he love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Some people are all the time worrying lest they should be separated from
that love, lest God's love should be turned into hatred against them. They
walk before him with fear and trembling. They are all the time questioning
whether their conduct merits his approval. They are ever fearful lest they
might do something that would bring his wrath upon them. Their life is a
life of fear and of bondage. Paul had no such fears and no such feelings.
He knew that the great heart of God is a heart of love, a heart of tender
pity, compassion, and sympathy. He knew that God is tender toward his
earthly children. Why, even when we were sinners, Christ died for us! and
the Father so loved us that he gave his only begotten Son. This love was
for rebels. How much greater his affection for his sons! Instead of
thinking that he might be easily separated from the love of God, and that
he should have to be exceedingly careful lest he should be, Paul cries
out, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (v. 35). By this he
means, Who or what _shall be able_ to separate us?

Paul knew something of the strength of earthly love. He knew
mother-love--how tenderly it holds to its own. He knew that no matter where
the son wanders, mother-love goes with him; mother-love calls him back;
mother-love yearns over him. He knew love in other forms--how tenaciously
it clings to its objects. But the love of Christ, or the love of God in
Christ, is above and beyond all this human love. And so he cried out, "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Then he named some things and
asked if they should separate us from God's love, and when he looked at
them all, he was still persuaded that nothing should be able.

Paul says, "Neither death nor life." If death should lay his icy fingers
upon us, it would be but the ushering into the more immediate presence of
that great love. But if we must continue to live on in our earthly
circumstances and surroundings, that very life can not separate us from
the love of Christ, for he will love us through it all. Through various
changes, through all the trying situations that may face us, that love
will hold us fast. Time and change can not make that love grow cold.

Again, he says, "Nor angels." God is in heaven, surrounded by the angels,
but he wants us to understand that those angels can not take up so much of
his time and attention that he will forget us.