LOVE OF GOD - INSEPARABLE

[6-minute read]

Our experience of God’s love can be likened to an unending trip and depending on our ability to follow God as our Guide, some can find it unpredictable or beyond our capacity to comprehend. Others, however, see God’s love as steadfast, calming, very present, unconditional, or a love that never fails or changes. Yet, others find that God’s love helps them stay secure in different seasons. Others have encountered God as a loving Father who is forgiving and whose love is unconditional. Picture these keywords as memorials and tokens of hope from our individual journey with God that we leave for others, especially those who feel lonely on a very long and difficult trek.

Indeed, no words can adequately describe the love of God. As echoed in an old hymn, ‘the Love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; it goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell.’ To be sure, God’s love is not fragmented or available to us only if we get our act together. It’s not something we get more or less of according to our behavior, and although we may hurt God’s feelings when we accuse Him of not caring, nothing we do can ever disappoint God.

Really, for all who find themselves traversing a hard trek, God knows. He saw His only Son Jesus take the entire journey to the Cross to fulfill His promise of salvation to all mankind. Of course, many have asked: if God loves me, why does He let bad things happen in my life? Let’s not fantasize that God owes us a life that looks like a manicured lawn. In reality, life resembles more like an arduous trek with ascents and descents, risks and surprises, adventures and adversities, as well as beauty and wonder. Those who seek God along life’s trek will find His love always active and present. But the problem is when we approach Him with misguided thinking and understanding about His love.

Let’s counter some common misunderstanding about God’s love by looking at Romans 8:31-39 where the apostle Paul asked four ‘who’ questions that galvanized the truth about God’s inseparable love in his life and ministry.

WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” (v31b-33).

This means that no matter what hardships we are facing – sickness, failed marriage, difficulty with someone at work - they cannot crush us because God’s power at work in our lives is ultimately greater than all these. No matter how anguished, burdened and helpless we feel, our feelings do not reduce the power of God’s love in our lives. In fact, some have even learnt to see God’s love as a sail that is able to divert powerful headwinds and lead them to a safe journey.

Know this: nothing can overpower God’s love for you, or separate you from His love. Unless you let it.

WHO WILL BRING ANY CHARGE AGAINST THOSE WHOM GOD HAS CHOSEN?

Paul borrowed the word ‘charge’ from a term that is commonly used in the courtroom. Here, it is Satan, the enemy of our soul who constantly accuses us before God who is the judge. If you don’t believe that Satan is your enemy, think of the typical refrain you hear in your self-talk: ‘God can never love or forgive you for what you did (or are doing)’. Who do you think put it there?

But you have to know this: no one can bring such a charge against you – that you or anyone you know is undeserving of God’s love simply because it is a love that is not earned, but given to us!

Get this: God alone is our defender. After all, He sent His only Son Jesus to die on the Cross to pay for all our sins. This means that whatever we have done, Jesus took the punishment so that we can be set free from all guilt and shame. No one can go to God and charge that we are undeserving of His love. John 8:36 makes this very clear: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

At the same time, let’s not mistake freedom from guilt and condemnation for freedom from consequences. Yet, we can be assured of finding God’s love and grace as we learn to take responsibility for our actions and mistakes. Yet, we can take comfort in that “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11).

WHO THEN IS THE ONE WHO CONDEMNS?

Paul kicked off Romans 8 with this assurance - there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. When we no longer think that we have done anything to deserve God’s love, we begin to see that His love is accessible to everyone – even those hard to love and people we don’t like. It liberates us to do things we never imagine we are capable of!  

Acts 16:16-30 related an account of a violent mob attack against the disciples, Paul and Silas. Flogged and severely restricted in a high-security prison, they found the freedom within their souls to pray and sing hymns to God. Picture this: they were in a dark prison, severely wounded by flogging, chained like animals yet found the freedom to pray and praise God. They were able to have such liberated spirits to sing and worship before God because they were not weighed down by a yolk of condemnation.

WHO SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST?

Here, the Greek word for “separate” means to divorce or sever ties with someone. But the Word of God assures us that anytime we ever feel alienated from God, it is not because God had left but because we have let someone or something else create the distance between us.

For all that Paul had suffered, he only became more resolute about the inseparable power of God’s love: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).

Paul’s life illuminated the importance of discovering God’s love through all seasons of life. Having a head knowledge is not enough. We must have the desire to experience it.

This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 1 October 2022.