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Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Romans 8:33 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
  • KJV Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
  • BSB Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
  • NASB Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
  • NLT Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

No accusation against God's chosen people can stand, because God himself has declared them righteous. The Judge has already issued the verdict of acquittal.

Overview

Using courtroom imagery, Paul asks who could successfully accuse God's elect. The answer is no one, for it is God who justifies. Since the highest Judge has pronounced believers righteous through faith in Christ, no charge, whether from Satan, conscience, or the law, can overturn that verdict. The believer's standing rests on God's justifying act, not on personal performance.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 19

  • Isa 50:8–9He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
  • Rev 12:10–11I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
  • Isa 54:17No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Yahweh’s servants, and their righteousness is of me,” says Yahweh.
  • Rom 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
  • Luke 18:7Won’t God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
  • 1 Th 1:4We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen,
  • Zech 3:1–4He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.
  • Rom 3:26to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
  • Isa 42:1“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights — I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.
  • Job 42:7–9It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.
  • 1 Pet 1:2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
  • Matt 24:24For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
  • Job 1:9–11Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
  • Gal 3:8The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”
  • Job 2:4–6Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
  • Job 34:8–9Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men?
  • Ps 35:11Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.
  • Job 22:6–30For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
  • Titus 1:1Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 8:33YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.

How Romans 8:33 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.