Romans 8:38, commentary and pictures

Paul declares his settled certainty that no power in death or life, among angels or rulers, in present or future, in height or depth or any created thing, can cut believers off from God's love in Christ Jesus. That certainty rests on God being for His people in giving His Son and with Him all things, on God justifying so no charge stands, and on Christ dying, rising, and ever living at God's right hand to intercede so no condemnation stands. It holds because believers are joined to Christ as closely as branch to vine, and their safety lies not in the strength of their grip on Him but in His unfailing love and omnipotent grasp that none can break. Therefore in tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword they are more than conquerors through Him who loved them, with every trial driving them closer to Him rather than away. This unbreakable love is His love for them, stronger than death, unchanging and tender, keeping them through pain, imprisonment, and daily irritations as they cling to Him in faith, obedience and prayer.

Terms and Setting

Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus. No power in death or life, no angel or ruling power, no present trouble or future event, and no other created thing can break that bond, and through Christ believers are more than conquerors even amid suffering for the truth. The full assurance includes that neither height nor depth nor any other creature can separate believers from the love of God in Christ. Nothing in the created order or in any time can separate, for that love never changes while human love may change, and no circumstance and no distance, even as great as the ocean that separates human friends, can separate believers from the Saviour.

The words I am persuaded express settled persuasion, firm assurance, and personal certainty of victory. It is settled confidence that no power or circumstance can separate from God's love in Christ, held by one who knows in whom belief is placed, who makes determined effort to cooperate with God, whose soul is elevated, chastened, and purified through the merits of Christ, and who believes and delights in God. That persuasion is the sustaining power of Christ's presence, grounding confidence in God's gift of His Son, His justification of the elect, Christ's death, resurrection, and intercession at the right hand of God, and the promise that hardship cannot defeat those who are more than conquerors through Christ.

Paul spoke this after looking back over a trying experience in establishing the church. He had been hunted from place to place by bigoted opposers who gave him no rest but stirred up both Jews and Gentiles to persecute him and attempt to kill him, and he had learned to preach Christ crucified under difficulties. Yet like a bold soldier of the cross he faced future trials and threatenings of suffering with the conviction that nothing can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The same persuasion belongs to those who keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, who may expect just such opposition and have tasted the same spirit of malice and unreasonable opposition.

Paul's confidence held firm through manifold labors, a life of toil and care and sacrifice without complaint, through persecution, imprisonment, illness, and suffering. Present sufferings were reckoned as not worthy to be compared with coming glory, and in tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword he was more than conqueror through Him that loved him. His sufferings and expectation of death did not weaken this confidence, but his shout of victory gives courage to believers facing suffering and death, showing that hardship does not break that bond.

The disciples shared this full persuasion, strengthened through their deepest trial and the fulfillment of God's word and resting on Christ's resurrection. Their settled confidence that no power or circumstance could separate them from God's love in Christ sustained them through sorrow, sacrifice, and even martyrdom. The verse belongs to a reading about death and the hope of resurrection, declaring that no present or future power can separate believers from Christ's love. Those loved by Christ will be brought through every trial as more than conquerors to eternal life, so that even death cannot defeat that hope.

Grounds for Assurance

Paul's persuasion rests on God being for His people, having spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for all, and with Him freely giving all things, so that no one can stand against them. In that one gift of His only begotten Son He gave all heaven, opening the way for everyone to have a deep, rich, abundant experience in the things of God, to reach a high standard and do a great work for the Master instead of remaining satisfied with a poor, weak, starved experience. That fullness comes through persevering effort in cooperating with the divine to become a living channel of light filled with all the fullness of God, walking in humility and drawing with Christ in the salvation of souls. It grounds good courage and undaunted faith to work and wait for the Lord in trust that He will bring His word to pass, and to stand firm even when surroundings are unpleasant and discouraging.

The same ground holds because God justifies so that no charge stands, and because Christ died and rose again and is at the right hand of God interceding so that no condemnation stands. He loves believers still and ever lives to make intercession for them, loving them in truth as His sheep. That intercession joins with the promise that hardship cannot defeat those who are more than conquerors through Christ.

The assurance rests also on a close and vital union between believers and Christ, as close as a branch connected to the vine that sustains and nourishes it. By it believers are one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father, and neither affliction, storm, tempest, persecution, nor any other listed power can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. This security remains theirs as they maintain their union with Him.

