Pentecost 11Romans 8:35-39

August 24, 2014

Dear friends in Christ, who have been the object of God’s love from eternity, chosen before time to be his own, called to faith and declared not guilty of sin, longing for your home with him in heaven,

Just before these closing passages of Romans 8 St. Paul asks this question: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”(8:31) He then tells us how God has been “for us.” God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. TheSon of God, Jesus Christ, gave his life on the cross and rose from the dead to defeat sin’s hold on us.In this way God reconciled us to himself through his Son, not counting our sins against us. No one, not even Satan, can condemn us to hell because of our sins. Christ has done it all.

That’s the message of Christ’s Gospel, isn’t it? That’s the message of our God’s eternal love. Based on that message alone God chose us from eternity to be his own, and through the power of that message he created saving faith in our hearts and through that message holds us in that saving faith. It is this message which makes us “more than conquerors”.

Since all this is true, why would Paul go on to ask the question: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”How could we ever doubt it? It’s because the trials of this world have a way of shaking our confidence in the victory Christ has won for us. Today may the Word of God through the inspired pen of St. Paul set our hearts at ease and boost our confidence with the assurance that, by his amazinggrace,NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM GOD’S LOVE.

1. No matter what we face in life

I don’t know if it’s still true of high school yearbooks today, but if you picked up one from years past and read the signatures and the notes from classmates, some of them are hilarious. They often wrote popular sayings of the time as their way of being clever. One of those sayings from the 50’s and 60’s was “Yours ‘til Niagara Falls.” (groan) It was their way of saying, “Yours forever.”

If only they’d known that Niagara actually did fall! On March 30, 1843the townspeople who lived near the thundering power of Niagara Falls awoke to the sound of silence. Niagara stopped falling! Somewhere upstream on that cold winter’s dayhuge ice floeshad created a dam that temporarily diverted the flow of water. The ice jam had literally turned off Niagara Falls! Also, in 1969 the Corps of Engineers diverted the flow of water to do some repairs. And just this year the polar vortex froze the Falls completely.

Enormous chunks of ice, engineers, and freezing temperaturesmay stop a mighty rush of water, but in the closing verses of this amazing chapter of Romans Paul assures us that no one and nothingcould ever prevent the flow of God’s mighty love from coming to our hearts and lives. The love of God, sealed bythe death and resurrection of his Son, isyours now and long after Niagara falls and is no more.

And we believe that, don’t we? We know the verse, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.” But when we come face to face with real issues in our lives, we often wonder, “Sure, but what about this -what I’m going through right now. If something doesn’t give, I don’t see how I’m going to make it. I’ll be swallowed up where God’s love can’t reach me.”

The apostle Paul mentions some of those “what about this?” times we might face. He goes from the least to the greatest. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble (the aches, pains, irritations, disappointments, and stresses of life)or hardship (the illnesses, surgeries,layoffs, and family problems that weigh heavy on our hearts) or persecution (rejection, ridicule, tension, at times physical attacks for no other reason than that we believe in Jesus) or famine or nakedness (losing your home, your possessions, your life savings) or danger or sword?” (being robbed or raped or threatened by a terrorist attack).

Any of these things could happen. Paul experienced them all, and yet he shouts,“In all these things we are more than conquerors through (Christ) who loved us!” How could he say that? How can we say that? Because we are not alone. The only thing that could ever separate us from God’s love has been eliminated from our livesby his love. We know a Savior whose love for sinners took him all the way to the cross and to total separation from God in hell. We’ve heard our Savior announce, “It is finished!” when thefull price for every sin was paid. We’ve read the eyewitness testimonies of his resurrection. We’ve clung to his words, “Your sins are forgiven” in our baptism, at his Table, in every worship service. In Christ we are “more than conquerors” over not just some things but overall things. John gives us God’s guarantee in his first letter: “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (4:4). Nothing can ever separate a child of God from his love because he fastens us to hislovein Christ Jesus.

2. Because of his love in Christ Jesus.

Did you notice that all the things Paul mentions come at us from the outside? He lists things that every Christian should expect in a world infected with sin. Our problem is that we’re always tempted tofind our security in thisfragile, fadinglife. When we do that and our security is threatened by troubles and hardships, the fabric of our lives begins to unravel. No, we do not always live as “more than conquerors”.

Paul shifts our focus to Christ. His letter to the Romans is abouteverything God has done for us and worked in us by grace, and this chapter is the high point. The Father chose us to belong to him from eternity. His Son crushed all our spiritual enemies under his feet. The Holy Spirit raised our dead, unbelieving hearts tonew spiritual life through the gospel.We are in Christ, and in himwe’ve lived our finest hour. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. God is for us. God justifies. The Spirit intercedes for us. Christ is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

The worst is over – sin and Satan have been defeated. Now we can face the lesser threats of life knowing that“neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither thepresent nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Soon after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt they arrived at the shores of the Red Sea. After they’d set up camp they saw the entire Egyptian army marching toward them. The present looked ominous, the future terrifying. But Moses was convinced that nothing could separate them from God’s love. He assured them, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only be still.” A day later they were safe on the opposite shore and Pharaoh’s army was literally under water. Nothing could separate them from God’s love. Forty years later the next generation, under Joshua’s leadership, arrived at the banks of the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land. As soon as the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant stepped in the water, the river split and the people followed it across. They never even got their feet wet.They went into the future to conquer the land, knowing that nothing they’d encounter could separate them from God’s love.

What “rivers” are you crossing today? What “rivers” do you fear you will face tomorrow?Fix your eyes on Jesus and how God demonstrated his love to you in him. Then you, too, will say, “I am convinced that .. (nothing) in all creation will be able to separate [me] from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing could stop God from making you his child forever. Nothing can stop him from loving you today. Nothing can separate you from the love he has for you in Christ Jesus. Amen

When I tread the verge of Jordan.

Bid my anxious fears subside;

Death of death and hell’s destruction,

Land me safe on Canaan’s side. (CW #331 v. 3)