[Chapter 8-13] Who Shall Separate the Righteous from the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:35-39)
(Romans 8:35-39)
“Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written:
‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’
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.”
Verse
35 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword?” Who could separate us from the love of Christ, given
to those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has
the righteousness of God in it? Could persecution and troubles cut off
that love? Could the seven-year Great Tribulation separate us from that
love? Of course not!
No
tribulation or distress in this world can cut us off from the love of
our Lord that has saved us from our sins. Even when we wish, in our
tiredness, to be left alone, and someone asks us whether Jesus has saved
us from our sins or not, we would all respond that Jesus has indeed
saved us and that we are without sin. Regardless of how weary and
troubled our hearts may be, He has still saved us and is still our
eternal Savior. Even if we were too tired or ill to steadily hold up our
own bodies, we would still confess our thanks for the righteousness of
God. No weariness can separate us from the righteousness of God that has
delivered us from our sins.
Neither
persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor the sword can
cut us off from the righteousness of God. That we are sometimes shunned
and condemned by religious people is the persecution that we face. Our
persecutions consist of our friends, neighbors, relatives, and even our
own family members leaving us because of their accusations of us being
heretics. Could these persecutions separate us from the salvation of
Jesus Christ? They most certainly cannot!
Regardless
of how severely we are persecuted, it cannot cut us off from the
righteousness of God that has saved us. Because God’s righteousness has
made us sinless, and because this is the unchanging truth, no one and
nothing can separate us from God’s love.
Famine,
whether spiritual or physical, could not separate us. Because we
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, what always remains
in our hearts is the righteousness of God—that is, the faith in our Lord
that He has made us sinless with the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. This faith is the faith and the blessing of believing in the
righteousness of God. “Because the Lord has made all my sins disappear, I
have no sin! God has made me righteous and sinless, clothing me wholly
in His own righteousness!” This is why our faith in the righteousness of
God will not disappear, no matter how severe the famine may be.
The righteousness of God by the gospel of the water and the Spirit
Unless
one believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there is still
sin in his/her heart. But one who believes in the righteousness of God
has no sin. This is why our Lord said that we could know a tree by its
fruits. Those who do not believe in God’s righteousness give up their
faiths in Jesus when they face the slightest difficulty, famine,
persecution, or tribulation.
There
are people who think, “Although Jesus was judged on the Cross on behalf
of my sins, only the original sin was removed, and I must daily ask for
forgiveness of the other sins I commit everyday.” Those who have this
kind of faith are actually sinning against God by not believing that
Jesus has taken away all their sins, and in the process, they condemn
and corrupt themselves. These are the very people who deny Jesus and who
do not believe in the righteousness of God.
But
those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are those
who believe in God’s righteousness, and regardless of the circumstances
that they face, they will firmly hold onto their faith, saying, “God has
surely saved me from all the sins of the world. I am sinless!” Even if
we are to face death in the last days of our spiritual famine, we will
never deny that God has made us sinless and that we have become His
people. The righteousness of God that has taken away all our sins will
still remain in our hearts as our faith. The gospel of the water and the
Spirit is that powerful and great. No matter what kind of tribulations
we face in our lives, because the righteousness of God is in Christ, we
will never be separated from the love of Christ.
What
is it meant by “nakedness” in the above passage? Nakedness refers to
losing all our possessions. Until the Medieval Ages, when there was
trouble in a village or a nation in the European countries, people often
engaged in witch-hunts, using scapegoats to blame for all the troubles;
people took everything away from them and accused them of being
heretics. This is why Paul used the word “nakedness” here.
In
those ages, it was possible to accuse someone of heresy, and with only
one or two witnesses, to condemn the accused to be burnt at the stake,
confiscate all his/her possessions, and wipe out his/her reputation.
Even
if we are driven to our nakedness in such a manner, lose everything we
own and are put to death, the righteousness of God that has, in His love
for us, taken away all our sins, will never disappear from us—this is
how complete the gospel of the water and the Spirit is.
Neither
peril nor the sword can separate us from the love of Christ. Even if we
are put under the sword and are killed by it, we who believe have no
sin. Many Christians in the Early Church were falsely accused of having
set fire to Rome and were publicly executed in the coliseum by being fed
to lions. Even as they were dying, they praised the Lord who had saved
them. They were able to praise because they were believers in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. Those who have been redeemed by believing
in the truth that God has loved them and has taken away all their sins
can praise the Lord, even while they are being killed and eaten by
lions.
This
strength comes from the faith in God’s righteousness that has taken
away all our sins and in His love. It is because God is in us, speaks to
us, holds us strong, protects us and comforts us that such strength can
be found. Neither peril nor the sword, nor threatening, nor martyrdom
can separate us from God’s love.
Those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are those who
believe in the righteousness of God and who are the people of Christ.
Those who believe in the righteousness of God are those who are loved by
Christ. But some people turn Christ’s perfect love into mere emotional
love, looking only at His death on the Cross, saddened by and crying
over His sufferings. But human emotions can change overnight.
Though
our emotions change every morning and every night, the love with which
our Lord has saved us cannot be changed or altered by anything. His love
is forever unchanging. This is how powerful the gospel of the water and
the Spirit is, and this is how great the righteousness of God is. No
one can separate us from our Lord, who has made us whole and has clothed
us in His perfect love. This is the power of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit and it is also the power of our faith in God’s
righteousness.
The
Greek word for “gospel” is “euaggelion,” and it was said to have the
“dunamis”―this Greek word means strength, power or ability, from which
we get the word “dynamite”―of God. A handful of dynamite is enough to
bring down a house to its foundation and crumble it to dust. A Tomahawk
missile launched from a warship can destroy a large concrete building
and turn it into oblivion. No matter how fortified the building may be,
it is no match for the missile’s destructive power.
Two
civilian airplanes brought down the Twin Towers of the World Trade
Center in New York. What happened when the planes hit the buildings?
Ignited by the explosion of the planes, the fire fed by the jet fuel was
so intense that it melted everything in the floors that were penetrated
by the planes. Because the floors’ steel structures and columns that
supported the buildings were all melted down, the floors suddenly
collapsed, and the buildings could not bear the weight of these
collapsing floors, so finally, they disintegrated in their entirety. Had
the floors come down slowly, the buildings would not have collapsed.
But because the floors fell suddenly and swiftly, the columns and other
supporting structures collapsed, and the whole buildings were, as we all
witnessed, brought down in a matter of seconds.
The
power of God’s gospel is that of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. It is also the power that has His righteousness in it. Perhaps
it is not fit to use this tragedy to illustrate the righteousness of
God, but the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by
the righteousness of God is like dynamite that can completely wipe out
all the sins. The righteousness of God is that our Lord has saved us by
taking away all our sins by coming to this earth, being baptized, dying
on the Cross, and resurrecting from death.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is the righteousness of God with
which Jesus has taken away all the sins that mankind has committed, from
the very beginning of the universe to its end. This is why nothing can
separate God from those who are loved by Him through their redemption by
their faiths in the gospel of the righteousness of God. Paul’s faith,
too, was one that believed in God’s righteousness.
Can
we, then, receive God’s righteousness by the gospel of just the blood
of the Cross? We cannot. Believing only in the gospel of the blood of
the Cross alone cannot give us the righteousness of God. Those who think
otherwise will easily give up their faith in Jesus at the slightest
provocation.
For
instance, when their earthly possessions are taken away, or when they
encounter difficulties at work because of their religious orientations,
they will easily succumb to renounce their faith. This is an inevitable
outcome and is applicable to many Christians. Those who, by not
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, do not have the
Holy Spirit in their hearts and are not redeemed from their sins, are
bound to capitulate at the smallest threat.
The
reason why today’s Christianity is so weak in this world is because of
this faith that is limited to only the blood of the Cross. This kind of
faith is one that has not received God’s righteousness through the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
A
righteous believer who has been redeemed from all his/her sins by
receiving the righteousness of God can work for many souls. Since he/she
believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and has the Holy
Spirit, and because God is with him/her in His Word, that person can do
many spiritual works and turn many lost souls back to God. This is the
faith in the righteousness of God, the faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is given by God,
not by our own works, and thus it is also through God that we can do His
works.
Verse
36 says, “As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’” Among those who believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are those who are actually
treated in this manner while living on this earth. In fact, believers in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit are often hated by others,
particularly by those with wrong faith, who claim to be Christians
themselves.
The
born-again Christians are, in other words, hated more by nominal
Christians than by Buddhists. This passage, that “for your sake we are
killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” is
the Word of God spoken to believers in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Even our Lord, by following the Father’s will with His baptism
and death on the Cross, was “accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” The
Lord saved us by coming to and living such a life on this earth.
The righteousness of God has won over all the sins of the world
Verse
37 says, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us.” How can we win over all these things? We claim our
victory by the power of our faith in God’s love.
One
who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit has the power of
God. But one who does not believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit only has sin in his/her heart. The faith and salvation of those
who are with sin cannot but have ups and downs because of their
emotions, and thus, they have no power. But those who believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit have the power. They do not have
power by themselves, but they have the power of the gospel given by God,
and with this power, they can withstand and triumph over all
persecutions and tribulations. The righteous must engage in a spiritual
battle against sinners and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit
to them. The righteous must also tolerate living and being persecuted
for the gospel as their natural lot. A life that lives for the Lord is
our lot.
