We are God’s portion and inheritance. We are God’s treasure. Therefore, any charges brought against us are against God himself, who chose us to salvation. God loves us with everlasting love, and many waters cannot quench this love of God for us. How can our enemies bring charges against us when God the Judge is for us? He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless and blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. This God who chose us is the Judge of the Supreme Court of the universe, and he has already justified us. He makes a judicial declaration about us, as he did about Job, that we are just, righteous, and holy. We are as righteous as his beloved Son. He justified us justly because his righteous law has been fully kept by his Son, our representative, redeemer, and mediator.

All our sins are pardoned forevermore. More than that, we have been clothed in divine righteousness. This justification is once for all; it cannot be reversed. God has justified the ungodly, and no new charge can be brought against us by anyone. We died to the law and are married to Christ. Now we are outside of the reach of God’s law; we are under grace.

All sin is against God, and God himself justifies us. So Paul’s statement, “It is God who justifies” paralyzes all our accusers. We are in God, in Christ Jesus. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Know this doctrine of justification so that you can resist all the accusations of your enemies. God promised, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

2. Christ Who Died

Paul writes, “It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?” (vv. 33-34). Condemnation is the opposite of justification. Since we are justified, who can condemn us on the last day? God the Father has given Jesus Christ all authority to judge on the last day. Peter declared, “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). Paul proclaimed, “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Elsewhere Paul writes, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).

Can anyone condemn us on the last day? How can anyone curse those who are blessed? Balaam wanted to curse the people of God. But he found that he could not do it because they are blessed. So he said, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it” (Num. 23:19-20). We are blessed and no one can change it. So in Isaiah 50:8-9 we read, “He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me?” The answer is, “No one.”

Can Judge Jesus condemn us on the last day? No, Jesus Christ does not condemn us. The works of Christ have freed us from all condemnation. So the second reason for our security is “Jesus who died.” The wages of sin is death, and Jesus died in our place and for our sin. He came to give his life a ransom for many. He is our Boaz, our kinsman-redeemer. The sinless Son of God died for the sinful sons of men. He obeyed and suffered as our representative. So God’s faithfulness and justice demand that we be not punished, but pardoned and justified.

God incarnate, not a bull, was sacrificed. Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” Nothing can be added to Christ’s finished work of atonement. God condemned our sin in Christ’s flesh. Christ defeated all our enemies by his death-the devil, death, the world, sin, the law, and hell. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all our sins.

Theologian Karl Barth was asked what the most important word in the Bible is. He responded that it is the preposition huper (“on behalf of” or “for). Christ died for our sins. He died in our place, for our salvation. So Paul writes, “Christos huper híªmôn apethanen – Christ in behalf of us died” (Rom. 5:8).

3. More Than That, He Has Been Raised

The third solid ground for our assurance of salvation is that not only did Christ die and was buried, but he also was raised by the Father (see Romans 1:4; 4:25; 6:4; 8:11). Paul says elsewhere, “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Eph. 1:19-20). In 1 Corinthians 15, which is a celebration of the resurrection of Christ, Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. . . . And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (vv. 14, 17).

The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves several things:

1. Christ was sinless. No resurrection would have shown that Jesus was a sinner just like us, in need of a Savior. The resurrection shows that he was, as he said, sinless.
2. Christ’s atoning sacrifice was accepted by God the Father. The resurrection was the Father’s “Amen” to Christ’s cry, “It is finished.”
3. God’s law and justice have been fully satisfied.
4. Jesus Christ, as he declared, was and is the Son of God.
5. Jesus will judge the world on the last day.
6. Jesus Christ is the author of salvation to all who obey him. He is raised a Prince and Savior (Acts 5:31).

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “The resurrection does not justify us.” Rather, he states, “The resurrection is the proof to us that we have been justified by our Lord’s death.”¹ Look to the cross and know that atonement has been made. Then look at the risen Christ and know that his atonement has been accepted. A dead Savior is a contradiction in terms. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). This leads us to the fourth argument.

4. This Jesus Christ Is at the Right Hand of God

Jesus has been glorified in answer to his high priestly prayer: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). He has been exalted to the right hand of God: “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel” (Acts 5:31). (PGM) Peter speaks of “the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand-with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him” (1 Pet. 3:21-22). Even now Jesus is seated on the right hand of God. His Father has given him the place of supreme honor. Christ Jesus is exalted to universal dominion as King of kings and Lord of lords. He has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Jesus is in God’s presence also as our high priest. Once a year the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with the blood of sacrifice so that he could sprinkle it on and before the mercy seat. He did this as the representative of the twelve tribes of Israel whose sins needed to be atoned. And when he came out with the good news that their sins had been covered by the blood, those waiting outside rejoiced.

