Nothing Can Separate Us
Romans 8:31 – 39
Today’s lesson from Paul’s letter to the Romans begins in the middle of a thought that began in last week’s reading. Like a good teacher, Paul has been circling back around his main point, adding layers of understanding with each repetition. Now we find ourselves at the conclusion of chapter eight, a chapter so chocked full of meaning, it takes three Sundays to get through it all. Here we are, on the third of those Sundays, about to read the climax of this chapter, which is itself the climax of the whole letter.
So where does that leave us in our understanding of what Paul is telling us in our lesson today? Well now Paul comes to his main point through four rhetorical questions:
- Who can be against us, if God is for us?
- Who can bring any charge against God’s elect?
- Who can condemn us if Christ died for us, rose again, and stands on our behalf before God?
- Who can separate us from the love of God?
And the answer to each question for Paul in the same: No one! No one can be against us if God is for us. God will give us everything, since he already gave his only Son for our sakes. No one will bring any charge against God’s elect, because God himself justifies us. He finds us “in the right,” and if the supreme judge of the whole universe finds us in the right, no one can appeal or argue that finding.
No one can condemn us, because Christ has already died and been raised to a place at the right hand of God where he intercedes, along with the Spirit who groans on our behalf. Christ died, Christ is risen, Christ ascended, and Christ prays for us! As Paul told us a few weeks ago there is no condemnation for those that love Jesus. Our condemnation has been condemned.
Finally Paul tells us that no one can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Even when it seems God has abandoned you, Paul writes, you cannot escape his love.
In our first reading today, we read what the prophet Jeremiah had to say about how very, very hard life can be for the believer. We read about; afflictions, wrath, being driven into darkness, his hand seemingly turned away from us, making our flesh and skin waste away, our bones broken, being besieged with bitterness and tribulation, having been walled in with no escape because heavy chains hold us down and our prayers seemingly ignored.
Isn’t that how we feel sometimes? Things simply not going our way, every bad thing that could happen does happen. Has that ever been you? It has been me! Is it you today? Admit it this has been all of us one time or another. Paul then asks one last question
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword separate us for the love of God?
You see this is not some generic list that Paul randomly puts together. This is actually a list trials that Paul himself had lived through during his life as a Christian. He knew each and every one of the trials on this list personally. We could go through the scriptures and identify trial and tribulations with Paul.
- Trouble, yes,
- hardships, he had them,
- persecution, check,
- famine, he knew it,
- nakedness, he endured it,
- danger, he felt it and
- sword, he was threatened with it.
Paul suffered each and every one of these trails. If anyone should have felt separated from the God despite his faithfulness to God, it would, it should, and it could be the Apostle Paul. However, triumphantly Paul says, “we aren’t forsaken in fact we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
We are not simply conquerors, we are more than conquerors, greater than simply conquerors. In the Greek text Paul suggests that we are hyper-conquerors. We are hyper-conquerors not because we are special people, not because we have been given special powers, not because we are strong people but rather because as Christians we know God is controlling the situation and because since we are Children of God, he is using challenges in our lives to make us more like Jesus, to glorify us in the same way He glorified Jesus.
Through Christ Jesus, we can claim complete victory over the suffering caused by our sin. And what is the source of this victory? The source is God’s great love for us, shown in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For any Christian who is discouraged, this powerful passage gives assurance of Christ’s present love, active at every moment in the Christian’s life. Are any causes of discouragement greater than those Paul mentions? If not, then in this life we are never separated from Christ’s love. Even in hardships we can be more than conquerors!
Paul’s answer to the final question, “Who or what separate us from the love of Christ?” is one of the most beautiful assurances we can find in scripture. Despite all of the challenges that Paul had faced, despite all of the reasons that Paul might have had to doubt whether God was really on his side, Paul provides us with one of the most enduring and comforting statements in the Bible.
“I am convinced” Paul says, not I hope or I think or I wish but rather I am convinced, I am fully persuaded, I believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Can you hear the certainly and the conviction of his words? Can you say them with me:
“I am convinced, fully persuaded that”
“neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate me,
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Friends Nothing Can Separate us. Nothing!
This passage reaffirms God’s profound love for his people. No matter what happens to us, no matter where we are, we can never be lost to his love. These verses contain one of the most comforting promises in all Scripture. His death for us is proof of his unconquerable love. Nothing can stop Christ’s constant presence with us through the Spirit of Life.
God tells us how great his love is so that we will feel totally secure in him. If we believe these overwhelming assurances, we will not be afraid of anything that might leave us leaving abandoned by His constant love and comfort for us. Nothing Can Separate us!
Hear the Good News my friends….
Know that God loves you no matter what, no matter when, no matter where, no matter who, no matter why, no matter how. Some of you may remember the name Andrae Crouch from the 1970’s and 80’s as a popular Christian music writer and performer. He was seen many times in Billy Graham revivals and performed concerts all around the world spreading the Good News of the Gospel. The following lyrics come from his song Through It All and it brings great meaning to what Paul is teaching us today.
I’ve had many tears and sorrows, I’ve had questions for tomorrow, there’s been times I didn’t know right from wrong. But in every situation, God gave me blessed consolation, that my trials come to only make me strong. Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.
Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word. I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys, I thank Him for the storms He brought me through. For if I’d never had a problem, I wouldn’t know God could solve them, I’d never know what faith in God could do.
So, live like God loves you. Live like a conquering hero because that’s who you are. We are all completely victorious over sin and death, through the one who loved us, who loves us now, and will always love us. Though the body may lose its battle, the spirit remains within the embrace of God’s love for us.
Live into the assurance that you are God’s own beloved child and share that good news with the people you see every day who are hurting, disappointed, worried, convinced that they have no worth in the world. In all the difficult times that come our way, and they will, that they all will be used for our good, for our sanctification, to lead us to our ultimate glorification with Jesus Christ.
You are my friends, more than conquerors, above conquerors, hyper-conquerors, because you are a child of the one is above and beyond everything in the universe. Always remember that through our faithfulness we are convinced, we are persuaded, we are certain that Nothing Can Separate Us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen.