Who Or What?

I was in the middle of teaching last night when suddenly I noticed something in the scriptures  I had not noticed before. God gave me revelation right in the middle of teaching. This is not the first time something like this has happened. One of the best messages the Lord ever game me happened right in the middle of teaching when God revealed something to me I had not seen before. That message remains one of my all time favorites.

For months I have been teaching through the book of Romans verse by verse. Last night we finished chapter eight. To give a little context I left off the week before with the thought about who can bring a charge against God's elect. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, makes accusations and brings charges against people night and day.

Last night I taught over these verses. Romans 8:34-39 (NASB) 
³⁴  who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
³⁵  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
³⁶  Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."
³⁷  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
³⁸  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
³⁹  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What jumped out at me was verse 35. It starts out with the ward who. But look at what follows. The thought in the verse is not connected to people but rather to circumstances or things that can happen to a person. Here is the thought. Who can separate or divide us from the love of Jesus? Instead of listing people Paul lists things like, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. I wondered why Paul did not use the word what. What can separate us from the love of Jesus. He does not use the word what but chooses the word who. 

A man in our study thoughtfully connected the word who to Satan from the context of previous verses. That is when the lightbulb went off and the whole passage opened up in a new way. Satan wants us to doubt the love of Jesus. He attacks us, tempts us, set snares for us, entices us, and deceives us. Lucifer comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. One of his chief tactics is to get us to doubt the love of Jesus when we are going through adversity. The evil one plants thoughts in our minds that go like this. Jesus if You love me then why areYou allowing me to go through all these hard things. If You love me why are You letting these   negative things happen. 

If our adversary can get us to doubt that Jesus really loves us, we will not be as quick to trust Him, as willing to serve Him, and we become more susceptible to temptation and sin. So Satan comes at us with everything he has to get us to doubt the love of Jesus. He unleashes demonic activity all around us to trip us. 

In the middle of all of this one truth comes shouting out of these verses like through a megaphone. NOTHING AND NO ONE CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF JESUS. Let's look at this from two vantage points. 

The first,  is no matter what we are going through Jesus loves us. We can never truthfully judge His love based on the adversity we are gong through. Joesph suffered in prison, David was hunted down like a fugitive by a jealous tyrannical king. Job suffered immeasurably. Jeremiah endured rejection and persecution for preaching the truth. Many of the disciples were martyrs. Paul suffered beatings and imprisonment. In fact he wrote the book of Romans while in prison. HE DID NOT DOUBT THE LOVE OF JESUS. Just because you are a follower of Jesus does not mean you will not have to endure suffering and spiritual attacks along the way. None of that can divide you from the steadfast love of Jesus. 

There is another vantage point I want to consider. Paul said in all those things we overwhelming conquer. Meaning we are victorious. Are we? Are you victorious in the minute affairs of daily life. A flat tire. A broken appliance. A headache. Diagnosis of disease. I could go on and on. What happens often is that when things don't work out like we wanted we get distracted and maybe even mad at God. We are easily enticed to seek the temporary pleasures of sin for comfort. In these times we turn our backs on the Lord and trample His grace and mercy extended to us. Even then, hear the tender voice of Jesus, "No one and nothing can separate you from My love." Even in our rebellion He patiently loves us. Nothing we do can sever His love from us. That is both a liberating and sobering truth at the same time. We conquer through Jesus. Meaning He conquers the adversities we go through and secures us with His enduring love. 

At the conclusion of our study last night, in response to the love of Jesus, one man commented, "That mades me want to serve Jesus all the more." True and well said. 

I thank the Lord for grabbing my attention with the little word  "who" and my question as to why the word "what" was not used. Satan wants to distract us and plant doubts in our minds about the love of Jesus. He is exposed. He is a liar and a deceiver. We are on to his game. Let us stand secure but humbled in the love of Jesus. That love is underserved but overwhelmingly comforting.