Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How Do You Know that God Loves You?
How do you know that somebody loves you?
I feel loved when I come home, and my wife gives me a hug and a kiss. I feel loved when my parents call me out of the blue just to chat. I feel loved when my uncle sends me a quirky birthday card, or when my friends want to spend time with me.
For being something that you can’t see with your eyes or hold in your hands, there are so many different ways to show someone that you love them.
How do you know that God loves you?
That’s an entirely different question, isn’t it? He’s not there to give you a hug or a kiss when you come home. You can’t talk to him over the phone or grab a cup of coffee with him after brunch. How can you know that God loves you?
Unfortunately, all too often we can end up confusing God’s love for us with his sovereignty. What I mean is this – God is sovereign, i.e. he is all-powerful and has complete control over everything. So, the line of thought can go something like this, “If God controls everything, then the way that he shows his love for me is by controlling the events of my life for my benefit. So, if I get a promotion, if the girl I like likes me back, if I don’t have to worry about money, health, work or whatever, then that must mean that God loves me. If I face all kinds of problems – if I lose my job, if I lose my wife or kids, if my health fails, if I’m sad, depressed, lonely or anxious – then that must mean that God doesn’t love me.” We can confuse God’s love and his sovereignty (or, his power).
But the point that Paul makes in Romans 8 is that the presence of problems does not mean the absence of God’s love. In fact, there is a long-standing tradition of God’s people facing all kinds of problems.
You might not have caught it in the first read-through, but Paul quoted a Psalm in this passage. It’s Psalm 44. It was written by the sons of Korah, likely early in the reign of King David about 3,000 years ago. Now, that’s all encyclopedic, biographical information. You don’t need to know all of that. What would be good for you to know, though, is that King David was highly favoured by God. This psalm was written as the “Golden Age” of the Kingdom of Israel was getting off the ground. If there was ever a time to be alive as an Israelite, i.e. one of God’s “Chosen People,” it was at the time that this Psalm was written.
And yet, even with all the favour and love of God, the sons of Korah still wrote: “Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” The Israelites were losing battles. Their soldiers were dying. Their kingdom was in danger. They felt as if God had forgotten them. But when they were struggling and discouraged, they appealed not to God’s power but to God’s love. The very last sentence of this Psalm reads, “Rescue us because of your unfailing love.”
3,000 years ago the “sons of Korah” understood what Paul was trying to tell the Romans 2,000 years ago and what I’d like you to know today – the presence of problems does not mean the absence of God’s love.
We can face death all day long; we can be considered as sheep to be slaughtered; we can endure trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword, and still be loved by God. The Israelites experienced all those things repeatedly throughout their history. Paul writes an epic list of his personal tragedies including being shipwrecked and robbed, imprisoned and flogged, stoned nearly to death and set adrift in the open sea for a night and day. We could come up with our own catalogue of misfortune and pain and heartache (and title it “The Year 2020), but Paul wants you to know that not a single one of those tragedies or trials can separate you from the love of God in Christ.
Think about Jesus’ life. Did Jesus endure trouble and hardship? He did, in body and soul. He didn’t have any earthly advantage. He wasn’t rich or powerful; he was a homeless, vagabond preacher. He faced off with the devil himself who was constantly tempting him and trying to trip him up. He was persecuted by his own people, pursued by his own religious leaders as they plotted his murder. They coerced the Roman government to sentence him to death. They deprived him of food and water. They stripped him naked and nailed him to a tree.
Jesus felt abandoned by God in that moment too. He cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In a way, you could say that Jesus went through everything that you have. He can sympathize with you when you feel in danger and hard-pressed, when you feel alone and unloved. But with Jesus, there’s one notable difference – he actually was separated from God’s love.
When Jesus was on the cross, he knew what it felt like to have God turn his back on him. In that moment, Jesus felt what it was like to be separated from God’s love, and it was no accident; it was by design.
Paul lists all kinds of external threats in these verses, e.g. famine, nakedness, danger, sword, but the real danger lives within. The real threat of separation from God is our own sin, i.e. our disobedience. We are the ones who are guilty of not always loving God above all things. We love our families more than him. We love our careers more than him. We love our free time, recreation, entertainment more than him. We value security and health and personal freedom more than him.
We are our own greatest threat of being separated from God, but God had a plan. He sent his Son Jesus to suffer true separation from him on the cross – to be forsaken, to be condemned, to die – so that you and I might never be separated from him. God sent Jesus to be the Lamb of sacrifice to be slaughtered for our sin, so that we could know that nothing in all creation could ever separate us from his love.
That’s how you can know that God loves you – because he sacrificed his one and only Son to save you. There may be – and will be – things that happen in this world that are far from pleasant. You may suffer in body or soul. But no external event in your life can ever undo what God has done for you in Christ.
No, Paul says that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us… neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord .”
Because of Jesus, we are more than conquerors. Sometimes it may feel like we are just eking out our existence here on earth. But that’s not the way that God sees it. To him, we are more than conquerors. What does that even mean?
In war I suppose it’s possible to win the victory but to suffer so many losses that it was hardly worth it, e.g. your army is decimated, the land destroyed, your resources depleted. You still came out on top, but it doesn’t feel that way. That is not the way Paul describes our victory.
There was only one casualty in the war for your soul, and not only did he die for you willingly, he didn’t stay dead. Jesus rose from the grave 3 days after he was crucified to let you know that not even death can separate you from God’s love. Death, that separates you from everything else – from your loved ones, from your possessions, from your body – death can’t even keep you from God’s love, because now in Christ, death is your gateway to eternal life with your God in heaven.
This is no shallow victory. We are not bankrupt champions. We are super-victorious, hyper-triumphant; we are more than conquerors because Jesus loved us enough to die for us.
As Christians we will face trouble and experience problems in this world, but the presence of problems does not mean the absence of God’s love. God’s love for you shines through the cross of Christ who conquered sin, death and hell for you. No earthly circumstance can take that away from you. Your future in Christ is certain.
And although God does not fold his arms around you after a difficult day, he does give you his body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion; he is really present with you today to feel and touch and taste his love for you. Although you cannot pick up the phone and bear your soul to him or hear his voice on the other end of the line, you can bear your soul to God in prayer at any time, and then pick up your Bible and hear God speak to you with his own words every day.
Your God loves you and you can be sure of it, not because your life is problem free, but because of the victory that is yours in Christ Jesus our Lord. He gave his life to show you his love, and promises that nothing in all creation can ever come between you and his love for you. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Amen.