1Another sermon taken, with editing, from Revival Truth.
Romans 8:38,39. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The comforting and invigorating doctrine of this precious passage is that a soul in Christ cannot be separated from the love of God.
1. All Christless persons are by nature out of the love of God.
God has no love of complacency towards unconverted souls. He sees nothing amiable in them; He sees nothing for which He can possibly love them. “What is man that he should be clean; and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous? Behold He putteth no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?” “The righteous God loveth righteousness.” It is His very nature to do so; He cannot but love it wherever He sees it. But there is no righteousness in Christless persons; there is not so much as one clean white spot in their whole garments. By nature “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”. Therefore it is impossible that God can love the unconverted with the love of complacency. He must change His nature and become another God before He can cherish the least spark of esteem for an unconverted soul.
But it may be objected: Did not God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, and did not Christ show great tenderness to sinners when He was on earth? Yes, we readily admit it, for it is quite true that God looks on Christless persons with infinite pity. If you saw a man lying wounded, bleeding and dying, your heart would flow out with compassion all at once. The benevolence of your nature being appealed to, you would love him with the love of pity. But if you found out that he was a wicked, abandoned man, you could not esteem him; your love of pity would continue; indeed it would be greater than before, but you could not have any love of esteem for him. As a sinner, he would be an object of pity but not of complacency.
Just so it is with God. He saw the whole world lying in wickedness and every imagination of man’s heart only evil continually, and His gracious heart flowed out in pity towards the children of men. He “will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth”. “I have no pleasure”, He says, “in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Ah, see what a large heart of pity God had! It embraced the whole world; and, therefore, He provided an infinite and all-sufficient ransom to which all are invited – to which all may come. Jesus, as One who speaks for the Father’s heart, says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.
But does God esteem Christless souls? No! God would require to change His essential nature and become a wicked God before He could love unconverted, Christless men with a love of esteem. If He were a wicked God, then He could love wicked men. But so long as He is the pure-eyed God, He cannot have a spark of esteem for sinners, however much they may esteem themselves or be esteemed by their fellow-sinners in the world.
Not only does God not see anything to love in Christless persons, but He sees much to hate.
In Psalm 7 it is written: “God is angry with the wicked every day”. Again, in Psalm 11, it is written: “The wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth”. And again, in Psalm 34: “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil”. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” “Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” It is part of the nature of God to love holiness, and to hate wickedness wherever He sees it. In whatever heart He discovers it, He cannot but hate it. God must cease to be God before He ceases to hate the wickedness of the wicked.
But an objector may say, If God hates Christless persons on account of their sins, then He can have no pity for them. But why not? He is infinitely just, but He is infinite in compassion too. He must cease to be God before He can cease to be compassionate. “He delighteth in mercy.” The more He is angry with a soul, the more He pities that soul, for its case is all the more deplorable; it has rendered itself exposed to His holy displeasure. When Christ was on earth, it is said, “He looked round with anger” on some sinners, “being grieved at the hardness of their hearts”. Here is the very thing you say is impossible. Here is anger and pity in the same breast. The lightning of just anger, and the tear of compassion were in His eye at the same moment. This is the very “image of the invisible God”.
Again: “When He came near and beheld the city [Jerusalem], He wept over it,” and yet said, “The things which belong unto thy peace . . . are hid from thine eyes”. Here the Saviour gave it over to perdition with tears in His eyes and words of sadness on His lips. This was infinite compassion, yet infinite indignation. This is the express image of God’s person. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” If God were in human nature, He would weep at the very time He pronounced the holy sentence of wrath.
Let me here speak affectionately and faithfully to all who are Christless. I would implore you from this to learn exactly where you stand with regard to God. Let it sink deep into your ears and hearts that He has no love of esteem for you; He never had, and He never will have, until He sees you in Christ. You see many things in yourselves that you admire, and you foolishly think that God also will admire them. Perhaps you pray a little in secret and read the Word. Perhaps you feel some glowing of emotion in hearing the preaching of the gospel, and you think all the time that God will look on it and approve it and, as a necessary consequence, esteem you on account of it. But learn here that God sees nothing good in it, nothing worthy of His love. If you are out of Christ, you are altogether loathsome in the sight of the holy God; even your very “righteousnesses are as filthy rags”.