An
oriental proverb says, “Were one to miss reading for a single day, he
would speak out stinging words.” What about us then? We, too, are prone
to rush into corruption if we let a day go by without living for God and
His gospel. This is how we would live our lives until our deaths. But
if we live for Christ, sacrifice ourselves and are persecuted for God,
and if we wage a spiritual war against the spiritual forces of evil, our
hearts will be filled with spiritual food, from which we will find new
strengths to go on.
When
Christians fall, it is because they did not live for the Lord. But when
we live for the Lord, our spiritual strengths grow even more, and our
physical health and strengths also become stronger.
Verse
38-39 says, “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.” As a
believer in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Paul was convinced
of this. The same truth applies to us: neither death nor life can
separate us from Christ.
In
the old ages, those wielding worldly power, such as Roman emperors,
tried to persuade Christians to renounce their faith and report their
fellow believers to the authorities by offering all kinds of
enticements, from high offices, wives and properties, all in return for
their renouncement. But the true believers in the gospel never yielded
to the temptation of power, property or honor.
Faith
is not something that can be exchanged for what the world can offer. If
someone were to show us a blank check and say to us, “I will give you
this check, if you stop spreading the gospel,” we would be able to
reply, because of our hope for the future and our strong faith in God,
“You will need it yourself, so spend it; to me, it is nothing but a
piece of paper.”
Only the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that has the righteousness of God
There
are many people who have said to me, “If you just admit that our faith
in just the blood of the Cross is also a right faith, we, too, will then
approve your faith. Not only will we stop accusing you of heresy, but
we will actually help you.” These so-called religious leaders in
particular have sought such compromises from me. But the righteousness
of God is precise and certain when measured by His Word. What is wrong
is wrong, and what is the truth is the truth. Giving recognition to a
wrong faith is in itself an act of rebellion against God, and so I am
not only unable to approve their faith, but I must also constantly point
out its fallacies.
“You
believe just in the blood of the Cross? Then you must have sin in your
heart. You are bound to hell. I can’t help it even if you think that I
am too serious and unyielding; what is the truth is the truth.” Because
of such words, people keep their distance from me—more precisely, they
cannot be close to me. Many people used to approach me, thinking that I
was like them. But each time, I have told them, “You are false shepherds
and swindlers who trade in God’s name to elk out a living, merely
simple thieves.” Who would have liked me when I said such things? But
what is not is not, and this is why I have been so firm and unfaltering
in my stand.
I
have also been tempted by those who say that if I only believed in the
blood of the Cross, they will give me such and such authority. But as
the above passage says, “nor things present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing,” we have no need for any
authority, height or depth. We don’t need the healing power that some
swindlers claim to have. Those of us who are born again have no need for
such things, and we don’t even like them.
The
passage also tells us that no other created thing can separate us from
the love of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Even if there were aliens in
this universe, they wouldn’t be able to separate us from the love of God
that has saved us.
There
are some Christians who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial
beings. Even among pastors, many believe in their existence. But there
is no such thing as an alien. When I was attending seminary, one of my
professors, who taught Greek, believed in the existence of aliens. So, I
asked him, “Can you support your belief with any evidence from the
Scripture?” Of course, He could not come up with any answer to my
objection. There are absolutely no aliens. God loved the world so much
that He gave us His only begotten Son. If there were indeed aliens,
there would have been no need for Jesus to be born only on this earth.
After
massive investments and research, we have already been able to reach
the moon, and our probes have landed even on Mars, but we have not
discovered a single evidence that indicates the existence of life forms
outside the earth. I can confidently assert, based on the Scripture,
that regardless of how developed mankind’s scientific and technological
capabilities become, and regardless how extensively we search the
universe, we will never find extraterrestrials. The Bible tells us that
no other created thing can separate us from the love of God in our Lord
Jesus Christ. What, then, is this love of God? This is no other than the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is God’s love. The salvation
that has saved us and made us sinless with the gospel of the water and
the Spirit is the love of God, and nothing can separate us from this
love.
Paul
speaks of faith again in chapter 9, but it is in his conclusion of
chapter 8 where the apex of faith is reached. Chapters 1 through 8 of
the Book of Romans form a theme, and with chapter 8 as its concluding
chapter, it is here where the height of faith is reached. As the Word of
God in chapter 8 shows us, only those who believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit can become inseparable from the love of God.
Those
who do not believe so, however, will never be so. They may perhaps be
able to live for the Lord temporarily, but they cannot defend their
faith and live for Him until their deaths. They may live religiously for
10, 20 years, but their faith will eventually decay and die out,
rendering them completely separated from and having nothing to do with
God. It is not that their works are lacking, but that the love in their
hearts for Christ will disappear from them. Since they do not have the
Holy Spirit in their minds, they neither have love for the Lord in their
hearts. There is, in short, sin in their hearts instead.
