ROMANS UNWRAPPED 154

4)   "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?       Romans 8v35-39

Paul now strikes the final chord in the great triumphal hymn of salvation.   In all this secure and assured salvation in Christ, that has so wonderfully brought man and God together in a new relationship, is there anything that can come between us and cause a breakdown in this seemingly unbreakable bond?   Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?; and the answer is an emphatic no, and nothing.   In verses 35 - 37 he looks at things on this earth  and considers the possibility that some of the events in this world will separate us, but he finds none.   Then in verses 38-39 he looks at things beyond this earth and there is nothing there either.    He is asking, is there any person, or agency or event in all of the vast spaces of the universe, through all the passage of time and in the entire eventualities of this world that can separate God from His people and there is none!   No power or influence can come between God and the people whom He has secured in Christ.

He considers seven things on earth that may possibly come between God and His people.

• Tribulation       This is  literally a pressing, or a pressing together, like people used to press the grapes for the wine in a wine press.   He is talking here of real stress in life; pressures that threaten us; the key to understanding these things is the phrase in verse 36  "for Thy sake."   Christians will come under real pressure because of their faith in Christ, and this applies to all the others we will mention.
• Distress             It means real hardship, .literally caught between two rocks, in a tight corner; in anguish of soul; hemmed in and hedged up; cornered.   A modern day expression would be  "between a rock and a hard place."
• Persecution       Literally means put to flight, pursued, stalked, followed with harmful intent, hunted down like an animal.   Many Christians have known all about this.
• Famine              Scarcity of food or water; loss of employment, denial of employment leading to financial hardship.
• Nakedness         Lack of clothing, perhaps could refer to loss of homes or shelter and many Christians have known that.
• Peril                   Danger, life threatening situations: Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 11v26  "In perils of robbers, in perils of rivers, in perils of my own country men, in perils of the nations, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea and in perils because of false brethren".
• Sword                The ultimate sanction; the small sword used for killing an individual human being or animal and refers to the many forms of Christian martyrdom.

Paul now quotes from Psalm 44v12  "For Thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; there is no one more hated, or abused, or misunderstood, or criticised, as the God of heaven and all who follow Him will bear His reproach.   We will be considered to be expendable and fit only for the slaughterhouse.   Now says Paul in all these things we are more than conquerors.   Paul refuses to focus on the maladies of this world and focuses only on the remedies.   Christians are overcomers in all circumstances of life.  

He now considers aspects beyond this earth over which no human being is in control.   He trawls the universe, considers every angle and presents it in four couplets which are extremes the one to the other.   He says "I am persuaded."

Neither death nor life, the extremes of existence; nor angels nor demons, the extremes of unseen forces; nor things present nor things to come, the extremes of time; nor height nor depth, the extremes of space.   None of these things can separate us.   Nothing in all of space, in all of time, in all of conscious existence, or from all unseen forces beyond this world can separate God from His people.   He finishes in glorious triumph by saying "If there is any other creature that I don't know about."......

NONE OF THEM WILL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.

The power of God is awesome, the power of His love is the most awesome of all His attributes, and those whom God loves are eternally secure no matter what.

We have reached half way in our studies and will now take a short break.   God willing we will re-commence on 2nd January 2016 looking together at Romans chapters  9 - 16.   Meanwhile we want to wish all our readers a peaceful festive time and hope to renew our acquaintance in the New Year.