(The following is taken from a message from Romans 8:33-34 by Pastor Andrew Elliott. It was a blessing to my soul and I present it here for the benefit of all who struggle with sin and fear, guilt and shame.)
It’s not uncommon for God’s people to struggle with fears, sometimes perhaps secret fears. We can’t always, and it’s not always wise to, share everything with others that goes on in our hearts. Though there are some things that we struggle with, which perhaps we might do well to speak with our brothers and sisters about.
One of those fears is the fear of being charged with many sins we know we’re guilty of, particularly on the Day of Judgment.
“Will all my sins be revealed on that Day – before the Judge of all men sitting on His throne of glory and before the assembled universe?”
The horror of that thought! Every charge read out, and our guilty conscience screaming out within: “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!” as a crushing sense of despair comes over our soul.
True Christians are sensitive to the number and the evil of their sins. Every sin is a great affront to God and an assault against His holiness. And so Christians can be the most fearful.
Unawakened people think little or nothing of their sins: “Nothing much to worry about; I’m not a bad person.”
But when we’re really awakened, our sins just seem to be a mountain, and they’re so evil. So the thought can come: “Will all my sins to be charged against me after all?”
There is only one answer: the gospel of Jesus Christ!
“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?”
The word translated “bring a charge” in Romans 8:33 is frequently translated, “accuse”, or “make an accusation against.” (See e.g. Acts 23:28,29)
There are many who will make accusations against God’s people. But there’s none more eager and more willing to accuse than Satan.
In Revelation 12:10 he’s called “the Accuser of our brethren.” Satan has the audacity to accuse God’s people in the presence of God.
He did that with Job: “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” (Job 1:9-11).
When Job hadn’t cursed God, he says, “Alright then, stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” (2:4-5)
Here was Job – a man who feared God and shunned evil. And Satan has the audacity to accuse him in the presence of God.
In this case, the accusations proved false. Job had never cursed God; he cursed the day of his birth, but he never cursed God.
But we have a real struggle, for we know we are guilty of many of the sins that Satan accuses us of. Satan’s got that advantage.
In Zechariah ch 3 the prophet has a vision of “Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” (v 1, ESV)
But: “the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?’” (v 2) God has an elect people whom He’s chosen to save, and deliver from their sin.
Then we read: “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel” i.e. the Angel of the Lord who, we believe, was the Son of God.
Joshua was standing there in his official capacity as high priest representing the people. Hence his filthy garments symbolize the sins of the people as well as his own sins. Their sins were real: this was after the return from the Exile and the sins of the people and the priests were very real. (See e.g. Neh 13, Hag 1)
So Satan had plenty of ammunition with which to accuse God’s guilty and discouraged people.
“Then [the Angel of the Lord] answered and spoke to those who stood before him saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.’
“And to [Joshua] [the Angel of the Lord] said, ‘See, I have removed your iniquity from you and I’ll clothe you with rich robes.’”
The rich robes represent the righteousness of Christ, and the filth of sin taken away. Joshua the high priest, as representative of the people, is clothed with a spotless robe.
Satan is silenced; the Accuser can’t say anything. He looks everywhere for a defect and a fault, but he can’t find one.
Christ’s perfect obedience and His perfect sacrifice guaranteed that Satan could find no fault on them.
If there was any defect in Christ’s obedience, if there was any defect in His sacrifice, then a charge could be laid against God’s children. But there is none.
Every sin of every believer is blotted out. There is not one sin of a believer that is not erased by the blood of Christ from God’s book of charges.
There is not one sin of God’s elect that’s not been cast into the bottom of the sea. When God says, “I’ll cast all your sins into the depths of the sea,” (Mic 7:19) He means every single sin of His people.
The people’s filthy garments were very filthy. The sins of the people were many.
But the rich robes were spotless, such was the completeness of the offering Christ made. “For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Heb 10:14)
By that one, perfect offering of Himself, Jesus has completely taken away all the sins of those who believe in Him.
So far as their standing with God goes, they are perfectly clean, perfectly holy, perfectly spotless, perfectly justified from all their sins.
“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?”
Think about the answer to that question: “It is God who justifies.” (Rom 8:33)
– Whom have we sinned against? God! “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight.” (Psa 51:4)
– Whose law have we broken? God’s law! We are guilty before God because it’s God’s law that we’ve broken. (Rom 3:19)
– Who is our judge? It’s God. God is the Judge of all (Heb 12:23)
Now, if we have sinned against God, and if it’s God’s law that we’ve broken, and if God is our Judge, who would we expect to accuse us?
If anyone has a right to accuse us, it’s God.
(And if you’re outside of Christ on the Day of Judgment, He will.)
But for every believer in Jesus, God is not their accuser.
It is God who justifies – not because He goes easy on sin, not because His people are good in themselves, but because He laid our sins on His Son, He spared not His own Son.
If you’re in Christ, you have no reason to fear the accusation of any man, or angel, or Satan, or demon.
Even God won’t accuse you!
“Who is he who condemns?”
You might think it’s superfluous to ask this further question in Rom 8:34.
I mean, if God won’t accuse us, and if God’s our Justifier, isn’t it a bit superfluous to ask who is he who condemns? If God has justified a sinner, He’s not going to turn on them and condemn them.
