Session 36 – Romans; Romans 8:35-37: Mark Lanier, 06/21/26

ROM 036_Romans PODCAST_Lanier_062126
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[00:00:00] So today's the last class from Romans, and I've timed this so that we would finish with chapter eight today, and that saves these beastly nine, 10, and 11 chapters for the fall. It's gonna take me the whole summer to get ready to teach those. I'd like to start this class, though, with a Civil War story.

There was a Union soldier named Sullivan Ballou, and in 1861 at Camp Clark, the day before the Battle of Bull Run, he wrote a letter to his wife, Sarah Now the letter, I can't give you the whole thing, but I'll read you part of it. We can read it together. The letter said... Oh wait, where is my... Have we not put up any of the PowerPoint?

Oh. Well, hold on, man, there was some great stuff in here. Look at this. [00:01:00] Boom. I worked hard on that. All right. Now, Sullivan Ballou, Camp Clark. Here we go. "My very dear Sarah, the indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence could break. If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name. Oh, Sarah, if the dead can [00:02:00] come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you.

In the gladdest days and in the darkest nights, always, always. And if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath. As the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dead. Think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again." Wow. Uh, the next day a cannonball, um, blew his leg off, and this letter was delivered to his Sarah I think within about a week of his death.

Um, it's a touching letter. Yes. It moves grown men to tears when they read it. But what happened in this letter, I think, is significant because Sullivan was reaching for a love [00:03:00] that death could not silence. He said, "If the dead can come back to th- this earth." And he reaches, he gestures for that love, and it reminds me of what Paul has done in the passage we're gonna study today.

But Paul doesn't gesture for a love, he announces one. There is a love from God, Paul says, that cannot be broken by death. And I put these two up in comparison, and I find it very interesting but also impactful that what Sullivan hoped for, Paul promised What Solomon reached for, [00:04:00] Paul has laid in our hands Paul will tell us that the love of God for you in Christ Jesus is a love that does what even the greatest human love can only hope to do.

And that's what class is about today. You need to leave this class confident in the love that God has for you This is the end of this big chunk of Romans that I equated a few weeks ago to a symphony. I used Beethoven's last symphony as an example, with that marvelous replay through of his themes in the final movement, resulting in that crescendo Ode to Joy.

And here in Romans, we've moved through a chunk, and Paul's been asking very important rhetorical [00:05:00] questions. And today we're going to look at the last question he asked out of these series. And he'll ask that question, and then he's gonna take what we call in biblical circles a lament Psalm, a Psalm of lamentation, a Psalm of lamenting.

And he'll take that lament Psalm, and he turns it inside out, and it's really cool what he does with it. Then we're gonna stand inside this great cosmic catalog that he recites for us as he closes a bookend on this majestic section, and with my hope, sends you into a summer with something to hold onto.

Because we won't be dealing with Romans again until the fall, but when we start dealing with it again after I return from, [00:06:00] from our summer break, I won't know everything that happens to all of you, but this is a class that'll be on the internet that you may need to come back to. And if so, it's available thanks to our amazing internet people and team.

Thank y'all for what y'all do. All right. Here's what we wanna do. Before I break it apart, let's just all read the passage together. This is what we're studying today. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, uh, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As it's written: 'For your sake we're being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to [00:07:00] come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

That's on our plate this morning. Now, this is a symphonic theme that Paul's done where he's put a bookend together with an earlier passage about God's love. If you'll recall way back when, we were in Romans 5. Romans 5:5, "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." God's love poured into our hearts, and the other bookend that Paul adds here is there's nothing that will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Those are wonderful bookends. It's a bow that he's tied. Bobby, this is yours. [00:08:00] Um, it's a bow that he has tied. So we're going to look at this together, and we're gonna do it in three parts. The first is Paul's last question, who shall separate us? Second, we're gonna look at that lament that Paul is quoting from, and we'll do that together.

And then third, we will step into the cosmic catalog, that nothing in all creation's gonna separate us from the love of Christ. So let's start with who shall separate us? Now, Paul has already been asking questions. You'll recall, he said, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" It is God who justifies, so any charge brought against God's elect is not gonna do any good.

Who is going to condemn? Christ is the one who died. More than that, He was raised. He's at the right hand of God, who's [00:09:00] indeed interceding for us. So we've got these questions of courtroom metaphor. Um, who's going to file a complaint against us? It's a legal word that Paul was using. Who's going to bring us and condemn us, charge us, indict us, put on evidence against us?

Who's gonna condemn us? In, in all of that courtroom metaphor we dealt with last week, now Paul moves from the courtroom into the personal relationship this week as he says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Paul does not leave us with the courtroom metaphor. Paul does not simply say, "All of your sins are forgiven."

Paul doesn't simply say, "You are now right with God. You have been [00:10:00] washed clean. Worst thing you ever did, even if you did it after you became a Christian, it's washed clean. You're okay. The court has declared you not guilty." He could end it there, and I, as a lawyer, would be at peace. I would feel lighthearted on my feet and might skip down the street singing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-a-Dee-Ay.

My, oh my, what a wonderful day But plenty of sunshine coming my way. But Paul doesn't end it there. He makes the judicial point. He gives us the metaphor, but then he says, "I want you to understand something deeply personal. I want you to understand something that's relational. I want you to understand something that's emotional.

I want you to [00:11:00] understand what drives our God to this." And that's what he says. Who is gonna separate us from the love of Christ? Now, this Greek word, it's the third word in, in the Greek. You can see it starts with an X. The W is a long O, and then the P is an R. It's weird, but it's Greek. That's the verb khorizo.

Now, khorizo means to separate, to put a space between It's used in Matthew. Matthew 19:6 gives you a good idea of how this word is used, and we can get a fuller flavor for what it means. In 19:6, Paul quote-- I mean, uh, Jesus quotes something and makes a statement. He [00:12:00] gets asked about whether or not divorce is proper, and in what way.

And in verse six, he says, "What God has joined together, let no one separate." Don't divide. Don't let space go between what God has joined together. That's the same verb, chorizo. So chorizo is this idea of don't let any wedge come between you. Don't let anything separate or put a space between. I thought about, before I got this picture, I thought, "Well, I could just call two people up on stage, and I could have them stand right next to each other."

Or I could take two books and put them right next to each other and then say, "Corizo," 'cause I've just corizoed them. I just separated them. I just-- [00:13:00] These have been corizoed. Okay? You got it? Corizo. And united we stand, corizo we fall.

Who can separate, put a space between, who's gonna separate us from the love... Let's pause for a moment. Love here is agape. That's agape, is the way we say it in Lubbock. Agape or agape. Agape is a committed love. It's a decision love. It's a love that gives service. Sometimes people say it's not, um, an emotional love.

That's not fair. The Greek word can include the emotional love with it, too. But it's a love that's a love that, that finds [00:14:00] its center in a decided service and caring for the best of another. And so it's not that it's apart from emotion, it can have emotion, but it can also just be the decision whether the emotion feels there or not.

The point is, who shall separate us from the love, the agape of Christ? Now, of Christ in Greek, tou Christou, is an interesting grammar. And if you get bored by grammar, then just be bored for a minute, but this is an important one, okay? So kinda just be pseudo-bored. The love of Christ. Um, I don't have love up here.

This is just of Christ, tou Christou. [00:15:00] Any, the, the, in, in Greek that's called the genitive case. Anytime you see a genitive like this in Greek, you have to ask yourself, "Well, what's it mean?" Because it can have different meanings. And Paul doesn't say which one. It's got some level of ambiguity to it. So let me give you an example.

Let's put it up here, the love of Christ. Does that mean the love that I have for my Lord Jesus? Does that mean, is Paul saying, "What's gonna separate us from the love that we have for Jesus?" I have a love of my wife. M- I love my wife. It can mean that in the Greek, where Christ is the object of the love.

But it can also mean the love that Christ has for us. [00:16:00] So Christ becomes the subject of the love. So Christ's love for us. While our love of Christ is an objective genitive, Christ's love for us is called a subjective genitive. Now let me put this into everyday language for you. Today is, as Jarrett noted, the most important holiday of the year.

