Lesson 39a
Romans 8:33-35 · JD McCulley · Sep 8, 2019
Romans (2018-21), No. 80
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261916113022

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so we're on lesson 39. Let's read Romans 8, 33 through 35. It says, Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather He or rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

So what are we talking about here? This is a big doctrine. We talk about systematic theology. You systematize your doctrines across your understanding of what Christianity is, right? So, what do these verses fall into in terms of doctrine, if you will?

What's that? Okay, we're talking about eternal security. Has anybody ever had an issue with eternal security? Yeah? Tell me about it. What's that? Why? You didn't know that. And what convinced you of it? There's two different main systems of belief around eternal security that are not biblical.

And then there's the biblical view, which hopefully we're grounding ourselves in today. Has anyone grown up with the Arminian viewpoint of eternal security, or know what that means? Arminian? And then the opposite side is the Calvinistic view? So, there's those that believe that you can lose your salvation, right? dealt with that fear for a long time growing up. I ended up in the Calvinist camp for some time. I didn't struggle with the Arminian side where I believed that I could do something so bad as to lose my salvation, but I did believe for a time, the Calvinist viewpoint, that maybe I haven't truly believed because I don't know if I can persevere to the end.

So, when it comes to these verses, Paul is trying to establish something for us in our belief that is, I think, critical to growth. I don't believe that growing spiritually as a believer can happen until you have established the truth of these verses in your heart.

Does that make sense? Who can bring a charge against you? If you operate in your Christian walk with the thought that someone can bring a charge against you, what does that create in your mind? Doubt. Fear. Doubt. Fear. Instability. You're constantly unsure. Is that the life that Paul talks about that we have in the Lord Jesus? I don't know. Sometimes there's just this sense that I could do something that bad. I could really muck this whole thing up. You don't have that power. It's not yours. He has already fixed everything. Well prove it.

You know, I doubted whether I could be certain for so many years. And finally, I fixed on the verse that said, the Holy Spirit will enable you to understand God's Word. And I've known for very many years that when I read my Bible, It made sense to me. I wasn't puzzled about anything. And that's not to my glory. That's the Holy Spirit in me. So I thought, ah! Look at this! There's a big change.

What are God's elect confident about? Question number one. What are you confident about? Who is the elect? Those who were called before the foundation of this world. If you graduate from seminary? No, it's those who believe. Okay. What does elect mean? Chosen. Choice. Choice ones. Called out ones. Why are you choice? If you're a believer, why are you choice? I don't think it's so much that I'm choice. It's that God chose me and I chose Him. So the two are linked forever. We love Him because He first loved us. Okay. Where are you? Where are you placed? In Christ. In Christ. And He is choice. He is chosen. He is the One. When placed in Christ, you become choice, because He is the Chosen One. The Choice One. This concept of being elect has everything to do with where you are.

Because you were in Christ, this is the chain that is true of you. God's purpose, foreknowledge. He knows you in Christ, relationally, in a very special way. He's marked out the boundaries because of who you are in Christ. because of who you are in Christ. He's justified you because of who you are in Christ, and He's glorified you to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Everything of God's purpose is bound up in a person. And so is this word elect, right? It's who we are in Christ. We're choice ones. So, what are God's elect confident about? Why does this produce confidence? Because we're elect, why are we confident? We're assured of God's everlasting love for us.

It will never change. Okay. Love. Yep. But what about this passage? Because of His faith, the Lord's faith, what does it say in Hebrews 12? Well, let's read the verse again. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Now, what are you confident about? In verse 8-1 we're confident there is now no condemnation for us. We're confident about what we believe. Okay, there's no condemnation. I think there's no condemnation because of our location.

Every human being is either in Christ or in Adam. And what Paul is trying to tell us is if your location has changed, it has. You're now in Christ. There's all kinds of new information that you can rely on because of your position. Because of your location, man. I like that. Location. You're a realtor. That's right. Makes sense, right? Location, location, location. I think you're right. But I'm looking for something specific.

Nobody can bring a charge against us. We're justified in that. Who can bring a charge against us? Who is greater than God on where our position is? There's nobody who can say there's something wrong with you. You're not justified. There's nobody who can do that.

You're in a position in Christ that from one, which can never be condemned, who can bring something against us that hasn't already been paid for by Christ. I've got another one here. The fact that it's God who justifies Because that means that God has declared us to be righteous, which is mind-boggling. God declares all of us in this room who believe to be righteous.

So there's no stain that could cause me harm. Is Satan actively bringing accusations of your personal sin to the Father? 1210 says that he's bringing accusations against believers continually of our personal sin. But who intercedes? So, like Courtney said, who is it that can bring charge against us?

There is none. How does this have a practical effect in your life? How does this truth affect you in your walk? Can we shut that back door if you don't mind? Thank you. Just sharing a little. How does this, what does it matter? Is it just nice to know? I think the old man is always bringing it before you about you're not worthy enough. You're not, you're not, you're not, you're not.

And this verse gives you the confidence that there's nothing that can be brought against us. There's no charge that hasn't been paid for. So when you sin, you fall, you do whatever, the old man is there trying to say, you've got to do this, you've got to do that, you're not worthy. This verse tells you there's nothing that hasn't been paid for, that you're justified in Christ. That's where the peace and the comfort and the rest is. That nobody can bring a charge, your old man, everybody who's trying to convince you otherwise, There's nobody who can bring a charge against us. It's already been paid for. Yeah.

You know, I think it's parallel to what you see in our society today, you know, especially in the political realm of things. You see all of these charges, supposedly, against different politicians and different people who supposedly have done wrong. But until you actually get charged, in a court of law. You don't have a charge, you just have conversation.

Now, would you say that Satan is in the court of law and he's actually brought a complaint against us that is valid? Yeah. It's valid except in the position where we have to have a trial. We have to go through the trial process to prove that the accusation is not accurate. The trials are already done. Why? Because Christ died on the cross already. Is that enough? Yes. No it isn't. So do you have to go to court again? The answer is, you said no. What does justification mean?

I'm getting a little off track with the questions themselves, but I think it's interesting where we're headed. God is the one who justifies. The word justifies is right here. The word charge is in here. So, the scene, what is the scene of these verses? The heavenly courtroom. And who's there? Our Savior. Okay, who else? The Father. Our Savior. Believers. God's elect. And now, the question is, who can bring a charge against you.

It's interesting because this second question kind of ties into this. Verse 33 and verse 34 are broken in terms of the way that, from a human perspective, we broke these up into 33 and 34. But if you read them together, what do you see? It's an unnatural way that these verses were broken apart. I think Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And I think it should keep going in verse 33. It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? And then 34 should pick up.

That's really the connection that we have there. I think it would render a lot easier if those two questions were in conjunction with one another. But the questions are there for a reason. And what is it that is What is it that Paul is requiring that you think through here? He's asking you a question in order to get a response.

So we have the heavenly courtroom. Is this the same courtroom we've been in before? Is that even a valid question? It seems to me like it is at the moment. Have you been in the courtroom before? Not that one. Or, yeah. I don't know. We were in the courtroom in Genesis in Adam when God pronounced death on the race because of Adam's sin. Romans 5 tells us that we were there who sinned in him. And so the pronunciation of the verdict Was it an Adam all die? Okay. Anybody disagree with that? Just because it's Mike? You were in the courtroom and you were there when you were placed into Adam, okay? Were you in the courtroom at any other point in time? When? crucified with Christ.

Okay. And what happened? That was a carrying out of the sins. Well, I think it goes beyond that. There was definitely the payment. But the payment was not you going to the courtroom. The payment was what provided you a way of escape. A payment that would satisfy, rather. The way we know that God's satisfied is because as the Lord ascended and the payment was made, He could pour out the Spirit. Yeah, we know that He was absolutely satisfied through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, but when did you show back up in that courtroom?

This is the scene. And I'm leading us to a point here. When you believed, when you exercised faith in the gospel message, what happened in that courtroom for you as the elect, as a believer? What happened? We were declared righteous. You were declared righteous. The gavel came down. What did he say about you? You are justified. That's the legal term. You've been in a courtroom. You were declared sinful in Adam when you believed you were declared righteous and justified in Christ. Go ahead.

I read in an old Brethren book one time that they were talking about in Scotland there was a guy who was a criminal who was put to death, and the way that they announced it was that, oh, Joe was justified this morning at 9 o'clock. The word justify, justification is a very important concept.

