Who shall separate us from the love of Christ

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:35-39). This is a beautiful promise and reality for those who truly believe on Jesus and are willing to "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" (Rev. 14:4). It is wise to note however that the Lamb sometimes leads us into hard places, as the above passage obviously shows us. The reason for that is also mentioned above, saying that we are made to be "more than conquerors through him that loved us." So then what is it that we are supposed to be conquering? Let's allow another passage to tell us the answer by saying the same thing in a little different words: "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God" (I Pet. 4:1,2). It is sin that we must conquer in order to glorify God by living according to his will, which will this passage clearly says is to live apart from sin. Jesus added another element to the equation: "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples" (Jn. 15:8). And what 'fruit' is he talking about? "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance... And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Gal. 5:22-24). The same apostle confirmed the same thing in another place as well: "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin [the old man] might be DESTROYED, that henceforth we should NOT serve sin" (Rom. 6:6).

In order for us to "bear much fruit" as Jesus said, and glorify God thereby, we must put sin to death in our lives. This is not a matter of restraining ourselves from doing wrong things, but rather of literally dying out to the very nature of those wrong things. When this is accomplished in our lives, we will bear the true and real fruit of God's Spirit as naturally as an apple trees produces apples. If we do NOT crucify sin literally then we will never "bear much fruit," and consequently we will never glorify God. James described the 'believer' who does not crucify the sinful nature: "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh" (Jas. 3:11,12). We will never be a "fountain" that gives drink to the thirsty if we do not put sin out of our lives. Jesus made it even more clear: "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (Mat. 7:16-19). Ceasing from sin is the very element on which your salvation and mine hinges. If you don't see that by the conclusion of Jesus' statement above, then you should just go read a mystery novel or something. John the Baptist said that Jesus would "baptize you with the holy Ghost, and with fire" (Mat. 3:11). He went on to say something else too: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Mat. 3:12). The chaff is the part of the wheat plant that is not fruitful, and this is the same exact theme that we have followed through the scriptures throughout this article. The "fire" in this passage is the means for "suffering in the flesh" from I Pet. 4:1, and "crucifying the flesh" from Rom. 6:6 and Gal. 5:24. That fire is also the "conquering" element from Rom. 8:37. And back to Romans 8, you may note that the apostle does NOT say "IN SPITE of all these things [adversities] we are made more than conquerors," but rather "IN all these things we are made more than conquerors through him that loved us."

The truth is that our trials, tribulations, and adversities are the circumstances that give us the opportunity to crucify, or burn the nature of the flesh out of our lives, so that we might "bear much fruit." When we are caught in the squeeze of things so to speak, it is then that the holy Ghost will burn out the sinful nature; IF we refuse to obey our own will in favor of doing God's will, as did Jesus (Lk. 22:42). That is the baptism of fire that John mentioned, and that is the same baptism that Jesus told his disciples that they would have to be baptized with (Mk. 10:39). And this is why we are told, "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). To put an exclamation on the importance of "ceasing from sin"and "bearing much fruit," Jesus made this resolute point when sending the messages to the seven pastors of the congregations in Asia: "He that OVERCOMETH, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Rev. 3:5). The message was a little different to each pastor, but the point was the same: Overcoming or conquering sin completely in this life is the only road to salvation. And it's so strange that all I seem to come across these days is 'Christian' people making every defense and excuse for sin, trying to make a way in the Bible for being saved while retaining sin. I hope that you can see by the irrefutable continuity of scriptural evidence in this writing my friend, that truly "the wages of sin are death" (Rom. 6:23). You will NOT cease from sin, or be saved from the wrath of God AGAINST sin, if you are holding to erroneous doctrines that somehow make a way for sin to remain in our lives as believers in Jesus Christ. Don't believe me? How about one last statement of divine truth from the Bible? "Mortify [put to death] therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked [past tense] some time, when ye lived [past tense] in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col. 3:5-10). Amen? Amen.