Inseparable Love

Romans 8:35-39

There I was, sitting in a cute little ice cream shop, ready to work on a blog post. No passage in mind yet, I flipped through the pages of my Bible and landed on a familiar set of verses in Romans 8:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (v.35)

I read the encouraging words slowly, soaking in the truth that nothing can separate me from God’s love. But then I got to the next verse:

“As it is written, for Thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (v.36)

This verse has always puzzled me. It is inserted into the middle of a grand declaration of the unfailing, unshakable love of God. But I have always wondered, why? Why did God choose this specific quotation to go here? Determined to figure it out, I looked up the cross-reference, hoping the context of the verse quoted here would help.

It is from Psalm 44, which begins with eight verses detailing God’s promise, and His past faithfulness to give His people victory. But look at what the psalmist says next:

“But Thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.” (v.9)

The rest of the psalm runs along the same lines, complaining that God had abandoned them, giving victory to their enemies, and allowing His people to become a reproach and a byword. The verse we find quoted in Romans 8 comes from the next part of the psalm:

“All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt falsely in Thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way; Though Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; Shall not God search this out? For He knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” (vv. 17-22)

I read on, wondering if there would be a resolution, an answer to the psalmist’s feeling of abandonment:

“Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercies’ sake.” (vv. 23-26)

The psalm is an honest heart’s cry of one who is seeking God, seeking to obey Him, but cannot see His hand at work on his behalf.

Have you ever been there, dear Reader? Maybe you’re there right now. This psalm shows that God knows that we will sometimes feel this way, and He has given us the answer—but not necessarily in this psalm.

Remember how I was trying to puzzle out why Psalm 44 is quoted in Romans 8? As I sat and read through the psalm a second time, then turned back to Romans 8, it all suddenly made sense.

Read the whole passage from Romans 8 and see if the same pieces fall into place for you:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for Thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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.” (vv.35-39)

Did you see it? By including that seemingly incongruous verse, I believe that God is telling us that nothing can ever separate us from His love—even our own inability to see or sense His love in a particular season or circumstance.

Even in those moments when our hearts cry out to a God who seems to have left us behind, He is there. No matter how we feel, or whether we can understand why He is allowing our particular set of circumstances, we can cling tight to the truth that even this has not—could not—separate us from the love of God.

“Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” 

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17