Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Romans 8:35-39
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  August 16, 2020

He stood there with cheeks as red as strawberries, tears streaming down his face, and his nose plastered against the window yelling for “Mommy”. My wife was just outside to get the mail, but my son was experiencing some severe separation anxiety. It seemed so silly to me at the time, but from his perspective it makes sense. The most important person in his universe left, and he didn’t know why. It makes sense that he would fear separation. I think if you really boil it down, all of our greatest fears have to do with separation. Separation from people, separation from freedom, separation from security, separation from control, separation from life itself. And though we have all grown up, just like a toddler, we still may not be able to understand why certain things are separated from us. It’s in those moments that we may be tempted to assume the very worst, that something has separated us from the love of God.

This fear is what the Apostle Paul addresses at the end of Romans chapter eight in our verses today. And just to give you a sense of how special this portion of Scripture is: A nineteenth-century Swiss scholar, Frederick Godet, called Paul’s letter to the Romans “the cathedral of the Christian faith,” comparing it to the great masterpieces of medieval architecture. He said that when a Christian comes to Romans chapter 8, he or she enters the beautiful inner sanctuary of this cathedral. Just imagine that: surrounding you are stunning sculptures and frescoes that teach what it means to walk in the assurance of what Christ has done for us. There’s the vaulted ceiling of heavenly hope held up by the columns of the Holy Spirit’s power. And if chapter eight is this inner sanctuary, then the center of your vision, the beautiful altarpiece would be verses 35-39. It is the final climax of Paul’s rhetoric, a rhapsodic description of the love of God. 

Which is why at first verse 36 seemed out of place to me. You see, Paul is ramping up, he is heading toward a triumphant conclusion. He is building momentum rhetorically until he stops right before the final section in order to quote a verse from a Psalm about suffering. If I were an editor, I probably would have suggested to cut out verse 36. Look at the section and note how it flows if verse 36 were omitted. 35 What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  – – – 36 Just as it is written: For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. – – –  37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

One of the Old Testament’s boldest protests against unexplained suffering is Psalm 44, in which the community laments that God has scattered them among the nations, and left them helpless, even though they say “we had not forgotten you. We had not been false to your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back.” (vs.17-18). Read within the context of the psalm, there is no mistaking the tone of protest in the declaration of verse 22: “For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” This is the verse that Paul quotes in the final verses of Romans 8 in the midst of his rhapsody of assurance to his readers that nothing in all creation can separate them from the love of God. Does it not seem odd at first? Why? Why does Paul choose to break the flow of his rhetoric with a lamenting, protesting citation from the psalms?

Although it might seem to flow more naturally without this quotation, the Holy Spirit, who inspired Paul, knew what he was doing. And much more than to impress his readers, Paul wrote to comfort them with the certainty of God’s love in a sinful world. That is precisely why it is so good that he did include this quote from Psalm 44. Paul’s purpose, it seems, is not for verse 35 to be heard as an easily and obviously self-answering question. What will separate us from the love of Christ?  He wants the question to linger unanswered for a moment, reinforcing its validity by giving it the endorsement of the psalm’s citation.

So I think that we should linger as well and validate this question. It’s easy to say, “Jesus loves me this I know.” But when something tragic happens to you personally. When hardship rocks your world, then the question isn’t so easy to answer, is it? I know that God loves me up here, in my brain, but when I look at my experience, it sure seems like something must have separated me from his love.  Because It feels like he is against me! We have a protest in our hearts too, don’t we? “Why, Lord? How could this happen if you love us? For your sake, even though I trust you, I feel like I’m a nothing but a sheep getting slaughtered.” You know what comes next in Psalm 44? The very next verses are:  Get up! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Wake up! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our misery and our oppression?” (Ps 44:23-24)

The fact is that we know people sometimes do stop loving us. We know that often if something bad happens, if we are miserable and oppressed, it is precisely because something we needed, something or someone we depended on has been separated from us. We know that separation is a legitimate fear. Paul wants us to pause and recognize this. Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? It is a question that has often plagued God’s people. It is a question that brought sin into the world in the first place! The Devil got Eve to doubt God’s loving intent in commanding her not to eat the fruit of the Tree. And Eve bought the lie. My friends, be warned that when you are at your weakest, when things go wrong, when inexplicable suffering comes to you, when persecution and misery come for the sake of your faith, the temptation will also come. A question whispered quietly, “Does God really love you? Has something separated you from his love?” It is not wrong to pray in protest to the Lord, it is not wrong to realize that separation is a valid fear, but may God forgive us for the times we have doubted his love. 

What did they say to Jesus say as he hung on Cross? “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” God was willing to separate himself from his only Son. To crucify him, to condemn him, to punish him, to take his love away from Jesus, so that he could be near to us for all eternity. The fact is that God’s love existed before the beginning of time. In Jeremiah, he says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” God’s love for you was not something created. It is part of his nature. It is part of who he is. 1 John, “God is love.” My friends, God does not change. He has always loved you before the world began, before you were even born he loved you. No conditions made God love you and no conditions will stop him from loving you. He isn’t a human, he doesn’t change, he is immutable. And he loves you.

So, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  We are literally “hyper-nike”, extra winners, we are crushing it, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us! It reminds me of what Paul says in 2 Cor. 4: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (vs. 17-18) From an earthly perspective our troubles are anything but light and momentary. But from God’s perspective, they are light compared to the weight of glory he will give to us. And they are momentary compared to the immeasurable time of eternity.  Like a father who watches his toddler crying because he cannot understand why his mother has left to go get the mail, the Lord is compassionate when we experience pain and distress because of separation on earth, but all the while he knows that there is no need for us to despair or fear losing his love. You are more than a conqueror regardless of your experience. No matter what else or who else is separated from you,  God’s love will never leave you. I pray that God gives you faith to trust this! To be convinced of his inseparable love for you.Just like Paul was, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation [not Covid-19, not divorce, not the end of this world quite literally], will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

How precious these words would be for those Roman Christians in the years to follow. Shortly after receiving this letter from Paul, Nero began persecuting Christians. Those who read these words would be shoved into the coliseum as a spectacle for crowds who cheered as they were devoured by lions. These Christians would be impaled on poles and lit on fire to light the city after they were blamed for the fires of Rome. Even Paul, who wrote these words, would be beheaded in Rome. What did they think and whisper to themselves as the lions approached, the fire was lit, the sword was about to fall? The same thing we must remember in the terrors and trials of our lives: Nothing “in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen.