John Piper writes...
Five times here in Romans 8 the apostle Paul has asked questions to draw out the amazing privileges of belonging to Jesus Christ. Verse 31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Verse 32: “How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Verse 33: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” Verse 34: “Who is to condemn?” And now from today’s passage — Romans 8:35–39 — in verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
The answers are so plain and so wonderful, Paul lets us supply them and rejoice in them. Verse 31: No one can be successfully against us — not even terrorists. Verse 32: God will supply everything we need — even when all seems lost. Verse 33: No one can make a charge stick against us in the court of heaven — no matter who accuses us. Verse 34: No one can condemn us. And today in verse 35: No one and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
And what makes this text so relevant near the anniversary of 9/11 is that Paul spells out the kinds of things that cannot separate us from the love of Christ, and they are the sort of things that happened that day: “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” The reason Paul chose to mention so many terrible things is to make sure we knew he was not saying: well, there are some things so horrible that they really could separate us from the love of Christ. No. Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love.
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