But Jesus entered the heavenly tabernacle by his own blood. In God’s presence his own sacrifice offered by himself obtained for us full pardon and justification. So in Hebrews 9:24 we read, “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” as our high priest to represent us and pray for us.

Thus there is no more accusation and condemnation. Christ our high priest is in God’s presence for us, and he is seated. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs” (Heb. 1:3-4). Look at Psalm 110, one of the oft-quoted passages from the Old Testament: “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'” (Ps. 110:1).

We are told that God rested after creation because the work of creation is finished. Now in heaven Christ is seated, resting from his redemption work. There were no chairs for the priests in the tabernacle or in the temple because their work was never finished. But now the work is finished. Jesus, therefore, is seated in his glorious body in heaven. Stephen, Paul, and John saw him in such glory.

Jesus Christ is Lord over all creation. Now his job is to destroy all his enemies, whom he already destroyed in principle on the cross. We read, “Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool” (Heb. 10:13). Paul writes, “Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he ‘has put everything under his feet.’ Now when it says that ‘everything’ has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ” (1 Cor. 15:24-27). Jesus works to destroy every enemy.

If you are an unbelieving enemy of Christ, listen to this warning: “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Ps. 2:10-12).

Not only is Christ seated, but also we the church, his bride, are seated with him. Christ is our head. He loves and protects us. This is our security. He is no longer in a state of humiliation. He has been glorified as the Prince and Savior of his people.

5. Jesus Is Interceding in Behalf of Us

What is Jesus doing in heaven? He is ever-interceding huper (“in behalf of”) us. He died, he was raised, and he was seated. That is all in the past. Now Paul uses a present tense verb: “Christ Jesus . . . is also interceding for us.” To put it simply, Jesus is praying for us.

All that Jesus did was in behalf of us-his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his session, and now his intercession. Jesus will never die again. He lives forever and, therefore, he will intercede for us forever.

While on earth, he prayed for Peter. He also prayed for the other disciples, and he prayed for us: “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. . . My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:9, 15).

Moreover, his prayer is always effectual: “I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:42). Now he prays for us in heaven. He prayed to the Father that the Holy Spirit be sent to us to be with us forever as another Comforter: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever” (John 14:16).

This Holy Spirit was outpoured on the Day of Pentecost, and he is in us now to guide us in triumph all the way to the city of God, the new Jerusalem. So we read in Hebrews 7, “But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:24-25). Jesus lives forever and saves us totally. He always lives for one purpose, to intercede for us. Christ’s presence before his Father itself is intercession. Based on his atoning work, he secures for us the full benefits of redemption, including our future glorification.

He is our sympathizing high priest. It is not the angels he helps. He helps us now, even while we are being tempted and harassed by our enemies. So we approach the throne of grace in Jesus’ name “with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16). In Jesus Christ we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. All blessings flow to us through Jesus Christ, the vine, our heavenly intercessor.

John says, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). Our Lord Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father, and he will win our case every time. His prayer is heard because it is based on his atoning sacrifice. And our prayers are answered when we pray in his name, based on his person and his work. Isaiah tells us, “For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12). Christ’s intercession is based on his atonement.

Through Christ, the Father himself loves us. Jesus declared, “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (John 16:27). How much does he love us? In his high priestly prayer Jesus said, “That they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:22-23). Same degree, same extent, same manner.

Friends, God is not our Judge; he is our loving heavenly Father. And he is eager to bless us in view of his Son’s triumphant, mediatorial work. Therefore, we have an intercessor in heaven, Jesus Christ, who prays for us. We also have an intercessor on earth, the Holy Spirit, who prays for us, as Paul describes: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Rom. 8:26-27). Not only that, we also have God’s holy church praying for us. In my midnight prayer, while you are sleeping, I pray for you. James says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Conclusion

Paul gives us five solid arguments in Romans 8:33-34 so that we may enjoy the full security of our final salvation, especially when we face death. Jesus said, “Be not anxious. Don’t be afraid.” So rejoice, God is for us, Jesus Christ is for us, and the Holy Spirit is for us. The holy angels are for us, and the holy church is for us. Our salvation is secure, built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

But if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you should be anxious and worried. You are right to be afraid of God, whose wrath is revealed against you, and afraid of Jesus Christ, the supreme Lord and Judge of all. Those who refuse to repent and embrace Jesus Christ are denying that they are sinners and that God’s wrath is being revealed against them. Such people despise the person and saving work of Christ. They deny that he is coming again in glory to judge the ungodly. They deny that there is eternal life in heaven for true believers and eternal punishment for Christ-haters.

If you are outside of Christ, I urge you to come to him with all your burden of guilt, and he will give you rest. Do it now; do it today. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will receive” (John 6:37). Those who come to him will eat of the living bread and will never go hungry. They will drink the living water of life and will never go thirsty.

¹ D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 8:17-39, The Final Perseverance of the Saints (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), 420.