For I am persuaded that neither death nor life … shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
The best persuasion
A visitor said to a poor wounded soldier, who lay dying in the hospital, “What Church are you of?” “Of the Church of Christ,” he replied. “I mean, what persuasion are you of?” “Persuasion!” said the dying man, as he looked heavenward, beaming with love to the Saviour, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things tocome, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.”
Love’s triumph
Theserapturous words are the climax of the apostle’s long demonstration that the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation.” His argument started with sombre, sad words about man’s sinfulness; like some stream rising among black and barren cliffs, or melancholy moorlands, and foaming through narrow rifts in gloomy ravines, it reaches at last fertile lands, and flows calm, the sunlight dancing on its broad surface, till it loses itself at last in the unfathomable ocean of the love of God. We are told that the biblical view of human nature is too dark. Well, the important question is not whether it be dark, but whether it be true. Certainly, a part of it is very dark. The picture of what men are, painted atthe beginning of this Epistle, is black like a canvas of Rembrandt’s. But to get the whole doctrine, we have to see what men may become. Christianity begins indeed with, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one,” but it ends with this victorious paean, which tells us that the love of God is--
I. Unaffected by the extremest changes of our condition.
1. The apostle begins his catalogue of vanquished foes by a pair of opposites, “neither death nor life,” which cover the whole ground, and represent the extremes of change which can befall us. If these two stations, so far from each other, are equally near to God’s love, then no intermediate point can be far from it. “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.” His love to us makes no account of that mightiest of changes. How should it be affected by slighter ones? The distance of a star is measured by the apparent change in its position, as seen from different points of the earth’s surface or orbit. But this great light stands steadfast in our heaven, nor moves a hair’s breadth, nor pours a feebler ray on us, whether we look up to itfrom the midsummer of busy life, or from the midwinter of death.
2. Of course the confidence of immortality is implied in this thought. Death does not affect the essential vitality of the soul; so it does not affect the outflow of God’s love to that soul. It is a change of condition and circumstance, and no more.
3. How this thought contrasts with the saddest aspect of the power of death! Death unclasps our hands from the closest, dearest grasp, parts soul and body, loosens every bond of society; but there is one bond which his “abhorred shears” cannot cut. Their edge is turned on it. One Hand holds us in a grasp which the fleshless fingers of death in vain strive to loosen. The separator becomes the uniter; he rends us apart from the world that he may “bring us to God.” The love filtered by drops on us in life is poured upon us in a flood in death!
II. Undiverted from us by any other order of beings. “Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers.” The supposition which is, indeed, an impossible one, that these ministering spirits should so forget their mission and contradict their nature as to seek to bar us out from the love which it is their chiefest joy to bring to us; and its very impossibility gives energy to his conclusion (see also Gal_1:8), preaching another gospel than that which he had preached to them. The general thought implies--
1. The utter powerlessness of any third party in regard to the relations between our souls and God. We have to do with Him alone. These two, God and the soul, have to “transact,” as if there were no other beings in the universe.
(1) Angels, principalities, etc., may behold with sympathetic joy, and minister blessing in many ways; but the decisive act of union between God and the soul they can neither effect nor prevent.
(2) And as for them, so for men around us; the limits of their power to harm us are soon set. They may shut us out from human love by calumnies, and annoy us in a thousand ways; they may build a wall around us, and imprison us from many a joy and fair prospect: but they cannot put a roofon it to keep out the sweet influences from above, or hinder us from looking up to the heavens. Nobody can come between us and God but ourselves.
2. These blessed spirits do not absorb and intercept His love. The planet nearest the sun is saturated with fiery brightness, but the rays pass on to each of the sister spheres in its turn, and travel away outwards to where the remotest of them all rolls in its far-off orbit. Like that poor woman who could lay her fingers on the hem of Christ’s garment, notwithstanding the thronging multitude, we can reach our hands through all the crowd, or rather He reaches His strong hand to us and heals and blesses us. All the guests are fed full at that great table. One’s gain is not another’s loss. The multitudes sit on the green grass, and the last man of the last fifty gets as much as the first; and more remains than fed them all. This healing fountain is not exhausted of its curative power by the early comers.
