Inseparable

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 17th August service and hymns are below.

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Our principal verses are:

Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Rom 8:39  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.

 Inseparable

Throughout this chapter the Apostle Paul has been comforting the hearts and encouraging the faith of the Lord’s people. He has done this by explaining the fulness of the gospel and the work of Christ in salvation. Paul has set before the church the everlasting love of God and all that God has done for us. He has spoken of foreknowledge and predestination, justification, conversion and the glory that awaits God’s elect.

Simple yet profound

The wisdom of God and thoroughness of His salvation is a great subject and a delight to study. It is true there is a simplicity in Christ that a child may discover and wayfaring men (though fools) may learn. However, this simplicity does not lessen the wonder of God’s ways nor the far-reaching accomplishments of Christ. The benefits of God’s love for His elect have been obtained by our Saviour’s work on the cross. It is great salvation founded upon divine love and we shall marvel at God’s goodness and mercy for all eternity.

What and why

Here, Paul is telling us not only what the Lord Jesus did on the cross, but why He did it. All Christ fulfilled; the eternal decrees, the terms of the covenant, His coming, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession for us at the Father’s right hand, all these things flow from the great love wherewith He loved us. Love for His Bride has always been our Saviour’s motivation. ‘We love him, because he first loved us.’

Love that conquers

Paul is speaking of our Saviour’s love to us, not our love to Him. Christ’s love is full, free, constant and unconditional and Paul is anxious that the believers in Rome who have experienced persecution at the hands of their enemies understand the constancy of the Saviour’s care and kindness despite their trials. This is true for us, too. We may be tempted to doubt Christ’s love because of the trials and hardships we face. Paul’s message is that despite our tribulations nothing, and no one, can separate us from Christ’s love.

Love felt under fire

The apostle lists seven examples of troubles endured by the church of God throughout the ages. He lists tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and the sword. These definitions are not limited and the boundaries are surely blurred. The principle nevertheless remains. Let our enemies employ what opposition they will, let nature inflict its toll, let trouble come, none of these trials negate the Lord’s love for us, none can hinder it, none shall separate us from it. In fact, our trials supply occasions in which the love of Christ is demonstrated.

Stronger than death

Throughout history, exemplified here by the prophets, it has been the experience of God’s people to be persecuted for their testimony and faithfulness. Paul drew on cases from the Old Testament in listing these particular afflictions. Nevertheless, God’s love endures. He will do His people good. Christ’s church, you and I, will be supplied with what we need, defended and vindicated. Our victory is assured. Even suffering unto death, should this be required, is a victory for believers. No one can separate us from the love of Christ who is stronger than death.

For time and eternity

The eternal promises of God’s covenant grace and Christ’s love experienced day by day in a believer’s life complement each another and comfort the church under persecution. Those who care little for Paul’s teaching on predestination, justification and eternal glory will never properly enjoy the dimensions of God’s love to us in Christ. Everlasting love provides for all our needs in time and for eternity. It endures and overcomes all things. It is personal, practical and precious. It will comfort us as we face the problems and hardships of everyday life.

Amen

Hymn 249

Love of God Earnestly Desired. Song. 8. 6; 1 John 4. 9

C. Wesley                              8.8.6.

1
O love divine, how sweet thou art!
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by thee?
I thirst, and faint, and die to prove
The greatness of redeeming love,
The love of Christ to me.

2
Stronger his love than death or hell,
Its riches are unsearchable;
The first-born sons of light
Desire in vain its depth to see;
They cannot reach the mystery,
The length, and breadth, and height.

3
God only knows the love of God;
O that it now were shed abroad
In this poor stony heart!
For this I sigh, for this I pine;
This only portion, Lord, be mine;
Be mine this better part.

Hymn 633

“Having loved his own … he loved them unto the end.” John 13. 1

W. Gadsby   L.M.

1
The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on his own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as he lives, his own he’ll love.

2
His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.

3
Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love his own to endless day.

4
Love has redeemed his sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.

5
He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught can him from Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make his love from her depart.

6
At death, beyond the grave, he’ll love;
In endless bliss, his own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove.

The Apostle Paul beautifully applies one of the great doctrinal passages of scripture to the personal needs of his hearers showing that the same love of the Lord Jesus Christ that secures their eternal security from eternity to glory also protects and provides for them in all their troubles day by day.