It is personal assurance, grounded in knowing in whom belief is placed. Those who believe have been purchased by the blood of the only begotten Son of God and are graven upon the palms of His hands. They are not their own and belong no longer to self, having committed the keeping of the soul to Him as unto a faithful Creator, who will keep what is committed to Him against that day.

Safety does not rest on the strength of the human hold on Christ but on His unfailing love and power to hold. Salvation does not depend on human strength, which could not save, but on the One behind all the promises, the great persevering love and grasp of Omnipotence. Christ is the Restorer while the enemy is the destroyer, and His love as an Elder Brother holds believers in His hands even when their own grasp feels feeble.

The loving ties that bind the heart to Him cannot be broken by life or death or by earthly or hellish powers. The one He drew, bled and died to save, and gave Himself to, belongs to Him forever, and through relationship to Christ believers have eternal life. None can pluck them out of His hand, making assurance doubly sure.

The unbreakable love is the love of Jesus for believers, not their love for Him. Love for Jesus may appear feeble and fluctuating, yet it never fails because it is supplied with His fullness, which never fails. Therefore there is no need to worry, but to be still and quietly trust in His firm and strong and sure love.

Christ keeps His people with a shepherd's tender watchcare, highly valuing His sheep, loving every sheep and every lamb, caring for them and showing them the uttermost kindness, and calling each one by name. Believers are His sheep, and He loves them still more as His sons and daughters and children, because they are His Father's gift and the reward of His work, both for His Father's sake and for their own sake, so they can trust Him. No amount of tribulation shall separate them from Him under that care.

The assurance is healing from the great Physician present to heal every malady, held by hope that waits with patience for what is not seen. It rests on Jesus taking human nature with human wants and weariness and being braced for duty and trial by prayer to the Father, on the Spirit helping infirmities and making intercession according to the will of God, and on all things working together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.

The assurance stands even when believers are imperfect, because Christ's righteousness is accepted on their behalf and they may trust in His merits rather than Satan's accusations. Sanctification is obtained by union with Christ, no power of Satan can break that union, and this sanctification must be experienced to gain eternal life.

Nature of Divine Love

God's love never changes while human love may change. Although circumstances and great distances like the ocean can separate human friends, no circumstance and no distance can separate believers from the Saviour, who remains beside them to support and save them. Nothing in death or life, in the spiritual realm of angels, principalities and powers, or in things present or to come, in height or depth or any other created thing, can separate from that love in Christ Jesus.

No circumstance or distance can separate believers from the heavenly Comforter, who in sorrow, affliction, uncertainty and helplessness is always near to support, sustain, uphold and cheer them. That love is stronger than death because Christ died for us, tender and steadfast. It is closer and more complete than a mother's, a lover's, or a friend's, so that the griefs of His followers reach Him and wound Him.

That love is a golden chain binding finite human believers to the infinite God, a love for His children that passes knowledge. No science can define or explain it and no human wisdom can fathom its immeasurable depth. The more its influence is felt the more meek and humble and like Christ believers become. That love is known because He first loved and gave His life, and it draws out love in return. Its certainty makes the believer willing to share His sufferings while holding firm for heaven, for seeing the King in His beauty, receiving the crown of life, and living as an overcomer with a life that measures with the life of God by partaking of His grace and salvation.

The love filling the believer through believing in Jesus and learning from Him cannot be quenched by discouragement, despondency, affliction, or trial. It comes as His grace acts mightily upon intellect and heart to soften and subdue the heart, give clearness to mental vision, enlarge thought, create ideas, fill soul hunger, and open God's preciousness and fullness to the mind. No inducement, attraction, or anything that can come in can separate Christ from the soul that has seen Him as merciful, full of kindness, tenderness, and love, and has received Him as Saviour. Such a soul loves Him with the whole heart and in every emergency hangs its helpless soul upon Him, and that union holds for a lifetime.

