For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor messengers, nor sovereignties, not the present, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord
Paul to the Romans 8: 38-39, Concordant New Testament
I recently shared a conversation with a gym friend who had suffered the loss of a child through suicide. What struck me about this conversation is just how much it led me into a deeper understanding of the love of the Lord. As I offered to pray for my brother for Gods help in his grief, he shared with me what so many well meaning believers have been led to believe. That suicide is considered a sin, and that those who commit the act are akin to being a murderer. Are we not destroying what the Lord God has lovingly created? At this moment, I was reminded of the words of the apostle Paul as he laid out all which will never separate us from God {Paul to the Romans 8:38-39}. In fact, I ask the question, what can ever separate us from Gods love? We're told that he who does not love does not know God, because He is love {First Epistle of John 4:8}. I consider this passage to be one of the key verses to truly knowing God. That His love transcends everything. Paul was correct in his letter to the church in Rome that there is absolutely nothing which will ever separate us from the love of the Father, including that most desperate of acts of suicide. As I assured my friend in that moment, God has not abandoned his son, and that he can look forward to that day when they will be reunited once again. But let's continue this topic of the love of God. As Paul has proclaimed, there is nothing which will ever separate us from the love of God. If we are to agree with this, then we are to agree that not even sin will separate us from the love of the Father. What? You mean I haven't been separated from God by my sin, which the church continues to tell us? No, not ever! As Paul has said, there is NOTHING which will ever separate us from the love of the Father.
I grew up in a church theology which spoke to the fact that I lived here in a sinful world and that God dwelled in heaven. This was the separation between myself and God. This, of course, is the separation theology which continues to be preached by those within the church. Of course, this belief not only ignores the truth spoken by Paul in his evangel, but the truth that Christ Jesus gave Himself for the forgiveness of our sins, to take away the sin of the world {Johns Account 1:29}. That Jesus is that propitiation of that which we were once guilty {First Epistle of John 2:22}. How can we be found guilty for that which Jesus has died to {Paul to the Romans 6:10}? So, what is it that will ever distance us from the love of God? It is for this reason that I see the separation theology spoken by the church to be an outright lie. Believe me, I have faced much push back for speaking this belief. But I am speaking the truth of the love we find in the Father. The world may condemn us, but God never will. He has found us to be innocent through the blood shed by His Son on the cross. That ship has sailed. What remains is we who have been redeemed and reconciled unto the Father {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:18}. This is exactly why Paul has proclaimed that we consider ourselves "Dead, indeed, to sin" {Paul to the Romans 6:11}. In our times of heartbreak, we can be assured that the love of the Father covers all.
He who is not loving knew not God, for God is love
First Epistle of John 4: 8, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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