In the previous two week’s, we mentioned how Paul wraps up Romans chapter eight with six concluding questions. Those questions are; What shall we then say to these things?; If God be for us, who can be against us?; He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?; Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?; Who is he that condemns?; and Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? In today’s post, we deal with the very last question of these six questions which appears in Romans 8:35.

[Tweet “Man didn’t establish the relationship with God and man cannot dissolve it.”]

• Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? –
• Once again, let’s define our terms starting with the word ‘separate’.
• The Greek word ‘separate’ or its transliterated form, ‘chorizo’ means to divide, or divorce.
• So the question reworded is this, ‘Who has the legal right to pronounce a divorce between God and man?
• The answer is no one.
• Man didn’t establish the relationship and man cannot dissolve it.
• Even if the ‘unpardonable sin ‘ is committed, it’s not the person who commits it who ends the relationship it is God who does that.
• What about the antagonist?
• What about the convicting and condemning one?
• What about the accuser?
• Can they in any way severe you from God?
• Do you remember Jesus comment on this?

John 17:12 (NKJV) 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

• What about devils, demons, and evil spirits?
• Can they cause you to be separated from Jesus?
• If they could have, wouldn’t they already have done it?
• What about earthly troubles?
• When you get to the bottom of it, no earthly trauma can come between Jesus and the called child of God.
• God is a spirit.
• Earthly traumas are natural.
• Your relationship to Jesus is spiritual.
• It comes by the way of the spirit via the Holy Spirit within.
• Divorce from Him is not an option.
• He is for the relationship.
• God doesn’t want out.
• Inanimate tests and trials cannot do the trick.
• Now we, because we are free moral agents, can choose to allow ourselves to be separated.
• We can walk away.
• But the earthly trial cannot end our divine relationship on its own volition.
• No matter what, the devil’s bad stuff can never separate you from God.
• What are some of the devil’s attempts to bring you down?

The Devils Bad Stuff

Shall Tribulation

• Paul goes through a list of potential enemies who don’t have enough sense but to try and break the protective hedge God has for the child of God.
• First up to bat is tribulation.
• Can tribulation separate us from the love of God?
• What is tribulation?
• Tribulation or ‘thlipsis’ is a heavy pressure situation, affliction, suffering or hardship.
• What happened to Paul in Macedonia is an example of this word.

2 Corinthians 7:5 (ESV) 5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.

• Paul gives his testimony about affliction.
• He states.

2 Corinthians 4:8 (ESV) 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;

• The Greek word ‘crushed’ means to be hopelessly distressed.
• Paul had many personal encounters with tribulation and not one of those encounters left him in a hopeless state.
• So, tribulation strikes out.
• It’s not big enough to sever God’s relationship to you.

Or Distress

• Next up is distress itself.
• The word distress means difficulty, calamity, a tight, compressed or narrow place.
• Narrow or tight places, valley of the shadow of death stuff, also goes down swinging.
• Paul’s victorious testimony over tight, narrow, compressed places which the enemy tried to put him in is found in 2 Corinthians 12:10.

2 Corinthians 12:10 (ESV) 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

• The word ‘calamities’ is the same Greek word translated as distress in Romans 8:35.
• So distress like tribulation is unable to separate a child of God from his Father God.
• Instead, it only makes us bigger because of the infusion of God’s strength.

Or Persecution, Famine, Nakedness, Peril, or Sword

• The list continues but the thought is the same.
• God delivers us from all of these.
• Persecution is harassment or oppression.
• Famine implies heavy duty hunger.
• Nakedness is a lack of clothing, but it also signifies deprivation and poverty.
• Peril is danger risks or hazards.
• The sword typifies violence.
• This list consists of afflictions which believers face all over the world.
• They are not designed to bless you.
• They are not designed by the enemy to make you better.
• Their evil intent is to destroy you and separate you from God.
• Just as Satan failed in his attempts to bring Jesus down, so he fails in the same way when he tries to rise up against a believer in Jesus.
• You might as well get used to the idea of having God in your life because He will absolutely refuse to let you go.
• He will never forsake you.

Call to Action:

Isn’t this truth, that nothing can separate you from your heavenly Father, a cause for rejoicing. Isn’t it glad tidings to know how closely He holds you to His heart?

Question: Now that you know there is no possibility of any of the weapons of the enemy ever separating you from the love of God in Christ, how does this change your life’s perspective? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.