“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”
(Romans 8:33)
Consider for a moment, if you can, just what it means to be numbered among God’s elect! God’s Church – the bride of Christ – bears the honorable title of His elect. And what an indescribable blessing and profound protection it is to be in the bride of Christ, for “who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” (Romans 8:33).
Romans 8:33 is perfectly set in the middle of an amazing passage where Paul logically and progressively sets forth the relationship God has with those whom He chooses:
If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [In light of all this…] Who could ever separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom. 8:31-35).
But as reassuring as it is for those whom God chooses, the biblical doctrine of election can be a difficult truth to grasp. This matter of God’s choice is perfectly exemplified in the Old Testament with the brothers Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah and grandsons of Abraham and Sarah. Though both boys were born of the same heritage, two full-blooded Jews, one was chosen by God and the other refused. Jacob was favored by God and Esau was rejected (Rom. 9:13).
God’s choice of Jacob over Esau had nothing at all to do with the boys themselves, for it “was before the children had done good or evil,” (Rom. 9:11). It was simply what God chose, “that the purpose of God according to election might stand,” (Rom. 9:11).
God clothes those He chooses with all spiritual blessings in Christ, Paul says, but it is always and only “according as He had elected us,” (Eph. 1:4). Just like Jacob, our position in this elect body of believers that makes up the bride of Christ is ascribed solely to God’s choice alone and to nothing else besides, because the situation and condition of us all before God chooses us is exactly the same. In Adam we are all dead. We are “children of God’s wrath,” (Eph. 2:3), and we escape or perish simply as a matter of God’s choice. His mercy may save us; His justice may condemn us. He alone chooses.
The price of our redemption is the blood of Christ, God’s Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). And yet God chose not to give up His Son to save the angels that fell with Satan. Christ died for men and not for angels because that was God’s choice. And, without question, this is the same reason one man rather than another is saved.
Exactly how does the merit of His sacrifice come to be applied to us then? We are dead in sin – dead to God. We are utterly without hope of rescue without God’s intervention on our behalf. We must have Christ’s blood applied to our account by God’s Spirit. But how does God’s Spirit come to apply it to one soul and not to another, except for the simple truth that God has chosen the one and not the other?
If God had chosen all, election would have been a common favor. And common favors are often disregarded while choice privileges are highly esteemed. Election, therefore, indicates a greater love from the giver and brings a greater profit to the receiver.
In addition, the very concept of election glorifies God, for if there were any one thing in those whom God chooses more than in others, God’s choice of them would not tend so much to God’s glory but to theirs. Were election based on one’s merit over another, the honor would not be due the elector’s, but those that are elected. Yet the favor that proceeds from pure election praises the glory of the elector.
When this Scriptural truth sinks deep into your heart, Christ’s divine mystery in salvation will move you to adore God for His choice of you in ways you cannot even but begin to fathom. You will see the work of Christ more clearly to cry out with Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33).
- Indeed, I would think, Lord, that my own sins would forfeit Your righteousness. If I had to deserve Your wonderful gift of grace, it would have to be recalled and the pardon it is built on reversed. But it is Your unchangeable gift to me! It is set forth in that covenant where, “all the gifts and callings of God are without repentance,” (Rom. 11:29). In it there is full provision for my daily pardon, peace and comfort.
- It is a scary thought, Lord, that only one sin of Adam brought him down into the grave, and all of us along with him. One sin forever set us all under the greatest guilt and unworthiness.
- In the righteousness of Jesus Christ I stand before You without spot. I will one day stand before Your throne, and there too, I will be without spot, into all eternity. It is true that when I come to heaven, my holiness will be perfected; but even then, as a glorified saint I will never lose the righteousness of Christ, nor appear before You without it. It ascends with me, opens heaven for me, and dwells forever around me. His most glorious covering covers me in Your sight. It gives me everlasting title to all the blessings of eternity. The saints appear before the throne, as those, “that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” (Rev. 7:14). “They are redeemed unto God by his blood.” And to eternity He will be the immediate head of this glorified creation.
- Into eternity, Jesus Christ will be the head of righteousness and life to His people. He appears as a “lamb who had been slain in the midst of the throne.” In all the glories of His exalted state, He wears the memorials of His death and love, and will He ever lay them down. “The glory of God lightens the New Jerusalem, and the Lamb is its light.” It is His presence that makes an everlasting day there. All this, given to me, as Your choice, reigns into eternity.
Further References for Romans 8:33
Isa. 50:8; Luke 18:7; Matt. 24:22; Rom. 8:1; 1 Peter 1:2; John 5:24
