Nothing Can Separate Us

CHAPTER & VERSE
NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US
DR. JIM DIXON
ROMANS 8:28-39
MAY 29, 2011

Mankind is separated from God. That is what the Bible tells us. The human race is separated from God. The Bible tells us this in many ways beginning with the Eden story, the Garden of Eden. The Bible describes how man fell into sin and then sought to hide himself from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden, seeking to separate himself from God because of sin. In the Eden story, we are told how God separated mankind from himself, how God banished man, male and female, from the Garden of God, and how that separation from God was sealed and secured from an anointed guardian cherub, mankind separated from the tree of life in the presence of God.

Then you look at the life of Israel and you see mankind separated from God in the whole imagery of the tabernacle and the temple. As you look at the tabernacle and temple, you see the presence of God, the Shekinah theophany, the manifestation of God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, God’s presence hovering over the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. And no man could go in there because mankind is separated from God. Man could not go in to the presence of God, could not enter the Holy of Holies. Only one man could go into the Holy of Holies and that was the high priest. He could only go one day of the year on Yom Kippur, on the Day of Atonement. He had to go in there and do his ministry quick and get out. They tied a rope to him so that if he died in there in the presence of God, they could pull him out because nobody could go in there, nobody could go into the presence of God. Separation.

Now the Bible tells us that the people who belong to Jesus Christ have now been reunited with God. The Bible says that Christ brings his people into the family of God and that Christ gives us intimacy with God. We see this, first of all, in the cross. As Christ is on the cross, we see that Jesus experienced our separation from God. He took that upon himself. On the cross we see the words of Jesus Christ, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In that moment he experienced our separation from the Father. He took our sin upon himself, he took my sin, your sin, the world’s sin upon himself and then he experienced that separation from God that sin brings.

Then while still on the cross before he drew his last breath he shouted, “Tetelestai!” which means “It is Finished!” But this is the word that is, throughout the Hellenized world, stamped on parchment and it meant paid in full. That is what Jesus did on the cross, he paid the penalty for sin and he paid it in full. He did that so that we might be reunited with the Father. The Bible says in Matthew 28 and in Mark 15 and in Luke 23 that in that moment when Christ died on the cross and sin was atoned for, in that moment, in the temple, in the Holy City of Jerusalem, the temple veil was split asunder. It was ripped in two, top to bottom and it opened up to the presence of God. Christ brings his people into the presence of God and reunites us with God.

We see this truth, also, in the post-resurrection events as Christ appears to the disciples in the upper room and he breathes on them the breath of God, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In that moment, in a kind of pre-Pentecost, in the upper room the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples to dwell within them, to tabernacle within them, intimacy with God, God himself coming to tabernacle within them. Then at Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came upon the whole company of believers. Christ has brought his people into this intimate union with God.

Here is the question: can we who belong to Christ today, can we now be separated? Can anything, now, separate us from God? We who have come to Christ, we who have knelt at the foot of the cross, we who have received his blood atonement, and we who have accepted him as Savior and as Lord, can we now be separated from him? Can anything now separate us from him now that we are children of God, sons, and daughters of God, brought into the family of God? What can separate us now? The Bible says that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us now. That is the amazing message of this incredible passage of Romans 8:38-39. The Apostle Paul just goes through everything that could possibly separate us from God and he says, “No, none of it can do it.” Nothing. It begins with death. Can death separate us from God? The Greek word is thanatos, and it, in this passage, refers to physical death, the separation of the soul from the body. That cannot separate you from God. Thanatos can also refer to spiritual death, the separation of your soul from God, but you see, Jesus has already taken care of that. If you belong to Christ, your soul has already been joined to God and it will never be separated, you will never experience spiritual death. Even physical death, cannot bring spiritual death to you. Your soul is united to God forever and ever.