III. Raised above the power of time. “Nor things present, nor things to come.” We had first a pair of opposites, and then a triplet; now again a pair of opposites, again followed by a triplet. The effect of this is to divide the whole into two, and to throw the first and second classes more closely together, as also the third and fourth. Time and space, these two mysterious ideas, which work so fatally on all human love, are powerless here.
1. The great revelation of God, on which the whole of Judaism was built, was that made to Moses of the name “I am that I am.” And parallel was that symbol of the bush, which signified not the continuance of Israel, unharmed by the fiery furnace of persecution, but the eternity of Israel’s God. Both proclaimed the same great truth of self-derived, self-determined, timeless, undecaying being.
2. And this eternity of being is no mere metaphysical abstraction. It is eternity of love, for God is love. We know of earthly loves which cannot die, and we have to thank God for such instances of love stronger than death, which make it easier for us to believe in the unchanging duration of His. But we know, too, of love that canchange, and we know that all love must part. How blessed then to know of a love which cannot change or die! The past, the present and the future are all the same to Him. The whole of what He has been to any past, He is to us to-day.
3. So we may bring the blessedness of all the past into the present, and calmly face the misty future, sure that it cannot rob us of His love. Looking on all the flow of ceaseless change of earthly affection, we can lift up with gladness, heightened by the contrast, the triumphant song of theancient Church, “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever!”
IV. Present everywhere. The apostle ends with, “nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,” as if he had got impatient of the enumeration of impotencies, and having named the outside boundaries in space, flings, as it were, with one rapid toss, into that large room the whole that it can contain, and triumphs over it all. As the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of time, so this proclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creatural life which we call space. Height or depth, it matters not. That diffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions. The distance from the centre is equal to Zenith or to Nadir. Here we have the same process applied to that idea of omnipresence as was applied in the former clause to the idea of eternity. That thought, so hard to grasp with vividness, and not altogether a glad one to a sinful soul, is all softened and glorified, as some solemn Alpine cliff of bare rock is when thetender morning light glows on it, when it is thought of as the omnipresence of love. “Then, God, seest me,” may be a stern word, if the God who sees be but a mighty Maker or a righteous Judge. But how different it all is when we can east over the marble whiteness of that solemn thought the warm hue of life. In that great ocean of the Divine love we live and move and have our being, floating in it like some sea flower which spreads its filmy beauty and waves its long tresses in the depths of mid-ocean. The sound of its waters is ever in our ears, and above, beneath, around us, its mighty currents run evermore. We need not fear the omnipresence of love, nor the omniscience which knows us altogether, and loves us even as it knows. Rather we shall be glad that we are ever in His presence.
Conclusion:
1. The recognition of this triumphant sovereignty of love over all thesereal and supposed antagonists makes us, too, lords over them, and delivers us from the temptations which some of them present us to separate ourselves from the love of God. They all become our servants and helpers, uniting us to that love. So we are set free from the dread of death and from the distractions incident to life. So we are delivered from superstitious dread of an unseen world, and from craven fear of men. So we are emancipated from absorption in the present and from careful thought for the future. So we are at home everywhere, and every corner of the universe is to us one of the many mansions of our Father’s house. “All things are yours … . and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”
2. But remember that this love of God is “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Love illimitable, all-pervasive, eternal; yes, but a love which has a channel and a course, love which has a method and a process by which it pours itself over the world. In Christ the love of God is all centred and embodied, that it may be imparted to all sinful and hungry hearts, even as burning coalsare gathered on a hearth that they may give warmth to all that are in the house. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Persuaded of the constancy of the Divine love
Webegin with the form of protestation, “I am persuaded,” where the apostle, while he speaks of the state of a true believer in reference to grace and salvation, speaks of it as a matter of certainty and full persuasion. There are two manner of ways especially, whereby we come to be assured of our salvation.
