Inseparable Love

Bible Passage: Ro 8:31-38

Big Idea: The depth of God's love enables believers to navigate life's challenges with steadfast hope, knowing that they are eternally anchored in a relationship that cannot be broken.

One Final Question

Graduates, parents, family, friends, faculty and administration, it’s great to be with you today as we celebrate what God has been doing among the class of 2025. Today is a great day to praise the Lord and His inseparable love for you!

It’s great to be back on the campus. The last time I was here was some 1,346 days ago for move-in day on August 26, 2021. My wife and I have three daughters. That day I helped move my baby girl into residence housing with strange German names. It was a hard day for me.

Now I realize for some parents move-in day was among the greatest days of your life! I know raising teenagers can be the most challenging years for parents, so move-in day for you was VICTORY Day! Woohoo! Hallelujah! Let’s get some paint swatches and repaint their bedroom!

But for me it was an emotionally hard day. Separations are hard for me. I live 1,000 miles away from here, so it’s not like I can just swing by Mequon to visit. For some parents move-in day feels like your heart is getting ripped out of your chest. I remember giving my daughter Allie a hug at the baseball field and then driving back home to Boston with my wife. I cried non-stop driving through Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois and Indiana. I ran out of tears somewhere around South Bend.

Separations are hard.

Paul talks about separation in his letter to the Romans. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he asks a series of five rhetorical questions about God. It’s as if he is walking us up a staircase of questions. On the top step and final question is this:

Romans 8:35 ESV

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Great question.

Paul lists seven afflictions that could come our way to separate us from Christ. He begins with trouble, hardship and persecution, which together seem to denote the pressures and distresses caused by an ungodly and hostile world. He goes on to famine or nakedness, the lack of adequate food and clothing. Maybe those afflictions might separate you from the love of Christ. Paul concludes his list with danger or sword, meaning perhaps the risk of death on the one hand or the experience of it on the other could separate you from the love of Christ.

In order to enforce this point, Professor Paul quotes from Psalm 44:22. He compares the Christian community to sheep destined to be slaughtered. The Christian community was not suffering because they had forgotten God or turned to a foreign god. Instead, they were suffering for God’s sake, because of their very loyalty to Christ (Romans 1:8).

Romans 8:35 ESV

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

For my great uncle Carl, he would not have come up with any of these seven afflictions on Paul’s list. You see, my great uncle Carl would have said, “Himself.” My great uncle Carl would say, “He/himself separated himself from the love of Christ.”

You see, my great uncle Carl lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and he was a wealthy and gifted marketer and advertiser for the Boston mob. During the Prohibition and the Great Depression when everyone was hurting and out of work, my great uncle Carl was doing great. Carl bought a brand new car every other year. He had a beautiful girlfriend. He bought a yacht and parked it on the Charles River and would go on cruises in Boston Harbor. He bought a bar in Cambridge only to close it down so he and his drinking buddies could have a private club. He had everything and then some.

When I was as a child and a teenager I remember my great uncle Carl coming out to the suburbs of Boston for a family Christmas Eve parties. We would have a Swedish smorgasbord, open presents, and then go to Christmas Eve services. And year after year my grandmother would invite her uncle to the Lutheran church for Christmas Eve services, and Carl would say, “No, Betty, I’ve had a good time tonight. I’m going back into the city. I’ll see you again next year.” And year, after year after year this would happened until Carl was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Carl was dying at Mt. Auburn hospital and my grandma Betty called Carl up one last time and said, “You know Carl, I love you, and Jesus loves you, and my Lutheran pastor would be happy to visit with you.” And Carl finally said, “Yes. Send your pastor over.” The pastor arrived at Mt. Auburn hospital in Cambridge and he went over the nurses station. The nurse went to Carl’s room saying, “Carl, the priest is here to see you, do you want me to shew him away! I can get rid of him.” Carl said, “No! Send him in!” By God’s grace through faith in Jesus, Carl finally believed just a few days before he passed.

From marketer for the mob to marveling in the majesty of our risen Savior.

Carl came to know the answer to Romans 8:35?

Paul’s Answer

Romans 8:37–39 ESV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A: Professor Paul gives us the answer key. Nothing can separate the believer from God’s love. (v. 39)

Paul says, “For I am sure…” How does he make such an assertion? How can he make such a certain statement for his final answer? “For I am sure…” How can he say neither life, nor death can separate us? How can he make the cases that the sword won’t separate us from the love of Christ?

He has this confidence for two reasons for us to celebrate our security: the work of God for us in Christ (vv. 31–34) and the love of God for us in Christ (vv. 35–39).

Paul’s confidence is settled in his heart and mind. Paul is confident of the complete work of Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And Paul’s confidence is because of the Resurrection of Jesus (Romans 1:4). An old rugged cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ has settled the matter and delivers absolute certainty (Romans 8:34). Look Paul starts his whole letter to the Romans with a massive run-on sentence that would drive any English professor crazy, but delight any theology professor. When Paul introduction of himself to the Romans, he unites his entire identity to the Gospel and belonging to Jesus Christ’s resurrection.

Because of the work of God for us in Christ and the love of God for us in Christ, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus defeated the grave. Jesus reigns forevermore.

Can anything separate us from the love of God? No. Zero. Nada. Zip. Naught. Nothing. The love of God through Christ Jesus is inseparable. Nothing can separate you from his love. Yes, your circumstances in life can change (and will change), but His love for you is unchanging and inseparable.

Conquerors

Now it would be enough for Paul to end the matter there but he doesn’t instead he sweetens the menu like getting cheese curds, a butter bacon-burger and frozen custard. Paul sweetens the Gospel so you can see the beauty of Christ’s love for you. Paul dares to claim that we are more than conquerors (hypernikōmen—for pre-seminary majors that’s a present indicative active. It’s a unique word that only shows up once in the Bible. Huper, meaning "over" or "beyond" and νικάω nikao, meaning "to conquer" or "to overcome"). It is not merely about winning but doing so in a manner that surpasses ordinary triumph. This word emphasizes the complete and total nature of the victory, suggesting a surpassing or extraordinary conquering. That’s what work of God in Christ and the love of God in Christ has done for you.

Graduates today, you’ll receive your diplomas as graduates of Concordia University Wisconsin. It’s a day of victory! It’s a day of celebration! President Ankerberg and other faculty will be shaking your hand and congratulating you for your hard work in your academic endeavors. Celebrate the victory, but remember it is God who made you more than conquerors through Christ who loved you, died for you and rose again for you.

God will work through you as you leave this special place with your God-given gifts and talents to help and love our neighbors. You will leave to work in vocations to share the light of Christ in a world that desperately needs the good news of Jesus. Some of you will bring your Christian vocation to the marketplace as nurses, engineers and business people. That’s great! We need your God-given talents! Some of you are getting called into the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod—you’re receiving your calls today. It’s great to have you on the team! Some of you will continue on for more advanced studies. Over the past four, five, six years, you’ve acquired knowledge, skills and core competencies. But more than that you are more than a conqueror because of the inseparable love of God through Christ Jesus for you!

Today you will leave as graduates, but more importantly you are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loves you. May God bless you, as He works through you in your everyday vocations!