So, you look at John 11 and you understand it better. You have Jesus talking to Martha. Martha is weeping, she is crying, she is broken because her brother Lazarus has just died. Mary and Martha are both crying because their brother Lazarus has died. Lazarus is already buried, already in the tomb and Jesus comes. Martha says, “Lord, if you had only been here, my brother would not have died.” In the course of their conversation, you see this incredible statement made by Jesus. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. He who lives and believes in me will never die.” Those statements if you really look at them closely, kind of sound confusing. He is using the word death in two ways. The first time he is referring to physical death. “He who believes in me, though he die physically, yet shall he live.” Then the next statement: “He who lives and believes in me, will never die spiritually.” If you die physically, you will yet live spiritually. You will never die spiritually. Death cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ.

In the churches of today, in the church of Jesus Christ universal and the church global, there is much apostasy. I believe this is all in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The Bible says, clearly, that many will depart from the faith. People will have itching ears. People will accumulate teachers to suit their own liking. People will no longer listen to the truth. People will no longer endure sound teaching. That is what the Bible prophesies according to the end days. So, today, as we look around the world, we see many pastors and congregants departing from the faith. Some churches, actually teach mortalism today. Do you know what mortalism is? Mortalism is thnetopsychism, and thnetopsychism means “soul death.” This is the idea that when you die, your soul dies too. The only way you can have eternal life is that God not only has to resurrect your body, God has to recreate your soul. In mortalism or thnetopsychism you are separated from God for a long time. You die, and you just cease to exist. Then at the consummation, at the eschaton, at the second coming of Christ, he then resurrects our bodies and recreates our souls, so that we have this period of time where we are separated from him.

A lesser form of this mortalism is called psychopannychism, which is “soul sleep,” a milder form of this teaching, but it is not biblical. The Bible is very clear; your soul will never be separated from God. When you die, your soul doesn’t die. When your body dies your soul yet lives. That is why Jesus can say to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise. I know your body is being crucified, but your soul will be in heaven with me today.” The reason the Apostle Paul can say, “To live is Christ and to die is gain, my desire is to depart and to be with the Lord but to remain in the flesh.” The reason he could speak like that is because he assumed the soul would go immediately into the presence of God upon his death. The Bible uses the word psyche, the word for soul again and again and again. The biblical teaching is overwhelmingly clear that the soul does not die, it survives death and for the Christian, the soul goes immediately to be with the Father. We are never separated from the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Paul says not only can death not separate us, but neither can life. Nothing in life can separate us from God. That is good to know. The word for life here is zoe, and there are many words for life. The word bios can also mean life; even the word psyche can mean life. This word zoe is a word that has scope. It can refer to divine eternal life and it can refer to normal human life, whatever years are allotted to us. It can refer to all of life, even animal life. That is why we speak of the zoo; it comes from the word zoe. This word zoe has a broad scope so you only understand its meaning by looking at its context. Contextually, here, clearly this is describing human life. He just mentioned human death and human death cannot separate us. Now he is saying human life. Nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. A lot of stuff can happen in life. Life is not easy. Most of us are trying to ward off death and spend a little more time here, but life has hardships. There is relational pain. It can really be hard.

In the course of my ministry, I have had 29 years with you here at Cherry Hills Community Church, and really 38 years in the ministry. How many times have I had people in my office with tears? Many of you have come to talk with tears because your wife left you, or with tears because your husband left you and you feel the incredible loss, you feel the rejection, you feel abandonment, you feel dishonored and you are broken. Some of you have come because you have lost your kids, not necessarily to death, but you have lost them to the world and you have come with tears in your eyes because everything you thought to instill in them, all the values and morals they have now rejected and they have entered into rebellion and you feel that pain. I have talked to kids who have tears in their eyes because they have never received from mom or dad the blessing, never felt honored by them, never felt that unconditional love and never felt like they heard the words, “well done.” Some of these kids are 40 and 50 years old that come to me and they still carry that wound of mom or dad not giving them the blessing. That is life in this world. You look over this world, the world over, and it is not easy. Here is the deal; there is one who has said, “I will never reject you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Lo, I am with you always, behold.” That is Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate us from his love.

