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There is one aspect of justification that is peculiarly fitted to comfort the heart of a believer, viz. that it is the personal act of God. "It is God that justifieth." It is He to whom he was liable, declaring that all was fully paid. It is He who alone was entitled to make the charge against us, declaring how amply we stood discharged. It is He who before was our offended Lawgiver, Himself undertaking our cause and pronouncing upon the goodness of it. It is the God from whom at one time we have nought to apprehend but condemnation, pleading our cause, and protesting how completely He is satisfied. It is our vindication coming from the very quarter whence our vengeance was looked for; and that Being who alone had the right to accuse, not merely acquitting, but regarding us as entitled to all the positive regard that is due to righteousness. It is He who might have wreaked upon us of His sorest displeasure, now telling how much He is pleased with us, and how rightfully we are privileged to obtain from Him the rewards of a happy and honourable eternity. It is He whom we might well have dreaded, that when the arm of His justice was lifted up it would be lifted up to destroy — it is Himself saying that this very justice demanded not only our exoneration from all penalty but our preferment to the glories that are due to righteousness. They who have felt the terrors of the law — they who have been stung with the arrows of self-reproach and have shrunk from the dreaded eye of a judge and an avenger, as it took cognizance of all their ungodliness — they can report how blessed the emancipation is when all is clear with God, who now can at once be a just God and a Saviour — can be just while the justifier of those who believe in Jesus.

(T. Chalmers, D.D.)

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KJV: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

WEB: Who could bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies.