Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Romans 8:35
As we wrapped up our study through Romans 8 last night, we began with these verses. After asking who shall separate us from the love of Christ, Paul gives us a list of things that we might possibly think could separate us from the love of Christ: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword. He's going to make clear in verse 37 that it's not possible for any of these things to separate believers from the love of Christ. In fact, there's nothing in all of creation (that's everything other than God) that will ever be able to separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).
But look back at the list in the second half of verse 35: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Why does Paul even suggest the possibility that these things might separate us from the love of Christ?
I think the answer is that when people experience any of these things, it's going to feel like God doesn't love them. It's going to feel like they have been separated from the love of Christ. And to the outside world looking at them, they will use it as another reason to deny the existence of a loving God because, as the question has been asked again and again, "How could a loving God allow that to happen to them?"
Right now, there's a famine happening in East Africa. So these words of Paul couldn't be more relevant: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Famine?
We know the textbook answer: no. At some level, we all know the right answer in our minds. That's easy. But what about our hearts? How does a person experience the love of Christ in the midst of the hunger pangs of famine?
As believers in the 21st century, most of us will never experience the majority of the things Paul listed in verse 35 (all of which he personally experienced). But we all struggle from time to time—if not daily—experiencing in our hearts the love of God that we can quote Bible verses about from memory.
But look back at the list in the second half of verse 35: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Why does Paul even suggest the possibility that these things might separate us from the love of Christ?
I think the answer is that when people experience any of these things, it's going to feel like God doesn't love them. It's going to feel like they have been separated from the love of Christ. And to the outside world looking at them, they will use it as another reason to deny the existence of a loving God because, as the question has been asked again and again, "How could a loving God allow that to happen to them?"
Right now, there's a famine happening in East Africa. So these words of Paul couldn't be more relevant: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Famine?
We know the textbook answer: no. At some level, we all know the right answer in our minds. That's easy. But what about our hearts? How does a person experience the love of Christ in the midst of the hunger pangs of famine?
As believers in the 21st century, most of us will never experience the majority of the things Paul listed in verse 35 (all of which he personally experienced). But we all struggle from time to time—if not daily—experiencing in our hearts the love of God that we can quote Bible verses about from memory.
So the question is relevant for us all: how do we experience the love of Christ?
Answer: the same way the person in the midst of hunger pangs experiences the love of God, by beholding the cross where 2,000 years ago Jesus died to rescue sinners from Satan, sin, death, and God's wrath.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:37
After a brief one verse detour in which he takes us back to the Old Testament to show us an example of faithful people of God being led like sheep to the slaughter (Psalm 44:22), Paul answers the question he had originally asked in verse 35. Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword separate us from the love of Christ? Answer: no. Why? Because, in all these things that might make us feel like we are separated from the love of Christ, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Notice that last phrase: Him who loved us. Past tense.
The question Paul asked was if anything could separate us from the present tense love of Christ (Romans 8:35). But when he gives us the answer, he speaks of the past tense love of Christ. Why?
The question Paul asked was if anything could separate us from the present tense love of Christ (Romans 8:35). But when he gives us the answer, he speaks of the past tense love of Christ. Why?
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
The apostle Paul was gripped by the love of Christ. He says elsewhere that the love of Christ constrains him (2 Corinthians 5:14). But what you have to realize is that Paul's present experience of the love of Christ had little—and I might go so far as to say nothing—to do with his present circumstances. How could it when Paul was constantly in dire circumstances (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)?
So what did Paul's experience of the love of Christ have to do with?
He never got over the fact that Jesus was crucified in his place. He never got over the fact that, in his place, condemned Christ stood. He never got over the fact that Jesus bore the wrath of God that Paul the blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent deserved (1 Timothy 1:12-14).
I can picture Paul's heart exploding with wonder as he writes Galatians 2:20. He loved me! He gave Himself... for me!
What we see in Galatians 2:20 is that Paul's understanding and experience of the love of Christ for him which compels him to daily die to himself and live by faith in Christ is rooted in remembering and meditating on how Jesus loved him by dying for him on the cross. His present experience of Christ's love for him is based on the death of Christ for him in the past.
We see the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5:14 where he talks about being constrained by the present tense love of Christ. What does that whole verse say?
I can picture Paul's heart exploding with wonder as he writes Galatians 2:20. He loved me! He gave Himself... for me!
What we see in Galatians 2:20 is that Paul's understanding and experience of the love of Christ for him which compels him to daily die to himself and live by faith in Christ is rooted in remembering and meditating on how Jesus loved him by dying for him on the cross. His present experience of Christ's love for him is based on the death of Christ for him in the past.
We see the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5:14 where he talks about being constrained by the present tense love of Christ. What does that whole verse say?
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
2 Corinthians 5:14
Paul's present experience of the love of Christ which constrains him is based on the death of Christ for him in the past.
And this is the same experience he's inviting his fellow believers into as he brings Romans 8 to an end.
And this is the same experience he's inviting his fellow believers into as he brings Romans 8 to an end.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ (present tense)? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (past tense).
Romans 8:35, 37 (emphasis added)
How does a person experience the love of Christ in the midst of the hunger pangs of famine? There's only one way. By knowing, remembering, and meditating on how Jesus loved him by dying for him on the cross. His present experience of the love of Christ is based on the death of Christ for him in the past.
Sadly, the love of Christ has become trivialized in our generation, especially in the Western world. Whether we admit it or not, in one way or another we've bought into the idea that Christ's love for us mainly has to do with our circumstances. That's why when we find ourselves in undesirable circumstances, we struggle to experience Christ's love for us.
But if Christ's love for us is demonstrated primarily through our circumstances, then how could He love anyone who is experiencing famine? If that's the case, then the atheists are right. We have no choice but to conclude that there is no one who is experiencing the famine in East Africa right now that Christ loves. And what we call the gospel (John 3:16) is left utterly unintelligible to anyone living in a developing country. We might as well close up shop. Let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
Does this mean that we shouldn't bother feeding the hungry because Christ's love for them isn't based on their circumstances and what they need more than anything else is to know that Jesus died for their sins? As the apostle Paul would say, may it never be! If that's the impression you've gotten from what I've written, then you've completely misunderstood me. To walk away with that conclusion, as the apostle James so boldly puts it, would be to completely misunderstand the gospel (James 2:15-17).
The truth that our present experience of the love of Christ is based on our remembering and meditating on His death for us 2,000 years ago isn't meant to free us from feeling obligated to relieve the burdens of others. It's meant to do the opposite. It's meant to gives us such unshakable security in Christ's love for us that we are set free to be risk-takers who boldly lay down our lives to serve and meet the needs (temporal AND eternal!) of others for the glory of God, even when we are squandering ourselves—as Paul did—in the process. Because when we are certain—utterly certain—that absolutely nothing could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ, then nothing else matters. We no longer need to preserve our lives (Luke 17:32-33) by holding onto idols, which is what we all do by nature.
Sadly, the love of Christ has become trivialized in our generation, especially in the Western world. Whether we admit it or not, in one way or another we've bought into the idea that Christ's love for us mainly has to do with our circumstances. That's why when we find ourselves in undesirable circumstances, we struggle to experience Christ's love for us.
But if Christ's love for us is demonstrated primarily through our circumstances, then how could He love anyone who is experiencing famine? If that's the case, then the atheists are right. We have no choice but to conclude that there is no one who is experiencing the famine in East Africa right now that Christ loves. And what we call the gospel (John 3:16) is left utterly unintelligible to anyone living in a developing country. We might as well close up shop. Let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
Does this mean that we shouldn't bother feeding the hungry because Christ's love for them isn't based on their circumstances and what they need more than anything else is to know that Jesus died for their sins? As the apostle Paul would say, may it never be! If that's the impression you've gotten from what I've written, then you've completely misunderstood me. To walk away with that conclusion, as the apostle James so boldly puts it, would be to completely misunderstand the gospel (James 2:15-17).
The truth that our present experience of the love of Christ is based on our remembering and meditating on His death for us 2,000 years ago isn't meant to free us from feeling obligated to relieve the burdens of others. It's meant to do the opposite. It's meant to gives us such unshakable security in Christ's love for us that we are set free to be risk-takers who boldly lay down our lives to serve and meet the needs (temporal AND eternal!) of others for the glory of God, even when we are squandering ourselves—as Paul did—in the process. Because when we are certain—utterly certain—that absolutely nothing could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ, then nothing else matters. We no longer need to preserve our lives (Luke 17:32-33) by holding onto idols, which is what we all do by nature.
If there's anything in your life that you're not willing to let go of, then it's probably because you've elevated it to the place of the love of God in Christ as the security which you can't live without, that which you can't bear to be separated from. But as John Piper has so concisely and poetically stated: "Romans 8 is about God in Christ giving massive security for merciful service through many sufferings." Whatever you're tempted to find your security in, you do realize that you're going to be separated from it eventually, right? Romans 8 offers you a more massive security, an eternal security.
So, one more time, how do we experience the love of Christ? The same way the person in the midst of hunger pangs experiences the love of Christ: by beholding the cross where 2,000 years ago Jesus died to rescue sinners from Satan, sin, death, and God's wrath. There's no other way. If I don't continually meditate on and marvel, as Paul did, at the wonder that 2,000 years ago God condemned my sin—past, present, and future—in the body of Christ (Romans 8:3) so that now there is no more condemnation for me (Romans 8:1) but only grace and mercy, I'll always struggle to experience Christ's present love for me.
Lord, take me back to Calvary,
Where I behold Your love for me.
Lord, take me back (past) to Calvary,
Where I behold Your love (present) for me.
Constrained by that love, as Paul was, may we no longer live for ourselves but as self-squandering risk-takers who boldly lay down our lives for others because of Him who for our sake died and was raised from the dead (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, 4:5).
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.
Romans 8:38-39
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