When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? -John 8:10
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. -Revelation 12:10
In the presence of Christ, the Accuser of the Brethren has no standing. No sooner does the Accuser come to God’s court than he is cast out by the compelling arguments of our Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ.
How is this so? By what means did our Lord, under the name of Michael, banish the Devil from his place in the court of heaven? We might think it is because of His great sovereign authority by which he commands Satan away from the proceedings. No doubt, Christ has authority and power to drive Satan away. But were he to silence our Accuser by that means, would there not be a legitimate cry of, “Unjust!” It is a wholesale miscarriage of justice if a man is set free from his crimes simply because his attorney has strength to throw the prosecutor out of court.
We might think that Satan is thrown out by our Lord’s work as our Advocate, for it is written, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” (1 John 2.1) What a blessing this is: to have the Son of God, Himself, as our defense attorney in heaven’s court. Yet, what argument can our Advocate make for us, seeing that we are guilty of the things of which we are accused? Do we hope that He can find some loophole or some “technicality” of the law by which the guilty might escape punishment? Once again, we hear the cry, “Unjust!” Of this we may be certain: no unjust means of salvation shall ever prosper in the presence of God.
How then was the Accuser cast out? Is it not by this means? - Many years ago, our Advocate appeared before the bar of Divine justice in our name; and there he plead guilty to every charge the Accuser could lay against us; and there our Advocate paid in full the price for all those crimes. What can the Accuser say now? Shall he bring up some sin of ours again? Will a just court allow the same crime to be tried twice? Until the Accuser can find some sin of the brethren which was not plead and paid for on Calvary, then he has no place in the court of heaven!
But, even though Satan has been cast out of heaven’s court, he finds a way into our consciences, and there he accuses again and again. How can we overcome that? "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. . ." (Revelation 12:11) When Satan accuses, do not waste your time trying to defend yourself, for his accusations are true, are they not? Rather, set before Him the blood of the Lamb, which is the irrefutable proof that the sins for which he accuses you have already been plead and paid for, and he has no more standing in the court of your conscience than he does in the court of heaven. Case closed!
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