It is Father's Day And we can talk about the love of the Father Now, my dad passed away

in 2004. There's still a great love of the Father, though, and I honor my father today on Father's Day, even though he's not with us on Earth. So when I talk about the love of the Father that I have, do I mean my love [00:17:00] of my dad? I could, but if I'm gonna tell you about the love of the Father, I may be talking about the l- deep love that my dad had for me and had for Catherine and had for Holly and of course for Mom.

So it could be my love of Dad. It could be Dad's love for me. Same ambiguity. You got it? But sometimes it's not ambiguous, like in 1 Timothy. In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul says, "The love of money is the root of all evil." It's the same thing. But it means our love for money. It doesn't mean the love money has for us.

We don't struggle with how to interpret that. Money doesn't love. So money, it's not money's love for Mark that's the root of [00:18:00] all evil. It would be Mark's love of money that would be the root of all kinds of evil. So we can get it there. So here we've got it in this passage. What shall-- Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

This love of commitment Does it mean the love that Christ has for us, or does it mean the love we have for Christ? I will tell you, you get that from the context, but you also get it from good theology. Now, we do love Christ, but Paul will say to the Corinthians, "Why do we love Him? Because He first loved us."

Yes. And it is His love for us that Paul references here. This is Christ's love for us. So Paul is asking, what are the [00:19:00] possible wedges that could separate you from the love that Christ has for you? W- w- who can separate us from the love of Christ? And then Paul begins listing options. He says, "Tribulation," thlipseis in the Greek The ellipsis is a picture word.

The ellipsis just sort of means getting the life squeezed out of you. It would be equivalent to, um They'll never let us back in here because I've just unplugged their stuff But you can imagine if we had a rope instead of our cable, [00:20:00] and I was to say th- this is a person, okay? I could call someone up here, but I won't.

If I were to take this rope and put it around this person and get a second rope

And get a second rope and loop it around the other way

And pull one this way while I'm pulling the other one that way. What's gonna happen to everything in the middle?

By the way, it's a word used also for treading out grapes, where you got something on the bottom pushing up, and you're stepping on the top pushing down, and the grape goes pfft [00:21:00] Here. Y'all have fun with that next week. Um, I tried to get an AI representation. It's not great, but here it is. Whoops. Whoa, go back, go back, go back, go back.

Sorry, my fault. Boom. Here it is

Okay? That's ellipsis Paul says, can having the innards squeezed out of you from the pressures outside of you that have you in a vice grip, can that separate you? Can that put a wedge between you and the love that Christ has for you? No Tribulation? No. How about stenokoreia? Stenokoreia. It's translated distress.

It's actually two [00:22:00] Greek words put together. What it means is a narrow space It's the idea, we have the phrase in modern English, stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's where you don't have any room to turn around. Becky and I one time were driving. I use that word in the sense that I'm driving and she's driving by telling-

me which direction to go. Um, we're in Italy, and we're in some small little mountain town, and we have rented a car. And we're driving streets that probably it was illegal for us to drive. I have no clue, I don't speak Italian. And we got into this little area where I really don't think the car could fit through it, and I can't figure out how to back up.

So we've gotta [00:23:00] take the, the mirrors and we've gotta fold them in, and you know how it is where you just close your eyes and hit the gas- ... and be thankful it's a rental car? Bam. Well, I kept my eyes open, but I'm not sure that I didn't, like, have a little problem with the sides. It just wouldn't fit, but I was in a...

I'd already gone through one of those little things, and there's no way I'm gonna go back backing up. I got no choice. I'm in a stenochorea. I'm in distress. I'm in, I'm in a narrow space. I can't turn around. I can't go backwards. I can't, I can't fit

When we've got those problems in life, is that gonna separate us from Christ's love? Does he quit loving us because, "Look at this idiot, he rented a car and drove it into that. I can't love that bozo." No [00:24:00] Tribulation? No. Distress? No. How about diogmos? How about persecution? The root behind this word is the idea of being hunted It does bring up one of the all-time classic great movies of all time that I'm sure everybody's gonna be watching today for Father's Day.