Because if you do not believe that you have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ and have now been declared justified, where are you? You're in a state where eternal security is not possible. You can't rest. The marshal used to, I guess, written that he followed the criminal all the way to the grave, and until he was buried then, there was no, he was free from the law at that point. How do you think that relates? I'm just trying to understand the connection. Weren't we talking about death? Well, we're talking about the courtroom, right?

Right, but Adam has to be planted before Christ can be revealed through us. Question number three, some say God can do anything, But verse 34 clearly says God can't do. What is it and why? What can God not do? Wait a minute. That sounds sacrilegious to say that God can't do something. God can't condemn. He can condemn us. That's the key. He can't condemn what He justifies. Can He condemn? He can condemn. Even He cannot do both, accuse and justify at the same time.

And since our justification resides in a person, the Lord Jesus, our righteousness, in whom we stand as uncondemned and unchargeable as the Son Himself, it is impossible after having been justified that we be again accused and brought under condemnation." Do you see the reversal here? When you go before the Lord in terms of being declared righteous and justified, you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

I just had another thought. The work of Christ on the cross took care of everybody's sin in this room, which was future at that point. So, any sin that I've committed from the time that I was born to the time that I die has already been handled. There may be an accusation brought against me, and in my mind I think, well, that must be new.

It's not new. It's the same. It was already done with because it was all in the package. I haven't thought of it that way. I've never sinned outside of what was done on the cross. Does that make sense to you guys? Even what's going to happen later today, versus what happened yesterday, it's not new to him.

It was the sin of the world that was condemned and paid for, and made applicable to you through faith. You appeared in the courtroom, and at the moment of belief, you had applied the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus to you. But it had already paid for the sin. Now it's applied to you. Now you get to reap the benefits. And what are one of the benefits that come out of this verse?

You don't stand before the Lord able to be charged for anything ever again. There is no condemnation. But you don't believe it most of the time, just like I don't believe it most of the time. That's what I think. I think these verses are critical for our sanctification, our growing up. Who's the biggest accuser in your life? Is it Satan?

Revelation 12.10 up there accusing a personal sin. Who's the biggest accuser?

Myself. How come you knew that? You beat yourself down, don't you? Man, I do. It hasn't been long. And we will continue until we see that we die in Christ. And you have a new life. It's that two sides of the same coin, right? It's the death, but it's also the life. I don't know. This word we talked about in question number one, what are God's elect confident about? I would just challenge myself and you guys along with me, are you confident in these things?

When you go about your day and you see your sin, and you want to sit there and you want to judge yourself, do you think back to these verses and recognize that that's not even something that the Lord is doing? He's not even doing that. Why do you want to do something that He's not even worried about? What is he worried about? The Lord. Does he want you to beat yourself down because of your personal sins? No. What does he want? He wants us to live by faith. He's planted that man. And we've risen in Him. To grow and embrace the knowledge of Jesus through all this. Okay. And what does that produce? Yeah. Conforms us to His image. Conforms us to His image? And to fellowship with Him.

Is this a surgical process? Like a very procedural, I want this to happen and I want this to happen? Is it engineered? Or is it personal and intimate? It's not... God's not working in our lives procedural, engineered sort of way. And I don't say that to the neglect of those disciplines, but my point is that He is... I know, and I think that you know, that these truths are there not just to be beheld, but it's conformed to the image of Christ so that you may, what? Truly behold and know Him.

This is a personal thing. I remember Vern talking about this once, and it kind of blew me away. It's like, God's not concerned with your sin. And I was like, what? What do we mean by that? God's not concerned with your sin. Isn't God concerned about sin? What's He concerned about? I don't think I'm answering your last question.

But to me, it's very important that Christ Jesus' intercession for us is that the Father looks through Him to us and sees His purity, which is seen as ours because we are justified. Is it seen or is it? Seen or what? Is it seen as ours or is it ours? It's a fact. It's a fact. You're right. You're right. He doesn't think, oh, Carol's done five unbringable sins today. He looks at me through Christ and His sacrifice. And I'm fine. In his eyes. You're better than fine. But yes. Mike?

I had a couple thoughts here. One is that the other aspect of my accusing myself has to do with, well, I'm entitled to my opinion. I can stand before God and say, given the country and western song, you don't know the troubles I'm seeing. And it's interesting how that sin nature will look at God and say, now wait a minute, this is my experience. And it's like, Lord, you have to take into consideration how I think about it. No, he doesn't. He doesn't. Here's the other thing. If he did take it into consideration, you know what that would be? Double jeopardy. You'd have to go back. That's right. But I'd have to be tried and convicted of the same thing twice.

