“Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
…No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us…” (Romans 8:35-39).
Our series on the thrilling theme of God’s love has been enriching as it progressively unfolds the dimensional application of love to human life – the sole object of expression of love. In our previous editions, we captured the primacy, the enduring value of love and the spontaneous response of the Christian towards God whose very nature is love.
According to Paul, love is the greatest of the Spirit’s gifts because it serves for the building up of the Christian community. Love is the solvent of all divisive forces, all individualism which threatens the life of the one body; it is the bond of wholeness, (Eph. 4:3; Col. 3:14). Today, we shall discuss the inseparable nature God’s love on His children.
God’s love for humanity is agape-oriented. It is entirely unselfish, seeking only the good of others, from things earthly to things heavenly and is therefore theocentric because it is the reproduction of God’s own outgoing love, a love uncaused by any existing goodness in the object. Overtly, this love is divinely transplanted in human nature through alliance in Christ Jesus.
Consequently, the inseparable love of God for the believer is realistically attached to the doctrine of justification by faith where God shares fellowship with the sinner on the level of faith in Christ Jesus. The evidence of God’s love for us is visibly demonstrated in the most trying moment of life. In this wise, even the trials of life give us more thrilling experience of the love of Christ which was manifested in His death for us, and is revealed towards those who live for Him.
The assurance of God’s love strengthens us to rely on the truth and reality of His existence, even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances. The irrepressible truth about God’s fatherly concern is that His love for us is real and active and synthetically glues on its object of expression which is the human person. Therefore, nothing can ever separate us from such love. The love is so great and consuming that it covers the deepest depth of the world underneath and the measureless degree of heights. It is so encompassing that no one ever gets to its height or reaches its depth. Certainly, it is impossible to get beyond God’s loving reach.
In the above sense, created things cannot really stand between us and the love of God.
The spiritual imperative of God’s extensive love is that we are sustained in every height and depth of life experiences by His love. By His love, we are lifted far higher than the height of challenges and hidden in a deeper depth from any under-pin manipulation.
The progressive revelation of God’s love for humankind traverses beyond the present life. It breaks through the cycle of eternity to preserve its object. Indeed, we are convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depths, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The 17 factors mentioned in verse 35 to 39 of Romans chapter 8 can be considered as 17 arrows of Satan which he engages in spiritual battles with the church, in an attempt to punctuate the love of God for her. But the secret of victory over the above arrows is to walk in light of God’s supernatural revelation as contained in Rom.6:14-23, 8:1-13, Gal.5:16-24.
The Apostle Paul unmistakably argues with unalterable conviction that in the whole universe, there is nothing which faith should fear because no form or phase of being can break the golden chain that binds the heart of God to His loved ones. Not “death” with its terrors or “life” with its changes, not any condition of existence; nor “angels” nor any hierarchy of invisible being, whether good or evil; nothing within the sweep of time either present or to come, “ however powerful”, nothing in the illimitable space above or beneath; nothing in all vast creation shall be able to sunder us from that divine love which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Brethren, our comfort, our consolation, our blessed assurance of salvation rest, in the last analysis of this message, not upon anything in us, but upon the power and steadfastness of the Almighty God. By His love, we are more than conquerors.