Who Shall Separate?
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"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Romans 8:36)
No one can substantiate a charge against the believer in Jesus, because all his sins have been atoned for by his Surety. No one can pass a sentence of condemnation on him that will take effect, because God justifies him. No one can separate him from Christ, with whom he is identified, and with whom he stands or falls.
Our apostle had comforted the Lord's people in reference to sin, and he now turns to afflictions and troubles. He had fortified them against fears within, and now he would fortify them against fears without. He holds out the strongest consolation. He challenges the universe: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Romans 8:36).
The Privilege. This is great, and very precious! We love Jesus—and Jesus loves us. We love him—because he loved us. Our love to Jesus, though often feeble and fluctuating—yet, being supplied from his fullness, never ultimately fails. No one can separate a believer from Christ—or Christ from a believer. But the apostle refers not to our love to Jesus—but to the love of Jesus to us. Not to our love, which is a passion; but to his love, which is a perfection. Not to our love, which is an effect; but to the love of Jesus, which is a cause. We are beloved of Jesus. Sweet and precious truth!
He loves us as his sheep. The Eastern shepherd highly values his flock, loves every sheep and lamb, and calls each and every one by name. He loves them so as to feed them, fight for them, and show the utmost kindness to them. Jesus loves his sheep much more. As the gift of his Father, and as the reward of his work—he loves them. But, not only for his Father's sake—but for their own sakes he loves them. What he sees in them to draw out his love to them we know not—but he does love them so intensely—that he loves no creatures like them.
He loves them as his children. However much a man may love his sheep, he loves his children more. He may prize and value his property—but in his affection his children stand before the whole. So with Jesus, who is called "The everlasting Father," and whose people are the travail of his soul; he loves them more than all creation besides. They are peculiarly beloved by him, with a paternal love.
He loves them as his bride; his bride, whom he has chosen from all others; his bride, whom he received at the hand of his Father and her Father; the bride for whom he left the realms of glory, became a poor labouring man, suffered all kinds of privation, insult, and pain, and then laid down his life; the bride upon whom his heart is set, around whom all his affections twine, the centre in which all his love meets; the bride, sooner than part with whom he would part with everything besides!
He loves them as himself. They are himself; for their union to him is so close, so real, so vital, that they are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Jesus and his people are one—mystically, really, and eternally one.
The love of Jesus to his people, then, is most tender. The tenderest love we know is a mother's love; but the love of Jesus is tenderer than a mother. She may forget her offspring; he can never forget his people. She may be unkind to her children; he can never be unkind to his people. Her heart may be alienated from her child—but his heart can never be alienated from his people. He says, "With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you."
His love is as strong as it is tender. We read of love that is strong as death; but the love of Jesus is stronger than death. Many waters, or afflictions, sins, and sorrows—cannot quench his love; nor could the floods of his Father's wrath or of his people's ingratitude drown it! So strong is the love of Jesus, that it sways all the perfections of his nature, and employs all his vast resources to do his people good.
His love is as durable as it is strong. Like his nature, it is without variableness or the shadow of turning. It changes not. It is everlasting love. Whom once he loves—he loves unto the end. "Who, then, shall separate us from the love of Christ?" O blessed privilege, to be beloved of Jesus—to be loved with such a love! Let us consider—
Its Permanency. Who can change the mind—or turn the heart of Jesus? What shall be able to divide us from his love? Paul enumerates seven evils, and rejoices in security against them all.
"Shall tribulation?"—the common afflictions that befall us, and line all the way to glory; pressure from without, from circumstances or men. Our Lord told us to expect them, saving, "In the world you shall have tribulation." And the apostle exhorted the brethren to continue in the faith, reminding them "that through much tribulation they must enter into the kingdom of God." No amount of tribulation shall separate us from Christ!
Shall "distress?" The word signifies to be pent up, to lack room; and represents difficulties, straits, and anxieties, through which believers have to pass: as Paul says of himself, "Our flesh had no rest—but we were troubled on every side; without were fighting's, within were fears." But shall the difficulties we have to combat with, the straits we have to pass through, and the anxieties we have to endure, separate us from Christ? Never!
Shall "persecution?"—which signifies to cast out, pursue, and punish. We may be cast out of the church, and have our names cast out as evil; we may be pursued by persecutors, like the wild goat, or the partridge upon the mountains; we may be punished with all the most dreadful punishments which the cruel mind of man, assisted by Satan, can invent;—but shall persecution separate us from Christ? No! it makes the Christian cleave closer to him; and in persecution he reveals himself more sweetly to his suffering children.