It's funny because even here at Holly Hills, we believe in eternal security. But sometimes we behave in such a way that doesn't align with our belief. We want to go back and we want to feel bad about what we did. We want the Lord to somehow like, yeah, you really messed up and let's get back on track, right? You want some sort of grief system. in your life.

I know I do. But there is no double jeopardy. You don't get to go before the Lord and tell Him about the troubles that you've seen and ask Him to judge you about them. He said it's done. And can I suffer a little bit for my own sake? Just a little. Why do we want to suffer? Why do you think that is? So that we can be righteous in ourselves. Well, self-judgment is reveals Christ to us. I think it's a rabbit trail. What I'm talking about? Self-judgment. I think it's a rabbit trail. It's not the point. I like that. What do you mean by that? It allows you to focus on what? Self. You get to be your own little rabbit trail.

Instead of beholding the Word, in this case, Romans 8.33, who can bring a charge against you? Are you elect or not? Are you a believer? It's kind of history. In 34, just to put it in perspective a little bit, the Greek nerdiness is, he that condemneth is in the future active. So it's in the courtroom in the future is going to bring the condemnation. It's a future thing.

And then that died and risen again, that's Arist. Then the even is at the right hand of God who is making intercession that's active present. He's actively doing that now the condemnation will come in the future where all these charges against us. It's paid for he died.

He's risen again. But right now, he's making intercession. It's all, you know, when we self-pity, or we whatever, it's already, he's making intercession for us. We're in Christ. And it's kind of interesting how it's future condemnation, that it's future condemnation of us, when we look at all these bad things. But he's died, he's risen again, and he's actively, right now, making intercession for us. Who's the judge at the end of time? Who sits on the The throne. So you're placed in Him, and He's going to judge. He's also an intercessor.

There's no double jeopardy. You can't get out of the deal. There's no undoing everything that happened to us in our identification. Jim, you mentioned before that we were in the courtroom of two times. I don't think that's completely accurate. You know, we weren't there when Adam was judged.

And it took me a while to think of the phrase, but God made a class action lawsuit when he condemned Adam. And we all suffered the consequences, as in a class action lawsuit. Well, Jesus was in the courtroom alone when he rose from the dead and said, I'm paying for this debt. This is a class action lawsuit.

Nobody has to come to the court. They just reap the benefits. The debt's been paid. The check is in the mail. You'll receive it tomorrow. Your debt's been paid. It's a class action lawsuit. It's all done. We don't have to do anything but believe it. I've got thoughts as well. Go ahead.

The only problem I have with that, Jim, is the fact that if I'm not crucified with Christ, then I don't change. I'm just a forgiven sinner. And as a forgiven sinner, I don't have any right to be before God because I'm still a sinner. So I have to be identified with the Lord Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, especially the resurrection to newness of life, because I stand before the Father exactly like the Lord Jesus does. I'm not a sinner anymore. That's true.

And that's Galatians 2.20. Oh Christ.

Yeah, I think the key there is that, yes, you have the first Adam, last, you are identified in one or the other. And by default, where are you identified? In Adam. What's your history? Adam's history. So Adam was there, he was condemned in the courtroom, and you get to inherit all of that which is true of Adam, and you are now identified with that history. That's who you are when you're born into this world. However, and thanks be to God, when you believe, what happens? in the courtroom where Christ dealt with, as you pointed out, the sins of the world. It's been paid for, but guess what? You didn't take the check. Unless you did. Unless you do, by faith, you get to inherit the history and be identified with everything that is true of Christ.

And those are two courtrooms where we are identified with being present in one, if not both, hopefully, as a believer. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. The growth process, though, is if we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged with the world. The growth process. This is a continuous thing today for me.

These verses... All of what we've been talking about over the last several weeks in terms of foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification, these are not meant to divide churches up and split them. They're not meant to cause a great amount of fear as to whether or not you belong in these categories. We've talked about this being God's purpose, ending up in glorification. It's the chain that Paul is communicating to us to bring us to a place of security. These are comfort verses. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yeah, it's already done. But the fact of the matter is, as we put off the old, there's only one other way to go, and that's putting on the new in Christ, and that's the knowledge of Him. What's interesting about that put-off and put-on, it's in the passive voice, and it's already done. The point is that I'm just recognized by faith that it's already been done. It isn't something that I'm commanded to do.

