The Persuasion
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"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
Are believers conquerors—and more than conquerors? They are! Whence is this? Because God loves them, loves them in Jesus, and nothing can separate them from his love. Paul was not a man to speak rashly or unadvisedly, apart from the inspiration of the Spirit of God. He carefully examined his subject, he thoughtfully surveyed his theme, and, having done so, exclaimed, "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). Sweet and precious assurance! holy and blessed confidence! Gracious Comforter, unfold and apply this precious scripture to our souls!
The Enemies Supposed. They are numerous and formidable. It can be no child's play to overcome them. Yet every believer shall do so, through the sovereign grace of God.
"Death" and its terrors—and death in some forms, and at some times, is a terrible thing. But death, come as it may, orwhen it may, cannot affect God's love to us.
"Life" and its trials—and what a trying life many Christians have to live! But neither the fear of death nor the love of life—shall separate us from the love of God.
"Angels"—neither good nor bad. Good angels would not attempt it; but if we suppose an impossibility, as Paul did when he supposed that an angel might preach another gospel (Galatians 1:8), they could not if they would. Evil angels, numerous as they are, cruel, malicious, and determined as they may be, can never separate us from the love of God.
"Principalities"—neither celestial, infernal, nor human. Neither emperors nor kings, judges nor magistrates, popes nor prelates, priests nor inquisitors, with all their power, craft, and refined cruelty, can separate us from the love of God.
"Things present"—neither the inward conflict, violent temptations, the hidings of the Lord's face, the working of corruption within, nor the power of evil without, can separate us from the love of God.
"Things to come"—all that has ever happened—has never done so, nor shall anything that ever will happen do so, He who has kept us in the past will keep us in the future.
"Height nor depth"—heaven nor hell: nothing above us, nothing beneath us; the highest honour nor the deepest ignominy; the loftiest dignity nor the deepest disgrace.
"Nor any other creature"—nothing that God ever has created, or may create. The whole creation is too feeble to separate us from the love of God—the creatures, singly or combined—nothing outside of God.
Oh, blessed state of safety! Oh, glorious security! God himself is for us, and nothing outside of God can separate us from him.
Look, then, at all things that have been, are, or may be, and consider—
Their Inability. They may distress us; they may put us to pain; they may cause us bitter grief; they make life a burden, and death appear terrible—but they cannot separate us from the love of God, or God from our love! Nothing ever shall—for nothing ever can.
Of this said Paul, "I am persuaded." It was a matter of his greatest confidence, a subject in which he had the strongest faith. As he speaks of himself, to the honour of his Lord, "For I know whom I have believed," whose word I have taken and trusted; "and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." So, speaking of the life and death of the patriarchs, he testifies, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises—but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Their faith was full persuasion; and so was Paul's here.
He says, 'I am confident, not for myself only—but for all believers.' As he says in another place, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law—but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all." And Paul, like Abraham, "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." And this was written, not for his sake alone—but for us also which shall believe.
Oh, blessed truth! The promise is the same to every believer, and it is sure to all! It was made to them in Christ; was entrusted to the keeping of Christ; was confirmed to them by the death of Christ; and shall be fulfilled in the experience of every one of them, to the honour of Christ.
Paul says, "I am certain." It is the language of strong, unwavering confidence. More certain he could not be, more strongly he could not express himself. Oh, glorious fact, God loves his people! As long as he loves them—they are safe; and he loves them with an everlasting love—therefore they are eternally safe! Noah was not so safe in the ark as the weakest believer in Christ. Jesus is not more safe at his Father's right hand than all his people are in him.
From the love of God, nothing can sever his people, for his love is immutable. It cannot be affected by anything out of himself, and he is without variableness or the shadow of turning. How blessedly he speaks to his poor, wavering, fickle, and wandering people! "I am Jehovah; I change not: therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." He rests in his love. That love is in Jesus, and Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our God put us into Jesus, fixed his love upon us in Jesus, and ever loves us as in Jesus.
Nothing can sever us from his love, for the merit of Christ is infinite. That merit expiated all our sins, met all the demands of justice forever, and made our peace with God. In that merit every believer is interested, and is interested in it forever. How, then, can we be severed from God's love? What can separate us, when all our sins are atoned for, an everlasting righteousness is imputed to us, and Jesus ever lives to plead our cause at God's right hand?
Nothing can ever sever us from his love, for the covenant of grace is unchangeable, and it is ordered in all things and sure. It anticipates and provides for all the future. It guards against all that is evil, and secures a supply of all that is good. One of its blessed clauses is, "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Another is, "I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me." And the crowning one is, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God."
