Wednesday 5^th December

Romans 8:31-39

Please take time out in your day to read these wonderful truths in Gods word. Today’s devotional comes as a summary of a message I heard that greatly encouraged my soul and I pray that it may encourage you too.

Paul starts this entry in Romans 8 with these rhetorical questions. I have taken the liberty to answer them and I hope your answer would be the same.

If God is for us then who can be against us?? NO ONE

Who can accuse Gods chosen people?? NO ONE

Who can condemn them?? NO ONE

Who shall separate us from THE LOVE OF GOD?? ABSOLUTELY NO ONE

Paul then proceeds to bring it closer to home. He writes these questions from his own experiences.

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or death threats?? ABSOLUTELY NO

If anyone is qualified to answer these questions then it is Paul. He faced every single one of these trials yet he knew that through it all, not one of these things could separate him from Gods love (2 Corinthians 11:33-23). In fact he summarises his point in this profound statement in verse 37 “Yet in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”.  What a great truth. Paul is saying that if we cling on to Gods unconditional love through Christ Jesus in times of trials, then we become more than conquerors. “God didn’t promise us that we wouldn’t face trials but He did promise that He will be with us through them and that His love would carry us throughout it” (David Jeremiah). It is when we come out of our trials that we become MORE than conquerors. We can say that in all our money problems, marital trials, abusive relationships, unruly children or job troubles, that through everything we face and overcome, because of Gods consistent love towards us, we are MORE than victorious and live in the faith that it cant separate from Gods love.

Paul then further highlights his point by using extreme opposites to emphasise that absolutely nothing can separate us from Gods love. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:55, that death no longer has a ‘sting’ on the believer as Christ has conquered death and in verse 35 he states that life’s trials are no match for Gods love. He then says that no angel or demon (rulers or powers) can separate us from His love, as every authority comes from God and is submissive to Gods Ultimate Authority! Furthermore, our fears of tomorrow or the problems of today cannot separate us from His love; nor the heights of Heaven to the depths of hell and everything in between, is there anything that can separate us from Gods love. And if all that was not clear enough Paul emphatically summarises his point by adding that if there is any other created thing (for all things are created by God) then that too cannot separate from Gods love.

What amazing and encouraging truth. There is absolutely nothing that can separate us from Gods love. His love is unconditional for all, from the greatest sinner, to the most holy saint. His love is not dependant on us. His love is consistent. His love never changes.

“But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8