No Separation from Christ
RO122-02

So, all human efforts to do so are pointless and profitless. Satan himself knows that if he can get people to try to deserve heaven, to try to be good enough for heaven, that that will most certainly join him in hell forever. No one can ever remain good enough to merit salvation even after you're saved. That's how tough it is. Even after you're saved, no one can continue to be good enough to merit keeping that salvation. So, it's only as a grace gift from God apart from human doing that one can hope to be saved in the first place, let alone continue to secure in that salvation in the second place.

The Apostle Paul in Romans 8:31-34 that we have just completed has indicated with three questions that no one can bring an indictment against the believer to challenge his right to salvation. In verse 31, he raised the question, "Who is against us?" The answer implied, "No one. God is for us," he says. In verse 33, he raises a second question, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?" The answer is: no one. God justifies the Christian, not bringing a charge against him. And in verse 34, he raises a third question: who is he that condemneth? And the answer is: no one. Christ died, rose, and intercedes for the Christian. So, the question is answered in the negative. There is no one and no possibility of anyone being able to indict the believer and bring him under condemnation.

What Shall Separate Us From Christ?

The issue is separation. The word "separate" is the Greek word "chorizo." "Chorizo" means, "to divide asunder, to separate." This is the same word which is used in Matthew 19:6 in reference to breaking up of a marriage, where it says that when God has joined two people together in a marriage, let human beings not attempt to "chorizo" them - to split them apart, to separate them one from another. Here, the word is referring to losing your salvation. It is in the future tense, which tells us that he is saying that at some point in the future after salvation, he is raising the question, "When can you lose that salvation?" It is active. The thing itself causes the separation. It's an indicative, so it's a statement of fact. He's asking, "Who, at any time in the future can actually separate us, we Christians, from love?"

The word "agape." This refers to the mental attitude goodwill. It is the attitude which God has toward believers because they are no longer the objects of His wrath. When we are under the guilt, the moral guilt of sin, then God's wrath is against us, and He does not have goodwill toward us. He has judgment toward us. That's how you're born into the human race. But once you've come into salvation, you are justified. Therefore, God has no problem with you anymore. He has no condemnation to extend towards you. Instead, He has a mental attitude good will.

So, he says, "Who shall separate us from the mental attitude goodwill, specifically of Christ?" "Christos," referring to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The love of Christ here means His love for the believers in His body. This is not referring to our love for Christ. He's not saying, "Who's going to separate us from our love for Jesus Christ?" No. There are a lot of things that we might think might do that. He's saying, "What can separate Jesus Christ from loving us?"

The reason we know that to be true is because if you drop down to verse 37, you will see that we are told that we are conquerors through Him, Jesus Christ that loved us. The issue is He loved us. Verse 39 says the same thing, "Separate us from the love of God." It is the love of God for us, it is the love of Christ for us that is the issue here. Now, what is it that Jesus Christ loves in us? What Jesus Christ loves in us is His own absolute righteousness, and that is the only thing in us that He loves. That is the only thing which God, in His justice, can bless.

You see, it doesn't matter how unlovely we as Christians may be at any point in time. We still have that credited to us, the absolute righteousness of God. So, we have peace, therefore, about retaining our salvation, because it's based on the confidence that we have that the love of Christ will never desert us. It is not based upon the confidence that our love will never desert Him, because we're not sure of that. We are certain that His love can never desert us. So, the continued love of Christ for the believer is demonstrated by His work, as we have seen as our Advocate in heaven and as our Intercessor. So, no matter how the Christian may respond to the seven trials that Paul is going to list here, Christ still loves Him as a member of His family. Nothing, therefore, the Bible says, can separate us from the love that Christ has for us as our Savior.

This is expressed by the Lord Himself in John 10:28-29, when the Lord Jesus says, "I have given unto them [to believers] eternal life, and they [these sheep that now belong to Him] shall never perish [they'll never be lost in hell] neither shall anyone pluck them out of My hand. My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."

