Romans 8:38-39
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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.”
Where this sits
The close of Romans 8, written by a man who elsewhere lists his own imprisonments, beatings and shipwrecks. The chapter began with no condemnation.
Reflection
Paul is not describing a feeling. I am persuaded is the language of someone who has examined a case and reached a verdict, and the list that follows reads like a lawyer eliminating possibilities one at a time.
And he does it in pairs, deliberately. Death and life — the two states available to anyone. Things present and things to come — all of time except the past, which is already settled. Height and depth — the whole vertical axis, which in his day carried astrological weight: the highest and lowest points of a star's course, thought to govern fate.
Between the pairs there is nowhere left. That is the construction's purpose. He is not saying these things are unlikely to separate you; he is closing every category in which a separation could occur.
Then the catch-all: nor any other created thing. If Paul has missed something, it belongs to this clause — and the clause tells you why it fails. It is created. Whatever it is, it is on the wrong side of the line between maker and made, and it is not in a position to overrule him.
What is worth noticing is what Paul does not list. Your own failure is not among the powers named — but neither is it exempted, because it too is a created thing, and the argument has already covered it three verses earlier with the question who is he who condemns.
- Theme:
- Love
- Book:
- Romans