Nothing Shall Separate (July 30, 2023) Rom. 8.26-39

If you have ever tried to get groceries in the self-checkout lane you might know about what I am speaking. You ring up your first item and then remember that you must bag your groceries. This might not be a problem if there is no line, but there is a problem if there is a line. See, sometimes the bags are not all ready for you. You then must take a bag and open it and then bag your items. But sometimes the bags can be a bit contrary. They want to stick together, and it can be hard to get them open and it takes a lot to get them separated.

Or you are opening a child’s toy. Now it used to be easy to open those. They came in a box, you opened it and out came the toy. Then someone had the bright idea to package toys where one would be able to see and touch the toy. Well, if one could do that, then one could take the toy easily. So, now there is plastic and twist ties around the toy, and one has to get the toolbox out to remove a toy.

It takes some time to separate some things. Some things just seem to not want to be separated: a bag from others, a toy from its packaging, a child going to daycare, the list can go on for a long time. But what about us and God? What can separate us from God?

If you were listening to the scripture I just read, you would know what Paul has to say about this. He would say that there is nothing that can separate us from God. But to get to this point we must go through a bit of an argument that Paul is making to the Romans about that life in Christ and the redemption of the world.

Paul has been making an argument about being justified by faith and what that entails. He has told them that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. That those who are in Christ are ones who have been set free from the law of sin and death. Paul continues by telling them that creation is groaning and looking for the day when God will redeem all of creation, make things right and that sin will finally be shown to have been conquered.

He finishes this argument with a note on prayer. Verses 26-27 are the ending of the section on the groaning of creation and those who groan for the transformation of the creation into the glory that God will bring to us. While we have hope, we are still weak and need help. And it is the Spirit that comes and brings the help we need.

We need help when we pray. The NRSV states that we do not know how to pray as we should. But that is not correct. The correct terms are “we do not know what to pray for”. Prayer is a tricky thing. It is to be the way we communicate with God, but there are abuses to it. Far too often it becomes a list of things that we believe we need or, if we are really honest with ourselves, it becomes a list of things that we want. And this is the problem. We do not know what to pray for. And in this the Spirit intercedes on our behalf. When this is done the Spirit uses sighs that are inexpressible, there are no words that can be used in this. And because the Spirit is before the throne of God and is known by God, then the sighs are articulated and the prayers that we cannot express on our own are known to God. It is a comfort to know that the Spirit is there to bring our prayers to the throne when we don’t know how to pray. There is a meme that shows one of the letter boards where they put announcements on. It says at the top Dear Jesus, then a jumble of letters is in the middle, all confused and just a mess, and at the bottom the word Amen. Our prayers are like that many a time and the Spirit takes care of us to sort out what we pray and to bring before the throne our needs, our wants, our lives.

Verse 28 is one of the most popular verses in the Bible. I have seen it on keychains, plaques, signs, Bible covers, bumper stickers, you name it, and it has been put on the places where it can be seen. But what does it mean? Is it, as some commentators have called it, a Pollyanna, pie in the sky wishful thinking? That all things will be good and work out in the end? No. In the context that Paul is writing, all things are the groans, the trials, the sufferings of creation that longs to be put to rights. And God will put those things to rights. God will make all those sufferings that are being endured right in the end to those who are called to the purpose of God.

It is with this assurance that Paul states with even more assurance. Those whom God foreknew are the ones whom God has called to be God’s own. If we have been called by God, we have been justified and if we have been justified, we have been glorified. And how are we justified and glorified? By the power and crucifixion of Jesus. Paul states that we have been brought into the family of God if we have been predestined to be so.

It is often stated that the doctrine of predestination is a monstrosity that takes away the free will of humanity. It is not. It is a biblical doctrine that tells us that God did for us something that we could never do. And it is not just Paul who states this. The doctrine can be found in the First Testament with Abraham and the children of Israel. They did nothing to make themselves available to God and to be children of God. Neither did we. Yet God predestined us to be a part of the large family where Jesus is the firstborn. This should give us comfort because we are no longer doing this on our own. Karl Barth said that God saw us as we were and knew that we never had, nor could presently nor would we ever be able to do this on our own, so, God reached out and did it for us. We are a part of the family simply because of God’s choice. I don’t understand it, but I am thankful to God for mercy and grace that brings me into the family.

Paul moves onto to a series of rhetorical questions. He begins with, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”[1]The answer is obvious: no one. The one who gave the son for us will also give us everything else that comes with that. We have only to trust in the one who will give us those things that we need and that will keep us in the family.

“Who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen?”[2]The REB answers with this, “Not God, who acquits.” The God who acquits or justifies is the judge before whom we all stand guilty. If God does not bring a charge against us, who can or will? Only God is the one who can do that, and God will not.

The next question is this: “Who will pronounce judgement? Not Christ, who died, or rather rose again; not Christ, who is at God’s right hand and pleads our cause!”[3] Again, if Christ will plead our cause to God, then who will judge us and pronounce judgement? The righteous judge proclaimed us not guilty because we were claimed by that judge and predestined.

The last question and answer is this: “Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or sword?”[4] The answer to this and all the questions is a resounding NOTHING can separate us!

Verse 36 is a quotation of Psalm 44.22. Here Paul is stating that we suffer for Christ as Christ suffered. This can sometimes be taken as saying that all suffering is redemptive. Nick Carter has this to say about that: “Some have argued that suffering is redemptive; in most cases it is not, and Paul’s writing does not support that view. Those who are ill, enslaved, or abused do not experience redemption because of their plight. This is a critical distinction that must be made, especially for women and minorities. Only suffering that is accepted freely and without coercion (mental or physical)—in love or for the cause of justice—is redemptive.”[5]It is this that leads to the last three verses.

The last three verses sum up the argument with a swelling eloquence that can give chills when read or spoken in the right context. Paul says that in all the things that try to take us down, that in all things that might oppress us, we can move beyond because we are more than conquerors or that we have an overwhelming victory through the one that loved us. In closing Paul writes these words which need no explanation: “For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths—nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[6]

Have you ever felt separated from God? The kind of feeling where you felt that you were never going to be close to God again? If so, I would suggest you turn to Romans 8.31-39 and see that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Rich Mullins sang a song entitled The Love of God. Through the song he states that he can never get away from the love of God. The final verse says this: “Joy and sorrow are this ocean And in their every ebb and flow Now the Lord a door has opened That all Hell could never close Here I'm tested and made worthy Tossed about but lifted up In the reckless raging fury That they call the love of God.”

Here we may be tested and driven to what seems like hopelessness, but there is one who loves us enough to die for us, one who loved us enough to send the Son to bring us into the Family of God, one who loves us enough to take our petty prayers before the throne of God. God will never allow us to be separated from God. When it all seems to overwhelm us and we feel lost, remember that nothing, NOTHING, will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2] The Revised English Bible. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print. [3] The Revised English Bible. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print. [4] The Revised English Bible. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print. [5] Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (p. 429). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. [6] The Revised English Bible. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print.