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Friday, May 28, 2021

Who Shall Separate Us?

At the end of Romans 8 Paul lapses into a glorious revery of the love of God for His people in a series of rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions are designed to 1) state obvious truth while 2) leading the listener/reader to participate in agreement. So, "If God is for us," he asks, "who can be against us?" (Rom 8:31) A rhetorical question if I ever heard one. "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" (Rom 8:33) Another. And then this marvelous, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" He answers this one for the next 4 verses. The final answer? No one shall separate us from the love of Christ.

It's interesting there, though. The question is not about the love of Christ. The question isn't "Will He love me forever?" There is no question of His love. The question is my experience. Will I continue to experience His endless love, or can something or someone intervene to prevent me from experiencing it at some point? To that question the answer is "No." And that's a good thing.

Before we gloss it over, consider the implications. Paul lists things -- tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword (Rom 8:35) -- things that might be thought to separate us from the love of Christ. He concludes, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Rom 8:37). So, the answer is clear, but consider the conclusions. If "For Your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered," (Rom 8:36) is true and it is equally true that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, it is an unavoidable conclusion that these things are a very manifestation of the love of Christ. If God's love can be viewed as a river flowing from Him to us, those trials and distresses, those famines and nakedness, those persecutions and swords, death itself -- all are in the river of God's love for us, not outside of it. And we can see that elsewhere.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom 5:3-5)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. (1 Peter 4:1)
Just some quick examples. Scripture again and again tells us that God uses tribulation and sorrow for our benefit, so it is purely rational to conclude that the things we suffer aren't distinct from Christ's love, but part of it.

In fact, it is that reality that allows us to conclude that "in all these things we are more than conquerors." It makes sense, then, to "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess 5:18). Sure, the moments are hard, but "this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Cor 4:17), and in that we are, therefore, far more than conquerors.

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