"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to the slaughter.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future nor any powers, nor height, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8: 35-39
But... what about Us? What about Me? What about the flesh that chains me to this dirty, dark world? Paul was familiar with affliction and he knew that no pain and no power could come between us and the love of Christ. But outside of the tribulations we face from day to day, and outside of any hell and high-water Satan pushes us through, there is a far more imminent and intimate threat: ourselves.
Matthew 26:41 says "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
Somehow, of all those things threatening to tear us away from God, we come the closest. We are the ones who are told to live by our own faith and not the faith of our parents. We are the ones who are given free will by God to love Him or reject Him; worship Him or blaspheme His name. However, Romans 9 says, “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”
We are POWERLESS to save ourselves. But God is powerful. We depend on his grace, not only for our day of salvation, but for EVERY SINGLE DAY after. And once God has taken hold of us, he will never let us go. In fact, we were his before the foundation of the world. If he’s held onto us this long, why would he let us go now? We can have peace, knowing that our salvation is secure in the Abba Father who loves us.
Though we continue to sin, though we stumble and fall OVER and OVER, though we seem to never get any better, Jesus’ sacrifice is outside of time. It has paid not only for all our sins of the past, but of the future too. The Lamb of God was crucified before the foundation of the world.
Charles Wesley, my favorite hymnodist, wrote:
My peace Thou hast already made,
While hanging on the tree;
My sins He on Thy body laid,
And punished them in Thee.
It’s hard to understand how our sins of the future could already be paid for, but it’s true. What do we do with this freedom? Satan wants us to hide it. He wants us to think that we’re unworthy. That we can’t accept it.
Soon after Charles Wesley’s conversion, he began to write a hymn entitled “Where Shall my Wondering Soul Begin?” that expressed the overwhelming joy and peace that he felt as a believer. Partway through, he began to feel unworthy. Satan was telling him that it was arrogant to “boast” in his salvation. So he stopped writing for a while. But after fellowship with other Christians, he realized what had happened, and in defiance of Satan, he returned and finished the hymn. This is part of what he wrote:
And shall I slight my Father’s love?
Or basely fear His gifts to own?
Unmindful of his favors prove?
Shall I, the hallowed cross to shun,
Refuse His righteousness to impart,
By hiding it within my heart?
He had realized that God wants us to accept salvation boldly. With humility, of course, but accept it as a child accepts a gift from their daddy.
He wrote in my favorite hymn, “And Can it Be?”...
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and in Him is mine!
Alice in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown through Christ my own!
Romans 8:1-2 says: “Therefore, there is how no condemnation for those who are in a Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit is life has set me free from the law of sin and death.”
We are FREE, and God wants us to act like it. We are no longer slaves to fear, we are children of God!
Satan is constantly attacking us from all sides, knowing that, while our eyes rest on heavenly places, our feet are made of flesh and blood. We are easily tripped and easily led astray. God is willing to meet us wherever we are, whether that is on the highest altar or in the deepest ocean, but how much are we willing to meet Him? We put so much off on this world and the wiles of the devil, and so many times we feel separated from God, trapped in this cage of flesh. But we must make sure that we are reading our Bibles and talking to God everyday, because He will meet us in those moments of prayer and meditation.
- Written by Lorien Cockman and Elizabeth White
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