Romans 8:33

“ Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. ”

Paul is not ignorant how many accusers every believer has: conscience, the law, Satan, the accuser of the elect, the persons we have offended or scandalized by our faults: all so many voices rising against us. Did Paul himself, when writing these words, not think of the cries of pain uttered by the Christians whom he had cast into prison and scourged, and especially of the blood of Stephen, which, like that of Abel the righteous, called for vengeance against him? All these charges are only too real. But from the mouth of God there has gone forth a declaration which serves as a buckler to the believer, and against which those fiery darts are quenched, as soon as he takes shelter under the sentence: God hath declared him just. Here we clearly see the juridical meaning of the word justify as used by St. Paul. These words: It is God that justifieth, which paralyze every accusation uttered in His presence, are the summary of the whole first part of the Epistle (chaps. 1-5). The expression: the elect of God, literally, elect of God, has an argumentative value; it serves to demonstrate beforehand the powerlessness of the accusation. This expression recalls what has just been said (Romans 8:28-30) of the eternal predestination of believers to salvation and glory; ἐκλεκτός, elect, from ἐκλέγεσθαι, to draw out of. Rescued by His own call from identification with a world plunged in evil, could God thrust them back into it?

From the time of St. Augustine several commentators (most lately Olshausen, De Wette, Reuss) have taken the last proposition of the verse in an interrogative sense: “Who will accuse? Would it be God? How could He do so, He who justifieth? ” The apostle would thus be using an argument ad absurdum. This meaning is ingenious, and seems at the first glance to be more forcible. But can the part of accuser be ascribed, even by supposition, to God? The function of God is more elevated. Besides, it is simpler, graver, and in reality more forcible to regard this proposition as a calm and decided affirmation. It is the rock against which every wave of accusation breaks; compare also the parallel Isaiah 50, which speaks decidedly in favor of the affirmative form (Philippi).

The accusers are reduced to silence...for the present; but will it also be so at the final moment when the tribunal will be set, in the day of the δικαιοκρισία, “of the just judgment of God,” when sentence will be given without “acceptance of persons” and “according to every man's work” (Romans 2:5-6; Romans 2:11)? Will the absolution of believers then still hold good? Let it be remembered this was the question put at the close of the first part (Romans 8:9-10), and resolved in the second (vi.-viii.). St. Paul raises it again in this summary, but in a tone of triumph, because on this point also he knows that victory is won.