We are not to understand him as saying, that there is no ground for accusing and condemning the elect ; but, that they are brought into such a state that nothing ever shall be laid to their charge so as finally to effect their ruin.
Let us then, with him, give the challenge to all who may be supposed most likely to prevail against us ; to the law, to Satan, to conscience, yea, with reverence be it spoken, even to God himself.
The law indeed may accuse us of having violated every com- mandment in ten thousand thousand instances : yet will we defy it to condemn us. Satan may affirm with truth, that we have been his vassals far the greater part of our lives : yet shall not he prevail against us. As for conscience, that will
b Eph. i. 4. c 2 Tim. i. 9. Rom. ix. 11. d Deut. vii. G— 8.
testify against us, that we have indulged many secret lusts, and been guilty of innumerable transgressions : yet shall not its allegations be heard to our confusion. It is needless to say what the omniscient God might lay to our charge, what rebel- lion against his Majesty, what neglect of his dear Son, what opposition to his Holy Spirit : but yet, notwithstanding all, so is the believer circumstanced, that God himself can find nothing for which to condemn him.
Doubtless these are strong assertions ; and we may perhaps be ready to question the truth of them. But, if there were the smallest room for doubt, would the Apostle have been so confident in his challenge ? Would he have repeated the challenge in such unqualified terms, if he could have been an- swered in so easy and obvious a manner as some imagine ?]
Arrogant as the Apostle may appear, we shall cease to think him so, if we consider, II. The grounds of his confidence —
His answers might be read, like the questions them- selves, in the form of interrogatories ; and they would derive much additional spirit and force from this con- struction, which indeed both the preceding and fol- lowing context seem to countenance. But in whatever way his words are pointed, the import of them is much the same. He grounds his confidence on,
1. The sovereignty of the Father's grace —
[The elect, having believed in Jesus, are actually brought into a justified state. Now justification implies a free, a full, an everlasting remission of all our sins. It is a free gift bestowed upon us, not as saints, but as sinners : we are not first made godly, and then justified ; but are first justified, and then made godly. St. Paul expressly gives this title to God, ■' The justifier of the ungodly6." When God of his infinite mercy vouchsafes to justify a sinner, he does not put away some sins, and retain others ; but " blots them all out as a morning cloudf," and " puts them from us as far as the east is from the westg." It is a blessed and a certain truth, that " all who believe are justified from all things11." Nor does God cancel our debt for a time only, intending to call us to account for it at a future period : for he covenants with us, that " our sins and iniquities he will remember no more1 ;" and he assures us, that " his gifts and calling are without repentance k."
Now if God thus justify his elect, we may well ask, " who
e Rom. iv. 5. f Isai. xliv. 22. s Ps. ciii. 12.
h Acts xiii. 39. » Heb. x. 17. k Rom. xi. 29.
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shall condemn them?" If he " cast all our sins into the very depths of the sea1," who shall bring them up again from thence, and lay them to our charge ? He " beholdeth not iniquity in Jacob™," but views us as " complete in Christ11 :" and has formed a chain that shall not be broken : " whom from eter- nity he foreknew and predestinated, them, in his appointed time, he called and justified ; and them he will also glorify " for evermore0.]