Useful Bible Studies > Romans Commentary > chapter 8
Of course, some people refuse to accept God’s love by their wicked behaviour and evil attitudes (1:18-32). Unless such people turn to God, they will only know his anger, and not his love (2:5-11).
However, God’s people are the people who accept his love. Nothing can separate them from that love. In other words, no enemy, and nothing else, can take away from them the love that God has for them. God’s love will be with them through their whole lives (Psalm 23:6). God’s love will bring them to their true home, with Christ in heaven (John 14:2-3).
Paul insists that even the highest and the deepest places cannot separate them from that love. One idea is that, by those words, Paul means heaven, and hell, and their inhabitants. Even the most powerful angel (special servant of God) has no power to separate God’s people from that love. Even the most cruel demon (servant of the devil), or the devil himself, is unable to take God’s love away from them.
Another idea is that Paul is here using the highest and deepest places as a word-picture for human experiences. One person may have great honour, wealth and happiness. Another person is poor and weak, and nobody cares about him. These experiences change through our lives (Philippians 4:11-13) - but God’s love remains constant, whatever our circumstances may be.
God created the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them. There is nothing, either in the natural world or in the spirit world that he did not create (Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3). So of course none of these things is more powerful than the love that he shows by means of Christ (5:8-10). Nothing can prevent the operation of his love on behalf of his people, whom he loves (8:31-32).
Next part: Paul's desperate prayer (Romans 9:1-2)
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