ACC ~ Romans 8 v33

WHO SHALL BRING ANY CHARGE AGAINST GOD’S ELECT? ORIGEN: It seems to me that this must refer to the devil, for apart from Christ, who knew no sin, there is nobody so elect or so great that the devil would not dare to attack.

Note that Paul does not talk about those whom God has called but about God’s elect. For unless you are elect and unless you show yourself approved by God in all things, you will have an accuser. For if your case is bad, if your crime restricts you, what can an advocate do for you, even if it is Jesus who intercedes on your behalf? For Jesus is the truth, and the truth cannot lie on your behalf. The advocate can help you only as long as you do not give the accuser grounds for attacking you, so that your previous sins, which were washed away in baptism, will not be imputed to you. But if afterward you sin again and do not wash the sin away by any tears of repentance, you will be giving your accuser grounds to incriminate you, and although Jesus intercedes on our behalf, even he would not call darkness light, or bitterness sweet. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: 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.

IT IS GOD WHO JUSTIFIES. AMBROSIASTER: 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.

CHRYSOSTOM: 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. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

PELAGIUS: Who will dare to charge believers whom God has chosen and shown to be righteous by signs and wonders for previous sins or for disregard of the law’s commands? PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

Rom