Romans 8:35 - Printer Friendly

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

NIV: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

NASB: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

CSB: Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

NLT: Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

KJV: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

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

This chapter has indicated that those who are in Christ (Romans 3:23–26) can look forward to a future of sharing in God's glory (Romans 8:18). At the same time, we are not there yet. For now, we suffer along with the rest of sin-ravaged creation. We groan in longing for our home with the Father. We patiently wait for the hope to be fulfilled (Romans 8:19–23). Paul urged his readers to understand, however, that though suffering continues, God is still for us. He has been for us since before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and He has proven His love for us by sacrificing His own Son to make it possible to adopt us as His children (John 3:16–18).

Paul now writes that we must never interpret the darkness of earthly life as evidence of God's lack of love for us. Nothing we do can keep Christ from loving us, and nothing that happens to us can mean that Christ no longer loves us. Paul builds a list of some of the worst things that can happen in this life, including trials, hardship, persecution for our faith in Him, hunger, lack of clothing or shelter, physical threats, or death by violence. None of this can separate us from Christ's love. None of this means Christ does not love us. Just the opposite is true. He loves us enough to bring us through these things (John 16:33).

Paul would have known this better than almost anyone. He himself experienced most, if not all, of those hardships (2 Corinthians 11:23–29) and remained convinced of Christ's love for him.

Romans 8:31-39 is one of the most encouraging and affirming passages in all of God's Word. Paul has established that God is for all of us who are in Christ; for those who have been saved by their faith. No charge or accusation made against us can stand, because God has provided for our justification and Christ is interceding for us. Paul makes two lists of all of the things in the universe that cannot separate us from God's love for us in Christ. Hard things will happen, indeed. Yet, none of them will cause our Father to stop loving us, nor are any of them signs that He has abandoned us. Our salvation is entirely, absolutely secure on account of His great love.

Romans 8 begins and ends with declarations of the Christian's absolute security before God. There is no condemnation for those in Christ, and nothing will ever be able to separate us from His love. Having believed the gospel, we now live in the Spirit of God. That allows us to call God Abba Father. We suffer with Christ, and we suffer along with all creation while we wait for God to reveal us as His sons. With the help of the Spirit, we are confident that God is for us and loves us in Christ.

In Romans 7, Paul revealed his frustration of trying to do good only to be thwarted by his sin. He begins Romans 8, though, with the triumphant statement that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. We live in the Spirit, and we relate to God as a child does to a father. The Spirit helps us in this season of suffering along with all of creation while we wait for our adoption to be complete with the redemption of our bodies. We are confident, though, that God is for us and nothing can separate us from His love.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.