Accusations Cease

 Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens,

“It has come at last—
    salvation and power
and the Kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Christ.^[a]
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters^[b]
    has been thrown down to earth—
the one who accuses them
    before our God day and night.

We forget sometimes that one of the chief roles of Satan is that of accuser.

One way of looking at that is to see him as some kind of corrupt lawyer, (with us in the dock) and his job is to make anything he can stick to us.

We saw this in the story of Job,  how Satan comes before God snivelling and insinuating.

It seems quite fascinating that he accuses them before God,  day and night. 
Not sure how that works, but all I can say is what passionate venom he has against those God loves.

He is obsessed with bringing them down and undermining Gods work in them.

These accusations sometimes are utterly false.  And sometimes they, even though they are spoken by an accomplished liar,  carry the weight of truth.

Sometimes we deserve the criticism he levels at us. 
Sometimes we have to hold up our hands and say 'guilty'.

But my heart,  in great relief, is drawn to the words of St Paul in the epistle to the Romans;

If God is for us who can be against us.

Listen,  as a lawyer,  Satan has the hardest caseload ever. He faces an impossible task. I almost feel sorry for him.

Look. The Judge is utterly baised. Satan's chances are non existent.  He is on a hiding to nothing.  He has a snow man's chance in Hell. No, he has the devil's chances in Hell.

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who then is the one who condemns?

No one.

Get this. We are cleared and the debt is paid before it ever goes to trial.

God himself justified us. He sent his only Son as a ransom. Do you think he would turn his back on that kind of price?
It would be to make a mockery of the blood of the Son he loves.

Oh my God,  how the odds are stacked in our favour.  You need never be more certain than of any other thing in all creation.

No.  That is a price that God the judge deems paid in full.  He puts  higher value on that than on any sin.

Satan's accusations in hope of catching us out are laughable. Literally laughable.

And who is the lawyer defending our case?

The only one who could condemn.  That's who.

Christ Jesus, who died- more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God...
AND IS ALSO INTERCEDING FOR US

He is pleading our case.  The only one who could make an accusation stick is the one who defended us with his own life
....and he is pleading our case to His father,  who orchestrated the whole rescue scheme and paid the price of the most precious thing he had,  his beloved and only sinless son.

Seriously.  Satan is screwed.

And nothing.  NOTHING, In all creation, can separate us from this love.

But sometimes it is not the devil that condemns us.

Sometimes it is our hearts that condemn us.

But listen again to the words of John, in 1 John 3;

Whenever our hearts condemn us,  God is greater than our hearts.

See all the above.  If Satan's attempts at accusations can't stand in court,  then neither can our own hearts.

His love has overcome all.

No, nothing.

Not death.
Not life.
Not Angels or Demons.
Not present nor future.
Not any powers.
Not heigh nor depth.

No. 

Not anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Amen.