Three Ways God is For Us, Part Two

If you were really confident that the God of heaven was on your side, is there any challenge you could not overcome? If you truly believed that the Lord of the universe was for you, any trouble or heartache or setback would be small in comparison.

So this is the second of three posts where I’m hoping to show how God is for us. I’m writing for people who are already Christians, but also with the hope that anyone who isn't yet a follower might be encouraged to become one.

Romans 8:32 was where I started last time, to say that God is for us because of the sacrifice of His Son. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? The very next verse offers a second way in which God is for us: By Satisfying Justice and Declaring Us “Innocent!” Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies (Romans 8:33).

We admit there are charges that come against us. Satan himself is called the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), and he is relentless to remind us of our sin.

Other charges come from people who blame us, fairly or unfairly, for ways we have failed them. And then we have charges that well up within us. Old tapes play in our minds, messages from our past that pronounce judgment upon our present and our future.

I don’t see how anyone can deny that these “charges” assault us regularly, sometimes to distraction. But "who shall bring any charge against us?" means true charges, charges that stick, charges that matter for eternity, charges that God Himself will take so seriously as to disqualify us from heaven. Romans 8:33 asks, Who will bring such a charge against God’s elect?  Who will bring a legitimate charge that will condemn?

Will a sin from your past, or some sin you’ve committed since you’ve been a Christian, nullify your hope of eternal life? Will the enemy pop up at the last moment, as you’re about to enter heaven, and say, Wait just a minute. What about what you did back in 1998? God’s word answers: that will never happen. Because God is the one who justifies.

“Justification” is a legal declaration. To justify means to declare righteous. God isn’t just giving us a break, cutting us some slack, overlooking our mistakes. The holy God doesn’t do such things.

No, justification means that God’s justice is fully satisfied. Your sins were accounted to Jesus, your Substitute, and He fully paid them all by His blood. But justification also means that His righteousness is accounted to you.

So when the Judge of all heaven bangs down His gavel and says “Justified!” it means more than “not guilty.” It means INNOCENT! The records show not just an absence of guilt, but a life of complete righteousness. Why? Because the righteousness that is credited to you is Christ's.

You know how sometimes the ruling of a lower court of law may be overruled by a higher court? Sometimes legal challenges must go all the way to the Supreme Court. But the issue of your sin and guilt has already gone all the way to the Supreme Court of the universe. God is the one who justifies!

The Judge of all the earth has spoken, and there is no higher authority. The God of Heaven is on our side!

For next time: Ongoing Intercession