(Part 1/3 – A summary of the Sunday morning teaching on 25-Oct-15, in AFT Church, English service. From the series The Foundation For Victorious Living)
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 Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who 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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
I recently read a real-life account of a blind man who climbed the Mount Everest! People with all their faculties intact would find this trek daunting. But here was a man who has absolutely no clue what lay before him accomplish a herculean feat! If you aren’t impressed yet, here’s another fact. It was his seventh climbing of such sorts!
Talk of grit and determination!
Incidentally, one of the most important equipment in mountain climbing is the rope. It is tied around the waist of all the braveheart climbers to keep them secure and connected to each other.
God’s love is like that rope; connecting and securing us to Him.
We had been learning about the love of God for many weeks. The last time we studied this topic, we explored a beautiful revelation of His love. Today, let’s look at the love of God that is unbreakable and inseparable.
LOVE LIKE A ROPE
In many ways, aren’t we all like the blind man? We don’t know where our next step is going to lead us to or what’s coming our way in the future. Yet, we have a journey to make and a destiny to arrive at. We trudge on ahead braving all the odds of life with the love of God fastened around us neatly. It holds firm and together, tight and snug. We can be certain that we won’t trip and fall because it’s not us holding on to God’s love, but God’s love that is holding on to us.
Paul, in the book of Romans, states that nothing can ever separate us from this love of Christ. As lovely as it sounds, it seems like a hard thing to understand. Let’s take a quick look at understanding why that is so.
1. DISENCHANTMENT WITH WORLDLY EXPERIENCE OF LOVE
Look around us. We see all kinds and forms of love – love between spouses, parents and children, friends. Many a time, these love relationships disappoint and disenchant us. That’s why when Jesus came and demonstrated Godly love, people couldn’t grasp it. The Greeks who boasted of different words to express different kinds of love scrambled to find a new word to express Godly love.
2. DISENCHANTMENT WITH OUR SINFULNESS
No one better than us knows how sinful we are! In fact, even we wouldn’t love the sinfulness in us, let alone somebody else. Armed with that certainty we find it difficult to believe that the Holy and Perfect God of this universe could love us!
3. WORLDLY SUFFERING
Many people wonder if God really loved them, then why they are suffering so many problems. The first century church to whom Paul wrote the letter of Romans was no stranger to suffering. They were facing intense persecution. Tribulation, distress, famine, nakedness and sword were not just metaphors in their lives. Those were their everyday realities. Now, we must understand that God did not create evil. He wanted us to have a wonderful life. The problems and suffering that we are facing today has been brought on by man’s rebellion! Paul reminds the early Church that despite all their sufferings they could be assured that God loved them and that nothing could ever separate them from that love!
…to be continued…