1. By the inward persuasion of the Holy Ghost in our own consciences.
2. We come to be assured of our condition, from the reflection of conscience itself, our rejoicing is this (2Co_1:12; 1Jn_3:21). The second is the matter of it, or thing itself protested; and that is much one with that which he had before harped upon, “That nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ.” Now this again is here laid down in these two verses together, two manner of ways. First, by an enumeration or induction of the several particulars; and secondly, by a winding-up of all together in one general conclusion. First, death shall not do it; death, it makes a great separation, it separates the soul from the body, two friends which have been a great while joined together, and it separates a man from the world. Oh! but for all this it does not separate a believer from Christ. First, for the souls of God’s children; these are not separated from Him by death. Not separated? Nay, they are so much the more conjoined. St. Paul desired to be dissolved, that he might be with Christ (Php_1:23; 2Co_5:6; 2Co_5:8). And so likewise for the bodies of Christians; these they are not separated from Christ neither, even when they lie in the grave, they are very accountable in the eyes of God, and He has a special care of them and regard unto them. The very dust of God’s people is precious, and their very bones are numbered by Him. No, nor secondly again by life; that is another part of this link. Life, it shall not prove hurtful or prejudicial to the people of God. First, not the good of life--I mean the outward good, and comfortableness of it. There is a great deal of hazard and danger in this. First, as it is an occasion to make men to be so much the more in love with the world. But God’s children are delivered from it, as having their affections weaned in them. A second evil of life in the prosperous part of it is, that it makes a man to defer his repentance and conversion to God. Thirdly, life is thus far dangerous, as it keeps a man from suffering for Christ; the more that any man has to lose, the less commonly is he willing to it. So again, as to the evils of life, ye may take it there also, that life in this sense is not prejudicial to God’s servants, but sanctified to them. First, as it is a time of sinning, for so this present life is, and therein irksome to God’s children. Secondly, as it is a time of misery. And thirdly, as the time of deferring of their reward; as long as God’s children live they are kept out of their inheritance. Thus we see how God’s children have an interest in life and death both, as making for their advantage, and it does belong unto them, as it is elsewhere expressed (Rom_14:8). The second is, “Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers.” First, not the good angels. Why? Whoever suspected them? What need was there for the apostle to put in that? I answer upon a double account. First, by way of supposition. The apostle seems to argue here, as he does also in another place, “Though we, or an angel from heaven,” etc. (Gal_1:8). Not as if they were likely to endeavour it, but if they should do it, it would be to no purpose, for they should never effect it. The good angels may be conceived to be possibly prejudicial to the saints and servants of God ministerially, and in reference to their office; and that is, by the withdrawing of their help to us, or as being instruments of inflicting punishment and vengeance upon us; but thus now they are not to God’s elect, for they are still active for them to good upon all occasions. We may understand it of the devils. Thus (Rev_12:8) it is said that Michael and his angels fought, and the dragon and his angels. It is most certain that the devil, that is, the chief and principal of them, hath very great power for a while permitted unto him, as to the trouble of God’s servants. I will instance in one particular amongst the rest, and that is his casting of evil and troublesome fancies and conceits into the mind, and that sometimes with that force and violence, as that the mind shall not be able to resist them or keep them out. These are those kind of thoughts wherewith the devil does oftentimes disturb and perplex the minds of Christians; but that these are no way prejudicial to them in matter of guilt, or arguments for the questions of God’s love, or real ground of disquieting to them, will appear unto us upon these considerations. First, from their manner of acting and proceeding inthe soul itself, wherein there is neither assent nor consent given unto them, but only a bare apprehension of them. Secondly, this may also appear from the suddenness and quickness of them; for they are commonly darted into the mind without any connection or dependence, whereas a man’s own proper thoughts are with more leisure, and deliberation, and subordination of one thing to another. Thirdly, from the frequency