Driving Miss... No, no, no, it's not Driving Miss Daisy. It's Outlaw Josey Wales. I'm always getting those movies confused. Um Josey Wales is an outlaw, and he's got the, the band of, of, uh, um, what are they called when they're go- uh, vigilante, not vigilante, but- Posse ... posse? Uh, what are they? They're- Bounty hunters

bounty hunters. Thank you. This Clint Eastwood man right [00:25:00] down here. He's got the bounty hunters after him. He's being hunted the whole film I mean, you, you know, it, it, it's, that's, it's one scene after another. Will they get the outlaw Josie Wales? He's being hunted. Will you being hunted mean that God, "Yeah, I'm gonna leave that guy alone.

He's out there being hunted." No, that's not gonna separate you from the love that Christ has for you. How about famine? Limos in the Greek for famine. We think of famine now as something that happens when it doesn't rain, um, or when there's a shortage of food. Now famine was something much more common in that day and, and the word even denotes just the idea of hunger.

You just don't have enough money to eat Is that gonna separate you from God's [00:26:00] love? Does that mean God doesn't love you? I'm hungry, God must not love me. I'm being hunted, God must not love me. I'm between a rock and a hard place, I guess he doesn't love me. I'm, I'm, I'm having my innards squeezed out, I guess he doesn't love me.

No. It doesn't mean God doesn't love you. Nothing's gonna separate you. It's not gonna be tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness. Now nakedness, gymnos in the, the Greek, is something that we tend to think of in our day as, um, what happens in Hollywood, uh, with prurient folks who are like, or... You know, we, we associate it with lewdness, lasciviousness.

What it's more directly associated with [00:27:00] in Paul's day is total destitution. You can't afford even clothes. You can't put real clothes on your kids. Does that mean God doesn't love you because you're destitute? No, it doesn't mean God doesn't love you. What about danger? Oh, danger. Kink dunis. Kink dunis, danger.

Peril is another word. If you're in peril, does that mean God doesn't love you? No. The sword is the ultimate punishment. In Rome, the machaira could be used by Romans with really no recourse

Does that mean if you're subject to the ultimate capital punishment that God doesn't love you? [00:28:00] No. You can take all of those words that Paul uses and understand that these are very real things in this life. Paul's not sugarcoating anything. Paul's talking about very real things that people experience.

And you and I may not say, "Well, yeah, but the sword, that's not really us," but flipsis is, peril is. There are people who have trouble putting food on their table. There are people who are having trouble making ends meet. There are people who are wondering, "What have I done wrong? Does God not love me? Why on earth am I getting abused?

How can this be happening to me if there's a loving God? If there's a loving God, how can I, I, I be suffering in this way?" How can I be in this trap between this rock and this hard place if there's a loving [00:29:00] God? Paul says, "Who's gonna separate us? Nobody And what he does next is turn a Bible chapter inside out.

This is a psalm of lament that Paul's gonna quote. A lament is a type of biblical writing at the time, but other cultures and societies have it as well. We do today. A dirge is a lament. A lament is, in, in antiquity, it was a, a form of moaning, wailing, and crying all rolled in together And it's generally addressed to God.

We have an [00:30:00] entire book of the Bible called Lamentations. You wanna get depressed? Read Lamentations. Because save for about two or three verses, that book's one of the saddest things you'll ever read You wanna read another lamenting psalm? Read the psalm that says, "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, we hung our harps because there our captors demanded us, 'Sing us one of the songs of joy of Zion.'

How shall we sing in a foreign land? If my right hand... No, if my, if I forget Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its skill." And then it says, "And blessed will be the person who does to you, Babylon, what you did to us, and dashes your [00:31:00] babies against the rocks," because that's what had been done to Israel Paul takes a lament Psalm and he turns it inside out.

Look where he does it in verse 36. "As it is written." So who will separate us? Will this, will this, will this, will this? No. "As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'" Now, Paul is quoting from Romans, I mean, from Psalm 44:22. But Paul's quoting the Greek version of that Psalm, and in the Greek counting, it's actually Psalm 43:23.

That's why I put that in parentheses. If you're gonna go back and get a Septuagint and try to find it, you won't find it at 44:22, you'll find it at 43:23. But that's okay. [00:32:00] I want you to realize as we look at this Psalm, that Paul has done something stunning He has taken a Psalm of national lamentation, the entire nation of Israel lamenting here.

