Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
These words are awesome and true!
“Separation is Natural”
These words appear on labels of products like fruit juice and peanut butter.
It is not just true of food products but separation is natural in all parts of life. Things don’t naturally come together they fall apart. You see evidence that separation is natural in your life, in your efforts to keep a clean house, or to keep track of kids in a public place, or to maintain relationships.
With COVID19 our world suddenly experienced a whole lot of separation. We are maintaining physically separation with socially distancing, remote offices, self-quarantine and online church. Some have been separated from family, from work, from a paycheck, from a normal routine, or from the gym. We are separated from sporting events, concerts, and restaurants. It is all a bit disorienting. But… Separation is Natural.
And if we are not intentional about connection we will naturally experience separation in the most important parts of life… in our Church…in our relationship with God.
Isaiah 59 starts like this, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God.”
Maybe you are looking at your spiritual life skeptically like someone looking at a bottle of separated juice and saying “something is not right”. But you need to recognize what is printed on the label, “Separation is Natural”. You don’t have some spiritual handicap or disadvantage, it’s natural.
Connection is Essential
Separation is natural, but as a Christian, it is not acceptable. Our life depends on connection with God.
John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
The thing that is natural is the opposite of what we need. Where is the good news in this? The good news is that we are not limited to what is natural.
Inseparable Love is Supernatural
Since separation is natural and connection is essential I am so grateful that the power we live by is not natural. The source of our life is not natural but supernatural. Naturally we would be defeated and hopelessly separated. Naturally, trials like COVID19 would conquer us. But since we live by God’s supernatural power we can face a world that naturally separates us from God and we can be more than conquerors.
Romans 5:35-39
“35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the
day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Yes, separation is our natural reality, but inseparable love is our supernatural reality.
Romans 8 is a Power Chapter!
The chapter is full of God’s sovereignty. There is so much victory and power expressed that by the time Paul gets to verse 31 he exclaims “What then shall we say to these things?” It’s as if there is nothing else to add. Just trace this triumphal tone of God’s sovereignty through the chapter.
Verse 1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Verse 2 “The law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death”
Verse 11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
Verse 15 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”’
Verse 18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Verse 26 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Verse 28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Verse 29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son”
Animated by these awesome truths Paul throws out the question “What then shall we say to these things?”
5 Questions- He follows that question with 5 more questions, each highlighting that God is sovereign. We will list each question and then land on the inseparable love of question number 5.
Question #1– If God is for us who can be against us?
Question #2– He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Question #3– Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?
Question #4 Who is to condemn?
Question #5– Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Separation is natural but inseparable love is supernatural.
The text is about God’s love! It is not telling us that we can resist separation because we have great faith but because He has great love.
Here is a truth to dwell on… God is loving you right now. With all the chaos in our world, canceled flights and conferences, economic loss, 16 million quarantined in Italy and over 200,000 confirmed cases worldwide, God has not stopped loving you. He has an individual, focused love for you in this very moment!
The text lists some really difficult things, “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” It even speaks of being killed for our faith (Verse 36). But not even these things can separate us from God’s love!
But even in these difficult things we are more than a conqueror” (Verse 37)
Conquerors overcome trial. But as “more than conquerors” we don’t just overcome trials but we also gain from going through them. Since we are more than conquerors we don’t just have to spiritually survive COVID19 but we can go deeper with Jesus because of it.
Separation is natural but inseparable love is supernatural !
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither discouragement nor loss of work, neither loss of income nor loss of investments, neither sickness nor isolation, neither cancelled travel plans nor canceled weddings, neither self-quarantine nor Self-pity , nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Reflection Question: How are you experiencing inseparable love? Share comments below. It will be encouraging to hear how you are experiencing God’s love during this time!