and multiplicity of them, together with their unseasonableness; for they may be a thousand times in a day passing as lightning into an house from one end of it to another, and in continual motion. Fourthly, from the quality and condition of them, as being contrary to the very light of nature, and the habitual frame and disposition of the soul, which of itself is considerable in it. The main ground and foundation of this restrainedness of Satan’s power is intimated to us in the text, and that is in reference to Christ; it is the love of God in Him, and therefore Satan cannot separate us from it; and Christ is considerable of us under a double notion, of an head, and of an advocate. The third is neither things present nor things to come. These shall not be able neither to separate us from God’s love in Christ. First, not things present; they shall not be able to do it, whether we take it in good things or in evil. This is a point very satisfactory in the worst times that are. No, nor yet, secondly, “Things to come,” These shall not do it neither. “Things to come”--they are such things as are hid from men’s discerning, and they know not what to make of them; yea, but thus far they are certain, as they shall make for the good of God’s people; and therefore in the place before cited (1Co_3:22), as things present are made a part of their portion, and said to be theirs; so are things to come likewise. And so indeed upon the point, all things in thefull latitude and extent of being. If we speak of things to come, but as to this life, and as taken under the notion of uncertainty, God’s children are not at a losshere, but upon very good terms; but then if we speak of things to come as to thelife following, and as under the notion of certainty, here they are infinitely and transcendently glorious. “Things to come”--these are the greatest interest and concernment of believers, and such as above all others they do most reckon and depend upon. It is the great disadvantage and prejudices of men of the world that their happiness it is confined to things present. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
The triumphant hope of the Christian
Who can look upon the sun setting in the west and not be silent with wonder? One who sees Mont Blanc from the Lake of Geneva for thefirst time, lifting itself in awful splendour and glory, does not break forth into words, but gazes silently. So there are texts which, like the one before us, subdue us to silence.
I. This crowning love of God is made known to us in the Bible. The sea swelling with its tides, this great earth revolving on its axis, and rushing forward in its orbit the systems of worlds, all speak of the power of God. That He is a God of beauty we read in the leaf, the flower, the sea shell. But we do notfind out from nature that God loves. When we understand this love of God, then are we ready to understand redemption.
II. This love fastens itself upon human beings. Compared with the mighty forces of nature, how weak we are; compared with eternity, how brief is life. What is man that God should observe him, and, much less, love him? Then we are so severed from God in capacity of mind, and so impure. We can readily believe that God loves the Church, or this and that eminent Christian, or the martyrs, but we doubt concerning ourselves. So many a Christian walks this world with timid apprehensions instead of the assurance of one who walks a world he knows his Father rules. If he realised that God loved him, then would he be joyous and triumphant--be strong for any service.
III. The eternity of this love. We feel at times that God loves us. But is this love eternal or fleeting? Is it fastened upon our personality, or upon our changing disposition? If we have been deceived in the character of one we love, or if that character has undergone a change, our love changes. Now if there is a radical change or degradation of character, God’s love may change; but aside from such change, it is notpossible that anything can produce a change in the love of God. The assurance of this is the wine of life, poured from the chalice in God’s hand, into our fainting hearts.
1. Death cannot separate from the love of God. We go with a friend up to the last moment on earth. We see the mind still active, the memory clear, the noble impulses of the soul still predominant. Do you suppose that he who built the cathedral is ended while the work of his hand calls forth the admiration of mankind? We have the assurance in the resurrection of Christ, that death does not destroy the soul. Rather it sets the soul free from the lassitude and inactiveness of the body. The body hampers and manacles the soul. Now, can you conceive that death, which so adds to the spirit, can separate from the love of God? Death does not affect our love for our departed friends, save to augment it. How much more will it but augment the love of God.
