Nothing Can Separate Us

Welcome, and thank you for spending a little time here. Find a quiet spot, get something warm to drink, and give me about fifteen minutes. We are going to look at two verses that many people know by heart and few people have walked all the way around. They are Romans chapter 8, verses 38 and 39.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39 (KJV)

You have probably seen those words on a wall plaque or a sympathy card. They are lovely. But let me ask you something. Why would anyone need to write a sentence like that? Nobody says nothing can separate us unless somebody is afraid that something might.

So I want you to meet a friend. We will call him Sam. Sam is a traveler, and he has been walking a long time. The sky is getting dark, the road is getting muddy, and Sam is carrying a question that a lot of us carry in our pockets. Could something happen, or could I do something, that puts me out of reach of God's love?

Hold on to that question. Paul is about to answer it, and he does not answer it lightly.

First, where these verses live

Romans is a letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, probably around the year 57. It is one long argument, and our two verses are the last line of it. If you start at the end, you can miss how much work the first part did.

In the opening chapters, Paul says that every one of us has fallen short. No exceptions and no ranking. Then he gives the good news: God puts sinners right with himself as a gift, through faith in Jesus Christ, not by our scorecard. After that come chapters of honest struggle with sin. And then chapter 8 opens with this sentence.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1 (KJV)

Notice the word therefore. It means everything before it has been building to this. And notice the word condemnation. It is a courtroom word. Picture Sam walking in with a scroll so long it drags on the floor, every mistake he has ever made written on it. He expects the gavel to fall. Instead, the verdict is already in: no condemnation. The record has been dealt with, because Jesus took it on himself at the cross.

That is the foundation. Before Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from God's love, he tells us that the charges have already been answered.

Second, Paul is honest about the storm

Here is something I love about this chapter. Paul never pretends. He does not say that if you believe in Jesus the weather will be fine. Listen to what he admits. In verse 18 he talks about our sufferings. In verse 22 he says the whole creation groans, a word picture of labor pains. In verse 23 he says we ourselves groan inside while we wait.

Then, in verse 35, Paul asks the big question: who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And he lists seven things that sound like a very bad year: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. Trouble, anguish, being hunted, hunger, having nothing to wear, danger, and violence.

Paul was not guessing about these. He tells the Corinthians that he was beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked three times, hungry, cold, and short of clothing, in danger from rivers and robbers and even from people who called themselves believers. When he lists those seven storm clouds, he has stood under every one of them.

Then in verse 36 he quotes an old psalm.

For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Romans 8:36 (KJV), quoting Psalm 44:22

So hear this clearly. If you are in a storm today, the storm is not proof that God has stopped loving you. Paul is writing to people in storms, and he says the love is still there. The question was never whether the storm would come. The question is whether it can cut the cord.

Third, God is on our side

Before Paul gets to our two verses, he asks a string of questions, and I want to walk through them because they show how he thinks. Verse 31: if God be for us, who can be against us? Notice what he does not say. He does not say that nobody will be against us. Plenty of things will. He says that nobody can win against us. A small hand holding a lantern in the rain is still a hand held by someone bigger than the storm.

Verse 32 makes the argument.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Romans 8:32 (KJV)

If God gave the most costly gift there could ever be, his own Son, will he stop at the small stuff? Picture a man who sells his house to save your life and then wonders whether he should help with the groceries. The cross is the proof that God is generous with us, and it is the reason we can trust him with the rest.

Verses 33 and 34 move back to the courtroom. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who died, and more than that, who is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, and who also speaks up for us. The judge has declared us right. The one who took our sentence is alive and speaking on our behalf. If you have ever felt like you were on trial inside your own head, that is the courtroom you are actually standing in.

Now, the ten things

Now we come to our verses. Paul says, I am persuaded. That is not a hunch or a nice feeling on a good day. The word carries the sense of having been convinced and staying convinced. And remember where he was when he said it. This is a man who has been shipwrecked and stoned. He is not writing from a comfortable chair. He is writing from the storm.

