Forgiveness in Christ: A Study in Romans 8Sample

Nothing Will Separate Us

[Nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (v. 39)

The first thing humankind did after disobeying God in the Garden of Eden was to hide. Initially, Adam and Eve hid from one another, “They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Gen. 3:7). Then they hid from God: “The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God” (Gen. 3:8). The first thing God did after their disobedience was to ask, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). It is the gospel indication that God is on a mission to redeem and restore his human creatures to right relationships with one another and with himself.

God’s garden question, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:11), is answered in Jesus Christ. Paul gives language to that answer when he writes, “[Nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul is not just offering a bit of assurance for those who are feeling down. He is addressing the deepest anxiety of the fallen human race: fear of separation.

God did not withhold his own Son, and that Son died for us, rose for us, intercedes for us, and remains with us by his Spirit so that “now we belong to God and are living in him. And nothing will ever be able to separate us again.”

As you pray, thank God for caring enough to ask, “Where are you?” and loving enough to answer his own question in Jesus Christ.

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