Shall "nakedness?"—exposure to cold, heat, and shame. This primitive believers often had to endure. This Paul suffered: "In weariness and painfulness, in watching's often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting's often, in cold and nakedness." "Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place." And so multitudes besides: "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented: they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Shall nakedness separate from Jesus? Never! for though naked, "he is not ashamed to call them brethren."
Shall "peril?" or imminent dangers, of diverse sorts and kinds. Look at what Paul passed through: "In perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren." But did any, or all these perils separate him from Christ? No; they only made him cleave closer to his Lord, and gave his Lord an opportunity of glorifying his grace in him.
Shall the "sword?" or a violent death, inflicted in any way, or by any means. Millions have died for Christ, and died, some of them, by every kind of death which depraved man could invent; but did death by the public executioner, or death in any way, however cruel, or lingering, or dreadful, ever separate a believer from Christ? Never! for "in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us."
The Christian should expect great and sore troubles, for "many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all. His troubles and trials but conform him to his Lord and Master! They prove the power of those immortal principles which grace implants in his heart. They expose the world, manifesting its enmity against God, its opposition to Christ, its hatred of all that is holy and spiritually good. What harm did ever Christians do to the world? and yet the world has treated them as the off scouring of all things—as too vile to be tolerated, too base to be allowed to live! And the more exact their conformity to their Master—the more cruel and determined has been the world's opposition!
Troubles and trials are permitted by the Lord, to humble the heart, subdue the spirit, and meeken the mind. It is "if need be" they are in heaviness through manifold temptations. But no troubles, however deep—no troubles, however many, shall ever sever them from Christ. Their union to Christ is strong, and endures forever. Their union to Christ is sure, and can never be disturbed. The love of Jesus originated this union, and that love will maintain it. The love of Jesus—is the cause of our love to him; it makes us safe, and keeps us safe forever. The love of Christ would bear anything, and do anything for us;—and the love which Jesus kindles in our hearts will bear anything for him, and will part with anything, even with life itself, rather than part with him. Real grace ever lives, ever lasts, and ever overcomes.
God will try us, and perhaps try us very severely, and it may be for a very long time; but he will sustain us in the trial, and will deliver us out of it, as he has promised. "He shall deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven shall no evil touch you." Our trials, come from whatever quarter they may, are permitted and arranged by our God; and rightly viewed, and rightly improved, will make us cleave closer to him;—as the Church of old, alluding to her deep, successive, and apparently overwhelming troubles, says, "All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals and covered us over with deep darkness." So Job in his deep trial testified, "My foot has held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food."
Every one of the Lord's people, then, should expect and reckon upon trials;—not painfully anticipate them, or live in a state of foreboding—but be ready to meet them, and to do battle with them, so as not to be taken by surprise, or be filled with alarm when they come. Trouble, more or less, is every believer's lot.
We should be thankful for the times in which we live. Our fathers laboured, and we enter into their labours. They fought, and we reap the spoils. Human rights are better understood. Civil and religious liberty is more generally honoured. Government, which once persecuted, now protects. Laws which were once against the peaceful and devoted Christian, are now in his favour. Ours is a happy land, and we are a much favoured people. Let us, then, be thankful and praise the Lord.
Nor should this be all: we should improve our privileges, and employ our liberty, to honour our Master, and do good to the souls of men.
That nothing may separate us from the love of Christ, he lives to do four things for us:
1. He lives to intercede for us. His pleading is powerful, it is prevalent, it is perpetual. As he prayed for his disciples on earth that they might be kept from evil, be sanctified through the truth, and be with him in his Father's house, so he pleads for us now.
2. He lives to give us the Spirit. He sent his Spirit permanently to inhabit the Church, to abide with his people forever; but there is, in addition to this, "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." The Spirit was given at first, to set us right; and the supply of the Spirit of Christ is continued, to keep us right.
3. He lives to govern the world; and he governs the world for the good of his Church, for the fulfilment of his predictions, and for the performance of his own precious promises. The reins of universal government are in our Saviour's hands; and in his hands are the hearts of all men; and as the rivers of water—he turns them wherever he will.
4. He lives to love us with an unconquerable love. His love is nerved with omnipotence. Nothing can divert it from its object, turn it out of its course, or impede its progress. As soon might Jesus cease to live—as cease to love his people. The immutability of his divine nature prevents anything like changeability in his love.
O precious, precious Saviour! how can I sufficiently bless you, or praise your glorious name, for loving a worm like me; for uniting me to yourself in love, in a union so firm, so strong, so sure, that neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword—shall ever be able to separate me from you and your love! Everlasting praises be given to your thrice blessed and adorable name!
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