Can Satan rob your salvation?

Romans 8:33-34

Satan can’t rob your salvation!

Romans 8:33-34, Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Romans chapter ⁸ is about our eternal security.

What it means to be saved eternally and to possess the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of that eternal promise. Good is our eternal glory. Everything that happens in our lives God causes to work for our eternal glory. The plan and purpose of God to choose, to call, to justify and to glorify that He might bring us to the very image of His Son in His presence forever.

Therefore, God works everything that happens to that end both good and bad things, righteous and sinful things. He works them all to our ultimate glory.

V 31-39, one of the most wonderful doxologies in all of Scripture. A song of praise. Paul, having stated all that he just stated about this matter of eternal security, about the matter of a salvation that can never end, that can never be forfeited, or removed, or taken away.

Paul knew that there are going to be some people who may pose some questions.

What about this? Or that? So, from verses 31-39 in kind of an anthem of praise, he answers all the possible arguments. Only two possible ways, hypothetically your salvation could be lost.

It could only happen in two categories

It could be lost because of something done ➢ by a person or ➢ by a circumstance. Can some person or persons cause us to lose our salvation? Can some circumstance or circumstances cause us to lose our salvation?

Those are the only two possibilities. Can you lose your salvation by the influence of a person? V 31 to 34 he answers the question. Can you lose your salvation by the influence of circumstances? V 35 to 39 he answers the question.

Maybe there is someone. Secondly, maybe God Himself. Maybe God could come to the place where He was so disgusted with us that He took our salvation away. Maybe Satan, he is a person. Maybe he could remove us from God's salvation.

Maybe Christ could remove us from God's faithfulness, God's goodness, and God's salvation. If you can lose your salvation by the influence of a person, it must be a human being, God, Satan, or Christ. Those are precisely the points that Paul wants to address.

Philippians 1:6, "He who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." He is able to keep us.

Jude says, “He is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His own glory.” The theme of this entire chapter is the security of the believer. The marvellous summation of how God works this security is in verses 28-30, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

When He predestined us, it was to the end of our salvation, not the beginning of it. We were predestined to the ultimate conformity to the image of His Son which occurs in eternal glory when we are made like Christ. All the predestined will be called.

All the called will be justified. All the justified will be glorified. So, he has summed up this great, great truth that there is no condemnation. Everything in the life of those who belong to Christ works together for their eternal glory.

Even today in the church of Jesus Christ there are many who teach that you can lose your salvation through the influence of some person or some circumstance. Paul is arguing wisely against the possible arguments against eternal security. He assumes the objections and well he might because indeed they have come.

The hypothetical possibility of persons who could take away our salvation. Now we have already gone through this.

Could some human being take away our salvation? Some would say family member putting great pressure on us, or a whole family of people putting great pressure on us, secular friends, unconverted friends, and acquaintances leading us astray, moving us away from the things of Christ, are they potent enough to take away our salvation?

There are lot of possibilities of people who might steal our salvation. If God is for us and He is making everything in our lives work together for good and He is taking us from being foreknown and predestined to be glorified, if that's His plan and He's God, who possibly could overturn that plan?

Answer: no one!

Romans 3:21 - 8:30 indicates God is for us. Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, ⁷ and ⁸ are all about God being for us. If God is for us, who could be against us?

1 John 4:4, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."

God is greater than all. The second hypothetical possibility is, no created person could lead us away from our salvation, what about God Himself? Could God Himself, He's a person, could God Himself become so disgusted with us, could we reach such a point of disobedience and protracted and prolonged or repeated sin that God Himself takes away our salvation?

V 32, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Very simple argument. God delivered up His own Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to provide our salvation. That was the greatest gift, the greatest sacrifice, the greatest act, and God will do all the lesser acts necessary to keep us saved.

If God gave the greatest gift to save us, He will do less to keep us. The greatest act was God giving Christ, and He will do whatever else is necessary to sustain us in Christ. Whatever would be done by God to hold onto us would be something less than the greatest act, which was the giving of His own Son to die on our behalf.

