Nothing can separate us

Think back over the people you've met this term: Christians on the World Watch List, the 21, Stephen, Daniel and his friends. What could persecution take from them? Freedom. Home. Job. Family. Reputation. Safety. Even life.

Now the harder question: what couldn't it take?

The apostle Paul answered that question in a letter to the Christians in Rome. Within about seven years, many of them would be killed under Emperor Nero. This is the passage they would have been holding onto. It's the last passage of your Year 7–9 Bible course, and it might be the best.

What you'll learn

• Paul's courtroom argument in Romans 8: God is for us, and Christ is praying for us
• Why nothing in all creation can separate God's people from his love, even in suffering
• How that love runs through the whole Bible story, from Creation to New Creation

The courtroom

Paul doesn't pretend suffering is small. Earlier in the chapter he says:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)

Then he pictures a courtroom. Like a lawyer, he asks a series of questions, daring anyone to make a case against God's people:

"What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:31–32)

• If God is on our side, who can win against us? People may oppose Christians, but no one can overturn the fact that God is for them.
• Will God hold back anything we need? He didn't even hold back his own Son. The proof that God is for us isn't that life goes smoothly. It's the cross.
• Who can accuse us, or condemn us? God himself has declared his people in the right. And look who else is in the courtroom:

"Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us." (Romans 8:34)

Remember Stephen? A human court condemned him, but he looked up and saw Jesus at God's right hand. Paul says Jesus is still there, praying for his people. The most important person in the courtroom is on their side.

The great list

Next, Paul lists seven hard things in Romans 8:35, things he had been through most of himself (2 Corinthians 11:23–28). These aren't imaginary. Then he quotes Psalm 44:22, a lament from a time when God's people felt abandoned. God's people have always suffered, and the Bible lets them say so honestly. Feelings might say "far away"; the promise says "held".

And then:

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37)

Notice: in all these things. Not by avoiding trouble, but in the middle of it, through Jesus who loved us. Then comes the line Paul has been building towards. It's this lesson's key verse:

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38–39)

Death and life, spiritual powers, present and future, height and depth, anything else in all creation. Paul covers everything. What might that list look like for a Year 9 student today? Something like this:

I am convinced that neither a failed exam nor a lost friendship, neither a cruel comment nor a group chat that leaves me out, neither my worst mistake nor my biggest fear, neither what happened last year nor what might happen next year, can cut me off from God's love in Jesus.

Those things still hurt. Paul isn't saying they don't matter. He's saying they can't cut the connection.

Who is the "us" in this promise? Paul is writing to people who belong to Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). And that's an open invitation: anyone who trusts Jesus is included.

Romans 8 and the whole story

In Year 7 you learned the Bible's story in six parts. Here's something remarkable: Romans 8 touches all six.

What has stayed the same through all six parts? God's faithful love. It kept going after people broke the world. It kept its promises to Israel. It came in person in Jesus. It carries the church through persecution. And it will bring everything home in the new creation.

Three years of living it out

Look back over your three years:

• Year 7: identity and prayer. You learned that God adopts his people as his children (Romans 8:15), and that you can talk to him as Father.
• Year 8: wisdom and choices. You learned to choose God's way in friendships, work and words.
• Year 9: faith under pressure. You learned that following Jesus costs something, and that he is worth it.

It's the same chapter. In Year 7 you heard that you can call God Father. Now you hear that nothing can take that away.

Key words

• Separate: to cut off or pull apart. Paul's point is that nothing can cut Christians off from God's love.
• Condemn: to declare someone guilty and deserving punishment.
• Intercede: to speak or pray on someone else's behalf.
• More than conquerors: winning completely, not by escaping trouble, but through Jesus in the middle of it.
• Lament: an honest prayer or song of sorrow and complaint to God.

How this points to Jesus

Every part of Paul's argument rests on Jesus: the Son God didn't spare, the one who died and was raised, the one at God's right hand praying for his people. The love that nothing can separate us from is "the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord". From the garden in Genesis to the sunrise of the new creation, the whole story has been heading here.

Think about it

Take it further

Write your own "neither… nor" list, in the style of Romans 8:38–39, about the things that could worry or hurt you. If you're not a Christian, write about what you would most want to be sure could never be taken from you. If you'd like an anchor for hard days, try learning Romans 8:38–39 by heart.

And if you could write a note to someone starting Year 7 next year, what would you want them to know about the Bible's big story, or about following Jesus?

Three years ago this course started with one book telling one story. That story isn't finished, and you're in it. Here's a blessing to finish with, one God gave his people thousands of years ago:

"‘May the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace.’" (Numbers 6:24–26)

Your worksheet helps you work through Paul's questions, write your own "neither… nor" list and trace God's love through the whole Bible story.