Title: Unstoppable Love
Exposition to Romans 70
unbreakable love
Romans 8:35-39
Introduction: We hear Paul's amazing and great argument in today's text, Romans 8:35-39. It says, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” His argument is so intense and full of conviction. He asks, “Is it tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or peril, or sword?” How do these things separate us from the love of Christ? And he concluded, “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is the conclusion of Paul's doctrine of salvation. This majestic Paul's confident description is the conclusion of God's love that runs throughout the Bible. By this love he has predestined, called, justified and glorified us; who will be against us, who will accuse us, and who will condemn us?
1 Who will separate from the love of Christ?
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” These words of the Apostle Paul are the conclusion of the entire Bible.
(1) Who will separate us from the people of Christ? I did. Our relationship with Christ is a relationship of love. This love is not the love of Jesus. Our love for Christ is uncertain. Our love is not based on sacrifice. Love belongs to God. The source of all love is only in God. Therefore, the love Paul is talking about here means God's love for us and Christ's love for us. “It was love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
(2) This love already existed before we were even born. To say that God predestined us in Christ before the foundation of the world means that God's love for us already existed before the foundation of the world. It is so amazing that God predestined me to be his people with this love before we were born into this world and did any evil or good, so that nothing that comes to us in our lives can stop or break God's love. will be However, for many people, their salvation is uncertain and often shaken because their standard of salvation is based on their love for the Lord. We must always set the standard of salvation to God's love for us. Because this love is an unbreakable love for any being, the relationship between God and me and the salvation relationship that God has saved me are unmoving in any case. Who can break the love of “the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”?
2. What will stop you?
After the Apostle Paul concluded that it was impossible to separate us from the love of God in Christ, he laid out the evil conditions that could separate us from all human love.
(1) First, Paul asked if it was tribulation. When a person encounters tribulation, it is really possible to know the true character of that person. Jesus' disciples all ran away when the top teacher encountered tribulation. Peter, too, became cowardly in the face of the tribulation he might face, and denied Jesus many times. Those who are weak in faith, when they encounter tribulation, he said, “There is no root in him, so he endures for a while, but when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, he immediately stumbles” (Matthew 13:21). However, although this tribulation may bring Christians down for a while, it cannot separate them from the love of Greece. Christ sustains us in our tribulation, is with us, helps us, and never leaves us.
(2) “Gongo?” he asked. Suffering means suffering due to illness or mental anguish, conflict, or difficulty in our lives. When a person encounters this agonizing night, the future becomes dark. He also refuses to comfort people. Anguish to the extent that a living life is pitiful is gripping his life. But even this suffering cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Christ will surely deliver us from this troubled night, come into our troubled life, savor it with us, and finally welcome us in glory.
(4) He asked, “Is it a famine?” Famine is a terrible disaster that directly affects people's lives. When Ben-hadad, king of Syria, besieged Samaria, the Samaritans in the city were suffering from famine, and two women were fighting over boiling and eating their son. Like this, famine is a terrible thing (2 Kings 6:28,29). But even a famine like this cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Christ's love is stronger than tribulation, distress, persecution, or famine.
(5) “Are you naked?” he asked. Naked means naked. This expression is an expression of a state in which all one's possessions are gone and only one's own body remains. Such was the case with Job of the past. When Job lost everything due to Satan's schemes and only his body remained, he prayed like this. "Naked I went out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD gave and the LORD took away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21). Even if we fail in business and face various disasters, even if our condition becomes naked, it cannot separate us from the love of Christ.
(6) “Is it a danger or a sword?” he asked. Danger means fear or intimidation, and the sword means martyrdom. Paul said that every time he took a risk (1 Corinthians 15:30). It is said that the forefathers of faith were punished, but were not willing to escape (Hebrews 11:35). These things cannot separate us from the love of Christ.
3. A win to win
Paul declares that in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. He said, “No creature will be able to separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is Paul's confident conviction. The Bible testifies, and it is the conviction that comes from your own experiences. Paul cites a few examples as being inseparable from the love of Christ. Death is the death that life fears the most, and it is Satan who has this authority. Life is the most important thing we have. It is a precious gift from God. But even that is nothing compared to the love of God. The angels are spirits from God. Not even them can separate us from the love of Christ.
Conclusion: Here, Paul cites all persons with authority and all creations except God as examples. They said that they could never separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are weak and we fall, but ultimately we are overcomers because God's love sustains us.