There is love in this world that fails us. You might look at your wife today and think, “Oh, she loves me unconditionally.” You might look at your husband and think, “Oh, he loves me unconditionally.” I hope that is true, but something could happen that separates you because we are fallen and our love is imperfect. But there is one who will never ever reject you or leave you and that is our Savior and our Lord. You come to Jesus and receive him and he will never let you go. Nothing can separate us in this life from him, even financial pain. So many people are in financial pain. I have talked to many of you and I know some of you are in kind of a daily panic as you look at the DOW and the NASDAQ and the S&P and you see your shrinking retirements. Some of you have lost your job and you don’t know how to pay bills. I understand. Barb and I through the years have had some of our own struggles; we are not very good investors. I have always said to people, “If you just watch what we do and do the opposite, you will turn out great.” We invested, some years ago, Barb and I, with my brothers and my mom in a timeshare, limited partnership, down in Mexico. We were told the developer was one of the richest guys in Mexico, the richest family. Somehow, he went bankrupt and you know how you go into the third world and two-thirds world you see a lot of those buildings with cement walls and rebar sticking out everywhere, kind of abandoned? That is what our deal looks like now. It is all done; it looks like the money is all gone.

Some years ago, we received some money from my mom and dad and we invested it with Prudential-Base, trying to get a piece of the rock. It turned out to be more like a piece of the granite. We got into a real estate deal with Spanos, who is the owner of the San Diego Chargers, and then a natural gas venture, and they both went belly-up, with zero value. I know our stuff is kind of small-potatoes compared to a lot of people. Still, it feels like our small potatoes never get buttered. I know some of you have gone through some really tough stuff. Know this: Christ is with you. He is capable of giving you blessings beyond the financial. He is capable of giving you treasures beyond the material. He has promised you everlasting life and he is with you through thick and thin, whether you are abased or you are abounding.

We started this church in 1982 and many people who were helping us out in the beginning were in the real estate industry, some were in oil and gas, and both of those industries just went south and many of our people lost their fortune. I know them still today and some of them have rebounded and some of them haven’t, but all of them are walking with Jesus and they all have smiles on their faces because Jesus Christ is real and nothing separates you from his love. He has promised to feed us and clothe us as he promised in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter six, to feed us and clothe us as he promises to feed the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, so how much more, he says, will he feed and clothe us? Nothing can separate us from that love.

I know some people in this life experience illness and disease and sometimes very serious illness and disease. Many of you have asked for prayer because you have been told you have cancer and some of you have been told you have terminal cancer. Some of you have other very serious illnesses. At any given point in time, we have hundreds of our people in the hospital and we pray for all, but nothing separates us from the love of God. Though we are in the valley of the shadow of death he is with us. Death just brings us into his presence and in this life, he has power to heal. We have seen him heal so many of you as God has rescued you in his love. We know that the death rate is 100 percent in this world. Sometimes he gives us a gracelet and he gives us more time; he often does that and gives us a gracelet and gives us more time. Ultimately know that none of this separates us from his love. Nothing separates us from his love.

I remember when I was told thirteen years ago that I had cancer and that I had a large tumor on my prostate and it didn’t look good. I went through a period of months thinking I had cancer. Then the tumor completely disappeared. Some of the doctors thought, “It was a miracle and you were healed of cancer.” Other doctors thought, “This might be some kind of rare deal where you had an acute case of prostatitis that manifested itself in this weird way.” I don’t know, but I do know this: I know Jesus, in one sense or another, rescued me. I also know that he never ceased to love me. I would go to bed during that time and sometimes Barb and I would just hug and hold each other at night, but I also thought I could feel Christ holding me. I felt him holding me. Understand, he is always holding us, he is always holding you. You can’t imagine how much he loves you.