There, the Lord Jesus Himself was saying the same thing that the Apostle Paul is saying here: that there is no one who can separate us from the love that Christ has for us once we are saved. Because what he loves is not the fact that we're interested in Him, not the fact that we serve Him, not the fact that we're nice to other people. What He loves in us is what He has imputed to us as His own absolute righteousness. And that imputation is forever.

External Afflictions and Pressures

Do you ever feel under pressure in your life? Do you ever feel that you have troubles in your life that are really burdening you down? The idea here is affliction or a burden which is being experienced, and often, because you are a Christian. You are under threat for retaining your job because you are surrounded by a group of foul-mouthed, evil-thinking, evil people, and you will not join them in their practices, and so they don't like to have you around because you are an irritant to them, and your job may even be under threat. And so, here you are under the burden and pressure of not knowing from day to day what may happen to you.

That's the kind of thing he's talking about here. It connotes an external affliction - something from the outside that's bringing pressure. This is the believer here, and he's being hit from external things that are bombarding him and putting him under pressure.

There are some times when indeed, you might suffer illness, so that you become enormously discouraged and so that you wonder whether God's even interested in you or some problem comes into your life. You wonder if he's even around. Can you lose your salvation because of attitudes like that? You may suffer privation, the lack of the ordinary things that you need to exist. That can become very discouraging. Can you lose your salvation for that?

Well, the Word of God says, "No." No matter how you may respond, good or bad, to the pressure upon you, at any particular point in time, the external pressures, you're still going to be carried through into heaven. Now, you may act in a way that is not very honorable as a Christian. You may act in a very dishonorable way when you come under the point of pressure. But Paul says, "No. No tribulation is going to take you out of the love of God."

Internal Distresses

The psychologists have recognized this in people, and it's a pressure which causes a person to want to drop out. And, the psychologists have come up with a term that does not really describe a true picture, but they call it "burnout." And people like to talk about, "Oh, they're just experiencing burnout." What're they're experiencing is incapacity to face the realities of life and to meet them on the basis that God has provided for us to meet these internal pressures against us. But, at any case, the Word of God says we maintain, as Christians, a good testimony, if we are spiritual people in the midst of these kinds of internal distresses.

2 Corinthians 6:4 says, "But in all things commending ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses." And there is the word "stenochoria." Paul says, "As we continue as ministers of God, even when we've got a lot of problems inside of us, even when we are caring personal grievances and difficulties, we are still on the job for the Lord."

We're not a bunch of flaky wimps that are going to knock off because we have a problem. But if you do, if you do flake out, if you do go deserting your troops, if you do go flying off on a tangent, God says, "I'm still going to take you to heaven." That's the point of this word. Your internal pressures may cause you to act in the wrong way, but it's not going to lose your salvation. Why? Because it's not based on anything that you do.

Persecution

A young man like Joseph, son of Jacob, is not appreciated by his evil brothers. And they don't appreciate him to the extent they didn't want him around. So, they took him, and they sold him into slavery in Egypt to get rid of him. But did he lose out? No, because God says you don't lose out under persecution. You may take that persecution well, or you may take it poorly. Even if you deny Me, even if you betray Me, even if you blaspheme Me under the pressures of your persecutors, you're not going to lose your salvation.

John 15:20, the Lord Jesus put it this way, "Remember the word that I said unto you, 'The servant is not greater than his lord.' If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also." It's generally the experience of Christians to be persecuted, sometimes not in a way that you have physical suffering but just to be excluded, just to be ignored, just to be passed over - just to be cruel. It is generally the experience of Christians someplace along the line with the world to experience that. If everybody loves you in the world's system, that tell us something a great deal about the kind of a person you are in the present. It is an honor to suffer persecution because we are true to the principles of the Word of God. And that is the reason the world hates us and why they want to persecute the believer.

Matthew 5:10-12, the Lord said, "'Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.'"

