I can't remember when or how it struck me that the famous series of questions Paul asks

in Romans chapter 8 verses 31 to 35 all begin with the personal interrogative pronoun, the

pronoun who? Despite the fact that when he gives a list of the opposition, the Christian

experiences, one or less everything in it is a what and not a who? But now I can't read

these great verses without reflecting on this striking feature of this amazing passage.

There's no variation in it. He keeps asking the question who? And we've seen that the

who about whom he is thinking is the one that Simon Peter describes as your adversary,

the devil. That's who Paul has in mind when he asks who is against us. And it's also who

he has in mind now when he asks who shall bring any charge against God's elect. The

fact is that many people did bring charges against Christians. That's if the Apostles

makes that clear enough. And there are several occasions when the Apostles were actually brought

before the religious or civil authorities to face accusations. But that's not I think what

Paul is ultimately talking about here. And his answers seem to make that clear. The accusations

Paul is talking about here are those the devil brings against us. Scripture tells us that these

charges against us are made in the courtroom of heaven. Remember Revelation chapter 12 verse 10,

the devil is the accuser of the brothers who accuses them day and night before our God.

Now there's something mysterious about this, isn't there? This isn't something that we see or

hear directly. But elsewhere in Scripture we learn about this activity of the devil. Remember

what Jesus said to Peter? Satan has demanded to have you to sift you like wheat, but I've prayed

for you that your faith won't fail. And of course in the opening chapters of the book of Job,

we're told how the devil accused Job before God saying, Job's in it only for what he can get out

of it. And then there's that amazing scene in Zechariah chapter 3. There the prophet has a

...