2. But may not life? Life may reach its fourscore years and work many changes. The vigour is gone, and the beauty; decrepitude has come. But what is life to eternity? A dewdrop to the ocean; less than a single modest daisy to the innumerable worlds above. Shall thedecrepitude of this brief life stand against an eternity without decrepitude? No changes wrought in the circumstances of life can affect the love of God. These areas nothing to the God of infinite resources. To Him, what matters it whether we dwell in a palace or a cottage? The favour is rather on the side of those who arein adverse circumstances. We love these who struggle more than those who enjoy; those who suffer patiently more than those who reign in royal splendour. Christ, when in the world, did not take His apostles from among the rulers; He made His abode with the poor rather than the rich. No; life cannot bring from the love of God, but rather brings us nearer because of its trials, temptations, and weaknesses.
3. But may not other powers? There are mighty ones above. May not these absorb the love of God? No; He takes care of the least as of the greatest. No star staggers in its course and halts to be caught in the grasp of God and held in its place. All the universe goes on evenly, quietly, surely. His love cannot be exhausted any more than His power. Weakness makes more certain this love. He sees us struggling against temptation which angels cannot experience, Nay, more, this love came to us through Jesus, His only Son.
4. May not time produce this separation? In the unrolling cycles, may not changes be wrought, powers developed, etc.? No; here come in the unchanging nature and the eternity of God. The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Yesterday just gone, to-day which is here, and for ever--oh, what a launch of thought!
5. May not space cause this separation? When we think of the vast distances in the universe; that the diameter of this system is seven hundred million miles; that astronomers, by an approximate parallax, show us that yonder star is so far away that it would take its light, travelling twelve millions of miles a minute, seventy-two years to reach us; that the unresolved nebula is so far away that its light would not reach us for seven hundred thousand years. When we think of these vast spaces, have we not reason to be fearful that there may be something in them that can separate us from God’s love? No, God is everywhere Master.
Conclusion:
1. What a terrific power is sin, since it can separate us from this love of God! More powerful than life or death, than all the universe.
2. What a privilege is this of the Christian to be safe in the love of God beyond all power of harm, to have a portion with God for ever. (R. S. Storrs, D.D.)
Things that cannot separate from the love of God
First, neither the height of worldly advancement nor the depth of worldly abasement. First, honour and advancement, dignity and height of place or preferment, that shall not do it. It is that which it sometimes does to some kind of persons, when they are not more watchful of themselves; high-standing it is apt to make men giddy, especially when they shall look down upon others which are far inferior to them. And there are great temptations which are now and then attending thereupon, of pride, and scornfulness, and security, and self-confidence, and the like. A child of God he shall not be afraid of that which is high, as we find the phrase used in another sense, and upon another occasion, in Ecc_12:5. And so for abasement and lowness of condition; he does not suffer from that neither, as St. Paul says of himself in another place: “He knows how to abound, and he knows to be abased; to be full, and to be hungry; to abound, and to suffer need.” There is a depth of affliction as well as an height of prosperity. And so for all other kinds and conditions of abasements of reproach, and contempt, and ignominy, which is cast upon them; these things they are digested by them. He that is low in his own eyes he can be content to be low in another’s. Secondly, not the height of spiritual enlargement, nor the depth of spiritual desertions. Spiritual enlargement, it is an height, and a very great one. Neither is the doctrine of assurance a doctrine of pride; neither is the state of assurance a state of pride. So again, as to spiritual desertions; the depth of that shall not hinder neither. This in Scripture is sometimes called a depth, as in Psa_130:1. Thirdly, take this height and depth here spoken of, as to the mysteries, whether of faith or providence, and ye shall find that neither these