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LIVELY STONES MEDITATIONS

Nothing Shall Separate Us From The Love of God

23/9/2020

 
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? 
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 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. 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

[Romans 8:31-35 NKJV]

What then shall we say to these things? 'These things' are all that was stated in the earlier part of Paul's discourse, including the oft-quoted and often misunderstood line  "And we know that all things work together for good", which needs qualification with the completing words "to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
In the verses quoted in our header; Paul asks seven questions, and makes only two statements, which are:
  • It is God who justifies.
  • 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. 
These are Bible 'facts'; verifiable from elsewhere in Scripture. Bible facts are not what reason dictates, but what the Holy Spirit raises reason to be. They reveal an understanding far beyond our natural capabilities; and Paul is arguing to lift us up to Holy Spirit reasoning.

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" is a question, and Paul is putting a case together to convince us of something which is a matter of belief. It is only true for you if you believe. There is that word 'if' again. Yet, even in the questions there is the implicit Bible fact, that this is true regardless of whether your rational mind believes it or not. Paul says that he "is persuaded", but this is not a question of "on balance I shall think this way"; more, that it is an incontrovertible fact, just as two plus two equals four, or in the spirit, seven questions plus three Bible imperatives reveals the ten of God's perfect order*.

The reality behind Paul's words is the certainty of God's truth being unveiled; being released in the most powerful God-inspired way, leading to the conclusion; the third Bible fact in this sequence ...

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who 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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[Romans 8:37-39 NKJV]
* "It has been already pointed out that ten is one of the perfect numbers, and signifies the perfection of Divine order, commencing, as it does, an altogether new series of numbers. The first decade is the representative of the whole numeral system, and originates the system of calculation called "decimals," because the whole system of numeration consists of so many tens, of which the first is a type of the whole.
"Completeness of order, marking the entire round of anything, is, therefore, the ever-present signification of the number ten. It implies that nothing is wanting; that the number and order are perfect; that the whole cycle is complete." [E W Bullinger: 'Number In Scripture']


Nothing Can Separate — Labyrinth by David Baloche

OSWALD CHAMBERS - RUN TODAY'S RACE
Wednesday 23rd September 2020

The secret of sacramental discipleship is to be so abandoned to the disposition of God in us that He can use us as broken bread and poured-out wine for His purpose in the world, even as He broke the life of His own Son to redeem us.



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