Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~ Romans 8:35-39
What an awesome promise to us from God.... that NOTHING can separate us from His love for us!! And after reading in 2 Corinthians 11 what Paul went through for the sake of the gospel, I'm sure that promise kept him going through many difficult and trying situations. But this passage of scripture isn't just a stand-alone promise for you and I; it's also a setup for chapters 9, 10, & 11. See, after the proclamation that nothing can separate us from God's love, the bible student might ask "What about the Jews? Are they separated from His love? Are they lost?"
The Jews had the promise of God, the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), the Law, Moses, the tabernacle, the glory of God, the prophets.... all of this, yet they rejected and crucified the Messiah! I mean, if the Jews, who are God's chosen people, if they're lost, what chance do I have? In fact, many Christians have written off they Jewish people completely, arguing that the church replaced the Jewish nation as God's chosen people. Not only is this untrue, it's not biblical.
Romans chapter 9 - 11 paints a beautiful illustration of the love, grace, mercy, and faithfulness of God, and the Jewish nation is a living example of these attributes to the entire world.
Don't miss this Sunday at Calvary Chapel of Wilmington, as we break open the next section of Paul's letter to the church at Rome.
~ Pastor Clay
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