Who Shall Separate Us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Romans 8:35

How powerful is the love of Christ for us? After Paul asks the questions with which he begins our text, he lists a number of earthly circumstances we might endure. When he wrote these words, Christianity was a marginalized religion. The Jews did not like it. The Romans did not like it. The people who followed Christ were very likely, perhaps inevitably, going to endure tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and the sword. It was neither fashionable nor safe to follow Christ in those days. With such violent opposition, how long would it be before the beleaguered saints concluded that Jesus did not love them? Paul is writing the strongest of assurances. These things he lists are arguably some of the worst things we can endure in this scene of time. According to Paul, none of these things no matter how horrible can separate us from the love of Christ. Thus, our life is both full of hardship and full of assurance. We may be persecuted, but we are secure. We may endure no end of trouble, yet our song is, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know.’ The followers of Christ have endured, are enduring, and shall endure, yet we  are still Christ’s and He is ours. Nothing shall separate us from His love. With this we can face the world.

Our Gracious and Loving God,
we rejoice that You uphold us through all our hardships.
We praise You that at the end of it all,
we will still be Yours.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning