Written ~ 11-14-2023
Romans 8:35-39
35 “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”
37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What a compelling couple of questions!
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?” And “Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble?”
Have you ever wondered if God is still there when you are going through a difficult time in your life? Or have you possibly wondered if God changed His mind about loving the people on this earth when you see all the evil in the world today? If you have, I hope He has proved to you in a very personal way that He does loves you. There will always be terrible things that happen in this world, and we don’t want to lose sight of the unfailing love God has for humanity.
When we put our trust in the Lord and we are seeking after Him, pursuing Him, we shouldn’t have much difficulty finding His love in everything we do. But when we turn our attention to the craziness going on around us and our focus is diverted, it’s quite possible we could begin to feel abandoned and completely alone.
Paul is writing to the Roman church, and I would venture to say, the Christians at that time were probably being harassed at every turn. They were assumably quite confused and distraught by the persecution they were facing every day. And I can only imagine they were wondering if they were cut off somehow from the love of Christ.
In the verses leading up to today’s passage, we read Paul’s excitement about the future, verses 8:18-25, he talks about how the earth is eager for the future day when Christ comes back and we wait eagerly, hopeful and with great longing for the day we will no longer suffer the pain of this world. So the trouble and the calamity and the persecution is only for a while, we must be hopeful and long for Christ’s return.
Let’s turn those first couple of questions we read in verse 8:35 back on ourselves for a moment… it may feel like we are somehow cutoff from the love of the Lord when things go wrong… but let’s think of it this way, it is because WE LOVE Jesus Christ the Lord our God and serve Him diligently with our entire heart, mind and soul that the world’s trouble and persecution is going to be much more evident because of the hatred the world has for our Savior. If WE DIDN’T LOVE the Lord and the Lord DIDN’T LOVE us, we wouldn’t face any calamity, our witness and the spreading of the Good News would be non-existent, there wouldn’t be any reason for persecution. So, it’s a fact, one we will need to prepare our hearts for, Christ’s love for us and our love for Him, brings trouble and persecution. When we question the love of Jesus or somehow place trouble, hunger and the threat of death as something that should never happen to the believer, we misunderstand the purpose of Christ dying on the cross. Jesus was in danger every time He went into the synagogue to teach, He went hungry, and the threat of death chased after Him wherever He went. But He remained true and consistent to His purpose while on earth and that was to get to the cross so He could save the world, give us a way to unite ourselves with the Father. With our belief and our acceptance of what happened on that cross, the painful death of Christ, then resurrection of Christ, it forever joins us together with our Savior and with the Father.
No matter what we go through the love of Christ never fails and honestly, depending on our boldness to get the message of Jesus to the world, we may experience varying degrees of persecution. This is why in James 1:2 it says, “…when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy…” Think about it, in the world today, where there is a void of trouble and calamity, persecution and threat of death, more than likely we may find there isn’t the eager longing and hope for the coming of Christ. If your life is going along “perfectly,” there isn’t any evidence of trouble or persecution, right then is when you should question yourself as to “Why?” Understand this, even if we don’t have a strong witness for Christ, or we don’t have the boldness to spread the Name of Jesus wherever we go, we will go through some kind of persecution or trouble from the enemy because we are serving the Living God. But that does not mean He has separated Himself from us when trouble comes our way. Look at what verse 8:37 says,
37 “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
So, whether we face fierce persecution in our lives or not, Jesus is victorious, and He loves us so much that truly it just isn’t fathomable for our human brains to understand. And I agree with Paul in verse 8:38a where he says,
38 “…I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.”
Then Paul lists the different things that will never separate us from the Love of God:
- Neither Death nor Life
- Neither Angels nor Demons
- Neither our Fears for today
- Nor our Worries about tomorrow
- The powers of Hell CANNOT separate us
- The Power in the Sky CANNOT separate us
- The Power on Earth CANNOT separate us
- NOTHING in all Creation WILL EVER SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD
Through every trouble, during any calamity, hunger or destitution, or amid danger and threat of death, our Savior Jesus Christ has “OVERWHELMING VICTORY!”
~AMEN~