Who Will Separate Us from the Love of Christ? --- Romans 8:35-39 April 14, 2019

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; wE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” 37But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Introduction

The power of God's love to transform and to keep His elect has been Paul's theme. I read an account of a man who had been attending at Tenth Presbyterian Church when James Montgomery Boice was pastor. His story had tragic elements in it. This man had been involved in homosexuality in his youth. He got married, had some kids, and went to Boice's church. But then he began to separate himself from the church. He started to live a homosexual lifestyle and it cost him everything--his marriage, his family, his job, and his health.

After the man contracted AIDS, he wrote to Boice during his terrible illness. He said that he got saved through the whole tragic ordeal and was writing to ask for consistent recordings of sermons because he found spiritual nourishment through the Word of God.

The man wrote, “Unfortunately, I am losing my eyesight due to AIDS. I am reading your material as fast as I can, before I find myself unable to see. Your tapes will enable me to continue my studies after the light fails. I have become obsessed with Christ. I can't get enough of His Word. He literally has become my sole motivation to live. I have lost so much already and am losing everything else, but I cannot lose Him. He is the only reason I hold on to life, miserable as it is. My living now is preparing me for eternity.”

Such is the love of Christ to save, to transform, and to keep His elect. There are many pivotal texts in Scripture that speak of the love of God. For example, John 3:16 is obviously one of them. It says, “For God so loved the world . . .” That should actually be translated, “For God loved the world in this way” or “in this manner.” It is not so much that God loved the world so-o-o much that He gave His Son.

The sense is that God demonstrated His great love to man in a very meaningful manner: by giving the most valuable, the most costly relationship He had. He gave His only, one-of-a-kind Son. This meaning corresponds with what we studied last week in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

God’s love means that He eternally gives of Himself to others. His love involves self-giving for the benefit of others. It is God’s nature to give of Himself in order to bring about the blessing and good of others.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

It is a distinctively Christian idea that God is love. God loves ungodly mankind because that is who He is. It is His nature to love. The love of God is the great foundational reality on which the whole Christian faith is built. Without that great love, there would be no Christianity. In God’s love, He is savior of the world. He gives life to the world. Christ came specifically to bring salvation to the world, not to judge it.

Another pivotal text concerning the love of God is Ephesians 2:4-6. Paul vividly described the dismal condition of men in their sin in the first three verses of chapter 2. He then focused on the absolutely priceless solution to man’s overwhelming problem. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

This verse tells us that God’s love is great. Unfortunately, we have through overuse diminished the force of many good words that probably should be reserved only to refer to God. For example, “awesome.” “Awesome” is a word to use when no other word will suffice. It refers to someone or something that is intensely overwhelming, tremendous, overpowering, or incredibly amazing. Now days we say that McDonald’s french fries are awesome. They may be good but they are not awesome.

Another word that has lost its force is “great.” “Great” refers to something immense, enormous, vast, or huge. The Greek word carries the idea of the quality of something that is superior, more excellent than all else, and to an extreme degree.

When God tells us that His love is great, He is conveying that it is so great that it goes beyond our own ideas of greatness or even our understanding. We cannot attain to the majesty of this love.

1 John 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.

1 John 4:9-10 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Another text concerning the love of Christ is Ephesians 3:17-19. Paul wrote that he prays for the Ephesians so that they, “being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

How can we comprehend the infinite love of God? We can know about it, but only in part. We have experienced the effects of His love and have been exposed to it in part, but the fullness of His love will forever be beyond us just as the vastness of the universe is beyond the finite probing eye of man. God’s love is deep and profound. It is immeasurable and boundless.

One last text concerning the love of God is Micah 7:18-19, “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. 19He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”

The heart of the matter is that God loves in such a way that nothing you or I have done, or will ever do, can ever alter His love. Our text this morning speaks of a number of things that might threaten to separate us from the love of God . . . all to no avail.

Review

We saw that Paul gave a brisk sequence of four unassailable questions that argue for the security of the believer in light of the Person of God. Having expounded on the unbreakable chain, Paul proceeded to give the ramifications of this amazing sequence of truths. Each question points to a work of God on behalf of the believer. In these four questions, we see: 1) The Power of God: “If God is for us, who is against us?” 2) The Provision of God: “How will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” 3) The Protection of God: “Who will bring a charge against God's elect?” 4) The Supremacy of God: “Who [or what] will separate us from the love of Christ?”

The Power of God— Romans 8:31 “If God is for us, who is against us?” I told you that Paul stated in Romans 1 that the Gospel puts on display the power of God. In the same way that we cannot begin to comprehend the power of God in the brute force of this universe, we fall short in our comprehension and appreciation of His power in our salvation, sanctification, and glorification.

We saw that the Gospel is the sovereign power of the Almighty God directed toward helpless man. Probably the most graphic picture of the helplessness of man is death itself. Man cannot stop death. All men die. Man struggles desperately to put off death. But he does not realize that physical death is only the beginning. There is a second death that he does not take into account. For the unsaved this second death is eternal separation from God's glorious presence. Man is powerless against death, but God is not. We learned that He exerts tremendous power in taking a soul from eternal death to eternal life.

Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

1 Corinthians 6:14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.

1 Peter 1:3-5 [God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The Provision of God— Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? The undeniable truth in this verse is that God has not spared His own Son. In terms of worth and value, there is no one greater to the Father than the Son. The Son is the greatest treasure that the Father has. If the Father has given up His only Son, then there is nothing that He will withhold from us in regard to provision for salvation, sanctification, and glorification.

The Protection of God— Roman 8:33-34 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

The third unassailable question involves justification and the great courtroom of God. It is as if God makes an open-ended call to anyone who can bring a charge against His elect that would result in condemnation. God is the One who justifies through Christ's death and resurrection. Christ is the Mediator who intercedes. Nothing is able to stand against the power of the cross of Christ and His resurrection. So we looked at the Power, Provision, and Protection of God.

The Supremacy of God— Lastly, we examined the Supremacy of God as Paul asked the question in verse 35, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” I want to pick it up at this point and simply work through the remaining verses in Romans 8 beginning with verse 35, and point out the utter impossibility that the believer be separated from the love of God.

Paul entertained a long list of forces which might possibly remove the believer from the love of God. But the only conclusion is found in the first words and last words of chapter 8, “No condemnation, No separation.” That is the power of the cross of Christ. Verse 35 begins with the question, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” and verse 39 ends with the statement that absolutely nothing can separate us from His love.

One theologian worded it this way, “The Christian climbs the dangerous mountain of life fastened to the stout rope of God's love.” Many times you slip and you may even have a terrible fall, but you are secure because every believer is firmly tied to the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith. God's love is unchanging, eternal, and indestructible. So we begin with verse 35.

Who Will Separate Us from the Love of Christ?

35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

I want to review Paul's list of things that might threaten to separate the believer from the love of God, the first of which is tribulation. The English word “tribulation” comes directly from the Latin noun tribulum, which meant a “threshing sledge.” In the ancient world, the stalks of grain were brought at the time of harvest to the threshing floor. There a wooden threshing instrument, like a sled covered on the bottom with strips of metal, was dragged over the stalks to separate the heads of grain from the chaff. This instrument was called a tribulum because it pressed out the grain.

This picture produced the idea behind the word “tribulation.” Circumstances can press down on people so forcefully and unceasingly that it seems that they are being thrashed around like grain on a threshing floor. We can all remember times of such difficulty. You may be going through a time of tribulation even now. Life is hard. You may have been abused as a child; you have lost your job; maybe a sudden death struck your family, or perhaps a prolonged illness. Your strength is nearly gone. But Paul stated that no tribulation, no matter how difficult, will separate you from the love of Christ. We will learn later that it is actually through and in these times of tribulation that we understand how we are more than conquerors through Christ.

The second circumstance of life that Paul mentions is “distress,” similar to tribulation but with a slight variation. The word here translated “distress” is a compound word made up of two elements. The first means “narrow” and the other means “space.” So the idea is that of being confined within a narrow and oppressive space.

Distress comes in a variety of situations. Distress traps a woman who is in a difficult marriage where there is no sign of relief. The husband is domineering and tyrannical; or maybe he does not lead at all, leaving her feeling insecure. She is between a rock and a hard place.

Distress may refer to a man in a dead-end job. He has been there for years and is not advancing anywhere. Maybe he is getting older and finds it unrealistic to move to another position. He is married with kids and needs to pay the mortgage; meanwhile, bills are adding up. In both these cases, the man and the woman want to be free from such confinement, but they cannot without shirking responsibilities and commitments.

There are so many other scenarios that we might experience where life is pressing in. How are you going to endure in such circumstances? You need to be reminded that Christ has chained you with His love and nothing can remove you out of that sphere. You may be pressed now, but that will not always be the case. Nothing can take away the eternal promise that God has made, because nothing can separate you from the love of God.

Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your word has revived me.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts.

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

So we find hope, strength, and comfort in times of tribulation and distress through the knowledge that these things do not separate us from the love of Christ.

The third possible “separator” is persecution. This refers to being pursued by someone intending to do you harm because of your faith. It is a relentless opposition. Very few of us experience physical, tangible persecution in America. We may have been verbally abused for our faith, which is a form of persecution. But many believers in other countries have given their lives for their faith. I hear that more and more people are being persecuted for their faith in China at the present time. If the current trends continue in our country, stronger and stronger outright persecution is coming to America.

Let us keep in mind that believers have always been persecuted for their faith throughout church history. We have been living in a bubble of time here in the United States where we have been free to worship without persecution. Furthermore, understand that persecution is in direct relationship to the degree that you stand in and live out a biblical Christianity. If you never speak of the Gospel, then you will never be persecuted.

As I said, there are various forms of persecution. You may be shunned by people who think that Christianity is archaic and no longer relevant. Perse- cution may involve being overlooked for a position or promotion. Some believers and church leaders may be sued for standing up against the trends of a nation, similar to John the Baptist being beheaded for speaking against King Herod. Our text assures us that we will never be separated from Christ's love, even by persecution. Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Next, Paul mentioned “famine” and “nakedness” in the list of things that might separate a believer from God. Famine was chronic in the ancient world. Famine was the result of war, earthquakes, fires, floods, locust plagues, and the lack of rain. Even today, it still menaces much of the world's population despite technological advances. Hunger is a terrible curse, but even in the midst of famine, Christ's love is there.

Nakedness has to do with poverty so severe that a person is unable to purchase clothing. Both famine and nakedness may flow out of the previously mentioned tribulation, distress, and persecution. We may think that these circumstances indicate that God has abandoned us. But even if the context in which we live becomes this desperate, we must understand that we have not been separated from Christ and His love.

Next, peril and the sword might be viewed as signs that believers have been separated from the love of God. How could a loving God allow these types of things to happen to believers? The sword points to the execution of believers for their faith. This happened in the early church. Paul watched on as Stephen was martyred for the faith. Later Paul himself was stoned and left for dead. James, the brother of John, was put to death by the sword. Church history is filled with accounts of believers dying for the faith. Such was the case during Paul's time as he referred to Psalm 44:22 describing believers being put to death.

Verse 36 Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”

Even today, mission organizations that deal with international violations of human rights say that as many as 100,000 Christians are killed every year because they follow Christ. So neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword will separate us from the love of Christ. But the list goes on . . .

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul continued in these verses his list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God. He named four pairs and two all-inclusive words: death/life, angels/demons, present/future, height/depth, plus powers and any created thing. He began with what is the most ominous threat to all mankind—death. Death separates us from life on this earth. It separates us from our loved ones in this world. It separates us from the places where we would like to be.

Death separates those who are not reconciled to God from Him for eternity. Many people may think that death might even separate a believer from the Lord when actually the opposite is true. Death is the vehicle by which we are ushered into His presence. In fact, at one point, Paul mocked death.

1 Corinthians 15:54-58 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

There you have it: Death cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Death actually is our servant, bringing us to Him.

The corresponding word with death is “life.” “Life” seems to be an odd item to write in this list of things that might separate us from the love of Christ. However, many regard living life as more difficult than facing death. Many come to a point of preferring death to life. To them, death is a mercy or release. For example, as we age, life becomes increasingly more difficult. We are not as mobile as we once were. Eyesight and hearing begin to fade. Minds and memories are not as sharp. We start to be separated from the simple pleasures of this life that we once enjoyed. But there is no separation from God in this life, no matter the circumstances. Neither death nor life can separate you from the love of Christ.

