Nothing Can Separate Us
To be sure, it is not Easter Sunday but Holy Saturday that more accurately reflects and fits the nature of our human life. We are still awaiting Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it with trust and hope. Transformation is coming… a transformation that will end sin’s reign and lift up our experience of the love of Jesus. Patience friends, God has chosen us and this love is so strong a force that nothing can fully separates us from the Divine work in us. It continues with an assurance that even on such a day as this…absolutely Nothing Can Separate Us.
Scripture: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NRSV)
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.God’s Love in Christ Jesus
Romans 8:28-39 (NRSV)
Message: On this day, between Good Friday and our celebration of the resurrection tomorrow, we are to experience the birth pangs of a pregnant creation yearning for full deliverance. God’s Spirit is right there helping us along, letting us know that from the beginning of it all God was shaping the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the life of His Son…Yes, God is for us and there is nothing we could do to deserve it or thwart it. No matter whom you are or what you have done or what grief you face it is true. God is for us and still with us. He died for us and experienced hell for us and continues to demonstrate this love for us each day. God is a power so constant, a perfect love so unconditional, that it brings us to say, “God is love.” And in that tension of rebirth and love we are connected, caught up, tied up and wrapped up as a witness to the Gospel and the forgiveness received. That is the good news of the seed sprouted in us that grows and branches out like a tree. Friends, the power of the Spirit, who raised Christ from the dead, is continuously at work in the world now even as we await the return. You see we live now bearing witness to a resurrection that shows us that love is stronger than hatred and that love is stronger that death. Friends, Jesus descend into the darkness of our lives and the abyss of our age and takes us by the hand to light the way. When we receive this love and the wonderful grace it bestows…when we learn that Jesus is a love that lasts and He is a Lord that lives then we also see that in Him we have a labor that lingers. God, in this infinite love, is preparing us for our inheritance. So let us love, let us forgive, let us be justified, let us labor and be sanctified. Let us rejoice that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Pray this Blessed Sabbath that we rest well indeed, for tomorrow there is work to be done and a grave to be conquered. Pray in this pregnant moment between Good Friday and Easter that in the tension of our losses, burdens, pains, brokenness and sins that God’s love would bring us the resurrection of our spirit and through His grace the life everlasting. Pray we get through the handwringing and the honest doubt of this day. Pray our hope and faith is reignited like the candles in the Sanctuary on Easter morning.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 