Yes, but it grows us in faith. It does what? Grows us in faith. Here's the thing, Mike. I don't think we're to spend any time in judging ourselves, other than confessing our sins. But you would know. And the reason is, is because the Lord would have us focused on the Lord Jesus all the time. All the time. And the only time that there's judgment is when I'm convicted of sinning. And there's a restoration, instantaneous restoration process that goes on all the time to put me back in fellowship, not to increase my righteousness. Can you increase your righteousness?

No, I haven't had any success with that yet. No success there? Isn't that what I said, don't worry? Well, the putting on and putting off... Yeah, we don't want to be looking at things from an effort perspective, right? We are to behold the Lord, do His Word, and what happens as a result? You're conformed. Until this happens, that's all you should be concerned about, is being conformed. And that is a personal and intimate thing. That is not a procedural, I need to do these things in order to be conformed so that one day I can be in glory. Your concern is the Lord Jesus. And He's doing the conforming, the transforming.

I can't do the conforming. It just doesn't work. And you judging yourself about your sin and feeling really, really sorry about what you did yesterday is not going to conform you anymore than having had a perfect day. Being sorry isn't what it's about. No, it's not. Because what does that do? It makes you feel bad. It makes you feel bad. And who's the sinner of that feeling? It's us. you know, just kind of mope around and how bad I feel.

And believe me, I know how to do that well. The other thing is about what you're talking about, God's purpose here, that's all positional truth. And what we're doing here is we're trying to bring some condition into it. No, we should rest in our position. Just rest there. Don't question God about what about this or what about that. When He lays His position on us and says, here's what I've done and here's who you are, We're not to question him, we're just to abide and rest there. Yeah, but without a condition, you can't have a position. See, you just gave me a yeah, but. But I don't think God cares as much about the condition as he does the position. As a matter of fact, I better shut up because I'm going to talk about this. Oh, you don't want to blow the main service, huh? I was like, we could take it there. We got a few more minutes.

This business of judging ourselves, that's not our job. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. He convinces us, or convicts us of sin. He's the one that's doing it, right? We can't, because it'll probably turn up in our future. And what's our only involvement in that? If the Holy Spirit is convicting and convincing us, what is our responsibility? To agree with God. Okay. That's it.

1 John 1.9? Yes. Yeah. I mean, that's the end of it. Yeah. Forget it. Yeah, forget it.

So is there someone who can bring a charge against you that is true? You can be charged. Could it be true? I don't know. We have no effective enemy. Even though a charge can be true, there's no effective enemy. Why? Doesn't that seem like God's just kind of sweeping some stuff under the rug? No. Why is that not the case? Why can God still be just and righteous when a charge could be brought against you that is true, or is it? Because what Christ did is effective. What Christ did is effective. And it's done. That's the way I look at it. All are done.

The wages of sin is death. Christ died, and so did I. When an accusation is brought against you, no matter what the case, who are you? I'm a son of God. And where are you placed? In Christ. And there is no condemnation there. You are not the concern. He is. And the fact that we can be placed in Him and no accusation can be brought against us, even may be true of us as my person, my position and who I truly am, my reality is in Christ.

That's where I am. Does that make sense? And what does that produce? You said it already. Security. Peace. You know, I remember also another, just came to mind, Vern talked about, what was it, what was his, like, grandfather or grandmother that was a missionary? Grandmother. Grandmother. I don't remember, I don't remember the story.

I'm gonna, I'll butcher it. I'll just state the point, is that, gun to the head. You can take my life, but that's all you can take. You can't take who I am and my eternal security in the Lord Jesus. You can't take my future away from me. You can take my present condition, but you can't take away who I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can. They may take your life, but they cannot take who you are in Christ. And I remember just beating my mind over that reality. I was just pounding it into my brain. It's like, you can take my life, but you can't take my life in Christ. And that changed the perspective, and I think these verses have that same effect.

No one can bring a charge against you. No matter what happens in this life, no matter what we turn and walk into later on today, there's not a single charge that can be brought against us because Christ Jesus, God's own Son, is the one that died, and you died with Him. And then he was raised from the dead, and you were raised with him.

