NOTHING can separate us!
October 4, 2019

Welcome to everyone here in person, and also viewing this video online. We’re so glad
you’re joining us. And if you find the video encouraging, please share it with others.
Let’s open up this message with prayer. [Pray]
Today, we come to the last of our four essential Scriptures, which offer us comfort
and hope in the midst of life’s pain and uncertainty.
Please get your Bibles out, or pull up your Scripture on your electronic device,
(be sure and check in on FB that you’re with us) and go to Romans chapter 8.
Romans Chapter 8 is an essential Scripture chapter! Continue to read it and
meditate on it and memorize it and get this important Word of God deep into your gut!
Now, let’s review what we’ve learned the last three weeks:
#1 - 8:28 reminds us not to despair because we can trust that God is working all
things together for good for us who love Him!
#2 - 8:31b If God is for us… who can possibly be against us?!
No one! As the illustration on our FB pg for this video says, “If God is on your side, what
do you have to worry about?”
#3 - 8:34b This Scripture tells us of the astounding gift that Jesus Christ, Himself, is
actually interceding for us! (At the right hand of God.)
We recall that Paul also told us the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, twice, in
Romans 8:26 & 27.
We come now to the end of Romans chapter 8. Verses 38 & 39 will be our focus today.
But first, Romans 8:37 is another important one in assuring us we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us!
This is something on which to meditate.
Have you ever thought about how not only are we victors, and winners, over challenges
in life, because we have Christ and the Holy Spirit within us, and God is for us; but we
also know that our faith grows stronger, and our trust in God deeper, as we go through
the various trials and struggles of life.
It is only “through Christ that loved us” which establishes us as more than conquerors,
because of His strength!
So if we can trust that God is working everything out for us, no matter what we’re going
through; and He is for us; and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are interceding for us, then, will
anything be able to separate us from this magnificent advocacy?!

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This is an important question.
Romans 8:38, 39 is an important answer.
It is important for everything we go through today, and it was important for the Christians
in Rome who would soon undergo terrible persecution.
In just a few years, Paul’s hypothetical situations would turn into painful realities.
These words must have been tightly clung to as the people saw their friends murdered;
persecution carried out against Christ followers at the command of Roman rulers -
And a past which was behind them, with a very uncertain future ahead of them.
Perhaps you feel uncertain about the future before you, and all of us, too.
This Essential Scripture #4 can assure you that no matter what else happens, nothing
can separate us from God’s love.
Notice it’s about God’s love. Not just God, but His love.
No matter what happens to us, no matter where we are, we can never be lost to His
love! Suffering doesn’t have to drive us away from God, but, instead, drive us towards
Him!
In Romans 8:38-39 Paul is bringing to a climax the argument he’s been building up
throughout this chapter, and even beginning a few chapters before it.
Don’t forget, as a gifted lawyer he knew how to build his case.
And in this case, there is nothing more certain!
Let’s look at Romans 8:38-39 together. [Read NIV]
In 8:38, Paul says he is “convinced,” or “persuaded,” which means to have confidence
in. And that is the point. This man who did so much for the Kingdom, when originally he
was doing the opposite, had become convinced of God’s power and love and wanted all
the believers to walk in this confidence too.
The same is true for us today. Let’s leave our time together today with more confidence
than ever before… in the love of God!
Paul has been using a question/answer format throughout this section of Scripture.
(We discussed this last week. Check out the video from 9/28 if you missed it.)
Now he’s about to list the opposites of anything and everything that could possibly be
construed as keeping us away from the love of God.
These verses contain one of the most comforting promises in all Scripture.
Believers have always had to face hardships in many forms. Going through illness,
persecution and even facing death, people might have feared they’d been abandoned
by Christ.

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But Paul is here to assure everyone that nothing, not even death, can separate us from
Christ! He says it’s impossible!
Think about it. Christ’s death on the cross for us is proof of His unconquerable love.
Nothing can stop Christ’s constant presence with us.
Nothing is greater than His love for us.
God tells us how great His love is so that we will feel totally secure in Him.
Quit looking for security in anything else. It’s not in our jobs. It’s not in money.
It’s not in investments. It’s not in a house. Or a car. Or even beloved family members or
friends or pets. It is through confidence in Christ that we find our greatest security.
Paul contrasts gives us a list of 5 categories, (we’re going to include “powers” with
“present and future;”) with 4 contrasts, to make his point:
Death vs. life.
Angels vs. principalities. (Greek language, instead of “demons.”)
Things present or things to come. (Instead of “present nor the future.”) Nor any powers.
Nor height nor depth.
Or any other created thing.
When Paul mentions “death nor life,” he’s saying that death will not separate us from
God because when we choose Christ, we receive the gift of life forever after.
Or, eternal life. (John 3:16) As Christians, we believe there is life after death, and an
even better one than we experience on this earth.
Revelation 21:4 tells us, “God will wipe away every tear from there eyes. There will be
no more death or mourning or crying or pain…”
Paul also mentions life because we will suffer in this life, but the sufferings will not
separate us from the love of God. In fact, they will only draw us closer to Him, if we
choose to let them.
Just a few chapters earlier, Paul wrote in 5:3-5
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering
produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Do you notice some common themes here?
When we go through suffering we can have hope! And what is it… God’s love!
And how does it get into our hearts? Through the Holy Spirit!
[Prayer for more of the Holy Spirit… baptism in the Holy Spirit… today… for all who are
hungry for more of Him!]
So we’ve covered the first category: Death nor life.