Victory in Trial

In tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, and though for His sake believers are killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter, in all these things they are more than conquerors through Him that loved them. That conquering holds firm even when surroundings are unpleasant and discouraging, and even amid suffering for the truth, weariness, difficulty, disappointment and trial, for those who refuse to give up will see deliverance. Tribulation cannot separate because it drives to Christ as refuge and shelter, distress cannot separate because He is consolation, and persecution cannot separate because those persecuted for righteousness receive the kingdom of heaven and great reward. Famine cannot separate because God delivers and satisfies in famine, nakedness cannot separate because Jesus gives white raiment and clothes overcomers in white, peril cannot separate because Christ's grace is sufficient and His strength is made perfect in weakness, and sword cannot separate because it cannot kill the soul whose life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ leads into a hard place like Rephidim it is because He sees it is for good and for His name's glory. Looking to Him in trusting faith instead of murmuring and complaining brings His help in His own time, turning the bitterness of Marah into sweetness and opening the flinty rock to cause cooling streams to flow forth. He is an ever-present help in trouble and with His people always even to the end of the world, and remembering past mercies and manifestations of power calls for praise and thanksgiving and going forward with full assurance. Neither persecution nor death can separate faithful Christians from Christ, for those who suffer and are slain for His sake remain secured to Him as subjects of His kingdom. Persecution and reproach never drive one who truly loves Jesus away but drive believers closer to the Lord, lead them to love one another, and cause them to fear more to offend Him, with His love becoming the ruling power of the heart when suffering for His name is borne. Satan gains no true victory by afflicting the body, because he can only break strength, fortitude, and firmness by leading believers to displease God in mind and heart.

Those imprisoned for the truth can trust Jesus through suffering, because hardship does not break His care for them, and no amount of tribulation can overcome His love and care. Believers can remain safely in His care through life's trials and find refuge, comfort, and divine strength to overcome even in weakness in the struggle against sin. Nothing in the world can change the heart in which Christ abides, so those who put trust in God shall not be afraid even if the earth shakes and the pillars of the world tremble under them. Daniel and his fellow captives in Babylon prove this, for nothing could change their faith, corrupt their principles, or separate their affections from God. Nothing can separate God's church, His redeemed people, from Him or defeat His care, for He may allow them to endure severe trials as a fiery furnace to remove and burn away what is impure, yet throughout their purification His eye remains on them so they are not destroyed, and His protection serves the glory of His name. Those who trust in God receive help from above and their enemies cannot finally prevail against them, for Christ is their all-sufficient Savior and never-failing source of strength in every trouble.

The assurance calls Christians to endure even small daily irritations patiently and to keep them from disrupting communion with God or separating them from His love. It holds in the fiercest pain, sickness, and uncertainty about recovery, resisting temptations to doubt God's goodness and love. It gives comfort, assurance, peace, joy, and hope with confidence that His everlasting arms are beneath, so soul, body, and spirit can be wholly trusted and committed to Him whether living or dying, for whether living or dying the believer remains the Lord's, His child with Jesus as Saviour.

Living the Assurance

The same settled persuasion belongs to those who keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, who may expect just such opposition as Paul faced and have tasted the same spirit of malice and unreasonable opposition.
The assurance belongs to those who love and obey the law, who hope and pray and by faith trust His Word though they meet trials and temptations as Jesus met. It belongs to those who daily guard their hearts and seek to overcome sin and selfish desires through Jesus' power, who live in surrender, obedience, and service. It belongs to those who cleave firmly to Christ, whose life is changed from selfishness to unselfish care for others, and who prize eternal life.
Christ will make Himself known to those who remain faithful. Living as the Saviour lived makes them more than conquerors and prepares them to stand before God at the final judgment with characters cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.
Confidence in this unbreakable love accompanies consecration to God and a life changed from selfishness to unselfish care for others.

Nothing must be allowed to separate believers from the love of God. Keeping that love requires connecting closely with God, pressing closely to the Redeemer with earnest petitions, refusing to be beaten off by temptation, trusting the living God and His all-sufficient power instead of self whose wisdom is foolishness, and leaning on the arm that will never fail. Keeping that love requires cherishing the meekness of Christ, devoting more time to prayer and study of the word, never resting satisfied with present attainments but rising higher in Christian character with daily improvement in knowledge of God and heavenly wisdom, walking humbly with God until like Enoch walking with God, and working together in harmony as channels of light, the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
On the very borders of the eternal world this requires keeping in constant communion with God, educating and training the soul to lean on Christ and draw spiritual strength from Him in experimental knowledge of Him, and then being a faithful witness testifying of His grace in words and actions by conscious and unconscious influence. By this He takes poor fallen beings and brings them moral power to transform character and fit them for the mansions prepared for them, for the presence of God, for companionship with angels, and to walk with Christ in the earth made new.

