WITH A FINAL gesture Paul sweeps the horizon of possibilities and says: “nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39). Note that: “nor anything else in all creation.” If he has left out any possibility of separation after giving the pairs of opposites—death and life, angels and principalities, things present and things to come, a power from on high or a power from below—he now closes up all the gaps by saying “nor anything else in all creation.”
While we marvel at Paul’s faith and rhetoric, we have the lingering suspicion that it is faith, not fact, and it is rhetoric, not realism. These things do separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord—and separate us every day. Then what is the secret of his being able to make this astounding assertion? He left out one thing—choice. As long as we choose to stay in the love of God in Christ Jesus, nothing that Paul mentions can separate us. All these things which Paul mentions are on the outside of us. Nothing from without can separate us, but we can separate ourselves. We can choose to step outside the love of Christ, think thoughts other than His, show attitudes other than His, copy ways other than His, reveal a spirit other than His, and when we do, then we are vulnerable to any or all of these things. They do separate us.
If we stay in the love of Christ, by surrender and faith and obedience, then nothing from without can touch us to separate us. Rufus Moseley, a modern saint, sums up his greatest life revelation in this, “God said to me, ‘You have nothing to do in life except to live in union with Me.’” He was profoundly right. I do not have to do this, that, or the other—I have to live in union with Christ—all else follows. I do not have to succeed or fail—I have to live in union with Christ.
O Jesus, my Lord, life has found its utmost simplicity and its utmost profundity in Thee. I live in Thee and everything that is good lives in me. I have to ask for nothing, for I have all. I am rich beyond riches, I am free beyond freedom, alive beyond life. I thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Nothing in all creation can separate me, for I have the Creator.
