“What will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus?
Tribulation or pressure and persecution, hunger or nakedness, danger or sword?
Just as it is written: Because of you we are used to death all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

However, in all this we are superior victors through the one who loves us.
Because I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither messengers nor principalities,
neither present nor future nor powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor any other creation
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Rom 8:35-39

It depends on the viewing angle

Nothing is as it was. This is roughly how one could summarize the result from the Letter to the Romans to this point. Or with another image: Paul looks at the world from a certain angle, creates – as with the camera – a section to photograph. In doing so, he draws attention to certain topics and says: This is the world as I understand it today.

What was it like before? The apostle wrote about this in the first chapters of Romans. Man, who cannot grow beyond himself by his own strength, faces a far greater God. We lack His glory, writes the apostle in Romans 3:23. Those whose eyes are opened to God’s nature see their own limitations at the same time. Sobriety in regard to our understanding, our work, and our righteousness is in order. Paul had described it like this: “There is none righteous, not even one! There is none who has understanding! There is no one who earnestly seeks God. They all shun Him and at the same time have become useless” (Rom 3:10-12, cf. Ps 14:1-3).

Then follows the new focus, as Paul sets his eyes on God and His Christ. Against the backdrop of the human problem, Paul unfolds the gospel by making it clear that it is not our righteousness that is at stake, but God’s righteousness (Rom 3:21-23). This is the special point of view of the apostle. He points his camera, so to speak, at this world, but in it at a special section. It is the section in which God works. This God, to whom we cannot hold a candle, makes himself recognizable in the world, especially in Jesus, the Christ (or: Messiah).

Paul sets up the camera and lets us look through the viewfinder. We are allowed to see what he sees. We may see and hear God’s work and marvel that He does not demand justice from us, but rather establishes His own justice – through the cross and resurrection. This righteousness, which God Himself has accomplished, is given to us freely (Rom 3:24), i.e., without anything in return (Eph 2:8-9). Therefore, it is good news, a “gospel”. This changes the view.

How we see the world

Once we have taken the viewing angle of the Gospel, looked through the camera set up by Paul, so to speak, and then stand up again, the world appears as before. It’s sobering what you see. Suddenly there is the whole spectrum of human experience again. It is about life and death, about high and low in experience, about hardship and threats from the world in which we live.

After letting us look through the lens of his camera, so to speak, in the previous chapters, Paul suddenly speaks again in these last verses of chapter eight about a larger experience in this world. What use is there in this for the special perspective that we were allowed to discover earlier in the Epistle to the Romans?

“What will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? Tribulation or pressure and persecution, hunger or nakedness, danger or sword?”
Rom 8:35

The apostle draws a line between the chapters before (the love of God) and the reality in this world (tribulation, pressure, persecution, hunger, blessedness, danger, sword). Now, will the overwhelming experience in this world override the gospel? Or rather, will the reality of this world cancel out God’s love? This is what the apostle is trying to clarify here. In no way does he hide the hardship.

He quotes from Psalm 44:22:

“Because of you we are put to death all day long, as to the slaughter sheep we are counted.”
Rom 8:36

Even if you have received the promise of God, trust in God, the reality can be threatening. The psalmist continues and says, “Awake! Why are you sleeping, Lord? Wake up! Do not cast us off forever! Why do you hide your face, forgetting our misery and our oppression?” (Ps 44:23-24). It is a very understandable reaction when you are in great distress. Paul ties in with this in his letter to the Romans. It is not only about the Gospel, about the promise of God, but it is also about this world and how we stand in it. Can we reconcile the two? Or in other words, how do we as believers live congruently with our faith in this world? How do we bridge discrepancies between the outlook and the current reality?

The love of God

Three times Paul mentions the love of God:

1. What will separate us from the love of God? (Rom 8:35)
2. However, in all this we are superior victors through Him who loves us (Rom 8:37).
3. … will be able to separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:39).

This love of God is not undefined, such as a squishy feeling, but Paul repeatedly declares that this love of God is “in Christ Jesus.” That is the definition. This is the point of view he showed us in the Gospel, through the lens of his camera, so to speak.

Now here is the connection: What men could not do, God Himself did, namely His righteousness brought about. In this, He showed His love. “But God magnifies His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8). That stands rock solid. This also happened precisely because of the world in which we stand. The hardship in the world, our inadequacy, the whole burden of our lives, are not lifted right before our eyes, but it is because of these things that God works. God’s love has everything to do with this world in which we stand. However, we are not at the end of the road yet, we are just heading there.

Paul sets God’s work before us, but further, not as if everything has been accomplished. However, that does not make it any less real. The work of God has far-reaching consequences:

“Accordingly, as by the one grievance there came to condemnation for all men, so also by the one judgment there comes to justification of life for all men.”
Rom 5:18

That’s just a preview. We haven’t gotten there yet. Nevertheless, we can confidently be on our way there. We live in this world, but may already look beyond the current situation. Thus, it is not unworldly, but both the present situation and the future can be considered. Faith can do that, trusting in what the Bible says. “However, in all this we are superior victors through him who loves us” (Rom 5:37). With this, Paul takes us back to the core of the Gospel, that God is at work and by this we know His love. God is essentially love (1Jn 4:8). It is out of this love that He works. Therefore, we can rest in this love no matter what happens around us and within us.

“Because I am convinced,
that neither death nor life,
neither messengers nor principalities,
neither the present nor the future,
nor powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor any other creation
will be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Rom 8:38-39

Paul includes everything. It also includes the future. This shows that He sees God’s work as much greater than anything else that happens in this world. He has only shown a detail through “the lens of his camera”, but it is the decisive angle. Although it happened in a small place, it includes everything in its impact, even the present and the future.

Paul has a comprehensive picture of the work of God. God will one day be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). Therefore, the apostle has a great God who does not stop before the horrors of the world, before the challenges of life, but reaches His goal through them.

With this goal, we can already tune in today, thanking God, to stand soberly and confidently in this world. We do well to look through this camera again and again so that we have the view of God’s love clearly before our eyes.