It is indeed a great honor and a great privilege to be persecuted for the sake of the Lord Jesus. And you remember, that's one of the first things that the apostles expressed when they were brought in by the religious leaders, put under arrest, imprisoned, beaten. They rejoice, and they said, "What an honor that we have been counted worthy to suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ."

The highest honor paid to a Christian indeed is that of martyrdom. The Lord Jesus has to have very select people that he takes for martyrdom. A lot of people, indeed, that we might look upon as being martyrs are just simply suffering the sin unto death. But, there are select, quality people that God takes, puts them under persecution to the point of martyrdom because they stand up, and they give a testimony, and God is honored by their death.

1 Peter 4:16 says, "If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf," which is what the apostles did. So, spiritual Christian indeed is able, and we would expect him, to take persecution of any kind in stride. 1 Corinthians 4:12 says, "And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure it."

Now, supposing, you don't endure it. Supposing you crack under it. Supposing you compromise with evil. Is that going to cause you to lose your salvation? No. The early church, when persecution was so terrible in the Roman Empire, and Christians were dying, every day of the week, some Christians indeed recanted their testimony for Jesus Christ. Under the fear of death and under the pain, they backed off, and they denied their faith in Jesus Christ. These people later felt crushed and fearful that now they were never going to be able to go to heaven. They didn't understand what Paul was saying here that persecution, even if it causes you to crack, will not cause you to lose your salvation.

Famine

Now, that can be very discouraging. You knock yourself out serving the Lord. You apply your life to His service. You go about His business, and then you don't have enough to eat for some reason. Worst of all, you may have children, and you see that they go to bed hungry. It's not an experience that we Americans ever have to face, but Christians in other part of the world do face exactly that. And that's a pressure condition.

And you might, indeed, under those conditions, say, "I'm going to chuck it all! I'm going to go out there. I'm going to work with the world. They will repay me. They will reward me with material things, and I'll have the food I need to eat." Well, even if you do that, you're not going to lose your salvation.

Nakedness

Peril

Now, supposing some Christian cracks under that and says, "I'm going to detach myself from the believers. I am through going out into the woods to these secret meetings. I am through sitting here and listening to someone explain the Word of God only to find a state police coming barging in on us and to put us in prison and to make me and my family suffer." If you are genuinely a born again believer, you might crack. The peril may get to you, but you're not going to lose your salvation. Now, I'm not saying this. This is God the Holy Spirit who is saying this, and therefore, it is truth.

The Sword

But, supposing, when you had to face the sword, when you had to face the lions, when you had to face the imminent death, you change your mind. You recanted. You denied your Savior. Are you going to be lost? No. That's the point of this word. Even if you break down in the face of the threat of death, you will still be saved.

Paul's Personal Experience

2 Corinthians 11:23-28, "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

The Apostle Paul knew what was indeed to suffer every one of these things. Well, I can assure you the world likes to taunt the Christian when he suffers these things as an evidence that God doesn't love you. "You see, you think you're going to heaven, but if you were going to heaven, God wouldn't put these seven experiences on you." That's the principle.

They did this to the Lord Jesus when He was on the cross, challenging God's love and God's loyalty to Him. In Matthew 27:43, you remember, they taunted Him with the words, "He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'" Now, that hurt. "You said you're the Son of God? Well, if you're the Son of God, let your Father take you off the cross. We're treating you as a criminal. There you are, hanging naked. We're all laughing at you. You're a sight to behold. We've bloodied and bruised you, and in a short time, we're going to kill you. So, you're the Son of God, are you, fellow? What kind of love, what kind of love is that of a Father who would let a Son hang in that condition?" And they were taunting Him, but they didn't realize that all those who taunted Him were going to spend their time together in hell and find how wrong they were.

The Christian might respond to any of these sufferings in a carnal way with bitterness and with desertion, but he does not love the love that Christ has for him for the simple reason that our life, our destiny is hidden with Jesus Christ in God the Father, and it cannot be touched. Colossians 3:3-4 tell us that, "For ye are dead [to the old way of life], and your life now is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." So, there is no other place we can go except to glory.

