123 God’s Never-ending Love
Let’s review the first three principles of Romans chapter eight.
1.. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. It is worth repeating that you must accept the truth and believe by faith that you are loved by God, totally forgiven, and the Holy Spirit lives in you.
The Holy Spirit is your helper to overcome temptation and break old unrighteous habits. You can’t do it without Him; He is your helper and comforter. When you stumble and fall into sinful behavior, the Holy Spirit will not abandon you because He is in you! The Holy Spirit will convict you, strengthen you and urge you to repent and turn away from that behavior that displeases the Lord. You can’t do it without His Help! Show More
2.. We need to recognize that we have a new position in our relationships with the Lord, “we are sons!” The story of the “prodigal son” found in Luke 15 demonstrates how it is impossible to lose our position as a son even we stray from God’s plan for our lives. Once a son, always a son. You may recall the prodigal son who took his share of his inheritance, left home, and lived a wild ungodly life. It didn’t take long for him to lose all his inheritance, all his friends, and end up feeding the pigs for employment. He eventually came to his senses and decided to go back to his home, repent before God and his father and beg for a position as a hired servant. On his return, the father patiently waiting for the son’s return saw him afar off. The father ran to the son, hugged, kissed the son, had his robe, ring, and sandals brought to the son, and finally called for a party. Even though the son tried to convince the father that he was only worthy of being a servant, the father insisted, “rejoice for my son who was dead is now alive and returned to me. You see, a son is a son forever in the eyes of a father. Your heavenly Father sees you as a son— forever. So, walk and live with the confidence that you are a son of God most high. (I suggest you read Galatians 3:26-29, 4:1-7 for more about our new position in Christ.)
3.. Life is a struggle, and the Lord calls us to persevere! Life is sometimes hard and often unfair; however, you are never alone. We prefer that the Lord deliver us from trouble, but the Lord doesn’t always do that. There are times when you must go through the storm, but always remember when you are going through the storm, Jesus is with you. You are never alone; Jesus promised that He would never leave you nor forsake you. He is present in and with you through the Holy Spirit. So, no matter what you are going through, there is always hope in the knowledge that the Lord loves you, and nothing is impossible with Him!
The Final Principle in Romans Eight is, You are Loved by God!
The final principle that we find in Romans 8 is that “you are loved by God!” This is the most important truth that will lead you to overcome in this life. Nothing is more important than knowing that you are loved with an everlasting love and that nothing can separate you from His love. After all, God is Love! (1John 4:8, 4:16)
- Notice what the Apostle says in Galatians 4:9a, “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God…” How powerful a statement that can easily be overlooked, you are known by God!
Love
We can misunderstand God’s kind of love if we connect it to our own experiences with love. God’s love is unconditional, and in the original Greek of the Bible is called Agape.
In the Bible, the word love is used about 418 times and 257 times in the New Testament alone. However, the word love is used to mean different kinds of love in the original Greek language, for instance:
- Agape – an unconditional love that means it is unearned and undeserved. You can’t perform or behave to deserve it. God has decided to love you, and that is it. It is His unmerited favor. I like the definition of Agape love as “living your life for someone else’s good.” That pretty much says it all about God’s kind of love.
- Philio – is a brotherly kind of love between 2 people. The best example of this is the love between Jonathan and David in the Old Testament. I’m also reminded of the verse in Proverbs 18:24, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” This friendship can also apply to the fellowship of two women.
- Eros – this kind of love is the “romantic” type of love we associate between a man and a woman. It is the type of love portrayed in books, magazines, and movies. If I say the word love, this is what comes to people’s minds. Eros love is an essential type of love in the intimate relationship of marriage.
- Storge – is used to describe family love. Parental love, sibling love, and love of family relationships. Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “blood is thicker than water,” well that can be storge love.
Romans 8:31-39 God’s Everlasting Love
In Romans 8:31-39, the Apostle Paul uses the word love three important times, and every time it is Agape love, the love that imposes no conditions. So, keep that in mind as we go forward.
The Apostle Paul poses six rhetorical questions that point to the great Agape love God has for us, His sons and daughters. Rhetorical questions are asked not expecting an answer, but to make a statement.
Romans 8:31-39
- “31 What then shall we say to these things?
“These things” is in reference to the previous verses dealing with the hardships we face in life and the fact that through it all, Jesus is with us. We never have to deal with the trials and tribulations of life alone. This is emphasized in the following verse…
2. If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Here the Lord makes a statement that if He was willing to sacrifice His own beloved Son for us, how can we think that He would hold back anything from us.
3. 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Here the Lord challenges anyone to bring a charge against us, His elect. Only the Lord can judge a person’s heart and behavior. No power or person has that right. Don’t judge others.
4. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
As it says in John 3:18 a person condemns themselves when they reject the gift of grace in the salvation found in Jesus Christ. John 3:18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” No demonic force or natural person can effectively condemn another. The assurance of our salvation and sanctification is the fact that Jesus is making intercession on our behalf.
5. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
No one has the power to cause the Lord to turn away from one of His sons or daughters. A person may choose to turn away from the Lord, but the Lord will never turn away from that son or daughter. The Lord’s love is Agape or unconditional.
6. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
This is a hard statement to make when you consider the hardships one may face in life, despite that we “win” in the end. If we endure till the end, we receive the prize, heaven for eternity. The difficulties of this life will be a faint memory in the glow of heaven’s promises.
Hebrews 10:35 “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”
The Great Conclusion
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Many theologians have speculated upon the identity of the agents represented in these two verses; suffice it to say that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God.
A commentary writer says the following: Thus does this wonderful chapter, with which the argument of the Epistle properly closes, leave us who are “justified by faith” in the arms of everlasting Love, where no hostile power or conceivable event can ever tear us. “Behold what manner of love is this?” And “what manner of persons ought we to be,” who are thus “blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ?”
God bless you and be a blessing to others!