Perhaps you are amiable, good-natured, kind, hospitable; your friends love and admire you, and you think God also must admire you. But learn plainly that God sees nothing to admire in you. He knows you are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”. None of all the deeds that you fancy are meritorious are done out of regard for Him, and He will regard nothing with complacency unless it is done with an eye to His glory. And being out of His love, you are under His wrath. There is no alternative. If you are out of His love, you must be under His wrath. He has created you and, as you are a moral agent, God cannot be indifferent to you or to your actions. God is angry with you every day.
The wrath of God abides upon you at all times! If you go on a journey, the wrath of God hangs over you all the way. If you go out to work, the wrath of God is hanging round your neck. If you sit down to your daily meals, the wrath of God is close by! If you sleep, it rests over you all the night long. At any moment it may crush you into hell; it may be today or tomorrow or some day next week. The time is uncertain, but the thing is sure. Whenever God cuts the thread of life, the wrath that is against you will do its work. O dear souls, how can you remain in this fearful and perilous condition? Be persuaded now to believe in Jesus and thereby escape the “wrath to come”.
Your case is very melancholy, but it is not hopeless. God has infinite pity for you. His pity is as infinite as His wrath. He has no pleasure in your dying; He pleads with you to turn and live. He has provided blood enough in Christ to blot out all your sins, and raiment enough to cover your nakedness. The more He is angry with you on account of your sinfulness, the more He pities you. Christ strives most after the salvation of Jerusalem sinners. The more you have provoked Him, the more ready He is to cover you under His wings. Turn, sinner, turn. God will not always wait. He has said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man”. “Give glory to the Lord your God before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.”
2. All who are in Christ are in the love of God.
When any sinner is made willing to close with Jesus Christ as a Surety, then it is a righteous thing with God to love that soul with the love of esteem. He sees nothing now to hate in that soul. He sees no iniquity in Jacob, and no perverseness in Israel. When any sinner is persuaded to embrace the Lord Jesus as his Surety, the sufferings of Christ are counted his; and so, in Christ, he has suffered for all his sins already. When the sinner stood before God in himself, God could not but loathe him; but when the sinner stands before God, not in himself but in Christ, the Son of His love, then God sees no iniquity in him; his sins have been carried away into a land of forgetfulness, and cast “into the depths of the sea”. These sins were once like scarlet; they are now “white as snow”; and the sinner begins to sing, “O Lord, I will praise Thee; though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away and Thou comfortedst me”. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.”
Anxious sinner, close quickly with Christ. Come out of darkness into “marvellous light”. God is angry with you every day, so long as you remain out of Christ, but His anger will be all turned away the moment you consent to be found in the Lord Jesus.
God sees something to love in the soul that is in Christ.
When a sinner accepts Christ as his Surety, he accepts not only Christ’s sufferings but His obedience too – His infinitely pure and lovely obedience. This is all put upon the believing sinner. This is the clothing of “wrought gold”; this is the “raiment of needlework”. Where God sees that upon the soul of the sinner, He cannot but love him with a love of infinite esteem and divine complacency. “This is my Beloved Son,” He says, “in whom I am well pleased.”
Just as when the sweet-smelling garments of Esau were put on Jacob, they drew out all the affection of Isaac’s heart, and he said, “The smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed”; so do the sweet-smelling garments of Christ draw out the infinite affection of God’s heart toward the sinner who is “accepted in the Beloved” – for “all [His] garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces”. Then comes to pass the saying which is written: “He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing”; and again, “The Father Himself loveth you”.
Anxious sinner, close with the Lord Jesus and you shall be in the love of God. There is nothing happier for a soul than to be loved. To be loved even by an affectionate dog is pleasant. To be loved by a little child is sweeter. To be loved by wise and good men, that is sweeter still. But to be loved with the infinite heart of God, that is best of all. O to feel that “God is love”! Sinner, you have seen the midday sun pouring its rays onto a calm sea – an unceasing shower of golden rays – till the sea becomes a sheet of living gold, sparkling with heaven’s light. Such is the love of God to the soul of a sinner in Christ – an unceasing, infinite shower of love. O taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Close with Christ and you will cry out, God is love! God is love!
3. Nothing can separate the soul in Christ from the love of God.
Once Christ’s, always Christ’s: whom He loves, He loves to the end. No one can ever be separated from the love of God who once comes into it. There is no quality more precious than permanence. Most of the joys in the world do not last. The flowering of the apple tree is lovely when, in early summer, it comes out with its ten thousand blushing promises; but its blossoms soon fade and fall off the tree. Jonah’s gourd was pleasant while it lasted, but he was soon separated from it. It came up in a night and perished in a night. The sweetest friends are united only to be separated. One may almost see the shroud beneath the wedding garment.
The love of the creature is not an enduring substance. Sometimes the kindest friends change; they cease to love us – or they die – and we are separated. But how different the love of God! It is an enduring good. It is a flame that is never extinguished, the good part that cannot be taken away. “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This sublime chapter opens with a strong declaration of no condemnation in Christ Jesus; it is appropriate that it should close with a declaration equally strong of no separation from Christ Jesus. It is with a delightful and animating theme that the chapter terminates. The last object it presents to the eye is Jesus. The last sound that lingers on the ear is the love of Jesus.
Death cannot separate from the love of God.
Death separates very friends. Death separates husband and wife, soul and body. Death separates those who, for a lifetime, have shared one another’s thoughts and cares. It takes us away from their love. We do not feel that the dead love us; we do not meet with their smile. But death cannot separate us from the love of God; it only brings us to the full enjoyment of it. Are you in Christ? Do not be afraid to die, for death will only bring you into the presence of your God, and you shall be a pillar in the house of your God and go no more out. Death cannot separate us from the love of God.
Life cannot.
I remember reading about one of Brainerd’s converts who, when brought to a full sense of the love of God, cried out, “O blessed Lord, take me away; do let me die and go to Jesus Christ. I am afraid if I live I shall sin again.” She feared that life would separate her from the love of God. But no, life cannot: “neither death, nor life”. Are you in Christ? Do not be afraid to live. The love of God will still be poured into your heart, and the Spirit of God will be given to you. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou wouldest keep them from the evil.” Neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God.
Nor angels.
Good angels cannot, even if they would. But they are all for God’s children. When a soul is joined to Christ, there is joy in heaven among the angels of God; they rejoice that another poor sinner is brought into the love of God, and they would not have us separated. But even if they were against us, our Righteousness is above their reach, for the Lord of angels is “The Lord Our Righteousness”. Evil angels cannot. The devil has great power, but he cannot separate a branch of Christ from the love of God. You remember how he tried to separate Peter and Job from Him, and failed. Christ has overcome. If he could cast Christ down from the right hand of God, then he would separate us from the love of God; but as long as Christ is there, we are safe. Are you in Christ? “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” He and all his legions cannot separate you from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
Nor principalities, nor powers.
Persecution has often tried to tear the believer from the love of God – but in vain. It has often torn him from the love of father and mother and relations (Mt 10:21,22) – but it cannot separate us from God and from His love to us in Christ Jesus. Dear friend, are you in Christ? O make sure, for there may be suffering days yet in which you will be tried. Be rooted and grounded in Him, and the blasts of persecution will only make the roots of your faith take firmer hold – God will love us in the fires. I believe the love of God has often taken away the pains of martyrdom.
Nor things present.
Of things present to the Christians of the apostolic age, some were good and some were evil, some joyous, others sorrowful – just as it is now among ourselves. Both prosperity and adversity are calculated to draw the soul away from God, but they shall never succeed. Riches, cares, business, houses, lands cannot separate us from the love of God. These are even more dangerous than persecutions. But are you united to Christ? Then they shall not prevail; they cannot come between you and God, so as to separate you from His love. Only abide in Christ, and the love of God shall abide in your soul. These things cannot separate you. Indwelling sin, temporary trial, occasional temptations, the momentary suspension of realising God’s love – none of these, or anything else present, shall separate us from Christ.
Nor things to come.
They cannot separate us. What lies before us? Who can tell what is “to come”? Shakings among the nations and in the Church: sickness, bereavement, temptation, the valley of the shadow of death – all these are things to come. But in Christ we are safe for ever; they shall not be able to separate us from the love of God.
“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”