Against All Accusations

Romans 8:18-30

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (ESV)

Our heavenly Father leaves nothing to chance when carrying out His plan to save us. How easily we humans find ways to despair of the divine mercy. We are constantly confronted by our own spiritual weakness, by the reality of death, and by the depredations of Satan our enemy. All these three constantly howl after us like the harpies, crying to highest heaven of our depravity: "How wicked you are. You can see it in the way in which the world despises and hates you. Everything to which you set your hand goes awry, seeming to go wrong in your life." Our timid hearts take our misfortunes to be God's message pointing out our sin. We often think the world must see our worthlessness, looking straight through us to our core, feeling a secret shame in our hearts. We presume others despise us for that reason alone. No matter how hard a shell we try to fashion for ourselves, it is to no avail, because our own hearts rise up to accuse us, "You have failed God and those around you."

This sense of failure seems to be multiplied as we approach the feast of Christmas. We presume that the time leading up to the feast should be a time of joy and peace, but it often feels like the exact opposite. There are a number of reasons for this. First, it is presumed to be a family time. Often, we are divided from our loved ones during this time. Military families have parents or children deployed to battle zones around the world. When those beloved ones are missing from the holiday table, their loss brings grief and fear of the threat faced by our deployed loved ones. Those who do not have deployed family do not understand and they expect us to keep up a good front for their sake. This is hard to do. We all have had to face the loss of our family members who have gone to the eternal feast with the incarnate Lord Jesus. When the loss is quite recent or still strongly felt over the years, Christmas becomes a time of grief, when it is to be a time of peace and joy. In a double burden, we actually feel guilty for feeling that grief: "Why can't I feel the joy that everyone seems to feel?" Second, many people feel the inadequacy of their lives at a time when everything is supposed to be "just perfect." Try though they might they have not the strength to make everything perfect. That frustration is self-feeding so that we chase our tails like a dog attempting to rid himself of fleas, and collapse in a dizzy heap. Such failures cause us guilt upon guilt.

The correct plea to all those accusations is "guilty as charged." Yet it's OK to plead guilty before the divine bar. We fear not such an admission of guilt. For we have a Savior who has taken every guilt and every accusation against us into His perfect and holy person. Guilt upon guilt shall not prevail over us, for we expect the promise of grace upon grace in its stead (Jn 1:16). "Guilty I am, yes, a thousand times, yes! But I have a Lord Christ who out-shouts the crying of conscience, world, devil, and flesh. That guilt does not remain mine, but becomes His, and is placed upon His heart and He bears it for me, taking it away from me upon His cross. The Spirit of Christ cries out to the One who has vindicated me. My judge judges me to be not guilty in Christ. No matter what I feel, no matter who accuses me, no matter how loudly Satan accuses me, I have a Lord who for my sake has taken my sin and has acquitted me of all charges, true though they are."

When Satan leers at us, delighting to accuse according to his wicked calling, we should simply grin back and say, "Yes, it is as you say, except I have a Lord who has taken all this from me. Be gone and plague me no more." Only the divine resources of preaching and sacraments empower to grin in the face of Satan and every howling accusation. Here is why we Christians must repair to the divine Word, where alone is the truth for us against all accusations. Christ takes care of them all and tells them away in His Word, no matter how you feel.

Martin Luther

"Paul could have said: 'God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, praying: 'Abba! Father!' But he purposely says 'crying,' to indicate the trial of the Christian who is still weak and who believes weakly (Gal 4:6). He calls this crying 'unspeakable sighs.' 'Similarly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness;' he says, 'for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspeakable sighs' (Rm 8:26).

"This is a very great comfort which Paul says here is the Spirit of Christ, sent by God into our hearts, to cry: 'Abba! Father!' and when he says that He helps us in our infirmities and intercedes for us with unspeakable sighs (Rm 8:26). Anyone who so certainly believed this would not fall away in any affliction, no matter how great. But many things hinder this faith. In the first place, our heart was born in sin. In the second place, we have the innate evil naturally in us that we are in doubt about the favor of God toward us and cannot state for a certainty that we are pleasing to God. Besides, 'our adversary, the devil, prowls around, issuing terrible roars' (1Pt 5:8); and he says: 'You are a sinner. Therefore God is angry with you and will damn you forever.' We have nothing to strengthen and sustain us against these great and unbearable cries except the bare Word, which sets Christ before us as the Victor over sin, death, and every evil. But it is effort and labor to cling firmly to this in the midst of struggles of conscience. Then Christ is not visible to any of our senses. We do not see Him, and in the trial our heart does not feel His presence and help. In fact, at such a time Christ appears to hate us and to be deserting us. Besides, in this trial a man feels the power of sin, the weakness of the flesh, and his doubt; he feels the fiery darts of the devil (Eph 6:16), the terrors of death, and the anger and judgment of God. All these things issue powerful and horrible cries against us, so that there appears to be nothing left for us except despair and eternal death.

But in the midst of these terrors of the Law, thunderclaps of sin, tremors of death, and roarings of the devil, Paul says, the Holy Spirit begins to cry in our heart: 'Abba! Father!' And His cry vastly exceeds, and breaks through, the powerful and horrible cries of the law, sin, death, and the devil. It penetrates the clouds and heaven, and it reaches all the way to the ears of God.

Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.