Then, verse 36 says, "As it is written." Paul uses the word "sword," and when he uses that word, it reminds him of a verse in Psalms 44:22, which he says, "As it is written." This word "written" is the Greek word "grapho." And, "grapho" is the technical word meaning, "scripture." And it is in the perfect tense, meaning in the past, this scripture has been written, and its authority continues. It's passive; it didn't produce itself. God did this by inspired men that He used.

So, he refers here to Psalm 44:22, and he quotes it, point out that the experience of God's people in the past is similar to what we today are also being faced with. For they in the past, also, it says in that Psalm, "For thy sake," that is, for the account of God Himself, because of their relationship with God, "we are killed." "Thanatoo," referring to the loss of physical life. We are being put to death. The experience of martyrdom. And, he says this is happening to us all day, 24-hour periods of time. "For thy sake, we are being put to death all day long."

The enemies of Christ do not let up when they want to eliminate Christians. Christians in the Roman Empire were dying every day, all day long. Christians in Communist countries today taste that same thing. As a matter of fact, that passage in the book of Psalm says that we are reckoned, we are accounted. "Logizomai." This word means, "to be considered." We are considered as nothing but stupid, dumb sheep for slaughter. "Sphage." To have your neck pulled back, stretched back, and have a knife run across it. He is talking about death. And he's saying that the world of Satan views Christians as nothing more than a flock of stupid preachers who are to be brought to slaughter. Instead of the sheep of God being led out to pasture, he says the world views this as an object of destruction.

And that's standard operating procedure, that's SOP, in Communist country, that there's one thing that you want to do with Christians, and that's to slaughter them. Now, that's what the Apostle Paul says in the old days, back from earliest times, this is how we Christians were viewed. This is how we were treated, as those who were considered to be sheep for slaughter.

More Than Conquerors

This is the status of the worst Christian. This is the status of the Christian who responds in the worst possible ways to all these pressures, all these things that he has listed. He said the result will be that you will be more than victors, you will, and not only have conquered Satan, but you will have achieved much more than you had before the attack came upon you. You will have secured the peace of God. You will have retained your peace with God, and you will enter into all the blessings of heaven.

This, indeed, is ground for rejoicing. James 1 and 2 and Philippians 4:4 calls us to that kind of rejoicing. Christians do not escape these sad experiences, but they can gain victory over them. But, whatever they do, whether they gain victory or not, they are going to stay secure in them.

But when somebody dies as a martyr, the world views us as having been defeated. "No," Paul says, "we are more than conquerors." How are we more than conquerors? Because we gutted out? Because we have the willpower to stand up? Because we can make a famous speech before the guillotine chops our head off that is an inspiring statement of devotion and dedication and personal honor? No, that isn't what makes it.

"We have this through Him that loved us." And, we have again our Greek word, "agapao." "Agapao:" mental attitude love of Jesus Christ for the believer. Aorist tense. At the point of His death on the cross. It is active voice. His love. It is a principle of truth that we have love of Jesus Christ. And, we Christians, therefore, Philippians 4:13, tells us, that we are able to conquer with this love. And it is the love of Jesus Christ for us that makes a difference between defeat and victory when we are abused by the world. Hell is going to be filled with people who thought they were victorious over the Christian.

But, you see, those who separate themselves, those who reject Jesus Christ, they cannot be in His love. They cannot have come into His love, because for Him to love you, what do you need? I hope you know that now. For God to love you, what must you have? You must have His absolute righteousness. That's the only thing He will love in you. If you have that, then you will prosper that when you let that doctrine permit that absolute righteousness to function.

Neither Life nor Death

"I am convinced." Convinced about what? "That." And then, he goes through a series of comparisons. Neither, nor. Neither, nor. First of all, the contrast between death and life. "I am convinced that neither death." "Thanatos," which means the absence of life in the body. Physical life does not separate us from Jesus Christ; it takes us to Him. So, the Apostle Paul says, "If I die, I'll go to be with the Lord."