Some of you have loved ones with Alzheimer’s it is so hard to care for a loved one who is experiencing dementia or a loved one who is declining in years and to care for them. Know that none of us can separate us from his love. I have seen people with advanced Alzheimer’s who didn’t even know their family but were still talking about Jesus because they still felt that union, they still felt that presence of Christ with them. Even if they don’t feel it, Jesus is there holding them. I really, truly believe that.

Barb’s dad was 90 years old when he died. We brought Barb’s mom and dad out here to Colorado for their last years. He had a stroke when he was 61, so the last 29 years of his life he was paralyzed in half of his body he could not speak normally. In the latter years, he really couldn’t speak at all. When he died, the nurses at the Johnson Center said, “We miss him because he loved Jesus so much. He couldn’t speak, but he could sing. He would sing hymn after hymn about the Lord. He could pray. He couldn’t speak or converse but he could pray.” Jesus was always there. “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

We get older in life. As I get older, a lot of my friends are getting older too. We laugh because we get out of a chair there is this slow standing up and you get everything straight and then you start to move and at first you are kind of tight and after you walk a few steps you are pretty limber, but it takes a little bit of time. As you get older, life changes in a lot of ways, but it in some ways, Christ just becomes more and more precious as you sense his love and as you love him more.

Maybe you have done some sin in your life that you think could separate you from Christ. Boy, you belong to him and you came to him and you confessed your sin and you accepted him as Savior and Lord and he has forgiven you. That sin is not great enough to separate you. He has forgiven you. It is not just that sin; it is all sin throughout your life. He is your Savior and Lord. He wants you to take sin seriously. He wants us to pursue holiness and to grow in sanctification but know, live life in confidence, no sin you ever have committed, or will, can separate you from the love of God in Christ. He is your Savior and he is your Lord.

Paul then says that the supernatural can’t separate us. Death can’t separate us and life can’t separate us and the supernatural powers cannot separate us from Christ form the love of Christ. Paul uses three Greek words, the word angeloi, and then the word archai, and then he uses the word dunamis. These words are all supernatural and they all refer to supernatural powers. The word angeloi refers to angels, it is in the plural for angelos, which is the singular and we get our English word angel from this word. The word literally means messenger because many angels served the throne of God in messaging, but angels are also called watchers and guardians and there are warrior angels and a great complexity in the angelic realm and amongst the angelic host and the angelic hierarchy. Paul is probably, here, referring to fallen angels because the holy angels have no desire to separate you from God or the love of Christ, so Paul is probably referring to fallen angelic powers here. It is true that at one time, at the dawn of time, many of the angels fell. That as once God created these spiritual beings called angels; he gave them free will, even as when he created us, he gave us free will.

Free will is precious to God; he doesn’t want automatons; he doesn’t want robots. He wants a free people and he has given this precious gift. He has given us moral volition, moral autonomy. This is what makes us culpable. Some of the angels fell, the devil amongst them, the devil the mightiest amongst them. Perhaps that fall is described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, although those passages have interpretive difficulty. Part of the angelic host fell and the demonic realm is real. There is spiritual warfare taking place on this earth and it is reflected in many things that happen in many arenas, from Hollywood and the entertainment industry to the whole world of pornography, to the academic world and all of this world. Spiritual welfare is interwound with current events. There are struggles between principalities and heavenly places and between powers of darkness and light. Yet, Paul is saying we need not fear because Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He protects his people.

In the winter of 1855, in southern England on February 9, 1855, people woke up and they were amazed because snow covered the ground. This is rare in southern England. This had been a harsh winter, that winter of 1854 to 1855, a harsh winter. People saw snow covering the ground. In the region of Devon, they saw these strange prints in the snow. These prints were cloven hoof prints and they went in the snow and up the sides of buildings on the walls and over the roof tops and they went for 100 miles. These cloven hoof prints, bipedal, a two-legged animal, were seen by thousands of people so that the London Times and the Illustrated London News, both ran the headlines, “The Devil Walks in Devon.” I don’t know what happened. I know that it has never been explained, and I know that today explanations are still offered. I know that some scientists have suggested that it might have been a badger. If you have ever tracked a badger (and who hasn’t?) you know that their hind feet fall perfectly in the prints of the front feet. So, by looking at their tracks they look bipedal and they are quadrupeds.

Nevertheless, I don’t think badgers have cloven hoofs so it doesn’t seem to fit there. Others have suggested, maybe it was traveling menagerie, a traveling zoo, and maybe a kangaroo got loose. Certainly, kangaroos are bipedal, but I don’t think they go up the sides of buildings and stuff. Who knows what happened? I can tell you this, though: the Devil doesn’t care about footprints in the snow. The Devil isn’t about that. The Devil is trying to destroy your faith. That is what he longs for. That is what he longs for in the mind, heart, and soul of every human on this planet: the destruction of the faith. That is why demons possess, that is why they oppress, that is why they afflict with illness, disease, emotional stress. That is why demons and that is why the devil tempts and deceives; it is all to destroy faith. That is his purpose. Jesus is promising that he will never let you go, even in the midst of all of this. None of this will separate you from his love.

There is going to come a day on the stage of history when the Antichrist will rise. You think of supernatural evil, there is going to come a day when the Antichrist arrives. He will be supernatural. Did you know that? He will have this insatiable thirst for power, seeking power over much of the earth and controlling an alignment of nations. He will be brilliant; he will have seemingly wonderful solutions for global problems. He will come, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2, by the in workings of Satan, by the energeia, he is the son of perdition, he is a child of hell. He will come with the power of Satan. It says he will perform pretended signs and wonders. Maybe, you think, “Ooh, these must be phony miracles.” That is probably not what the passage of Scripture means because the word is pseudo in the Greek, and the word pseudo can mean for the purpose of a lie. The Antichrist is empowered by the Devil and he does have supernatural power and the miracles that he wrought are for a purpose of a lie, the purpose of deception. That is what the Devil is always about. The Antichrist, the Bible tells us, would deceive even the elect were it possible and will seek to lead the world in the lawlessness, anomia, morally and theologically. He will seek to control the world economically, requiring everyone to receive a mark in order to buy or sell. It is a bad dude. He is probably a pluralistic synchronist. Christ says, “Don’t worry. Let not your heart be troubled. Peace I leave with you, my Peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you.” Christ tells us that he will never fail us, he will never forsake us, he will be with us always.

You know I run into so many Christians who seem afraid today. Some of them are just living in fear. I run into Christians who are like, “Oh, I hope it is a pre-trib rapture because I don’t want to have any suffering, I don’t want to have any of that happen to me. I want to get out of dodge before the fireworks. I hope we are all raptured before the final time of tribulation. It has got to be true emotionally. It just has to be true theologically.” Pre-trib rapture. I hope we have a pre-trib rapture too. How wonderful would that be if we could all be air-lifted out of here before any doo-doo happens? That would be great. You see, the Bible tells us Christ is coming again, he will judge the nations, he will receive his people unto himself. This pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib rapture stuff is debatable. There are passages that could take you in any direction on that. We may have to go through suffering, but don’t worry. First of all, it may not happen in our lifetime. Secondly, if it does, he will be with us. He has power to protect. He will guide us and he will use us for heaven’s sake. When the day is done, we will be with him. He says, “In the world you will have tribulation be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” He wants us to live day by day with joy, with confidence and with peace.

The Bible tells us that not only can the supernatural not separate us from the love of God but neither can anything in the natural world, nothing in the time space continuum. That is what Paul says in this verse. It is an amazing passage. Things present and things to come cannot separate us. He is speaking of the world of time and he is using words enestota and mellonta and these refer to the whole world of measured time. Things present, things to come. Then he says height or depth. These words upsoma and bathos refer to the heights and depths of the universe. He is talking about the time-space continuum. Things present nor things to come nor heights nor depths nor anything else in all creation. He is talking about the time-space universe, nothing in the natural world. He has already said nothing in the supernatural world now he is saying nothing in the natural world can separate us.

