Do you know that God loves you? Most believers would answer “yes” without thinking. However, I want to go deeper than that. Do you know that you are the beloved of God? Do you know that God loves you more than any other thing or person in existence? Even choosing to sacrifice His dearly beloved Son so that you would be spared? Most believers have a superficial awareness of the love of God for them, but have never really explored the depth of His love.
This is what we will be doing today. Digging deeper into the love of God which is poured out upon us. The matchless love which in Christ Jesus we have full access to today. By seeing the love which God has for you, it will make it easier to experience intimacy with Him, and help us to frame the right mindset for our relationship with God.
Let’s begin today with Romans 9:25-26:
“As he said also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.”
Right in verse one, we see that these are references and quotations from the book of Hosea (Osee is the Greek name for Hosea), and verses 25 and 26 here are quotations from Hosea 2:23 and Hosea 1:10, respectively.
Now what is being said here are amazing statements by God. He says in verse 25: I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
You see, there was a time when you and I were rejected; there was a time when you and I had no home and no hope. There was a time when you and I were dead and unloved. You might even still feel that way today; but regardless of your current feelings, I would like to call your attention to the words of God today. To those who think they have no place, purpose or home, God says You are My people. And to those that feel as though they are unloved, God says You are My beloved.
And I love the fact in verse 26 it says in the place where it was said to them… because this shows us an awesome characteristic of God, right at your lowest point, at the very spot where you are rejected, at the very point of your most profound weakness and humility, that is where God shows up the strongest. You who thought that there was no place r purpose for you… you who were rejected and despised, you have no reason to be ashamed, because you are the very children of the living God!
This is an amazing truth and amazing words from God to us. This is true regardless of our circumstances, our emotions, our thoughts or our feelings. Yet it is easy for us to forget, or abandon this truth when certain things come our way. For example, when we sin, we feel as though God does not love us, but nowhere in the Bible does it ever say such a thing… in-fact the scriptures say quite the opposite! Go back one chapter, to Romans 8:33-39:
“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
Who is he that comdemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
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 questions in verses 33, 34 and 35 are designed to get us to think: who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? In other words: who can make any accusation against us in Christ? One of the names of the devil is “the accuser” in Revelation 12:10. It is the nature of the enemy to accuse us, whether he does it himself or legalistic people do it for him, he is the one who attempts to lay charges against us, but all of his charges are baseless, they cannot stand, because as the verse continues: It is God who justifies. And believe me, dearly beloved, when God justifies you, you are justified completely… period. Full-stop. Justified!
Then, continuing on to verse 34, who is he that condemns? Now an interesting point here is that the actual definition for the word “condemned” is the seizure of property. Whenever you are under the weight of judgment or condemnation, you are allowing the enemy to seize (John 3:17) property from you… be it your health, peace, happiness, or anything else. But remember who it is that is doing the condemning… it is not God (John 3:17), it is the enemy; whether he uses your own thoughts, or misguided people to deliver the condemning message, the source is still Satan. (Zechariah 3:1-2)
Now when we feel the weight of condemnation starting to come onto us, what should we do? Again, notice that I said the feeling of condemnation, because we know that condemnation actually has no right upon us – yet many believers allow it anyway. However our reaction should be to remind ourselves of the rest of verse 34: it is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
You see, when the enemy tries to bring condemnation on you, he can only be successful if you are somehow looking at yourself or trusting in your own performance or obedience for something. The solution to this is to stay focused on the truth, your salvation, the obedience and finished work of Jesus Christ. He died for you, He rose again for your justification (Romans 4:25) and He is seated at the right-hand of God as your eternal High-Priest, ever-interceding for you. And just to be perfectly clear, Jesus is not interceding between you and and an angry wrathful God the Father – no, the scripture is also very clear on the point that the Father Himself also dearly loves you (John 14:21, 16:27). This intercession, is rather “mediation”. Jesus mediates between us and the Father, against the accusations of Satan. Today, the accusations of the enemy fall on deaf-ears in Heaven, because of the finished work of Christ. Satan can no longer successfully accuse us before the Father.
Next in verse 35, we see another question: who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Again, a very important question because many people feel as though they are separated from God’s love whenever they sin or fall-short of some standard. However this is yet another lie of the enemy, as we proceed you will see that indeed nothing can separate us from God’s love for us.
