Romans
8:35-39 (NASB)
35Who 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.
More
Questions
The questions just keep on
coming. Paul is not asking these
questions so that we would doubt our salvation.
He is asking them rhetorically in order to get the point across. In these final verses of chapter 8 Paul
drives the point all the way in to the hilt.
The Holy Spirit wouldn’t have any believer doubting for one moment who
gave us our salvation, and how it will be drawn to completion.
Romans
8:35
Who will separate us from the love of
Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword?
Who?
Based on the previous verses and the
nature of this question the obvious answer is “nobody”. Far from the many man-made religions that
place one person over everyone else’s salvation. There is no earthly source that can separate,
not ability of any man to excommunicate a believer from salvation. No earthly ruler or authority has any say at
all in the issue of a believer’s position, identity and destiny in Christ
Jesus. This is GREAT news! Because there is another “who” that is, of
necessity a part of this statement: “ME!
MYSELF!” If the word is true a
person who has trusted Jesus cannot even separate themselves from His powerful
and redeeming love and future. This is
something that is beyond our full comprehension, but should bring us endless
joy!
The
Love of Christ
The question of separation is from
something very special: The Love of
Christ. The Greek word here is agape – it is the Greek word that
describes God’s love. This kind of love
is unconditional, selfless and perfect.
This love has well been defined: The
unconditional love of God that always looks out for the greatest good of the
loved one, regardless of the cost.
This statement is saying that there is no being, in heaven or on earth,
that can separate the believer from this magnificent love that Christ displayed
on the Cross (Romans 5:8).
What
about these things?
In continuing this description of
Christ’s amazing love from which we cannot be separated Paul adds a handful of
difficult circumstances. Let’s look at
some of these words:
·
Tribulation
– Crushing pressure, painful difficult circumstances.
·
Distress
– Being in a tight spot, passing through a narrow path that squeezes in on us.
·
Persecution
– Being Pursued by enemies – either literally or metaphorically
·
Famine
– failure, or lack of, certain physical necessities.
·
Nakedness –
Want of clothing or basic coverings
·
Peril
– Danger, fearful or frightening situations
·
Sword
– The specific sword of the Roman Legions.
It was a precise weapon of slaughter.
Metaphorically for a violent death.
Paul runs off a list of nearly every
negative, terrible, horrible situation of which he can think. From internal pressure to external, from
emotional and political to physical want.
The idea that he is getting across is that our position is secure no
matter what may happen in our circumstances.
This is the only genuine outlook of each believer that makes any sense
whatsoever! Things truly may come to the
very worst in this sin-scarred life.
However, what waits for us is not threatened by any of these situations. This is tremendous news!
Romans
8:36-37
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.
Expectations
Often we see people trying to “sell
Christianity” with highly charged stories about how bad and difficult their
life was until they became a Christian and now everything is better. Paul seems to predict the opposite for the
believer. Quoting Psalm 44:22, Paul sets
for the principle that the saints of the Lord can expect to experience
difficulty, trial and challenge. Many
believers struggle to understand how God can allow calamity and difficulty to
enter their life. The reality of
Scripture is that believers are NOT promised an easy ride. We are NOT promised that we won’t starve to
death, or that we will not lose loved ones.
We are promised that no matter what happens God will work things
together for our ultimate good (conformity to the image of Jesus Christ). We are given every spiritual blessing in
every situation (Ephesians 1:3-14).
Many believers are disappointed in their expectations because they hold
unbiblical expectations!
Hebrew
Poetry Patterns
Being a quote of the Psalms (Hebrew Poetry)
this quote comes to us in the form of Hebrew Poetry. Hebrew Poetry differs from western
poetry. Rather than rhyming phonetic
patterns, Hebrew poetry rhymes meaning.
This can be done in a handful of different ways but here the effect is
to repeat the sentiment in different terms.
The first clause has the duration of the martyrdom (all day long) and
the second describes the value of their lives (as sheep). Those who are faithful to God have undergone
repeated persecution, and it is common for those who do not fear God to put a
very low value on believer’s lives. This
should not surprise us. As believers in
this world we occupy enemy territory.