2 Corinthians 5:8, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." So, if I die, that is not going to take me into hell." If I'm a believer, it's going to take me into the presence of Christ. Nor, in life, the opposite. "Zoe." The Christian walks in daily, eternal fellowship with God the Father. He walks in this world. No matter how out of temporal fellowship, he's always in eternal fellowship.

Romans 14:8-9 says, "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. [God it?] For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living." So, He's your Lord. He is your Master. He is your control element. Whether you're a living Christian, whether you're a dead Christian. Now, that's good news.

Neither Angels nor Demons

Neither the Present nor the Future

Then, it gives another contrast. He says between the present, which is "enistemi," which refers to what is now at hand. The present moment. There is nothing now in the life of a Christian which is a threat to his salvation. You see, the Apostle Paul is going to try to tie this up just as tight a knot as he can. He's going to try to cover every possible loophole that a human being can think of. And now, he says there isn't absolutely anything that you face in time that can take you out of your salvation.

But, you say, well, no, not now. Right now, I'm close to the Lord. But that's where he brings in the word, "mellow." This means, "of the things about to be." It refers to anything that can happen to the Christian in his future. He says nothing in your future can be a threat to your salvation. Why is that? Because the death of Christ has covered all your future sins as well. So, there's no issue. There's no dimension of time which is a threat to the Christian.

Nor Any Powers

Neither Height nor Depth

Then, he adds one more of contrast with height and depth. The word "height" is the Greek word "hupsoma." This refers to something that's lifted up as a barrier that you have to go over, and it includes all the way to heaven itself. So, Paul says, now I told you, horizontally, that there is nothing in the present, nor in the future, that you can take you out of your salvation. Now, he says, I'm going to cover the thing vertically. There is nothing in heaven, including heaven. Now, that pretty well covers it. Heaven itself cannot do anything to keep me out of my salvation? That's right. Because heaven is the one place that understands the basis of this salvation. It includes the height of heaven, then he says, "the nothing down below."

"Bathos," refers to something down below, and you know how far down you can go. You go to the middle of the earth, and you're in hell itself. And he says, "Not even hell." So, this is a dramatic statement. He says, "From heaven to hell, there's nothing in between, including those two places, that can take you out of your salvation."

Nor Anything Else In All Creation

What will none of these be able to do? We close it up. "Shall be able." This is the Greek verb, "dunami," which, you see, is represented again to that power in action, like dynamite. This is the verb. It means, "to have power." To do something, future, anytime in the future, to do again what we spoke of before, "chorizo," to separate us. This is aorist, any point in time. There is no active power than can separate us. Infinitive mood, which means purpose. There can be no power in the universe whose purpose is to separate us. We Christians, "apo," from, it's the Greek preposition, "apo," which is the preposition which means, "to slice, to separate, to divide."

Nothing can take you from what? The one place you have to be, folks. In the "agape" of God. That mental attitude goodwill of God, the position of justification. This position of God, ".which is in Christ Jesus," he says, "our Lord." The word "Lord," is "kurios," which you know means, "deity," in Jesus Christ, the divine one. So that, the love that God the Father has for us, which is secured because we are in Christ Jesus, is the love from which nobody and nothing can ever separate you.

Now, you see why I'm amazed when I listen to preachers who talk about losing your salvation? I expect Christians who are not taught to talk dumb like that, but I don't expect a preacher who should know something basic about the Bible to talk that dumb. He must never have read the closing verses of this book, or he could never suggest such a thing.

We tie it up with these dramatic statements of God's love for us in Christ Jesus. John 15:13, Romans 5:8, Galatians 2:20, Revelation 1:5. That series of verses tells you the whole thing. We are in the love of God. No matter what our failures may be in life, and there will be plenty, we can never separate ourselves from the love of God. Now, that is really good news. You are forever secure.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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