Nothing can ever sever us from his love, for Christ and his people are one—one glorious mystic man, one body, one Church, one family. While God loves the Head, he will love the members too. While he loves his First-born, he will love all the other members of the family, who are to be conformed to his image. Jesus said, "You have loved them—as you have loved me." With the very selfsame love, and while he loves Jesus, he will love them also. Sweet and precious truth this: God not only loves us in Christ—but he loves us as Christ; and he will love us as long as he loves Christ!
Once more: nothing shall sever us from his love, for the power of God is infinite. He has us in the grasp of his omnipotence, and what shall force us thence? His power can conquer every foe, rule every providence, subdue every corruption, prevent every catastrophe, and keep us forever safe. If God has set his heart upon us—will he not use his hand to defend us? If God loves us with his whole heart, and with his whole soul, and if with perfect ease he can prevent anything from accruing to alienate our hearts from him, or awaken and stir up his wrath against us, will he not do so? Unquestionably he will!
Therefore, with the apostle, we may cry out and shout, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 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!"
We ought to be fully persuaded of this, for the gospel plainly and frequently asserts it. No language can be plainer or stronger than that which we are now considering. Equally strong and precious is the language of Jesus: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and They shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." So are the words of Paul to the Colossians: "Your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory."
However, then, we may feel within, whatever may be the state of things without, let us hold fast God's faithful word, and rejoice that nothing shall sever us from the love of God. We ought to be fully persuaded, if taught by the Holy Spirit. It is his office and work to unfold and apply the glorious truths of the gospel to our minds: as it is written, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world—but the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." And surely this is one of those precious things—the knowledge of our everlasting security in Christ, and of God's unfailing love to us, in his beloved Son.
We ought to be fully persuaded, as an act of faith in God's plain and precious word. Our loving God and Father intends to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy. Nor will the purpose of love be accomplished until we are exactly like Christ, and eternally with Christ. Now, as this is so clearly revealed in the word, and so plainly stated in the everlasting gospel, we ought to believe it, and feel fully persuaded of it.
So, also, from past experience. Has the Lord kept us thus far? And will he not keep us in the future? What has the Lord brought us through thus far? And will he not do in the future as he has done in the past? Can he have greater cause to give us up than he has had? Can he find a greater reason to withdraw his love from us than he has found already? With our apostle we ought to be prepared to say, "God, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." And so he found it, as he writes just before his departure: "No man stood with me. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." And now for the FUTURE: "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever. Amen."
So should we conclude from the past to the present, and from the present to the future; and so feel fully persuaded that nothing, celestial, terrestrial, or infernal, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can eventually harm a Christian. For if nothing can sever him from the love of God, nothing can keep him out of heaven; and if nothing can keep him out of heaven, nothing can eventually harm him. No one can harm him now but himself; and nothing can harm him but sin! Let us, therefore, live out of self—upon Christ, and jealously watch against sin, and No One, nor Any Thing can harm us!
No Christian should fear trials. They are sent in mercy. They are covenant blessings. They may try us, pain us, and give us much pain; but they will only unsettle us, purify us, and fit us for our inheritance. Despondency has no foundation. Nothing should make a Christian fear. It is sin for a believer to despond. Despond! what, when all our sins are pardoned! Despond! what, when the perfect work of Christ is placed to our account! Despond! what, when nothing can sever us from the love of God! Despond! what, when all things are working together for our good!
God's love is certain and immutable. He loves all who love Jesus: if Christ is precious to me, it is a proof that God loves me. He loves all who love the brethren: if I love the children of God, it is certain that God loves me. If God loves me once, he loves me forever. God is not, cannot be, fickle or changeable. If he loves once, he loves forever. All believers are safe, and always safe. Safe! the object of God's love must be so! Safe! those who are the care and charge of Jesus must be so! Safe! the temples of the Holy Spirit cannot be in danger! If immutable love, if infinite merit, if omnipotent power, if covenant engagements, can make us safe—then we, as believers in Jesus, are safe, and safe forever!
Reader! have you any doubt of your interest in these precious and invaluable privileges? then put yourself into the hand of Christ. If you have done so before, do so again. If you have never done so, do so at once; commit yourself, body, soul, and spirit, unto him. He will receive you, he will accept the deposit; he will save you, he will keep you; and all the blessings of grace, all the privileges of God's house, all the blessings of the everlasting covenant, and all the riches of glory are yours!
Love God for loving you. Be grateful, and praise his blessed name. Be diligent, and do his holy will. Be watchful, and wait for his Son from heaven. Jesus will soon send and fetch us home; or he will come and receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also. O the wonders of free and sovereign grace! O the riches of God's covenant mercy! O the blessedness of every true believer! Let us rejoice in the thrice blessed fact, that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ; and let us sing aloud, in the language of the apostle, "To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." Jude 1:24-25
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