And it starts out okay, unless you're reading between the lines. It starts out with, "Oh, God, we've heard with our ears." Nobody showed it to us, but we heard, our fathers told us that you were great for them We've heard our fathers have told us what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old But you have rejected us.

You have disgraced us. [00:33:00] You haven't gone out with our armies. You've made us turn back from the enemy, and those who hate us have taken our treasures. You have made us like sheep for the slaughter. You've scattered us among the nations. You sold your people for a pittance. You didn't even demand a high price for us.

You've made us the taunt of our neighbors. You've made us the derision and scorn of those around you. You've made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me. Shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunter and reviler, [00:34:00] at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

And all of this has come upon us even though we never forgot you. We haven't been false to your covenant. Our heart's not turned back. Our steps have not departed from your way, yet you've broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we'd forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, you'd know it.

You know the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake, just because of who you are, we're getting killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. That's the part Paul's quoting in the midst of this psalm. The psalm continues, "Awake! Why are you sleeping, [00:35:00] God? Rouse yourself. Don't reject us forever.

Why are you hiding your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?" Why? Why? Why? This is a Psalm of accusation. This is a Psalm saying, "God, this isn't fair. It's not right. We don't deserve it." Where do you get off being God and doing this to us? And that's what Paul quotes? That's where Paul says, "Let's go in our Bibles to better understand."

Paul never sugarcoats life I was eating lunch with a friend recently, and we were talking about a dear f- dear, dear friend of his who's, um, got terminal cancer. [00:36:00] And the friend with terminal cancer is a Christian, as is the friend I was eating lunch with And the question becomes, if there's a loving God who can snap his fingers and cure the incurable cancer Why doesn't he?

Paul does not sugarcoat life

I'd love to tell you if you become a Christian, you are on easy street for the rest of your life. But I'd be a liar

I'll tell you this, in some ways Christians have it rougher Even though we have a deep joy, we have a deep peace, and we have a confident hope

But life is [00:37:00] hard. And Paul grabs one of the hardest Psalms possible and says, "Remember that? You need to know in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." We live on the other side of Calvary that the psalmist didn't, and every accusation the psalmist lays at God's feet was born by God Himself on Calvary God's not immune to that God knows what suffering is

And God took our eternal suffering out of love for us. And as a result, [00:38:00] it's not that this life right now is easy, it's that this life is sustained by the one who's taking us to the heavenly reward on Earth. Amen. We are more than conquerors. Three English words, one Greek word. Hupernikomen. Huper- hupernikomen.

Hupernikomen.

Um, this is a strange word. This is really strange. Let me tell you how strange this is

The beginning part of it, the huper or hyper, we know what that is. That's like lots. That's on steroids. That's frenetic. That's hyper. That's way up there. You know, like there's a, there's a m- corner market, [00:39:00] there's a supermarket, and there's a hypermarket. That's like supermarket on steroids, okay? So we get the word hyper from it.

It means exceedingly great. Um, did I put it up here? Yeah, over, above, beyond, exceedingly. And then you have this word that comes from the nike word group. Let me, let me write that word group down for you in English letters and see if you, if it, if you notice anything. N-I... Well, that's not very good focus.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Put my hand here. It'll focus on my hand. There we go. N-I-K-E. Nike. Nike took the Greek word. [00:40:00] It means victory. Nike literally means in the Greek, victory. Nike. So it's just been put into this form,

hupernikomen, we are more hyper conquerors. Now you say, "Well, what makes this so unusual?" What's so unusual is it's not really a word. It's not used anywhere in the Bible. It's not used in the New Testament. It's not used in the Old Testament In all of Greek literature before Paul, we might find it used twice.

Out of everything. Maybe Paul knew that. The way it was used those two times though is different than the way Paul's using it. Some scholars think Paul made it up, just made up a word. He's certainly using a word that [00:41:00] was not common, a word that would give the idea of something that is over, above, beyond, exceedingly conquering The idea here is he has a word for what we are that language can't even hold.

We've gotta make up a new word for it. The frame of our language won't hold it. That's how much we're conquerors. And the only reason this is translated more than conquerors is one of the earliest English Bibles, before the King James, the Geneva Bible, they translated it that way. And translators ever since have thought, "Well, what are we gonna do with this word?"

