When Satan Accuses You

“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:33)

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. (Rev. 12:10-12) Satan uses our failures, sins, flaws, and weaknesses to tempt us to wallow in self-pity, shame, embarrassment, guilt, despair, hopelessness, and uselessness to disable and immobilize us from the work of the ministry. People who are part of the kingdom of darkness could also be used by the king of darkness in his evil schemes. We receive insults from others. We get hurt by the words and actions of others.

But you know what? The world around us and satan might accuse us but it will never change the standing that we have before God. That is why the apostle Paul asked the rhetorical question in Rom. 8:33, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” No one. Not even satan. He is already a defeated foe. All the accusations, insults, and schemes to tempt us to despair are useless. All the charges that could be brought against us are useless even though the charges are true. Why? Because God has already cancelled the record of debt that stood against us when Christ nailed our debt to the cross. (Col. 2:14) The charges that make us guilty before God were owned by Christ on our behalf. He paid our fine to set us free from sin’s penalty.

God is fully aware of all the charges that could be raised against us. However, the good news is, that the righteous Judge who alone has the right to condemn us as guilty has justified us. What an amazing reality that is! That we are declared righteous in the sight of God because we are covered by the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. Christ’s righteousness is a gift from God that becomes ours through faith alone in Him. He suffered and paid for the consequences of our charges so that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1) There is no room for wrath because Christ satisfied the wrath of God on the cross. All there is for us is love.

Brethren, when satan accuses you, let us be reminded of the words of the hymn writer:

excerpt from Before the Throne of God Above

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within.
Upward I look and see Him there,
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the Just is satisfied,
To look on Him and pardon me.
To look on Him and pardon me.

Brethren, when satan tempts us to despair with all the charges because of our guilt, remember that Christ died for that charge to free us from it. No more guilt. No more shame. Because Christ took it all. The shame and the guilt ended on the cross of Calvary. Let us not look down in despair because there is a wonderful reason to look up and see that our Loving Savior is there.

No Room For Hiding: Hope in the Midst of Shame, Embarrassment, and Guilt

Are there moments in your life when you just want to be in hiding because of shame, embarrassment, and guilt? I just want to let you know that you are not alone. I have that moments too. There are things I have done that makes me ashamed, embarrassed, and guilty.

There were moments in my life when I just wanted to isolate and be inside my room because it was as if I didn’t have the confidence to interact with people. There were moments in my life when I tried to escape the haunting thought of shameful and embarrassing circumstances by numbing my mind with online games and movies. Unfortunately, in moments like these, the shame, embarrassment, and guilt were just temporarily forgotten because I diverted my mind from these negative thoughts toward something else. However, every time, I temporarily isolated myself in my room and temporarily escaped through games and movies, the shame, embarrassment, and guilt increased because I had lost time which could be spent with loved ones and I had used the blessing of time unprofitably.

In moments like these, all of us try to cling to something to rid away the shame, embarrassment, and guilt. We try to soothe these feelings by entertainment, pleasure, adventure, experiences, achievements, and any other thing that this world could offer. Nevertheless, we know that deep inside of our being it’s just a temporary fix. These things were never meant to rid the shame, embarrassment, and guilt.

Fortunately, a Person can. Providentially, a Person did.

That Person is the God-man: Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life on our behalf so that we would never be afraid of not measuring up because He has perfectly measured up the standards of God for us. (2 Cor. 5:21)

In Christ, our standing is spotless and blameless. In Christ, we are covered by His perfect righteousness. In Christ, we are eternally accepted by our loving Father. In Christ, the shame, embarrassment, and guilt are no more because God does not judge us based on our sinful, flawed, and weak performance but rather on the perfect, flawless, and almighty performance of Christ.

He also died on our behalf. (1 Peter 3:18) He was subjected to the death that we should have died because of our sins. He suffered our sin’s punishment. His precious blood has paid our sin’s penalty. The sins that make us ashamed, embarrassed, and guilty have been buried deep in the ocean of Jesus’ concealing blood.

He resurrected on the third day to prove that He is indeed our mighty Savior who has conquered the sting of death. The free gift of eternal life becomes ours the moment we turn away from our sins and trust in Him as our Lord Savior. (John 3:16)

In moments of shame, embarrassment, and guilt, let us turn our gaze away from our sinful selves and toward our perfect Savior. And sing with the hymn writer:

Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Before the Throne of God, Excerpt

There is hope because of Christ. There is now no room for hiding because Christ sets us free from our shame, embarrassment, and guilt.