January 17 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Romans 8:35–39

Devotional

Paul asks the question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” The implication is that nothing can do this. There is an everlasting union between Christ and His people. The love between Christ and His people will be eternal, without end. Christ has forged these bonds.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” What a comfort this text is for those who have learned that they cannot forge or sustain these everlasting bonds. They need the Lord to unite them to Himself. God’s people have to be held by love. Left to themselves they will only let go of God. They need God to hold on to them with everlasting bonds of love. Therefore the love of Christ, the Surety, is their only comfort.

In life, our experiences can cause us to feel like the union between Christ and our soul is broken. It can seem as if the Lord separates Himself from us. It can even feel as if the Lord will never return. These are dark days of tribulation. But in reality His love never says farewell to us because the Lord remains the same even in His love. Love cannot fall away and neither can it be unfaithful.

The ministering work of Christ assures us that nothing can separate us from His love. Whenever we have to say goodbye to friends or family we still have God left because God never says goodbye to His church. In this truth we can have peace.

Everything is fleeting; everything changes; everything is disappearing; everything is collapsing, but God says, “I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Mal. 3:6). That is why Paul can write, “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 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38, 39).

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.