They always do what the Geneva Bible did. It's good enough for them. And that's why our translators still today, more than conquerors. Eh, it's sort of right. Exceedingly great, beyond. It just, it's, it's right, but without the oomph that's in the original. [00:42:00] In all of this stuff, Paul says, we're far more exceedingly winners through him who loved us.

We're more than conquerors through him who agape santos. Again, agape at the root. Agape. But this is an unusual form, because in the Greek, this is what's called an aorist participle, and what that does is it's pointing to something that happened and finished in the past. It's completed. A completed act of love in the past.

In other words, the cross, the death and resurrection of Christ. Through the death and resurrection, that act of love that's been completed. It's done. It's total [00:43:00] The cross, here's, here's the Lanier translation. The cross gave us a hyper victory. It gave us a victory beyond victory. Amen. And this is different than what we see on some TV shows.

There is a prosperity gospel you will find taught with some that promises the faithful a great and prosperous life, and if your life is not great and prosperous, it's your own fault for not having enough faith. And if you'll just give more money to show your faith to our ministry- ... then I am sure God will bless you.

And if you write me next year and say, "Well, I gave my entire check to you, and he didn't bless me," then I'll tell you, "He's testing you. Send me your next check." And if you're still not blessed, you just, it may be time to sell your car. [00:44:00] That prosperity gospel is not what Paul's preaching. Paul says that the love of Christ will carry us through and beyond very real storms that happen in this life.

Don't sugarcoat it. Don't pretend. Don't say, "Oh, I'm just gonna wish myself through this with good faith." No. There are things in this world that we lament, but we can turn them inside out and know that that doesn't mean God doesn't love us. That doesn't mean there's something separating us, because there is nothing in all of creation that can ever separate us from the love that God has for us.

So when we go through those difficulties, we need to figure out how God's love is gonna take us through. We need to give him the praise. We need to grow from it, but we need to be confident in his love, because I am sure Pepoismai in the Greek, this pepoismai is in a verb form that is called the [00:45:00] perfect.

The perfect verb form means it's something that happened in the past, but it's got results I wanna talk about right now. So we translate it as I am sure. That's right now I'm sure, but it's because of a certainty of the past. I was certain, and I continue to be certain today. This is an emphatic. I have come to be persuaded, and I can't be unpersuaded.

And then he launches into what we in grammar would call merisms. Anybody ever heard of a merism? A merism, a figure of speech where a whole is referenced by listing its key, typically containing contrasting parts or components. A to Z means [00:46:00] everything in the middle. So it emphasizes the entire subject by specifying the extremes.

For example, give you a biblical example. We can talk about creation, the heavens and the Earth. That means everything. That includes the moon That includes the asteroids. We can talk about society as the young and the old, and we just mean all, everybody. Humanity. I'm a human. I'm flesh and bone Time.

Sunrise, sunset, swiftly flow the years. The journey, we went from the hills to the valleys. And Paul uses that with some of his pairings here. I'm sure neither death nor life or anything in [00:47:00] between Neither death nor life. I mean, name me a human condition. If I ask you to raise your hand, everybody in here will have to raise their hand if I say, "Are you dead or alive?"

One of those two We get everybody Death nor life, angels or rulers. Some ambiguity on what Paul means there. Uh, I'm gonna take it as, as most scholars do, um, heavenly beings or earthly beings Things present or things to come. What's happening today, what's gonna happen tomorrow. I was on an airplane. I was going up for a very important hearing.

Uh, my friend Skip McBride was with me. I mean, this was-- There are a lot of hearings I go to that I would beg for the planes to break down. This was one I needed to go to because this was one that might result in a little doe-ray-me. [00:48:00] You know, this could make money and the airplane breaks down And I can't drive to Dallas in time for the hearing?

I can't charter an airplane in time for the hearing? I can't get the airline to get me there on another plane in time for the hearing? I am not happy. I am fretful. And do you know what my friend Skip McBride says to me? He says, "Hey, do you think God was surprised when the plane broke?"

