God wants his people to experience deep, unshakeable
confidence that they are secure in his love. Your life may seem like a peaceful
journey or a train wreck, but nothing in this life—good or bad—can crowbar and
pry God away from loving you.
In Romans 8:35-39, Paul
stresses our security in God’s love because things will happen that make you
feel that you are separated from the love of God.
Verse 35 tells us that no-one and
no-thing can separate us from the love of Christ. Paul spells out the kinds of
things that cannot separate us from the love of Christ: tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword. Paul is literally giving you
a recitation of things that happened to him (2 Corinthians 11).
Paul refers to his experience of suffering to point out that he
was not separated from God. What about your experience? What in your life
causes you to think you are separated from God? What whispers to you and
says, “You are not worthy. You are alienated from God?” Whatever it is, it
is wrong.
No thing or situation can separate you from the love of God.
Not your divorce. Not your being fired. Not your depression. Not your
greed. Not your sickness.
Because of the work of Christ, in the face of those things
that accuse us, condemn us, and whisper to us our failures, we need to be
bolstered by the assurance that we cannot fall beyond God’s love.
God’s response to our failure is persistent
love…undeserved, unconditional, and abounding love. This is NOT how we
usually give and receive love. We are trained to think that IF we can be
lovely or loveable THEN we will be loved. Right when we are feeling
vulnerable….right when our failure is evident…right when we know that we are
not lovely and loveable….
But, your unloveliness is not powerful enough to separate you
from the love of God. Not your addiction. Not your abortion. Not your affair.
Not your secrets. Not your hypocrisy
It will never be so bad now in the present or any time in the
future that you will be separated from the love of God. Circumstances will
never surprise God so that he would go back on the promise to never leave or
forsake you. Paul says that you will never find a power anywhere that can
nullify God’s keeping power.
And there are no exceptions….
Not your lack of spiritual discipline. Not your sin. Not your sinfulness. Not
your regrets. Not your shame. Not your guilt. And not yourself.
Your abounding sin cannot out run
the greater abounding grace of God. All of our failures, stumblings, sins, and
willful disobedience doesn't change the fact that He loves us to the end and
His love is ours from eternity to eternity.
© 2005, Justin Holcomb.
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justin, cool stuff. reads
Wed, 08/10/2005 - 12:31 — chuck degroat (not verified)justin,
cool stuff. reads like the work of a budding systematician. looking forward to what you bring this fall when you teach at rts.
chuck
Thanks for the post. I wonder
Thu, 08/11/2005 - 06:35 — Curt (not verified)Thanks for the post.
I wonder though, when events get so bad that we question whether God loves us, sometimes we are also in a place where we also question whether God even exists.
Rhetorically, one might ask, If God loves me, how could He torture me this way? How can life be so bad? If God loves me and is sovereign, why am I in so much pain? In these dark places, it doesn't always help to know that God loves us, because we often can't feel that love. In these times (when God's love feels far away or even non-existent), how can we know that God loves us?
Amen and amen. Thank you
Thu, 08/11/2005 - 19:58 — Leigh Mc (not verified)Amen and amen. Thank you Justin.
Curt, good questions. Here
Sun, 08/14/2005 - 00:23 — J-ho (not verified)Curt, good questions. Here are my two cents and an attempt to answer. I'm with you. Radical suffering has a way of making "the best story ever" sound untrue or atleast unlikely. Also, Jesus asked a very similar question to God on the cross: "Why have you forsaken me?" To even try to answer your main question, practically, I lean on the reality that the crucifixion is God absorbing and experiencing human suffering. The crucifixion is God's solidarity with us in suffering...and that is played out for me each week in the Lord's supper/eucharist/communion. It helps me to remember Jesus asking the Father, "Why have you forsaken me?" And, for me, kneeling at the communion rail is where and how I know God loves me. What do you think?
"If God loves me, how could
Fri, 08/19/2005 - 15:50 — TulipGirl (not verified)"If God loves me, how could He torture me this way? How can life be so bad? If God loves me and is sovereign, why am I in so much pain?"
Or the one that plagues me. . . If God is Sovereign and loves me and is sanctifying me--how can He allow me to sin in such egregious was that it hurts the people in my life who are the most innocent?
I think one of the most
Sun, 09/11/2005 - 13:58 — Kevin (not verified)I think one of the most powerful pictures of God's love is evident in creation and the manner in which the world operates today - through free will. I am not sure why God chose to give us this, but I think it has something to do with designing us in His image. God does not, never has and never will HAVE to do anything. Nevertheless, He has chosen not only to create us, but to make us as eternal beings and to offer His one and only Son as the ultimate Sacrifice so that we may live with Him forever. This is love.
God allows us to sin because, otherwise, we would not possess the free will neccessary for love. If we were made to love (and only love), is that REALLY "love" (I tried to use "love" as much as possible there)? Without giving us the free will to DO what we will, how could we show our love for Him through obedience? When we honor God with our obedience, not only is He pleased, but those in our lives that we love and care for are blessed as well.