But believers may still struggle with a sense of being condemned (1 John 3:20).
There were times when William Cowper, the hymn writer, was quite sure he was condemned and going to hell.
All believers may not sink to such depths of despair. But still there are moments when our heart can say to us, “You’re condemned, you’re guilty. You’re lost, you can’t possibly be going to heaven.”
The short answer Paul gives is that no one can condemn the believer because of Christ: “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Rom 8:34)
Every true Christian prays, every true Christian repents of sin, every true Christian at times weeps over their sin, every true Christian brings forth the fruit of good works. But none of those things are the place to look for deliverance from the fear of condemnation.
No, when our hearts condemn us, it’s Christ we must look to.
1) “It is Christ who died”
It is the “Christ”, God’s Anointed One – He’s the One who died.
Man didn’t die (not just a man); an angel didn’t die. But Christ, the Holy One of God.
Death is the penalty of sin. And yet Christ was the Holy One, sinless.
So He couldn’t possibly have died for His own sin. He must’ve died for the sins of others. That’s what Paul is saying here, “It is Christ who died.”
There can be no pardon without justice.
Sometimes kings or presidents may pardon a guilty person; but that person hasn’t paid the full penalty of the law.
But God only pardons sinners after His justice and the penalty of the law are fully satisfied.
In Christ God’s justice has been satisfied. And if God’s justice has been satisfied in Christ, if Christ has been condemned for the believer’s sin, then the Christian has no reason to fear condemnation.
God cannot condemn sin in Christ and then condemn it in the sinner.
If we’re Christians and believe in Christ, we can’t be condemned. It’s a matter of justice.
2) “It is Christ who furthermore is also risen.”
By saying “furthermore” Paul is not suggesting that the resurrection was more important than the death of Christ. It was by His death, that Christ destroyed death, made atonement for sin, broke the power of Satan and removed any possibility of condemnation for the believer in Jesus.
But the crucial point is: How do we know that Christ actually did achieve these things? What’s the proof?
On the day of Pentecost, Peter said, “It was not possible that Christ should be held by death” (Acts 2:24). Why not?
I mean, hadn’t Christ taken upon Himself the legal responsibility of the sins of His people? Our sins were actually imputed to Him as if He were the guilty one. And “the soul that sins, it shall die.”
Nothing was more certain than the fact that Jesus would die when He took our sins upon Himself: the wages of sin is death.
But Christ couldn’t be held by death because He’d made full atonement for sin. He made complete satisfaction to the law of God and the justice of God. Every single sin of His people was atoned for.
If there was just one sin that had not been atoned for, Jesus would not have risen from the dead. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead is the absolute proof that every sin of His people was atoned for.
Believers in Jesus should not fear condemnation, not only because of the mercy of God, but because of the justice of God.
Sometimes at the root of our fear of being condemned is that we haven’t thought enough about the justice of God. The resurrection is the great proof that justice has been satisfied – otherwise He wouldn’t have risen from the dead.
That’s the comfort of the believer.
Look to me and I see sin and failure.
Look to Christ and I see perfection. I see a complete, perfect atonement. And the resurrection is the great proof.
3) “It is Christ who is even at the right hand of God”
The right hand of God is the place of honour and dignity and authority and power. “The right hand of God” is where, “angels and authorities and powers have been made subject to Him.” (1 Pet 3:22)
Our Saviour, our Mediator, our best Friend has all authority in heaven and on earth; His dominion is over all things, it’s over the nations.
He reigns for the purpose of safely bringing to glory all his children, all the people He died for, whom He shed his blood to redeem.
So, who would condemn the people for whom the Supreme Ruler of the universe has suffered and died to bring to Himself?
Jesus reigns, He reigns with absolute authority.
He reigns to silence every accusing voice. He reigns to silence every condemning tongue.
For the Christian that’s an enormous comfort.
4) “It is Christ who also makes intercession for us.”
Jesus, now in heaven, continuously pleads before God the Father, the efficacy (the power and effectiveness and efficiency) of His shed blood.
Remember how, on the Day of Atonement, sacrifices were offered outside the Holy Place. But then, the blood had to be taken into the most Holy Place, there to be sprinkled on the mercy seat: the blood of the sacrifice had to be presented to God. This was essential to complete the work of making atonement and making peace with God.
So too, Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice on earth.
But then He entered the heavenly sanctuary, there to plead the merits of His blood and secure peace with God for all of His people.
This is a further guarantee that His people will not be condemned. Because there Jesus is continuously pleading the merits of His blood.
So when we struggle, as Christians, with a fear of condemnation – perhaps Satan accuses, perhaps our hearts condemn us – remember these four great truths in Romans 8:34.
Don’t mull over your failure. Yes, confess it: “If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”
But look to Christ.
– He died to bear your condemnation.
– He rose from the dead as proof that He’s borne your condemnation.
– He’s enthroned in heaven to overcome all who would condemn you.
– He intercedes continually to guarantee that you’ll never be condemned.
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
’midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.
Bold shall I stand in Thy great day;
for who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
from sin and fear, from guilt and shame.
. – Nicolaus von Zinzendorf (1700-1760)
Andrew Elliott is pastor at Samford Baptist Church. The audio of this message can be found here.