Romans 8:38-39
Nothing Can Separate Us From God’s Love
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. Romans 8:38-39 (EHV)
Dear Fellow Believers,
One of the greatest comforts that we have as the sons and daughters of God is that nothing can separate us from His love. As we continue to face the Covid 19 virus and all its effects (isolation, the inability to gather for worship, loss of jobs, diminishment of savings, slowing of the economy, the threat of sickness, and even death), we may feel a certain sense of dread. We may ask ourselves what will happen to me and my loved ones? We may even wonder, has God forgotten or abandoned us?
Paul reminds us with these beautiful words that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We belong to the Lord in both life and death! We are His! He claimed us as His own at our baptisms. Nothing can separate us from God, not angels or rulers, not the present or future, not even a virus or all its consequences. Absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even death!
Death can separate us from many things. It can separate our soul from our body. Death can separate us from family, friends, and neighbors. It can separate us from the joys of this life and from this creation. But death cannot separate us from the Lord and His love for us! No matter what comes our way, we can be confident that the love of God will go with us. God cannot forget or abandon us; He has made us His own.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, this is our time to show the world God’s love does not disappear when threats appear, that the hope and confidence within us is not fragile or weak, and that the God who sent His one and only Son to save us will not forget us or abandon us in our hour of need.
Why do we sing those great hymns of faith and gather in the Lord’s name? Is it only for good times or for show? We certainly should not ignore the threats of this life and take foolish chances, but neither should we ignore the mercy of God and the love that suffered death to give us life.
Even as we shelter in place at home, we are not our own and we are not on our own. None of us can predict exactly what the future holds or when the pandemic will end but all of us Christians know to what lengths God has gone to save us. We should be comforted by the fact that God’s mighty investment in us and in our redemption will not leave us high and dry in the face of this or any other threat. Nothing can separate us from God’s love!
Pastor Oehlke
I have included all fifteen verses of the hymn “If God Himself be for Me” by Paul Gerhardt, which is based on Romans 8:38-39.
Pastor Gerhardt was a gifted hymnwriter who lived from 1607-1676. These words are beautiful and astounding when we consider what Pastor Gerhardt endured. He lived during the 30 years’ war (1618-1648); his hometown was burned, along with the church by the Swedish army; his parents died while he was a child; he faced the Bubonic plague; his wife died after a long illness and four of his five children died; he did not get a steady position until the age of 44 and for many years was dependent on the charity of others to survive. Yet he wrote the most beautiful hymns which put their full and total faith in God and His love for us.
- If God Himself be for me, I may a host defy;
For when I pray, before me
My foes, confounded, fly.
If Christ, my Head and Master,
Befriend me from above,
What foe or what disaster
Can drive me from His love? - This I believe, yea, rather,
Of this I make my boast,
That God is my dear Father,
The Friend who loves me most,
And that, whate’er betide me,
My Savior is at hand
Through stormy seas to guide me
And bring me safe to land.
3. I build on this foundation,
That Jesus and His blood
Alone are my salvation,
The true, eternal good.
Without Him all that pleases
Is valueless on earth;
The gifts I owe to Jesus
Alone my love are worth.
4. My Jesus is my Splendor,
My Sun, my Light, alone;
Were He not my Defender
Before God’s awe-full throne,
I never should find favor
And mercy in His sight,
But be destroyed forever
As darkness by the light.
5. He canceled my offenses,
Delivered me from death;
He is the Lord who cleanses
My soul from sin through faith.
In Him I can be cheerful,
Bold, and undaunted aye;
In Him I am not fearful
Of God’s great Judgment Day.
6. Naught, naught, can now condemn me
Nor set my hope aside;
Now hell no more can claim me,
Its fury I deride.
No sentence e’er reproves me,
No ill destroys my peace;
For Christ, my Savior, loves me
And shields me with His grace.
7. His Spirit in me dwelleth,
And o’er my mind He reigns.
All sorrow He dispelleth
And soothes away all pains.
He crowns His work with blessing
And helpeth me to cry,
“My Father!” without ceasing,
To Him who dwells on high.
8. And when my soul is lying
Weak, trembling, and opprest,
He pleads with groans and sighing
That cannot be exprest;
But God’s quick eye discerns them,
Although they give no sound,
And into language turns them
E’en in the heart’s deep ground.
9. To mine His Spirit speaketh
Sweet word of holy cheer,
How God to him that seeketh
For rest is always near
And how He hath erected
A city fair and new,
Where what our faith expected
We evermore shall view.
10. In yonder home doth flourish
My heritage, my lot;
Though here I die and perish,
My heaven shall fail me not.
Though care my life oft saddens
And causeth tears to flow,
The light of Jesus gladdens
And sweetens every woe.
11. Who clings with resolution
To Him whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution;
For him the burden waits
Of mockery, shame, and losses,
Heaped on his blameless head;
A thousand plagues and crosses
Will be his daily bread.
12. From me this is not hidden,
Yet I am not afraid;
I leave my cares, as bidden,
To whom my vows were paid.
Though life and limb it cost me
And everything I won,
Unshaken shall I trust Thee
And cleave to Thee alone.
13. Though earth be rent asunder,
Thou’rt mine eternally;
Not fire nor sword nor thunder
Shall sever me from Thee;
Not hunger, thirst, nor danger,
Not pain nor poverty
Nor mighty princes’ anger
Shall ever hinder me.
14. No angel and no gladness,
No throne, no pomp, no show,
No love, no hate, no sadness,
No pain, no depth of woe,
No scheme of man’s contrivance,
However small or great,
Shall draw me from Thy guidance
Nor from Thee separate.
15. My heart for joy is springing
And can no more be sad,
‘Tis full of mirth and singing,
Sees naught but sunshine glad.
The Sun that cheers my spirit
Is Jesus Christ, my King;
That which I shall inherit
Makes me rejoice and sing.