The verse calls for holding fast to God at all times with the Lord Jesus as a present help in every time of need. It calls for constant loyalty allowing nothing to interpose between the soul and Christ and the helpless soul cast upon Him, for then the enemy cannot separate a person from the love of Christ.
As long as a person is true to self and to God, no adverse power of earth or hell can destroy peace or interrupt communion with God, and one who fears God need not walk in uncertainty, and one who pleases Him will secure everything the soul requires. No obstacle in earth or hell can come between God and the soul that trusts Him, which has access to measureless divine power waiting to be used in heaven's service and whose lowly contrite cry is always heard.
The verse calls for intelligent faith and determined effort to cooperate with God and be all He has made provision for, with the soul elevated, chastened, and purified through the merits of Christ, believing and delighting in God.

Nothing can prevail to separate a living Christian from God, and that inseparable safety is the only safety. It belongs to those transformed by renewing of the heart whose character is Christ's character, who eat His flesh and drink His blood by studying, digesting, and living the Word, who are one with Christ as He is one with the Father. It belongs to those who are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ working in co-partnership with Him, with sins forgiven, guilt taken away, a clean heart and His righteousness by faith, feet on the Rock of ages and hiding in the only Refuge, prepared for the coming storm and last great battle.
Nothing can separate a living Christian from a living God, and that union stands firm when everything is becoming unsettled in the last days when disregard for the law brings ruin on the religious world, because God's Word is changeless and sure.

The verse sustains ministers and workers who love their work even amid suffering, danger, and unpleasant and discouraging surroundings. It encourages them to stand firm and secure in God's service, to refuse to give up until they see deliverance, and to have confidence in Christ with victory through His love even amid conflict, for in Christ they are more than conquerors. This assurance gives a faithful worker hope as he looks toward his reward and keeps past trials from overshadowing the joy of duty performed. It gives Christ's servants joy and courage to follow Him, making their sacrifices seem small beside His and sustaining them through patient labor with steadfast trust in affliction and self-sacrifice.
Nothing can separate the soul from its mighty Helper, for safety is found by clinging to Jesus and trusting God amid temptations. Yet carelessness can expose a person to Satan's influence, so humility, faith, and prayer enable believers to walk securely.

Believers are more than conquerors when they obey the orders given for spiritual battle, meaning spiritual health and power that keeps the enemy from overcoming. This is because Christ has all sufficiency and grace to liberally supply everyone who cooperates with divine power, so there is no need to fear that the adversary is stronger than God or to dwell on Satan's power, but to talk of God's greatness, look steadfastly to Jesus, increase in faith, take the divine likeness, and talk faith and hope and rejoice in courage. Its certainty gives assurance that makes the believer willing to share Christ's sufferings while holding firm for heaven, for seeing the King in His beauty, receiving the crown of life, and living as an overcomer with a life that measures with the life of God by partaking of His grace and salvation.
The verse rebukes the thought that a person can follow Christ's example while indulging self-gratification, display, and expensive habits of living, and calls every such person to study the Scriptures to learn what the Lord requires.

Nothing, neither trial nor difficulty nor uncontrollable circumstances, can separate from God's love. The peace and grace of Christ enable going through trial without discord, distraction, or division, with hope of eternal life centered in Christ and His goodness, compassion, and love continuing toward the undeserving despite failures, so love for God with supreme devotion and love for one another is to be continually cultivated, unbelief is not to mar experience, and God's love is never to be forgotten. Life or death and trials or sufferings will not uproot faith but will make a person strong to do and to suffer when he stands before God with a heart cleansed from every idol and a conscience void of offense, prepared for anything.
When any soul approaches God as Father, heaven becomes home and the person becomes a child of the heavenly King and a member of the royal family, holding a life insurance policy endorsed by the Lord God who created him, and all who hold this policy are linked with the family of the redeemed by a tie which cannot be broken. God's love and power remain with His children in discouragement and hardship, and trusting Him lets them face difficulties without giving way to unbelief.