And who is at the right hand of the Father and is making intercession for us?" What do you think that intercession looks like? Oh God, please don't bring down the fire and fury on JD today. Is he at the feet of the Father begging to not... He's already taken care of. Jesus has already taken care of him. For years I thought God was up there with a big stick, just waiting for me to get out of line. Okay. I think we all felt that way at some point. But the Lord Jesus is there interceding for you. What does that look like in your mind? What does it look like? Is it a good thing that he's doing that? Are we all in agreement that this is a positive truth? Isn't that what he did in the garden before his crucifixion? Being with the Father? Praying to the Father? Interceding? Yeah. I don't think he was interceding in the garden, he was praying for himself. Yeah. His intercession is done. Paid for.

So you're telling me that any accusation that's brought against us, this verse tells us that Christ, who not only died, but was raised, and that's the point, this is not a, we worship the crucifix. God's not still up on the cross. Where is he? This verse tells us where he's at. Seated in the heavenly place. Right hand of God, heavenly. And he's interceding.

And you said what? It's done. Paid for. That's all he says? Done. It's done. It's finished. There's no begging or none of that stuff? It seems like an odd conversation Satan comes up and says, Russ did this horrible thing today, and he needs to be condemned. Jesus says, once again, I died for Russ. Done. It's done. It's finished. Don't worry about it. That would be a crazy conversation over and over. Jim did this. Mike did this. Mike did this. And he's going, look, did you get it yet? I died for him. I died for them. It's done. I mean, that is a crazy conversation. I love that guy.

Yeah, it's the definition of insanity. The other thought I was having as you were talking is that Satan is not omnipresent, so he can't be in Washington, D.C. and accusing me in front of the Father at the same time. So the point is, he's the accuser of the brethren. He accuses all those that are in Christ of not being in Christ. and that they have sinned, and the Father doesn't deny any of that, but what he does say is, well, look at the Lord, look at my son. He took care of all that. You can't accuse him, because it's over, boy. He's resurrected now.

I think this goes back somewhat to the Greek, it's the future active. It's going to be the future accusations to us. It's not the moment by moment. As Mike's point, he's not omnipresent, so I think this is In the end, He's going to accuse all of us. And He sees us in Christ, done, paid for, not to be considered. So it's a future. And then, like I said, it's already been done. It says here, died, paid for, risen, accepted. And now He's making intercession. If there's anything being brought up by anybody or anything, He's made intercession for us. And is actively doing it right now.

Actively. It's done. The fact of that is that he's seated. That's a good point. I mean, his location is critical. And these verses definitely touch on that. For sure. Well, I think the importance of where he's seated is not as important as that he's seated. His work is done. That's a good point. What does the right hand signify? Power. Authority. So it matters, but the fact that he's seated is even more important, or maybe equally important.

It's done. Is that the first bell? So, in regards to the Again, I think that the idea that Christ died and not being accompanied with the truth that He was also risen, we can sometimes forget to pair those two together. And we forget to pair that He's seated. Yeah. Not only risen, ascended, but seated. He doesn't have to watch us to see that his work was big enough to cover whatever we're going to come up with. To see if he needs to do something more. You mean he's not like kind of like on the sidelines ready to go?

That's your one thing that really helped me. Sure. I saw the word justified. for years and years and years and years and it meant nothing to me. I mean, I didn't understand really what it meant when I was taught here that being justified means that God himself declares me to be righteous and perfect in Christ. That is monumental. I am declared righteous by God, and He's got the final word on that for all of us. That's a miracle. Justified just doesn't do it. Declared righteous by God, and He gets the final word. That fills my mind.

The gavel is done. Let's pray. Father Howie, thank you so much for the truths of these verses, Lord, as your elect, as those that are in Christ, Lord, there is no condemnation. There is none that can bring charge against us that is effective. We know that everything is completely at peace with you about us. And Lord, as far as we get into our lives and in our minds and try to wrestle with trying to judge ourselves, Lord, May you just remind us that your spirit convicts and convinces, and our job is to agree with you, not to judge ourselves, not to argue amongst ourselves with what we do or what we will do, but to be at peace with who we are in Christ Jesus. And we thank you for that wonderful truth that you justify, that you declared us righteous. And Lord, we just love you. Because you first loved us, we respond and we are motivated by your love. It is in your name we pray. Amen.