Romans 8:33-34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies.… I. WHO DIED? Christ — i.e., the Anointed of God. 1. Persons under the law, who were set apart to important offices, as prophets, priests, kings, were anointed with the holy oil, which was typical of the anointing of the Holy Ghost. So we read about our Lord (Luke 4:18). As oil insinuates itself into the minutest pores of the substance which it touches, so the Divine nature wholly possessed the human form called Jesus; and there was that perfect union of God and man which we call Christ. Thus, though He be God and man, He is not two, but one Christ. But He was "anointed above His fellows." Thus, for instance, Aaron was anointed high priest, Saul king, and Elisha prophet; Melchisedek was king and priest, Moses priest and prophet; yet none but Christ was Prophet, Priest, and King. 2. And as He was anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure, so He communicates that unction to His people as they require; and as the oil which was poured upon Aaron was so copious as to run down to the skirts of his clothing, so the unction of the Holy One was so abundant on Christ, as the Head of His Church, that it ever has, and ever will, run down to the meanest and the weakest of believers. II. WHY DID HE DIE? 1. To deliver us from condemnation. 2. To testify God's love to a lost world (1 John 4:10). 3. For the fulfilment of Scripture (Matthew 26:52-54; Luke 24:27). 4. Not only to satisfy God, but thus to save sinners. And looking at the Person who died, it secures the salvation of all the elect, for Christ is the emphatic word in all the sentence. Who died? Christ. You need no more. Nothing can be added to strengthen it. "Who is he that condemneth?" Christ has died. It shuts up all. III. THE EFFICACY OF HIS DEATH. God can now be "just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus"; but in no other way that we are told of but by Christ's death. And the sacrifice of Christ was once for all. It need not be repeated. There is no more, no other sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:12, 14). (J. W. Reeve, M.A.) Parallel Verses 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. |
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