Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:33 ESV)
In his book, Knowing God, noted theologian J.I. Packer addresses Romans 8:33 in a chapter entitled “The Adequacy of God”. Packer’s words have a direct bearing on this discussion, so I will include an excerpt below.
[quote author="J.I. Packer"]
Paul wrote the two previous verses to counter the Christian’s fear of opposition and privation among men; he writes this verse to counter fear of rejection by God. There are two sorts of sick consciences, those that are not aware enough of sin and those that are not aware enough of pardon, and it is to the second sort that Paul is ministering now. He knows how easily the conscience of a Christian under pressure can grow morbid, particularly when that Christian’s nose is rubbed as Romans 7:24-25 would rub it in the reality of continued sin and failure. Paul knows too how impossible it is for Christian hope to make a person’s heart rejoice while doubts of his security as a justified believer still remain. So, as the next stage in his outline of what Christians should say to “these things,” Paul speaks directly to the fear (to which no Christian is a total stranger) that present justification may be no more than provisional–that it may one day be lost by reason of the imperfections of one’s Christian life.
Paul does not for a moment deny that Christians fail and fall, sometimes grievously, nor does he question that (as all true Christians know, and as his own words in Romans 7 reveal) the memory of sins committed after becoming a Christian is far more painful than are any thoughts of one’s moral lapses, however gross, before that time. But Paul denies emphatically that any lapses now can endanger our justified status. The reason, he says in effect, is simple: Nobody is in a position to get God’s verdict reviewed! The NEB rendering puts Paul’s point well: “Who will be the accuser of God’s chosen ones?” Paul’s wording enforces the point in several ways.
First, Paul brings in a reminder of God’s grace in election. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” Remember, says Paul, that those whom God justifies now were chosen from eternity for final salvation, and if their justification were at any stage revoked, God’s plan for them would be entirely overthrown. So loss of justification is inconceivable on that score.
Second, Paul brings in a reminder of God’s sovereignty in judgment. “It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?” If it is God, the Maker and Judge of all, who passes the justifying sentence–that is, who declares that you have been set right with his law and with himself, and are not now liable to death for your sins, but are accepted in Christ–and if God has passed this sentence in full view of all your shortcomings, justifying you on the explicit basis and understanding that you were not righteous, but ungodly (Romans 4:5), then nobody can ever challenge the verdict, not even “the accuser of the brethren” himself. Nobody can alter God’s decision over his head–there is only one Judge!–and nobody can produce new evidence of your depravity that will make God change his mind. For God justified you with (so to speak) his eyes open. He knew the worst about you at the time when he accepted you for Jesus’ sake; and the verdict which he passed then was, and is, final.
In the Bible world, judgment was a royal prerogative. The royal judge, in whom all the powers of legislature, judiciary and executive came together, was expected, once he had settled what a person’s rights were, to take action to see that the person got them. Thus the king became champion and protector of those whom he justified in judgment. This is the background of Paul’s thought here: The sovereign Lord who justified you will take active steps to see that the status he has given you is maintained and enjoyed to the full. So loss of justification is inconceivable on this score also.
Third, Paul brings in a reminder of Christ’s effectiveness in mediation. It is best, with the RSV, to read the reference to Christ in Romans 8:34 as a question. “Who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?” All that Paul says serves to show that the idea of Christ condemning us is absurd. He died–to save us from condemnation, by bearing the penalty of our sins as our substitute. He rose and was exalted–“as Israel” (Acts 5:31). Now, by virtue of his enthroned presence at the Father’s right hand, he intercedes with authority for us–that is, he intervenes in our interest to ensure that we receive all that he died to procure for us. Shall he now condemn us?–he, the Mediator, who loved us and gave himself for us, and whose constant concern in heaven is that we should enjoy the full fruits of his redemption? The idea is grotesque and impossible.
Source: Knowing God, J.I. Packer, pp. 272-273, underlining added for emphasis.
