Romanos 8:35

‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?'

In view of the fact that it is Christ in His love Who pleads our cause (Romanos 8:34), it demonstrates the impossibility of our being separated from that love. His continual intercession for us is evidence that He has our interests at heart. And so Paul issues the challenge, ‘who will separate us from the love of Christ?', with the answer due to come back of ‘nothing'. It is quite clear from the passage that Paul is putting ‘God' and ‘Christ' on the same level. Their love is interchangeable. He then lists a number of possibilities of things that might make us doubt His love. We note here that the legal language is now replaced by that of love. It is love that underlies all God's activities on behalf of His people (Romanos 5:5; Romanos 5:8). Thus whatever happens we need not doubt the love of Christ for us. It is the love which passes all knowledge (Efesios 3:19). It will be noted that the list includes natural disasters such as famine which cannot directly be the consequence of persecution (although could, of course, arise indirectly). The aim would appear to be to cover all possibilities of suffering, with words like ‘anguish' and ‘peril' being catch-all descriptions. It is a reminder that the love of Christ remains firm whatever situations we face, whether spiritual or physical, and that in the face of them we need not doubt His love. We are to hold onto the fact of ‘the love of Christ which passes all knowledge' (Efesios 3:19).