Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
35What will separate us from the
love of Christ? Affliction or distress or persecution or hunger or nakedness or
danger or sword? 36Just as it is written that, “On Your behalf we
are being killed all the day; we are accounted as sheep of slaughter.” 37But
in all these things we are being more than conquerors through the One loving
us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor
rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers 39nor height
nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from the love of
God which [is] in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
I guess I’ve come to the end (for now) of my study of Romans chapter 8. As is usually the case, I’m loathe to leave. What a bombshell of encouragement is every line of this glorious chapter! I’m still floored to know that this entire presentation of the Gospel clear from chapter 1 on through chapter 8 concludes with what? “Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Just think about it – all of that teaching about the Fall and the wrath of God and all of the discussion about Law and Grace and even chapter 7 and the “O wretched man that I am!” and all of that ends where? With you and me snuggled in the big strong arms of our wonderful loving Father whispering in our ear, “You’re mine forever!”
The one thing we need in this badly broken world – the assurance of His love – is exactly what the entire Gospel gives us, if we’ll only train our ears to listen to Him and not the other thousand voices that scream in our ears. He’ll go on later in the book of Romans to say, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope … May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (15:4,13). Through all the smoke and noise and heartache of this world, the sun of God’s love would shine into our hearts, encourage us, give us hope, help us endure, and fill us with the same love Jesus lived even from the very Cross itself! “Today, you shall be with Me in Paradise!”
God give us the eyes to see You in it all, to trust You above it all, to live our lives literally from the lap of Your love.
I’m reminded once again of the words the Lord gave me as a young man as I was riding on a plane. As we ascended higher and higher, we passed through the clouds, then suddenly were literally above them. Though the clouds were thick, there was the sun shining brightly and beautifully. It had never occurred to me living my life under the clouds that the sun is always shining above the clouds. And so I quickly scribbled down the words:
“The sun is always shining, when you fly above the clouds,
Like the way my life is beautiful whenever You’re around.
You soothe my soul like summer rain;
You make the world seem right;
You lift me up above the clouds and drive away the night!”
When I wrote those words, they were just a silly love song. Today, I capitalized the “You,” realizing now it was Him all along!
The sun really is always shining, “when you fly above the clouds.” May my soul learn more and more to live above the clouds of this world’s troubles and ever enjoy the sunshine of His love. It’s there. Soul, go there and stay forever!
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