Both human and satanic powers have killed countless of the
faithful. Yet, that is not a shame to
them, rather it is glory to their account!
The true believer in Christ can look at the very worst that the world
can dish out and say, “You cannot touch what is really valuable.”
More
than Conquerors
The “But” that opens this verse is a
strong contrasting connective. Paul
encourages believers not to look at their trials and difficulties and
despair. Rather, in sharp contrast to
the idea of despair, they are to see themselves as God sees them. But how does God see them? This is a fun Greek word. It combines the word related to Nike (the
winged God of victory) with the word that transliterates as SUPER! Everyone in Christ is a “SUPER-WINNER”! Not because of what we did or do, but because
of what Christ has done! John described
this reality similarly:
“For whatever is born
of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the
world--our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes
that Jesus is the Son of God?” 1 John 5:4-5
We are considered conquerors because of what Christ has done
on our behalf. No matter what the world,
the flesh or the devil do the believer will be finally victorious. Christ and His word on our behalf is the source
of the victory. If we ever think that we
have won the victory ourselves we have already been drawn away from the
truth. The truth is that we must rest in
Christ’s sufficiency at every moment and in every situation. This is a great privilege, honor and
blessing!
Through Him
It certainly bears repeating: This
victory is available to us only in resting in Christ and what HE HAS DONE! Any works based salvation, or sanctification
is bound to fail. Any other view of
reality falls woefully short of the wonderful reality of what is ours in
Christ. This is not made available by
the works of our hands, this is not some level of spiritual prowess that only
the “high level” believer attain. This
is the reality for every single believer through Christ. Here, again, we see Christ’s love being the
motivating factor. It is not because He “had
to” or because someone “talked Him into it” His love is why He came, and His
love will carry our salvation to completion.
Were it based in anything less we would have no hope at all!
Romans
8:38-39
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.
Convinced
This word means “convinced,
confident, persuaded fully”. There is
not the slightest doubt in Paul’s mind as he writes these words through the
Holy Spirit. Clearly understanding these
simple verses is vital to our understanding of the relationship that we have in
Christ. Our security cannot be doubted
in this chapter. Every believer is
saved, not by what we do, but by what God has done. But looking at what Paul is convinced of is
very exciting indeed!
·
Death
– Nothing in physical death
·
Life –
Nothing that we can do or will happen to us in our life
·
Angels
– These are God’s messengers who brought messages and did miracles far beyond
human abilities.
·
Principalities
– This is has the idea of “authority” it can be used to include both spiritual
or physical authorities.
·
Present
– Nothing in the present moment.
·
Things to
Come – Nothing in all of the future moments
·
Powers
– That is no created thing’s natural capacity, might or ability (including our
own)
·
Height
– Looking all the way up, even further than the Hubble telescope can see.
·
Depth
– No matter how deep down we were to dig there is nothing to challenge God
there
·
Nor any
other created thing – Think this over – there are two types of things –
Uncreated (God alone– existing eternally in the three persons of the Trinity)
and Created (EVERYTHING ELSE). Nothing
will separate us from the love of God.
Even our own weak and trembling wills.
The
Love of God
Remember verse 35? There it was the love of Christ that was at
issue; here it is the love of God. This
shows us a couple of important facts.
Firstly, that Christ is God and that there is no part of Him that exists
in opposition or exclusion from the other two Members of the Trinity. But also, again we see the entire Trinity at
work in saving, sanctifying and glorifying the believer. There is no part of the Godhead that loves
humanity less. Our Salvation was the
design of the entire Trinity, which is the reason why it is fully reliable.
In
Christ Jesus
Here again we see that this
unbreakable love of God is expressed where we are positioned in Christ
Jesus. This is our permanent and eternal
placement. When God looks at a believer
He sees the righteousness of His Son. It
is of vital importance to note that while the phrase “in Christ” is used
constantly by Paul to describe the placement, mode and manner of the believer’s
life, the phrase “out of Christ” or “moved out of Christ” never once
occurs. This is a permanent state of
affairs. Our relationship with God is
not something that is coming and going, or something that goes up for renewal
every 5 years. It is always and eternal,
just like His unchanging love. And THAT
is why and how a believer is to succeed.
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