What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Given our lack of perfect peace in our spirits day-to-day we must either believe that circumstances could possibly separate us from the love of Christ or that the love of Christ is insufficient to the circumstances of life, that it itself isn't what matters. Paul wanted to emphasize the point so he gave a summary of things which disciples of Christ might worry about.
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
These are exactly the sorts of extreme cases lurking at the far edges of minds, causing us to fear even the lesser things that might lead to those situations. We fear that something will happen which will cause us anguish or distress. We avoid speaking some word of truth for fear of persecution. We stockpile food and clothing because we fear to go without. We stare horrified at the news because we fear peril and the sword. When these things threaten us and try to rob our peace we need to remember what Paul knew. We need to speak it to our fears, because the truth of Scripture can silence our fears.
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
We might think of this impersonally, applying to the Church broadly, but with ourselves as a sort of exception. We allow ourselves this out because we don't feel like conquerors. We don't have the peace of this assured victory. But it is not just for other people. It is for each of us. This is true because Jesus died for each of us, and would have done so had we been the only person alive to need it. We can each say, 'I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me.'
The victory does not come through our ability to respond to these difficult situations cleverly, or even virtuously. It comes "through him who loved us." Because of this there is a real way in which we are victorious already even over the worst of the things Paul lists. We are victorious even against distress we may never individually encounter. Our victory is such a gift, meant to be so effortlessly received, that the challenges we do face and those we don't are all conquered with similar lack of "toil and labor":
"For what is indeed wonderful is this, not that we are conquerors only, but that we are so by the very things meant as plots against us. And we are not merely conquerors, but we are more than conquerors, that is, are so with ease, without toil and labor. For without undergoing the real things, by only setting our mind aright, we raise our trophies against our enemies. And with good reason. For it is God that strives together with us."
- Saint John Chrysostom on Romans
Our trouble is that we tend to fixate on our own lack of ability or resources. We realize that the five loaves and two fishes won't feed the crowd. We're all too ready to send the crowd away to the villages to fend for themselves because we don't realize that there is even another option on the table. We can still conquer, but only through him who loves us.
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me, ”
Jesus has already conquered every accident of circumstance that could separate us from the love of God. Let us realize, then, that it is the love of God that for which we truly hunger, and that he has proven that nothing can keep us from it.
Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Rend Collective - More Than Conquerors
Matt Maher - Come to the Water
Kutless - All Who Are Thirsty
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