shall prove any disparagement to God’s servants. Lastly, neither height nor depth; that is, neither things above nor things below. It is a large and comprehensive expression which the Scripture uses in suchlike cases, when it will take in all, and so speak of anything, as to leave nothing out. Yet if we will take it more restrainedly and particularly, we may take it thus. First, take it as to the influences of Heaven. These are such as many people, especially now at this time, have a great regard unto, and that a great deal more than to other things which are more to be regarded. But those which are the servants of God are above all these heights. Those who are the children of God, and careful to walk in His fear, they shall not need to be “dismayed at the signs of heaven” (Jer_10:2). And so likewise we may take it as to the earth and the depths thereof. How many dangers are we here incident to, and yet graciously preserved from them? Now while the apostle is thus curious in this exact enumeration of particulars, and such as are so full and comprehensive, there are two things which we may gather from it: First, theweakness of our faith, especially in times of temptation, which the Spirit of God is fain to provide for, by such a complete dealing with us. Secondly, it shows the certainty of our own salvation. Seeing none of these things fore-mentioned are able to hinder us, we may from hence take notice of the sureness of the thing itself against all opposition. The second is, the general conclusion or main doctrine itself, and that is, “that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Wherein again we have two branches more: First, the firmness or immovableness of God’s affection. That nothing whatsoever shall be able toseparate us from it. This is agreeable to the whole current of Scripture (Psa_125:1; Heb_12:28). Now the firmness and stability of God’s people, in regard of their spiritual estate, may be thus surrendered: First, from the promise of God; it is a part of His gracious covenant with them. Secondly, the strength and power of Christ, that does likewise lay a ground for this truth; there His ability joined to God’s faithfulness, and the power of God joined to the truth of God (Heb_7:25). Thirdly, it may be further evinced from the nature of saving grace itself, and the work of regeneration, which is a constant and abiding principle, and so is signified to us to be in 1Jn_3:9. Take anything else in the world, besides true grace indeed, and ye shall find an uncertainty in it; let it be education, or custom, or natural conscience, or the credit of religion; none of these things are sure to hold or to continue long. But now for the power of godliness, and a true gracious heart in good earnest, it is such as is lasting and remaining. Fourthly, a Christian’s unmovableness is confirmed from the intercession of Christ. Whatever it is that Christ asks in the behalf of believers, it is most undoubtedly granted unto them. Fifthly, from the nature of election, which is a firm, and unchangeable decree; thus in verse 33 of this present chapter, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” And so much may suffice to have spoken of the first particular in this second general, which is the firmness or immovableness of God’s affection considered in itself; that nothing is able to separate true Christians and believers from His love. The second is the ground or conveyance of this affection, andthat is expressed in these words--“Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” First, He is the conveyance of His Father’s love unto us, by virtue of that near union and relation which we have to Him; forasmuch as we are very members incorporate into Him, and made one with Him. Secondly, Christ is also the conveyance of theFather’s love to us meritoriously, and by way of procurement; Christ has obtained of God the Father to love us together with Himself. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
Faith’s final paean
We seem to have been climbing up Jacob’s ladder, allthrough this magnificent dissertation, and now we have reached its summit. The base was on earth, and there we found peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; the summit is the skies, and here the song which we sing is one of enraptured triumph. Christ is the first and the last in the scale of the Christian’s boasting and joy. It is through Him that we have no condemnation; and now it is in Him that we have confidence of happiness for ever. In the matter of our redemption He is all and in all, the Alpha, and the Omega, the author and the finisher of our faith.
I. The constancy of the love of God to them that are in Christ Jesus.
1. We are the objects of God’s love. Now, it is the very nature of love, in its truer and more noble forms, to be constant. “Love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love,” etc. Love is not mere transient sentiment; it is a passion which moves with innate energy; of all moral forces the strongest. You may torture and slay a man, but you cannot coerce his affections. Formidable difficulties may oppose his love in its course, but love will surmount them or perish in the attempt. There may be unworthiness on the part of its objects, but even then how often have we seen a mother’s, a wife’s, a daughter’s love burn as brightly as ever. Love can accomplish what no mechanical or physical force can. There is truth in the quaint old fable, which represents a traveller pursuing his way with a mantle round his shoulders. The sun and the wind contested as to which was strong enough to compel the wayfarer to abandon his cherished covering. First, Boreas blew his fiercest blast, but the harder he blew, the faster did the traveller bind and clasp his cloak. Then Sol began to pour upon his head his melting beams. In a little while our hero freely surrendered; the oppressive garment was unwrapped, and loosened, and thrown open, and finally flung away altogether. The wind represents physical force, and the sun the energy of love. Well, now, God loves us; and we may at least be sure of this, that God’s love is a nobler affection than any human love whatever (Isa_49:15; Jer_31:3).
2. This love is God’s love. If it were the love of a creature, mighty and good, we might fairly put confidence in its stability; but now we see it to be that of the Creator. If He loves us, who can separate us from His love? Look at--
(1) The power of the Almighty. There may be angels, men, heights, depths, things present and things to come; but all are equally powerless against the Omnipotent. None can injure whom He defends; none can impoverish whom He enriches.
(2) The sovereignty of His will (Mal_3:6). God knew everything about us before He set His love upon us. He has nothing further to learn concerning us. We cannot surprise Him by new revelations of character. He elected us as objects of His love while we were yet sinners. All being known to Him, and all being in His hands, surely it is impossible that if He once resolved to love us, He could ever be moved from that love.
3. God’s love is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, it is a love whose outflow and development are based upon the redeeming work of Christ, and whose constancy, therefore, is guaranteed and assured by all the value and validity which attach to that work.
II. The creatures presumably hostile to the saints.
1. “Death,” whether natural or by violence, may sever us from many comforts and companions, but not from Jesus or His love. On the contrary, death brings us nearer to Christ than we were before. When we die, we go to be with Jesus, which is far better. Death, then, is an enemy converted into a friend.
2. “Life.” It is often a more perilous thing to live than to die. But let us not fear life. If for us to die would be gain, for us to live is Christ.
3. “Angels, nor principalities, nor powers.” We conceive of the angels as divided into ranks; some being higher and more powerful than the rest. But whether they are the ordinary angels, or whether they be the captains and chieftains, subordinate or supreme, of the angelic creation, all alike are powerless to intercept God’s love. But suppose it possible that all the angels, good and bad together, were to be in league against us; suppose that the malice of the one class were to be combined with the majesty of the other, we should still be secure, invulnerable, inviolable, and nothing they could do should separate us from the love of God.
4. “Things present.” Things visible are all our present surroundings of difficulty and circumstances of trial. These are enumerated, in some measure, in the former verses; but God loves us through them all. He will not suffer us to be tempted beyond our power of endurance, but does with every exigency open a door for our escape.
5. “Things to come.” We often forebode evil, and dread the future. But things to come are known to God; and whatever may betide, He will stand by us to the last. As our days, our strength shall be.
6. “Height” and “depth.” Whatever high thing there is, or whatever low thing, it need not alarm, as it cannot over power us. It may be worldly honour or abasement, but still we need not fear them. Neither the luxurious blandishments of affluence, nor the humiliating straitnesses of penury, shall separate us from God or destroy our interest in His love.
7. “Any other creature.” There, I have mentioned everything I could think of, and if I have omitted anything there is nothing to fear. (T. G. Horton.)