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Next is angels nor demons, or principalities. Don’t forget that humans are not angels
and no, we don’t become angels when we go to Heaven, either! Please don’t ever tell
anyone their recently departed loved one is now an angel. That is bad theology.
But Paul is saying the angels, good or bad, won’t separate us from God’s love.
Remember satan was an angel and a worship leader when pride caused him to want to
be more powerful than god and his rebellion failed and he took a third of the angels with
him. They are the demons.
But we must also always realize when people are under the influence of evil it is not
them, themselves, actually, but “spiritual forces.”
In Ephesians 1:21, Paul writes that God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at
His right hand, (sound familiar? Last week’s essential Scripture! Romans 8:34!), in the
Heavenly realms, “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every
name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
And also in Ephesians 6:12, Paul instructs us to “put on the full armor of God,” teaching
us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the Heavenly realms.”
BTW, Have you put your armor on today?
From our Life Group study last week, we read these words: (from Larry Kreider)
“It has been my experience that most spiritual failure happens when Christians fail to
keep their spiritual armor in place.
When you get up in the morning, declare that your armor is in place.
[Put on the pieces…]
Third category: “Nor things present nor things to come nor nor any powers…”
Perhaps the best way to understand this is through The Passion Translation:
“So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to
separate us from God’s love.
I’m convinced that his love will triumph over death, life’s troubles, fallen angels, or dark
rulers in the heavens.
There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken his love.
There is no power above us or beneath us—no power that could ever be found in the
universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us
through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.”
Fourth category is no power above us or beneath us - neither height nor depth.
Fifth is “any created thing.” Also translated as “anything else in all creation.”
Never forget that God is the only uncreated One. Colossians 1:17 (also written by Paul)
tells us He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together.

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Remember this is all about confidence in Christ.
This is about being assured of and convinced His love will never change.
In Romans 5:8 Paul writes, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And now he’s telling us it is impossible to be separated from Christ. God tells us how
great His love is so that we will feel totally secure in Him.
If we believe these overwhelming assurances, we will not be afraid!
We will feel secure.
We will have hope.
We will feel loved.
Notice Paul writes none of these examples will be able to separated us from
“the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The phrase "love of God" refers not to our love for God, but to God's love for us.
This fact is clear from verse 37, which says, "We are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us."
In fact, the context of this entire passage focuses on what God and Christ do, rather
than on what we do.
God spared not His own Son; God justifies; Christ died, rose, and intercedes.
Therefore, the love from which nothing will be able to separate us is God's love.
There’s a good reason we often read Romans 8:31-39 at funerals, or memorial
services. It is a great comfort to hear that not even death will not separate us from the
love of God.
Jesus tells us in John 10:27 that we, His sheep, listen to His voice. He says He knows
us, and we follow Him. Then, in the next verse, He says, “no one will snatch them out of
My hand.” And after that He also says no one can snatch them out of His Father’s hand.
These are promises we can count on. Just like Romans 8:38, 39.
(From ministry magazine.org )
There is a pastor who shares the importance of this Scripture for him, personally:
He says, “The promise of Romans 8:38 and 39 has meant much to me through the
years.
When my 14-year-old died suddenly from an accident, my faith in God did not waver,
but the pain and suffering of that experience was so intense that God did not seem so
near.
The one thing that stands out in my memory of the funeral service is the Scripture
reading. The minister read from Romans 8:31 to 39, closing in a climax of triumphant
affirmation and assurance that I can hear even now: "For I am sure that neither death,

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nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (verses 38, 39).
As I listened to those words, I still could not understand the reason for this tragedy,
but my heart was strangely warmed with the presence of the Father and the assurance
of His everlasting love. Today I still join with the apostle in this confident assurance that
nothing will be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us pray. [Pray]
Then, TRANSITION TO BLESSING JOHN SMITH… BEGINNING WITH THE VIDEO…