Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies.
Read Chapter 8
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul says that we cannot accuse God, because he justifies us, nor can we condemn Christ, because he loved us to the point of dying for us and rising again to intercede for us with the Father. Christ’s prayers on our behalf are not to be despised, because he sits at God’s right hand, that is to say, in the place of honor, because he is himself God. So let us rejoice in our faith, secure in the knowledge of God the Father and of his Son, Jesus Christ, who will come to judge us…. The Son is said to intercede because, although he controls everything and is equal to God the Father, we are not to think that the Father and the Son are one and the same person. The Scriptures speak of the distinction of the persons in such a way as to convey the message that the Son is not inferior and that the Father is so called because he is the Father of the Son and because everything comes from him. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
It is clear that nobody would dare or be able to override the judgment and foreknowledge of God. For who could reject what God has approved, given that nobody is equal to God? Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of the elect of God? God who justifieth. Others read without an interrogation, it is God who justified us: the sense will scarce be different; for it is the same as to say, we need not fear that God will accuse us, since by his mercy he hath been pleased to die, and to rise again from death for us. (Witham)
Election is a sign of virtue. For if nobody can find fault with the colts which the horsebreaker has selected for the race, someone who pretended to find fault with them would be laughed at. So it is with the souls whom God has selected.
After showing that the holy ones God advances can suffer no loss, as though from the evil of punishment [n. 710], the Apostle now shows that they can suffer no loss as though from the evil of guilt. First, he presents his proposition; secondly, he excludes an opposite view [v. 34; n. 718]. In regard to the first it should be noted that a person suffers injury for guilt from two sources: first, from an accusation; secondly, from the judge who condemns [n. 717]. First, therefore, he shows that no accusation can harm God’s holy ones, and this by reason of divine election. For whoever chooses a person seems by that very fact to approve him. But the saints are chosen by God: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy" (Eph 1:4). On the other hand, whoever accuses, disapproves of the one accused. Therefore he says: Who shall bring any charge, i.e., successfully, against the elect, i.e., against those God has chosen to be saints; hence it says in Rev (12:10)...