If God would do that to save us when we were enemies, what will He do to keep us while we are His children and His friends?

Satan

What about Satan? Satan is a person. Satan is a created personality, created by God. When God created all the angels who later fell and with him a third of the angels and became known as demons. He is a very powerful being.

He was a supreme angel in the hierarchy of the angelic hosts, a very powerful and influential angel. Is it not possible that Satan can wrest us, as it were, out of the arms of Christ if we fall into patterns of sin and are guilty?

Isn't it possible that Satan can work to affect the loss of our salvation? We sin, and Satan keeps the record of our sin and as he likes to do, he goes before the throne of God and accuses us. Satan is known as the accuser of the brothers.

Who night and day is before the throne of God accusing believers. He is relentless. He is before the throne of God.

Revelation 12:10, Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. Satan is not omnipresent. Those people who think Satan is everywhere in the world at the same time are wrong. He is in heaven day and night accusing the brethren. It's much more important to Satan to get God to release His grip on us. That is the only hope he must get us back than it is for him to work on us.

Satan is engaged and involved in the life of an individual. But for the most part he has minions concocting lies to confuse people and damn their souls and keep them from coming to the true gospel. Believers simply by concocting a wicked world system that becomes tempting to them through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

But one of his major enterprises relentlessly is to go before the throne of God with a litany of our iniquities and tell God to let us go because we are not worthy to be held by Him. He probably uses some of the things he did with Job, telling God the only reason Job is faithful to you is because you bless him.

They are not worthy of You. Job is not worthy of You! None of Your people are worthy of You. Look at them, they sin, they only are true to You because of all the blessings You have given them. He goes to heaven to lay all his accusations against us.

Verse 33 answers that. V 33, Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Who tries to bring a charge against you? Satan.

Is he going to be successful at it? V 34, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Condemns! Literally to bring a legal charge against somebody.

It is a legal term. It is a courtroom term. Satan literally goes before God with a list of accusations to ask God to condemn us. The personality primarily in view here is Satan. If God won't cause us to be lost and other people can't cause us to be lost, can Satan cause us to be lost?

Could Satan go successfully before God and get God to turn His back on us? Zechariah, the great prophet.

Zechariah 3:1-3, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right hand to oppose him. 2 And the Lord said to

Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” ³ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. The angel of the Lord is the defender of Israel and the defender of the priests of Israel, and this is one not to be confused with Joshua, who led the children of Israel, but this is Joshua, the high priest.

There is Satan right in the presence of the angel of the Lord, and he is accusing Joshua. "And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan.’"

Can we be legitimately accused and condemned?

Can we be damned?

Will God hear such accusations? V 33, Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Is God going to listen to such an accusation who has justified us? Can God at the same time condemn us and justify us?

If He has declared us righteous, can He at the same time condemn us?

If He has made us righteous in Christ, if He has granted us the righteousness of Christ, can He at the same time hold us guilty? Answer: No. If God did it would be to negate the work of Christ, wouldn't it? It would be to depreciate the work of Christ.

The reason we can stand before God is not because we are righteous. Accusing us of sin is not going to get it done. Satan may try to do that, and he does! It is not going to get it done because our salvation is not predicated on our righteousness.

It is predicated on the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. On the cross Jesus bore all our sins, took the full wrath of God. He bore our sins in His own body on the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God poured out all the fury of His wrath against Jesus Christ as our substitute, put all our sins on Christ and then took the righteous life of Christ and covered us with it, imputed it to us.

God treated Jesus as if He had committed all our sins, so He could treat us as if we only lived Jesus’ perfect life. It doesn't do any good for Satan to go before God and accuse us of sin because all that sin has been paid for.

We are not justified, we are not righteous, we are not holy before God because of our own righteousness, but because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. So, if God were to take away that righteousness, then He would be demeaning the work of Christ which is imputed to us.