As
days go by, I realize even more how deep and how perfect the love of
salvation is, with which our Lord has saved us through the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. When I first met the Lord, my depth of
appreciation for Christ’s love was quiet and calm, as a stone thrown
into a lake causes small, barely perceptible waves. My response was only
a quiet realization of the fact that Jesus took away all my sins, and
that I had thus become sinless. But while living a life of preaching the
gospel since then, the waves in my heart have become unimaginably
larger and deeper, as if a bomb had gone off inside my heart.
Who
says that we should believe only in the blood of the Cross? Did Paul
say this? In the Book of Romans, Paul clearly and unambiguously spoke of
the gospel of the water and the Spirit: “Or do you not know that as
many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His
death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
Isn’t
this gospel of the water and the Spirit utterly great and thoroughly
perfect? Regardless of how small one’s faith is, if one believes in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, then he/she is saved from sin.
Regardless of how many shortcomings you have, your faith is made whole
by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Regardless of how weak you
are, you are saved by your faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Even though we have no power of our own, if we live for God and
with God, all the filth will be removed from our hearts.
But
those who do not believe from the start will in the end turn against
God and leave Him, even if they heard of this gospel and lived with it
for 10 years. Those who have decided to neither see nor hear the truth
of God by closing their eyes and shutting their ears are so foolish for
rejecting God’s blessing with their own hands and heading toward their
own deaths. They crucify Christ everyday with their sins, even though
there would have been no death on the Cross were it not for the baptism
of Jesus.
I
realize with every passing day just how great and perfect this gospel
is—the weaker I get, the more I realize how awesome and whole the love
of our Lord is, shown by this gospel, and I thank Him even more for it.
The more I preach this gospel, the louder I become; the more I preach
this gospel, the stronger I become; and the more I preach this true
gospel, the more convinced I become.
Even
if you are born again, if you do not listen to the Word of God and do
not serve Him, weeds will start growing in your mind, and because of
these weeds, your mind will become desolate. When this happens, sing
your songs of praise again and think of Jehovah. By singing praises to
God, your mind will be cleansed, and you will be able to raise your
spirit again.
You
should shake your mind to discharge it of everything that is impure and
renew your heart again by filling it with the Word of God. Our hearts
are already cleansed, but when the impurities of the world enter our
minds and tries to confuse and disorient us, we can worship God and pray
to Him again by singing praises of the Lord, renewing and re-raising
our hearts.
Regardless
of where we may find ourselves, praising God is a joyful and
exhilarating experience. There is no sin in the minds of those who have
been redeemed, so praising and rejoicing comes naturally from their
minds. Our joyful hearts’ songs of praise can make the weeds that grow
in our minds disappear.
At
times, our weaknesses are revealed. Because our thoughts and feelings
can easily change through different circumstances, though we may be
happy and in a good mood when we are with our brothers in Christ, we may
have unclean and impure thoughts when we are by ourselves. This is why
Paul cried out, when looking at his own flesh, “O wretched man that I
am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through
Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Paul
had become whole by being saved by the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, even though he was still weak in his flesh. Was Paul the only
person who was like this? I, too, am like Paul. Are you not also like
him?
When
worldly people gather together, the men usually like to drink, often
talking about their jobs and who got promoted and who didn’t, and so on,
while the women busily boast of their husbands, children, homes, and so
forth. But the conversations among the righteous are qualitatively
different from those of the worldly people. Even as we share our bread
together, we talk about the souls that were saved throughout the world:
in India, Japan, Europe, Africa, the United States, and so on, praising
God and sharing fellowship with our minds.
When
reading the Book of Romans, we can experience and share in our hearts
Paul’s own faith. We can also find out how great the salvation given by
God is. We can feel the awesomeness of the gospel. We can understand the
passages and discover the meanings hidden in the text. Because we
realize how complete and perfect the salvation of our Lord is, we cannot
help but praise His righteousness.
Even
if the whole world were to change right now, the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that has saved us from our sins would remain unchanged.
Because the love of Christ has saved us, and because this love has never
left us and still remains in us, all we have to do is turn our hearts
away from the world and focus on God again. We are weak, and because of
this weakness, we sometimes fall into the ways of the world, but every
time this happens, we only have to turn our minds toward God and believe
in the truth that our Lord has saved us. Our flesh has yet to change
and still lives under the law of sin. We must thus continuously deny our
flesh and live our lives by our spiritual thoughts. In order to stop
the weeds from growing in our hearts, we must always return to God and
praise His righteousness.
Do
you now realize how powerful this gospel of the water and the Spirit
is? Since the entire Book of Romans is based on the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, we cannot unlock the Word of God without first believing
in this gospel.
I
thank the Lord for allowing us to open and see the secrets of this
Word. No one can separate us from the righteousness of God, which is the
love of Christ. If you want to believe in the righteousness of God,
believe in the baptism of Jesus by John and His blood on the Cross as
your redemption and salvation. You, too, will then receive the
righteousness of God.
May the blessings of the righteousness of our God be with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment