Who Dares Condemn the Elect?

Who Dares Condemn the Elect?

“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.”
(Romans 8:33-34)

An accuser of the brethren would bring his charge against us for the very sins we come to confess, but the Judge knows how to treat a disbarred accuser.  Then the Father reveals His heart of love; I try to tell Him what I feel, but there are things that He will not let me say.

Recall how the prodigal son rehearsed his speech on the way home.  He said: “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” (Luke 15:18-19).  Say that over and over to yourself.  Say it in the tone of voice of a boy who is memorizing his lessons for school.

I wonder who attached this false title of “prodigal son” to this parable?  This is the parable of the forgiving father.  The father sees him afar off, and he runs to meet him. The boy begins his well rehearsed speech: “Father . . . I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”  But the father stops his mouth with a kiss, and the boy never gets to finish the sentence.  The father would not let that heart say, “Make me as one of thy hired servants.”  It is just as if we were to say to our Heavenly Father: “Father, I am not worthy to be a saint, just reduce me to an angel!”  If the Lord should ever degrade one of His redeemed sons because of the manifestation of the sins of the old nature, He would be taking away the value of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us go into the presence of God in the way that He has determined, and we shall have the knowledge of sins forgiven, of fellowship restored, and of power provided.