We have in this scripture passage a type of assurance that I myself find comforting. This passage from the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome, seeks to summarize the message that Paul has been trying to present to his readers up to that point. He is summarizing all that it means to be a follower of Christ. He speaks of the expectations, benefits, and hope that one has in living a life in Christ.

Being a Christian in the first century was very different than being a Christian here and now in the United States. Here we have the ability to express and celebrate our religions publicly. We do not have to meet in clandestine places always having the threat of being found out looming over our heads.

During the time that Paul was writing his letter to the Christians in Rome, Christianity was not a publicly accepted religion. It was somewhat tolerated in some areas, as long as no one made a big deal out of it. In fact, it was probably still considered to be a sect of Judaism. Even in the face of all of these threats, Paul has the ability to speak with such confidence about the love and sovereignty of God.

In this passage, Paul focuses on three things: what Christ has already done for us, what Christ is doing for us now, and what Christ will do for us in the future. It is by looking at all of these things that Paul has the confidence to preach about the love of God through Christ.

What has Christ already done for us? Paul talks about how God sent God’s Son into the world and "gave him up for all of us." God did not withhold anything but gave God’s only Son so that we might be justified. This is what Christ has already done for us and for the people of Paul’s time. What other things has Christ already done for us? Christ appointed his disciples to minister in his name after he died. He commissioned all those who followed him to continue to spread his message. We have the witness of those who have come before us, those in ancient times and those within our own living memories.

What is Christ doing for us now? This is a question that the Christians during Paul’s time may have been asking themselves and others around them. It was all fine and good what Jesus did and taught but what role does that have upon me right now? Having been raised to eternal life and sitting at God’s right hand, Christ has the ability to continue to turn God’s heart. Christ acts as our advocate in the trial against sin and death. Though the verdict is already known, Christ continues to act as our advocate.

If each of us were to answer the question of what Christ is doing for us right now, I believe that we would all come up with different answers. Christ works in our lives in many different ways. Christ stands with those of us who are in grief, pain, or need. Christ rejoices with those of us who celebrate. Christ prays with us when we pray.

What will Christ do for us in the future? This is where Paul truly gets to express what he has been leading up to. It is by looking forward to what Christ will do in the future that Paul gets his motivation. Rooted in the death and resurrection of Christ, Paul is able to look forward to the life to come.

Paul lists seven things, which he rhetorically asks if they can separate us from the love of Christ: hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. If then we have the assurance that God sent God’s only Son to atone for us and who is now sitting at God’s right hand, why should any of these things stand in our way?

If God is completely on our side, and from the action of sending Christ, it looks as though this is true, then who or what can stand against us? Hardship can surely not separate us from God. After all, Paul has certainly seen his share of hardship. Distress can surely not separate us from the love of God. The Christians had certainly seen their share of persecution and that had not been able to separate them from the love of God.

Paul goes on to say that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that was shown in Christ. Death, is no longer a factor, life is no longer a factor. Angels, rulers, things in the present or anything that might happen in the future, or the powers of this world are no longer a factor. At the greatest height or the lowest depths, we are not separated from the love of God. In short, nothing in creation can come between us and the love that God has for us.

When I read this list of assurances, I feel some level of comfort knowing that nothing can separate us from God’s love. There is no place that we can go that God’s love can’t reach, there is nothing that can stand between us and God’s love. However, there is still this little voice that asks the question of, "If we are so sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love, then why do we sometimes try to separate ourselves from God?"

Let’s think…are there ways that we have tried to separate ourselves from the love that God has shown forth in Christ. Do we sometimes let our lives get in our way? Do we let the business of our careers, our commitments, our duties as wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, caregiver come between us and the love that God showed us in Christ? Are there ways that we get so caught up in the busyness of our lives, that we forget the love that God showed us in Christ?

Paul in this letter does not promise that those who believe in Christ will be immune to all hardship or suffering or distress. He even goes on at length to describe the many ways that he has suffered and put up with a lot because of his call to preach about Christ. Yet, throughout everything that Paul goes through, he remains confident that none of it can separate him from the love that God showed forth in Christ.

All of God’s actions in Christ show forth God’s love for us. There is nothing that we can do to deserve God’s grace. There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves worthy of God’s love. There is nothing that we can do that will make us at all worthy of anything that God has given us. And yet God has given us everything. God has put off our sins. God has forgiven all our shortcomings. God has called us each by name. Nothing that we can do can separate us from the love that God shows us through the actions of Christ.

The psalm that Paul quotes in verse 36 is a psalm that cries out for deliverance from enemies. Paul uses the words of this psalm to show that no matter what enemies we are faced with, we have been delivered. No enemies can stand between us and God. It simply doesn’t work that way. God’s power and love will overcome anything that stands in its way.

Isn’t that an empowering thought? Doesn’t it get you a little bit energized to think that nothing can stand in our way when we are looking for God? When we are faced with difficult times in our lives, we can lean on the confidence that nothing will be able to separate us from the love that God has for us.

A portion of the Horizon’s Bible study for this next year will look at the story of Ruth. God had plans for Ruth and nothing could stand in the way of those plans. Ruth even gets listed as one of the ancestors of Jesus. Nothing could stand in the way of God’s love for and plans for Ruth.

The other portion of the Bible study looks at the story of Jonah who discovers that there is no place that God cannot find us. There is no depth or height that God can’t climb to and find us.

God was able to use these two people to bring about God’s plan. God was able to show forth love through these two individuals. God is also able to work through us to make love known. Though we might not try to hop a ship to Ninevah or follow our mother-in-law into a foreign land, God will work through us.

"If God is for us (and we know this to be true), then who can be against us?" Let us all open ourselves up to how God is empowering us through the love shown in Christ Jesus. That love which went to the cross so that we might have eternal life. God has done great things for us in the past. God is doing great things for us now. God will continue to do great things with us and for us in the future. And throughout it all, nothing can separate us from the love of God.