You don't have to hang on to your own salvation by your own righteousness. It's predicated on the idea that something you do creates salvation, and nothing you do can save you! Nothing you do or don't do can keep you saved. It is purely the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

V 33, Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. V 29, For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. The theme of election again.

We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be granted the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is imputed to us at the point of faith. Those then who stand at the bar of God are not outlaws, they are God's elect. What great safety there is in election!

John 10:28, And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

We are placed in the Father's hand and who is going to take us out of the Father's hand? God will never condemn us because we are His elect. He will never condemn us because He has imputed to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

If God were ever to turn against us and take away our salvation under the accusations of Satan, it would mean that Jesus Christ's righteousness was inadequate. That's impossible because He was holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners and it was His perfect righteousness imputed to us.

Jesus Christ

There is only perhaps one other possibility.

If no human being can remove us from our salvation, if God can't remove us from our salvation, if Satan can't remove us from our salvation, what about Christ? After all, if He's the lawyer for our defence. If Christ is our Advocate, what if He turns against us?

It was Christ who brought us in, can it be Christ who sends us back out? God can't justify us and condemn us at the same time, and neither can Christ. Neither can Christ intercede for us and condemn us at the same time. V 34, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Do you think the One who died and rose and was exalted and is interceding for us is going to suddenly negate all of that, reverse the whole thing and condemn us? Christ who is our Saviour, who is our resurrection life, who is our exalted King and who is our mediating High Priest cannot be our condemner.

V 34 is a summation of the work of Christ. Four-fold protections.

1. "Christ Jesus is He who died."

Do you think Christ who died for you would condemn you? When Christ died, He paid the penalty for your sin. ➢ He received your condemnation, certainly not His own because He was without sin. ➢ He died on the cross. ➢ He was being punished for your sin and my sin.

➢ He did all that was necessary to satisfy the justice of God. ➢ He took the full force of judgment. His death is the only condemnation we will ever know.

Do you think He would undo His cross? Do you think when He went into the garden and said, "Father, if there is any way possible that this cup pass from Me, nevertheless Thy will be done," He went to the cross with that resolution to bear our sins, do you think He would reverse that whole horrible sin-bearing, that entirely undeserved crushing judgment of God that made Him cry out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Do you think He would do all of that for sinners and then undo that? 2. V 34, furthermore is also risen, Christ's death blotted out our sins and this was affirmed by His resurrection. The fact that God raised Him from the dead was indicating that God was satisfied with His sacrifice.

God was saying, "That's enough, the sacrifice is paid." God took Him right out of the grave because He had paid sufficiently the penalty for our sins. God therefore raised Him from the dead as affirmation that the penalty had been paid.

Romans 4:25, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

There are numerous scriptures, in the book of Romans, Ephesians, Colossians and Hebrews, that point to the importance of His resurrection. The resurrection proves that He had accomplished sin-bearing. When God raised Jesus from the dead, He showed He was satisfied with His sacrifice.

Every demand of His holy law was met, and we were justified. His resurrection guarantees that we will be raised to eternal glory.

Would Jesus undo His death?

Would Jesus undo His resurrection? 3. V 34, who is even at the right hand of God, Referring to His coronation, to His ascension, to His exaltation. It wasn't that God was mildly satisfied when He raised Him from the dead, but God was completely satisfied.

So much was He satisfied that He lifted up Jesus Christ and sat Him on His own throne at His right hand.

Psalm 110:1, The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” Jesus Christ the exalted High Priest sitting at the right hand of the throne of God and there is the place of exaltation.

Hebrews 1:3, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Do you know what the excellent name is? Lord, sovereign.

Hebrews 2:9, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. Hebrews 7, 8, 10, and 12. Would the Father undo that honour? Would the Son undo that place of majesty? It's unthinkable, absolutely inconceivable that the Lord Jesus Christ who had accomplished all of that would undo it, that His death would become meaningless, His resurrection meaningless, His exaltation meaningless. Your salvation and my salvation is so intrinsically and intimately tied to the work of Jesus Christ as to be inseparable. ➢ He died your death. ➢ He rose that you might walk in newness of life. ➢ He was exalted into the glory of heaven, where He will be the firstborn among many brethren who will be made like unto Him in eternal glory.

• We are crucified with Christ.
• We are risen with Christ.
• We are exalted with Christ.
• We have died with Him.
• We will be lifted to sit on His throne with Him.

He finished His work and some day we will be exalted and be made like Him in glory. The new sanctuary for us is heaven and we are headed there for eternal glory.

4. V 34, "Who also intercedes for us."

Christ died, He rose, He ascended, and He intercedes. There is the summation of Christ's great work. He keeps on making intercession for us. Satan is there night and day accusing the brethren, but we have an unrelenting and undefeatable lawyer for our defence, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53, one of the great chapters of the Old Testament. Unfortunately, the unconverted Jews who reject Jesus Christ don't understand it, but to those who do understand it, it is so rich.

Isaiah 53, which talks about how He carried our griefs and our sorrows and all of that, He was led as a sheep to slaughter and so forth.

Isaiah 53:12, Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Every time an accusation might come before God, you have a lawyer for your defence, the High Priest Jesus Christ interceding on your behalf.

When Satan comes with a list of iniquities, Christ is there to say, "I paid for that one, I suffered for that one, I was separated from God for that one, they are all covered, the price has been paid, it's all accomplished."

No accusation can stand because the lawyer for the defence was Himself the sufficient sacrifice. V 27, Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

God knows the mind of the Holy Spirit.

Why? Because they are one, that's the Trinity. Because He, the Holy Spirit, intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. As a believer you possess the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:9, But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

1 Corinthians 3:16, Do you not know that you are the temple of

God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? One of the things the Holy Spirit does is right here. The Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Holy Spirit always prays according to God's will and God knows the mind of the Spirit.

What is the Spirit praying for? Praying for your security, Praying to bring you to glory, interceding for you. The Spirit is your intercessor, your personal indwelling intercessor interceding according to the will of God.

The Father will always hear and always answer the intercessory prayer of the Spirit because the Spirit always prays according to God's will and God always does His will and God's will is that all who were predestined be glorified.

The Spirit prays to that end. It doesn't happen just because God had said it happened. It happened because God makes it happen and the Spirit prays that it happens and Christ intercedes, so it happens. The Trinity is very involved in that.

The Spirit is praying that we get to glory, that is God's will, God hears that prayer and answers it according to His will. V 34, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

The Son at the right hand of God also interceding for us in perfect harmony with the will of God and that gives us the confidence that Christ doesn't have to argue God into anything. Christ is praying consistently with the will of God, which is to bring us to glory.

John 11:42, And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

God always heard the prayer of Jesus because Jesus always prayed for God's will to be done. You have the Holy Spirit praying for the continuity of your faith. You have the Holy Spirit praying for your protection that you might never have to face something more than you can bear.

The Holy Spirit praying, as it were, from within you before the throne of God always according to the will of God. In heaven at the right hand of God you have Jesus Christ interceding for you also in perfect harmony with the will of God.

As a result of all that intercession going on, we are kept secure.

Hebrews 4:14-16, Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

✓ Christ is not a high priest who will only intercede for us if we are innocent. ✓ Christ is not a lawyer who only takes the case of those who are innocent. Jesus Christ is a high priest who intercedes for us knowing we are guilty and knowing that we need grace, and mercy. We can't possibly get what we deserve and survive.

So here we can go to this high priest with confidence. In spite of our iniquities, that we need, the necessary mercy, the withholding of judgment, and we will find from Him mercy and grace. There is no limit to grace. When you go before the Lord no matter what you have done as a Christian and you seek grace and mercy.

Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound.

Hebrews 7:24-28, But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. ²⁵ Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. ²⁶ For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the

people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. ²⁸ For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

Now we have a high priest who is perfect. ✓ He has paid the penalty. ✓ He has done the work. ✓ He has made the sacrifice. ✓ He just keeps on interceding for us. ✓ Everything is settled in heaven.

Hebrews 6:16-18, For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. ¹⁷ Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, ¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. If God purposed before the world began to save you, is it going to change? It's not going to change. It's unchangeable. If God made a promise, that's the way it will be.

Hebrews 6:19-20, This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, ²⁰ where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. ✓ God made pledges. ✓ God made promises. ✓ God sent Christ into heaven as the anchor that holds those promises. Those promises are based on two things. ➢ God can't lie and ➢ Christ is in heaven interceding for us.

Now when you go through this in Romans chapter 8 you really begin to wonder how people can believe someone can lose their salvation. There are people who come into the church and confess and profess Christ and go away and maybe even deny the Lord. How are we to understand them?

1 John 2:19, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us;

but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. One of the pieces of evidence of genuine salvation is continuity of faith. When God grants saving faith, it's not temporary. It's not that God gives you the faith to believe and then after you have believed you are on your own faith, no.

It's not that God by His Holy Spirit empowers you to believe at the moment of salvation and then abandons you to your own faith to hang on to that salvation, impossible. When He gives you the faith to believe, He gives you the faith that sustains that belief right on to glory. True believers persevere in faith.

1 John 2:20, But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. You true believers have an anointing from the Holy One.

Who is that? The Holy Spirit. Implication: they didn't have the Holy Spirit.

The first act of Christ's priesthood was sacrifice. The second act of His priesthood is intercession. He was the sacrifice and now He is the intercessory priest, and He will bring us to glory. Anybody who comes and goes, goes because they really weren't of us.

Conclusion

Ephesians 5:25-27, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, ²⁶ that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Loving your wife as Christ loved the church means giving yourself up for her. It doesn't mean buying her something, it means self-sacrifice for her. Just like Christ loved the church and He loved the church. He loved the church and gave Himself up for her. He set His love upon the church before He ever died. He loved the church and gave His life for her with the view, verse 26, that He might sanctify her.

That is to make the church holy, pure, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word so that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and blameless.

Forgetting the message to husbands here, let's just talk about what this says about our salvation. First, Christ loved the church. He loved the church that the Lord had Himself chosen before the world began. He set His love on the church because He loved the church, He gave His life for the church.

He gave His life for the church in order that He might make the church holy, completely cleansed, and washed so that He might someday present to Himself the church.

When is that going to happen? In glory. The church that He loved is the church He died for. The church that He died for is the church He's making holy. The church He makes holy is the church He will present to Himself.

When the church is presented to Himself in all glory, that church will no longer have any spot, any wrinkle, or any blemish. That church will be absolutely holy. Another way to say that whom He foreknew He predestined, whom He predestined He called, whom He called He justified, and whom He justified He glorified. He will bring the church to glory.

There is no person who can change that plan. There is no legalist, no cultist, no false teacher, no religionist, there is no person who can change that plan. There is no group of secular educators. There is no brilliant, bright, savvy marketers plying all the media trade who can wrest your salvation away from you.

God Himself won't do it because He already did the greatest thing in giving His Son. He will do the lesser things to keep those who are in His Son for whom His Son was given. Satan can't do it. He can't do it because no matter what he accuses us of, it's already been paid for.

We are not righteous on our own anyway, but we have been given the righteousness of Christ.

Philippians 3:7-8, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ So, Satan's accusations are a waste of time. Christ won't do it because Christ died for us, rose for us, was exalted for us, and continues to intercede for us. No person or persons can remove us from salvation or cause us not to persevere. ➢ Not anyone. ➢ Not God. ➢ Not Satan. ➢ Not Christ. Not anyone.