Churchman's Pulpit : Easter Day and Season, vii. 332 (Temple). Expositor^ 1st Ser., iii 119 (Cox).
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An Inseparable Love.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- cip.alities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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. viii. 38, 39.
1. We always think of this chapter as St. Paul's finest com- position, and perhaps the most precious legacy which he bequeathed to the Church. It is a noble piece of literary work, full of choice language and deep philosophic thought. As a picture of the Christian life and its possessions and hopes, it reaches a sublime elevation which is nowhere else attained except in the lofty sayings of Jesus. And the best of it is kept to the last. The climax and peroration are where they ought to be. They form the grand Hallelujah Chorus which brings the oratorio to a close.
^ A great French critic remarks upon St. Paul's indifference to style, the rough, rugged sentences of the Apostle, with their abrupt transitions, their lack of grace and finish, falling gratingly on the Frenchman's sensitive ear. And no reader of St. Paul's writings will challenge the truth of this criticism, for there is absolutely nothing of the conscious rhetorician about him ; he is too intent upon pouring out his mind and heart, too eager to get into direct, living contact with men, to think of elegance of style. But, now and again, when he becomes impassioned, when in the progress of argument or exhortation some of the grander truths of life, or some of its vivifying hopes, come pressing upon him, then the preacher, the expounder, the controversialist, the coun- sellor, the pastor, becomes a seer. Brain and heart getting on fire, the thoughts that come, come molten, and fashion themselves naturally, without any need of art, into forms of beauty ; and so we have his hymn to Charity, his ode to Immortality, and here his paean to Love Divine.
2. These rapturous words are the climax of the Apostle's long demonstration that the Gospel is the revelation of "the
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I40 AN INSEPARABLE LOVE
righteousness which is of God by faith," and is thereby "the power of God unto salvation." What a contrast there is between the beginning and the end of this argument! It started with sombre, sad words about man's sinfulness and aversion from the knowledge of God. It closes with this sunny outburst of triumph. Like some stream rising among black and barren cliffs, or melan- choly moorlands, and foaming through narrow rifts in gloomy ravines, it reaches at last fertile lands, and flows calm, the sun- light dancing on its broad surface, till it loses itseK at last in the unfathomable ocean of the love of God.
What we have before us is, first of all, love — a love which brings us into indissoluble union with God in Christ ; it is called " the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Next, we have a rapid list of the forces in the universe which might be con- ceived capable of separating us from that love. And then we have the persuasion which prevails above them all. The persuasion is mentioned first, but it may be taken last, as it closes the great argument.
I. A Love that will not let go. IL Powers that are Powerless. IIL A Persuasion that Prevails.
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A Love that will not let go,
i. The Love of God.
" Who shall separate us from the love of God ? **
1. "The love of God" may mean our love to God or God's love to us : which does St. Paul mean ? He certainly means God's love to us : " Who shall separate us from the love of God ? " In the argument of this Epistle the reality of God's love is confidently assumed. St. Paul was no shallow optimist, easily contented with the colour and glitter of the surface of things ; he recognized as frankly and vividly as any pessimist can do the dark enigmas of nature and life; yet, notwithstanding this recognition, the fact of God's love is the fundamental article of his creed. What-
ROMANS VIII. 38, 39 141
ever may perplex him, he never suspects that the cosmic trouble may arise in some defect of this love ; in his conviction it is the primary, central truth of the universe.
Eeaders of JVIatthew Arnold will remember that in his essay on St. Paul he interprets our text as if the Apostle were exulting in his own love of God instead of God's love of him ; exulting in a love proceeding from himself instead of a love which found him and carried him away with it. It shows almost as strange a lack of insight as does the same writer's conception of the God of Israel as an impersonal force. The secret of St. Paul's calm out- look and triumphant hope, the power that enabled him to rise above all evil and fear of evil was, most assuredly, not his own love of God, but God's love of him. The great saints of the Church have never thought much of their own love of God. It is His love of them and their fellows — a love greater than their hearts — that possessed them. " I think I am the poorest wretch that lives," said the dying Cromwell ; " but I love God, or rather (correcting myself) I am loved of God."