I think people are afraid of a lot of things in the natural world. You look at what just happened in Joplin, Missouri, at the power of tornadoes. You look at the power of hurricanes and the power of earthquakes and volcanoes. Sometimes the natural world is kind of a scary place. There are pestilences and diseases and they have the capability of becoming epidemic or pandemic on the earth. Understand that people, human beings, are naturally kind of frightened by lots of things that exist in the world. Understand that none of it can separate us from Jesus. None of it has that power.

Today a lot of people are talking about the ring of fire, that horseshoe shaped belt that surrounds much of the Pacific, 25,000 miles long, with subterranean, shifting tectonic plates causing a lot of earthquakes along the ring of fire and unusual volcanic activity along the ring of fire. In recent years, the three largest earthquakes have taken place along the ring of fire. The earthquake in Chile, the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, and most recently the earthquake on the northeast coast of Japan, 9.0 seismologically. Apocalyptic. They were all on the ring of fire. Many seismologists are now saying there is a section of the ring of fire that is overdue and it is the section on the west coast of the United States and along the coast of California. It is long overdue for some major earthquake. People read that, and it has been in all the newspapers, and people think, “Man, I don’t want to travel to California.” Fifty percent of the active volcanoes on the earth are on the ring of fire. People are afraid of volcanic activity. When you really look at what Paul is writing about here, when Paul says, “neither heights nor depths,” the word for heights there is the word upsoma that word refers nothing from above and bathos, nothing from below, nothing above us from the universe and nothing from below us. There are a lot of people who are afraid of asteroid hits and meteorological phenomena.

I spoke some years ago about the Cretaceous-tertiary theory which scientists propose for the demise and eradication of the dinosaurs. Sixty-five million years ago, according to the scientists, this asteroid impacted the earth around the region of the Yucatan Peninsula. We can find the crater there at the Yucatan Peninsula, a massive crater. We also know that about that time, 65 million years ago, at least in the geological column, between these cretaceous tertiary layers there is this whole layer of iridium. It is pretty much global in all the geological columns in all the earth. They believe that this was an asteroid rich in iridium that impacted the earth and sent this cloud canopy of dust up into the atmosphere and it enveloped the earth and it blocked off the light of the sun and it stopped the process of photosynthesis and therefore it killed plants and having killed plants it killed herbivores and then having killed herbivores it killed carnivores and the dinosaurs became extinct.

Now, just recently, just in the last few years they have made another discovery off the coast of India and it is a massive crater under the ocean. It dates to the same time frame as the Yucatan deal. It dates to about 65 million years ago and this asteroid was many, many, many times larger. It would have been devastating on its effects on the earth and its climate. They call that asteroid Shiva and sometimes they call it Kali. In Hindu theology, Brahman is manifested in many deities. In Hindu theology you have Vishnu as the preserver and Shiva who is the destroyer and he is married to Kali, who is the goddess of destruction. These scientists have called this asteroid Shiva and Kali. It would have been devastating. People think, “Wow! It could happen again. If it happened 65 million years ago it could happen again.” Yeah, you are more likely to get hit by lightning. You are more likely to win the lottery. The odds are, in 1,000 years there is not going to be another hit like that.

The truth is the Bible promises that Christ is going to come back and he is going to establish the millennium here on earth and there will be 1,000 years of peace. He wants you to know that. He doesn’t want you to just live in fear. He doesn’t want you to just leave in terror. Someday Christ will establish the New Heavens and the New Earth. He says, “You will rejoice in that which I create and righteousness will reign.” In the meantime, he wants us to live our lives rejoicing always. In the meantime, he wants us to live our lives thanking him and living our lives with joy and serving the cause of heaven on earth. There is work to do. We can’t be paralyzed by fear. Nothing can separate us from his love. He wants us to live everyday with that joy and with that understanding and with that confidence. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.