Then he gives a list of ten things, and I want us to take them in pairs, because Paul is covering every direction you could look.

First, death and life. Death is the one everybody expects to be the final separator. Not death, says Paul. But look at the other one. Life. Sometimes it is not the last day that shakes us. It is the long ordinary days: the bills, the loneliness, the failures, the years of doing it wrong. Neither the last day nor any of the days before it can separate us.

Second, angels and principalities and powers. This is the unseen world. Paul means spiritual beings, rulers, and forces, even the ones that oppose us. Even the highest powers in all of creation cannot pull us out of God's love.

Third, things present and things to come. Everything you are facing right now, and everything you cannot see coming.

Fourth, height and depth. That covers all of space, up and down. David said something like this in the Psalms.

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

Psalm 139:8 (KJV)

There is no place you can be where God's love has not already arrived.

And finally, the last item, which I think is the sneakiest and the sweetest: nor any other creature. Another way to say it is anything that has been made. Everything in the universe except God himself has been made, so the list is saying that nothing in creation can separate us. Here is the part that stopped me when I first noticed it. You are a created thing. So am I. Paul closes the door on everything, and that includes the person in the mirror. The one thing Sam has been most afraid of all along is Sam. Paul says Sam cannot undo it either.

Where the love lives

Now let's read the last phrase slowly: the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Those last words matter. Paul does not just say that nothing can separate us from God's love and stop there. He tells us where that love lives. It lives in Christ Jesus. It has an address.

This is not a general mood in the universe. It is a love with a cross at the center. Earlier in the same letter Paul puts it this way.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 (KJV)

The love did not start when we got our act together. It started while we were still a mess. And that is exactly why nothing can end it. If the love had to be earned, it could be lost. Because it was given first, at the cross, all we can do is receive it.

Jesus himself said it this way in John chapter 10.

They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

John 10:28-29 (KJV)

Two hands, one wrapped around the other, and Sam is in the middle.

Now a gentle word to anyone listening who is not sure this is for you. Paul says in Christ Jesus. That is the doorway, and the door is open. The same letter says it plainly.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 10:13 (KJV)

Whosoever. You do not need to clean up first. You do not need the right words. You can simply say, Jesus, I need you, and I want to be yours. If you do, everything we have talked about today is yours.

Three things this does not say

Before we finish, let me be careful about three things this passage does not say, because I want you to hold it the right way.

It does not say you will never suffer. We just saw that. It says that in all these things, as Paul puts it in verse 37, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Notice the words in all these things. Not out of them, but through them. The storm may stay. The light stays too.

It does not say you will always feel loved. Feelings come and go, like weather. Sam can be sure of the love and still have a hard night. This verse is about what is true, not about how we feel at three in the morning. When the feeling fades, the fact stays.

And it does not say that nothing matters. The same chapter says that the Spirit of God changes how we live. Love like this does not leave us where it finds us. It holds us, and it also leads us. Being held by God is not a reason to wander off. It is why we can finally walk steady.

Back to Sam

So let's go back to Sam. He started the day with a question: could anything put me out of reach of God's love? Now he has his answer, and it is not a guess. Death, no. Life, no. Angels, rulers, powers, no. Today, no. Tomorrow, no. Heights, depths, no. Anything made, including me, no. Because the love is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and he is not going anywhere.

The sun comes up. Sam still has a road to walk, and the road still has weather. But he walks it differently now. He is not trying to hold on to God with a tired grip. He is being held. And you know what I think he does next? He turns around and waves to the next traveler on the road. Come on. There is room.

Let me pray for us.

Father, thank you for a love that we did not earn and cannot lose. For everyone here who is carrying a long scroll of regrets, thank you that Jesus has already answered for it. For anyone in the storm tonight, hold them close and let them feel it. Help us to walk this week as people who are held, and to wave at the next traveler with the same welcome we received. In Jesus' name, amen.

If you are going through something heavy and you would like us to pray with you, please send us a prayer request. And if you are ever in a place so dark that you are thinking about harming yourself, please call or text 988 right now. You are loved, and there are people ready to help you tonight.