Assurance, not presumption
From this passage you see how safe and scriptural a full assurance is. By assurance I mean a firm, unfaltering trust in the declarations and promises of God. By personal assurance I mean a firm, unfaltering trust in the promises of God, as made to me from the moment that by believing in Jesus I make these promises my own. The apostle first of all believed in Jesus, and then as a believer in Jesus he was sure that he would go to heaven. He cast his helpless, guilty soul on Christ, and from that moment he was persuaded that he was the object of God’s love, and was persuaded that nothing could ever separate him from that love. And he was anxious to bring his Roman friends to the same persuasion. For the sake of their salvation he wished them to repose entirely on the finished work of Christ, but for the sake of their comfort and eminent sanctification, he wished them, having done this, to rejoice in hope of glory. Some tender-hearted Christians almost deprecate personal assurance, and probably the reason is that they have seen some profess assurance whose hope was evident presumption. But no two things can be more distinct. Presumption is Satan’s lie; assurance is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Presumption is hope without foundation; assurance is founded on the Word of God without, and the work of the Spirit within. Presumption makes a man proud and hard-hearted, censorious and flippant, reckless and undevout. Assurance makes a man stoop in humility lower and lower, the more be is persuaded of his heavenly Father’s love. And it gives him a panting after the living God. And it makes him tender-hearted--makes him like his Master, who does not despise the day of small things, who, when a bruised reed is put into His hand, does not snap it asunder and fling the fragments from Him; who, when a smoking flax is put upon His altar, does not sweep it off because it is flax, nor extinguish it because it is only smoking, but cherishes and fans that smouldering tow, till it burst in flames and fire the living sacrifice; and who shows His power and Divine compassion by taking the drooping shattered reed, and making it the rod of His might, a staff of strength in His hand. Even so real assurance is considerate and tender-hearted, does not scowl disdain on the smoky beginnings of grace in any heart, but finds a godlike pleasure in fostering it into a flame. Presumption is an intoxicating poison, and sends the self-deceiver reeling forward in a merry delusion, neglecting known duty and perpetrating known sin from day to day, and yet fancying that the Spirit of Christ is in him; assurance enlightens the eyes, and whether sedate or ecstatic, is always a cautious and circumspect thing, abhorring the garment spotted with the flesh. Presumption is impudent; assurance is filial and affectionate. Presumption talks about crosses; assurance carries them. Presumption is bustling and loquacious; assurance is full of zeal, but is often doing much when it says nothing. Presumption is heady and high-minded; assurance is sober, and vaunteth not itself. Presumption is self-indulgent; assurance is self-denied. Presumption, like an eastern nabob, would shut his eyes, and fold his hands, and nestle his cheek upon some balmy pillow, and then without any trouble to himself be walled to heaven in a silken palanquin; whilst assurance, like a primitive disciple, is content to strap on the pilgrim’s sandals, and shoulder the weighty cross, and foot it all the way to glory in the steps of the great Forerunner. Presumption is a vile fleshly counterfeit; assurance is a holy and sanctifying grace, because the gift of the holy and sanctifying Spirit. (J. Hamilton, D.D.)
Christian confidence
The account given of the death of Mr. Robert Bruce of Kinnaird is very beautiful in its simplicity: “That morning before the Lord called him to his rest he came to breakfast at his table. After he had eaten, as his use was, a single egg, he said to his daughter, ‘I think I am yet hungry; you may bring me another egg,’ and instantly fell silent; and, after having mused a little, he said, ‘Hold, daughter, hold; my Master calleth me.’ With these words his sight failed him, and he called for the Bible; but finding he was not able to read, he said, ‘Cast me up the eighth chapter to the Romans, verses twenty-eight to thirty-nine,’ much of which he repeated, particularly ‘I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord,’ and caused his finger to be put upon them, which was done. ‘Now,’ said he, ‘is my finger upon them?’ They told him it was. Then he said, ‘God be with you, my children; I have breakfasted with you, and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ this night,’ and straightway gave up the ghost without one groan or shiver.”
Security
Alady was riding in her carriage, when, spying a beautiful flower by the side of a large rock, she alighted to take it up, that she might remove it to her conservatory, but found that, delicate as it appeared, it resisted all her efforts, because the root ran under the rock. Ah, thought she, this is an illustration of the safety of the Christian, whose life of beauty is under the shelter of the Rock, and whose root of strength runs far beneath it.