I said, "No." He says, "That's my standard for when I'm gonna get really upset." He says, "If I figure God's surprised, then I'm gonna get upset because there's no telling what's gonna happen. But as long as God's not surprised, I'm okay." So I ran to Dallas. No, um, [00:49:00] Things present nor things to come. There's nothing that's gonna happen.

There's no powers. There's not height, there's not depth, there's not anything in all creation that will ever be able to separate you from the love that God has for you in Christ Jesus our Lord. Never! Whatever you've got... Look, we will all face the day Where our time on this side of glory ends

And we may fear that in the sense that we don't know what the door opens to and how it works But we know whom we have believed, and we're persuaded He is able to keep what we've committed to Him against that day. And there is nothing on this side or the other that will be able to draw a wedge between you and the [00:50:00] love that God has for you, period.

You can't draw the wedge yourself. There is nothing, and that's the symphony. That's Paul's song. All right, we gotta f- wrap this up, but I gotta tell you, Paul wrote this. Remember, Greek, ancient Greek was a sung language, okay? He wrote this using this word nor, nor, nor, nor, nor, nor, nor. It's hote in the Greek.

Look, oute. Okay, hoti oute thanatos, oute zoe, oute angelos, oute archai, oute estos tota, oute melanta, oute dunamis, oute opsoma, oute bathos, outo tis chris- uh, tis- tisis

hetera. Sorry, that's, like, a hard one. Um, [00:51:00] he's quit arguing and started singing. It just would've sounded so good. I mean, it's like... Um, so I love our church, uh, because we have a, um, a very multicultural church. I get to stand up here and I see every skin tone there is. I see people from every corner of this globe, and I love that.

I got asked to preach one time at a church that was basically an all Black church. Um, and culturally, it's different than churches where I've preached before. If you've never had a chance to attend an all Black church, you need to do it. Not when I'm... Not, not, or, yeah . Amen. Miss Carolyn, that includes you.

Not, not that I want you to attend it [00:52:00] while I'm teaching But I gotta tell you, you know, one of my favorite singers is also a preacher, and I don't know if he still preaches, but the Reverend Al Green. And I watched some of his sermons. Get on YouTube, and he'll start out preaching, but he's singing by the end.

Yeah. And I'm telling you, and the whole church is joining in. I have never been so wound up in my life as when I was preaching in that African American church because they, they were, they, um, they were, they were egging me on, and I was, I was finding it, man. I hit my stride. That's what Paul's doing here.

He's, he's just going after it, man. It's just like, "Oote, oote, oote, oote, oote!" And they're like, "Yes, sing it!" Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ, not height nor depth. There's nothing in all of creation, and that's the bookend that he puts of God's love. It's been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, [00:53:00] and nothing will separate us.

Amen? Amen. Okay. So with that, points for home, and I'll leave you for the summer. First, please remember you are held by Christ's love, not by your good works. Yes. It's faith from beginning to end. "From faith to faith," he said at the start of Romans. You are held by the love of Christ. The grip of Christ's love is so strong, it's a bond that cannot be broken Point two, the storms in this life are real.

As it's written, for your sake, we're being killed all the day long, and Christians are not exempt from the storms. We just know who will protect us and hold us and strengthen us for the storms of this life. Which brings me to the [00:54:00] third point. We are hyper victors. We are more than conquerors. And with that, I think we can face the summer.

So here's your lunch topic. If you wanna talk about something over lunch and you get bored, what's the one thing in your own life that you have most struggled to believe cannot separate you from God's love? Think about it. Let me bless you in the name of Jesus. Father, I thank you so much for the honor of getting to talk about your Word in this class.

I thank you so much for the honor of getting to study your Word and to share it. I thank you for the conviction of your Holy Spirit that illuminates our minds and our hearts, that convicts us, that points us to Jesus. And Lord, on my knees, I thank you for the love that Christ has for us, the love that you have for us in Christ.

Lord, thank you. Hold us tightly in your grip. [00:55:00] I know this message is written from Paul for people who are suffering, who are struggling, and I know at different times we'll all be there. But I pray encouragement that people will not doubt your love for them, but they will find themselves hyper victors in Christ regardless of what this world throws at them.

That's my prayer in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.