OCTOBER MEMORY VERSE | ROMANS 8:38-39
Our church memory verse for October 2022 has been Romans 8:38-39 (NLT): “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below — indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In a sermon that I recently listened to, the pastor referred to the ending of Romans 8 (where our memory verse is located) as “the Mount Everest of the Himalayas of biblical theology”. These verses talking about assurance of our election are the mountain top of the gospel and well worth memorizing.
The word “And” or “For” at the start of verse 38 indicate a continuation of thought from earlier verses. The section referred to starts three verses earlier in verse 35. So, let’s pull in that section and take a look at it as well.
Romans 8:35-39 (NASB): “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED”. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Note: the NASB quotes Old Testament scripture in all caps; I’ve bolded the portion that is our memory verse.
When thinking about, mulling over, or meditating on (possibly all the same thing, but “meditating” sounded a bit too pretentious in talking about myself) a verse, I try to interact with the verse(s) by asking myself questions about things that stick out, or might be worded differently than I would have. I’d like to share a couple of the questions that I came up with which led to further contemplation and study:
Paul quotes Psalm 44:22: “For Your sake, we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” What does this verse have to do with the rest of the passage?
There are a number of sets of things that cannot separate us from the love of God. In the first set (death, life), I can understand why “death” is included in the list. But what about “life” would be able to separate me from the love of God? Paul’s point is that it cannot, but what fears about life are in view here?
First, let me tell you what I found out about the inclusion of Psalm 44:22, based on study as I wasn’t able to arrive at this conclusion on my own. Paul is not saying that tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword will not happen to us as Christians, but rather that when these things happen, they will not separate us from the love of Christ, from our destiny as God’s elect, believers. He quotes Psalm 44:22 to make the point that these things have always happened to God’s people (and when they do they are for His sake). As American Christians, we’ve lived in probably one of the very few times and places in history when believers were not persecuted, but for most Christians over the past 2000 years, these things are often the norm.
Secondly, the issue of “life” as a threat to God’s love for me. My conclusion is based on the fear that I sometimes have that with (hopefully) many years of life left, that I will make life decisions that take me away from an active walk with God; that I am distracted by the world and fall by the wayside.
What insights has the Holy Spirit given you as you meditate on this verse? What questions do you have that He has answered or that you are still pondering?