The Love of Christ

The Lord has been leading me to Romans a lot in the past few weeks and today, He lifted me Spirit in these five verses. I pray that as you take time to read the scriptures and look over my notes, that the Holy Spirit would encourage you DEEP within your Spirit.

Romans 8: 32-37

32 “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[a]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

Verse 32: God spared nothing for us, not even His own Son.

• A verses prior, Paul just talked about how God works EVERYTHING together for the good of those who love God (v.28). Nothing is missed, glossed over, or left out. God is a detail-oriented God and He cares about bringing things to pass completely.

• Though He DOES answer prayers, turn things to good here on Earth, there are things that we will see come to fulfillment when Christ returns. We have SO much to look forward to. The Lord has been reminding me of His “eternal perspective”. (We could really go into detail here.) Personally speaking, though I long for things to be answered, things to be healed, and so much in our society to become whole, I KNOW that some of those things can’t happen until Christ returns and HE makes all things new. It’s caused me to long for His return even stronger, while also truly living out His will here on Earth. Have you ever seen the analogy that our lives are a very long rope (think of it stretching across a large stage)? Picture the rope having a small portion of it marked off in red and the rest plain rope. The red part is teeny-tiny and the plain rope stretches far beyond the end of the stage. The red part is our time here on Earth. That should cause us to stop and think. If my life on Earth is --- < that long compared to my time in eternity being --------------------- < that long x infinity, shouldn’t we long for our Savior to return and take us to our true home? Shouldn’t we want to tell as many people about the REAL Healer, Savior, Redeemer, Friend, Ruler? Shouldn’t we desire for all of those whom we know to have a secure spot in Heaven? It makes you think, right?

Verses 33-34: God, nor Jesus accuse or condemn us.

• God gave us RIGHT standing with Him.

• Jesus died for us and provided the answer for every need, problem, desire, and more.

Verses 35-36: Does anything cause us to not have God’s love?

• Is there anything that can separate us from God’s love?

  • Does it mean that He loves us if we have trouble, a deep need, even death?

  • There are some who are persecuted and killed for Christ’s sake daily, even now.

• The Lord gave us answers and loving reminders like THIS in His Word for when we doubt. He knew we’d ask these questions and He gave responses to them through His disciple in this book.

  • Isn’t it kind of reassuring to know that God, the Father of all humankind KNEW that we would have these thoughts? Though Paul is speaking to a specific audience here, God knew that we, today in 2020, would question and doubt if God loves us when we are facing SO much devastation. This makes me praise the Lord for such a TRUE source that His Word is and that it is living and active TODAY.

• I encourage you to read the Bible when you are facing these questions or any others because it truly is sharper than a sword. It pierces through the lies and provides answers to the deep questions of our hearts.

Verse 37: The answer is NO - NOTHING can separate us from God’s love!

• Despite these things (see above) overwhelming VICTORY is ours through Christ, who loved us!

• How can we have victory if we have severe trouble, face persecution, suffer loss, etc.?

  • Even though we WILL face problems here on Earth, if we know Christ, we ARE victorious. We KNOW who wins. We know where we are going and we have tools to see victory come to pass here on Earth (the Holy Spirit, prayer, intercession, gifts, etc.)

Things to remember:

• God will bring EVERYTHING He has promised to pass, sparing nothing for those He loves.

• It is important to have an eternal perspective.

• Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love for us!

• We are VICTORIOUS through Christ.

I pray that my humble account of these scriptures help to bring reassurance of just how much Christ loves you, despite what you may be facing. He is with you in the pit of despair and will bring you through the most desperate of times. Chin up, remember who wins!