Notice that there is a list in verse 35: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword. I find it interesting that these things are mentioned specifically, because it is precisely these things that people typically think are the judgments of God upon the disobedient, or those He is displeased with. Also with us, when we experience some kind of tribulation or tress, or persecution, our default reaction is usually one of “Maybe this is happening because God is angry with me.” or “I wonder what I did that caused this punishment from God.”. However this verse tells us that these things cannot separate us from God’s love! Furthermore, all of the things listed here are curses for disobedience of the Mosaic Law listed in Deuteronomy 28, and in Christ Jesus today, there is no cause for you to be cursed! God is not the author of these things, but He does give you absolute victory over them, as we see as we continue reading.
Verse 36 makes a reference to Psalms 44:22, and indeed that was true at one time. There was a time when the people of God were as sheep to be slaughtered. But how should you see yourself today? Should you still think of yourself as a sheep to be slaughtered? As verse 37 continues, we see that it says, emphatically No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!
What enables us to be more than conquerors? It is Christ! Through the revelation, the revealing of His love by His sacrifice and finished work on the cross; this is not just a warm fuzzy feeling, this gives you strength!
Then verse 38 continues on, saying: for I am persuaded… my friend, this is so vitally important. Are you absolutely persuaded of the love of God for you today? Even when the entire world and perhaps even your life appears to be crumbling around you, are you persuaded of His love? It is so easy for us to fall back into a mindset where we gauge the love of God for us by our current life circumstances. When things are going well: Yes, God loves me! But when things are going poorly: God must be displeased, or He’s teaching me a lesson. But my friend, these kinds of thoughts and behaviors are nothing more than devices of the enemy to try and drive a wedge between you and God.
In 1st John 4:9, the Bible says that the love of God is demonstrated for us in that He sent His One and Only Son for us that we might live through Him. God wants you to live, and live abundantly through Him. He will not send diseases, disasters or calamities to destroy your flesh , when the scripture is so clear that He desperately wants to save you and have you live.
Romans 5:8 also states that God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now if God demonstrated the ultimate act of love for us by sacrificing Christ to spare us, while we were yet sinners, why then are we so very confused and fearful of God’s wrath and judgment and punishment now that we have already been saved through Christ Jesus? You see, these common misconceptions and wrong beliefs that we have about God don’t hold up against the light of scripture and the truth of the character of the loving God of the Bible.
This is why it is so vital to be absolutely persuaded of the love of God for you, as mentioned in our text of Romans 8:38, because there are forces in the world that will pull you away from God if they could, and you must be completely sure of the truth. What exactly should you be persuaded of about God’s love? Verses 38 and 39: 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.
Now we see some pairings here… first death and life. The two biggest things in existence for us, life and death, and here we have an assurance that nothing in this life, and nothing in death has the power to separate us from the love of God in Christ.
Next we have angels, principalities and powers. Well, that right there includes Satan himself and all evil forces, doesn’t it? It is a wonderful assurance that the very totality of hell cannot separate us from the love of God. Even if the sum total of all powers joined together in one massive thrust to tear us away from the love of God, they could not do it!
Following this we have things present and things to come. We are bound by time, but God is not. We do not see the future, but God does, and this is what He has said. The Divine Creator Omniscient God, who sees your entire life. Your complete existence is laid open before Him – and He says this: There is nothing in your life, nor your present existence now, nor in your future that can separate you from the love of God in Christ.
After this we have height and depth. There is nowhere we can go, no distance we can travel. Whether we were to ascend to the heights of the universe or even to the heavens themselves, or descend down to the very depths pf hell, there is nowhere we could go to escape the love of God in Christ. (Psalms 139:8, Job 26:6)
Finally, nor any other creature. Regardless of where it comes from , and friend, that even includes you. There is simply no separation from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
In closing today, I want to address one final concern that many believers have and a misconception that is spreading among Christian circles. Some say that we are saved eternally, but God can still be displeased, and reprove us when we do wrong. This idea breeds more guilt and fear and shame than you might expect, and so I am going to share with you God’s own words regarding this under the New Covenant of Grace today. Turn to Isaiah 54:9-10:
“For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, said the LORD that has mercy on you.”
God Himself has spoken. He has said that He will never be wroth with you, nor rebuke you. His kindness will never depart from you neither shall His covenant of peace be removed!
The word “wroth” in verse 9, is in Hebrew qāṣap̄, which means to be displeased or angry with. And the word “rebuke” is the Hebrew word gāʿar which means to reprove, reprimand or chastise. So there you have it my friend, God has sworn it! No-one can undo it, you are beloved, and secure in Christ Jesus. He did all of the work, and you reap all of the benefits!
This is the marvelous reality in Christ Jesus. Don’t let anyone rob you of it. Be persuaded of it, hold fast to it and never let it go. Jesus paid for you to live this abundant life. Rejoice in it, always!