The next pair of words in Paul's list in verse 38 is angels and demons. This mention of the angelic domain can be confusing. The word “angels” usually refers to the holy angels. But that raises the question, “How can holy angels separate a believer from the love of God?” Can they ever try to separate us from Christ? No. However, Paul at times used angels in hypothetical examples doing what we know they could never actually do. For example, Galatians 1:8 states, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”

For that reason, Paul was not thinking so much in exclusive terms as he was simply sweeping over all creation to deny that anything, or anyone anywhere, could ever succeed in destroying our eternal security in Christ. Now when it comes to the demonic, it is a different story. The spiritual forces of evil create havoc and are given over to division. In fact the term “devil” means “accuser,” “adversary,” and “slanderer.” But nothing Satan or demons do can separate you from the love of Christ. The reason why Satan and his demons cannot separate you from Christ is that Christ utterly disarmed them at the cross.

Colossians 2:13-15 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

Christ disarmed and shamed Satan and the demonic hordes when He rose again. He took the power of death away from Satan and left him completely powerless over the believer.

Hebrews 2:14-15 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

So neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons can separate us from the love of Christ. The third pair is “things present or things to come.” Paul here thought in terms of time. Time is powerless against believers. Paul does not need to mention the past because nothing in the past has separated us from Christ. But what about the circumstances in which we find ourselves in the present? What about things in the future which we have not yet encountered?

We might think of these terms as they pertain to things on this earth which are present, and things in the heavenlies which are future. The answer is that God is sovereign over both heaven and earth, over present and future things. This points back to what we learned in Romans 8:28. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” God is sovereign over all realms, over all things.

Paul then left the couplets he had been using and chose the single term “powers.” It is not certain what Paul had in mind here. This term is used elsewhere in reference to miracles and the power of God. I believe Paul was stating the fact that absolutely no power exists greater than God's power. Therefore, there is no power in creation that can separate you from the love of Christ.

Paul then thought in terms of space as he referred to “height” and “depth.” The main thought here is that the love of God finds the believer no matter where he or she might be. Psalm 139:7-10 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me.” As you see, there is no time or place a believer can go that would separate him from the love of Christ.

Paul ended with an all-inclusive phrase, “nor any other created thing.” That would refer to anything other than God, since God created all things. It is as if Paul ran out of anything else that he could mention. In conclusion, if God is for us and if God controls all things that He has made, then positively nothing will be able to separate us from His love for us in Christ Jesus.

Conclusion

I want to conclude by examining verse 37, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

The word here translated in the NASB as “overwhelmingly conquer” carries the idea that we are super-conquerors. That is a strange thought in light of the preceding statements. How can those who are despised and rejected; persecuted in the midst of tribulation and distress; who are exposed to famine, nakedness, danger, and the sword be super-conquerors?

There are many answers to that question. First and foremost, we must understand that Christ is the conqueror and we are super-conquerors because we conquer through Him.

I want to give you one additional thought on which to reflect. Now this is important: There are times when you do not feel like you are overwhelmingly conquering. You get sideswiped and laid low by something in life. You may have been battling some issue for a long time, yet you fail once again. You ask, “How am I overwhelmingly conquering?”

Mull over this illustration. If we could have filmed with time-lapse photography the battle between man and nature for the past thousands of years, I believe it would make a fascinating film. I envision those ruins in the heart of a jungle in India like those in The Jungle Book with Mowgli. There are signs of a once- thriving empire which the jungle has utterly overtaken. Time and nature are stronger than that once-great kingdom. You could say the same of any number of ancient civilizations. Their ruins are proof of the power of time and nature.

Go drive in the countryside and look at the old dilapidated barns that were built strong and tall. Now they are broken-down and sagging; trees are growing in the middle of them. Left alone long enough, old barns will be overrun by nature.

Go look at the grass that is growing in your concrete driveway. Over hundreds of years, that concrete will eventually degrade and erode; the grass will crack it to pieces and conquer it.

Believers are, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, like nature, which always overtakes and conquers all things that would rise up against the love of Christ. The flesh, the world, and Satan and his demonic hordes would have you believe that you can be defeated and brought down. But that is not the case. You may fall and, even for a time, have terrible struggles against the onslaughts of the flesh and the world in spiritual warfare. But the believer always comes back.

Why? Because there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and because nothing can separate them from the love of Christ.

We are super-conquerors because there will come a day when Satan and his demons will be confined to hell and suffer forever. There will come a day when the world system that is so anti-God will end. There will come a day when our flesh is put into the grave and will cease to rise up against the new man. All the opponents of the soul will die; but the true you, the born-again you, will triumphantly be transformed and will reign with Christ forever. We are super- conquerors.

2 Timothy 2:11-12a It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him. Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

4/14/19