It is God who Justifies

³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² 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? ³³Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ 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.

God has justified me. Justified me. The Creator of the universe, who holds eternity in His hand, has declared me "rightened." I have been set aright. I have been acquitted, given grace, and given pardon from the things that held me bound. I have been freed. I have been justified, by God.

Wow...it amazes me how powerful that is, and yet I have to admit that until just now, I don't know that I have allowed that concept to truly sink in to my psyche. If God is the one who justifies you, then yeah, who can be against you!? There is no qualified accuser. Everyone pales into comparison with your righteous judge, who has fully acquitted you, and even declared you "righteous." Who can be against you?

Yet we allow the world to come against us every day. We constantly fend off accusations. We constantly question ourselves in light of our context, and don't assert ourselves in light of our Ultimate Judge.

But above all, the enemy is the one who dares to challenge us every day. He is the accuser of the brethren, and every opportunity he gets he's in there to "be against us." He's in there to challenge the validity of our acquittal. To question the veracity of our pardon. And the reality of our newfound righteousness (rightness). We cannot allow him to do that though. We have to remember, God justified us! So who, can be, against us! No one.

Then the latter part of this verse goes even further; there is also no reason to condemn ourselves, because the sentence has already been carried out in Christ. He was killed to absolve us of our incumbent punitive sins. We are worthy of punishment, but have been declared worthy of pardon only through Christ and His death. So because of that death, who can question our acquittal? No one. To question that is to insult the cross of Christ. God has justified us...

GOD HAS JUSTIFIED US..

GOD HAS JUSTIFIED US!

The Creator of everything has looked to your acceptance of His son and said "you are now justified." No one can stand up to that. So any time the devil begins to creep in with those lies and those accusations, let us always remember that again, GOD is the one who justified us.

And no one can question that.