Height or Depth - 25 April 2008

For I am convinced that …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 8:39 NIV

I had a moment of uncertainty with this one. Height nor depth? What did Paul mean by including a couple of words that I couldn’t make into anything except measurement? But then Paul goes on to say ‘or anything else in all creation’. There is no doubt in his mind at least that the created world is completely in God’s control. These days we like to think that we have creation nicely under control ourselves until a Tsunami or an earthquake makes us realize that actually we don’t. In fact a bad flood is a bit of a disaster here.

In Paul’s day I expect that nature was just that little bit closer. And he had his own experiences to support this. When He was shipwrecked on Malta he was bitten by a viper whilst searching for firewood and suffered no ill effects. So whilst nature can be quite a destructive force it still cannot separate us from the love of God. Paul also uses the same words in this passage from Ephesians;

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3:17-19

God’s love has dimensions and those dimensions are huge, I suspect from pole to pole, at every latitude, from the very bottom of the deepest sea trench to the farthest reaches of the universe. We simply cannot travel out of it so wherever we are and whatever we are doing His love encompasses us.

Is there any natural event, or any created thing that you fear? Does the knowledge that God is in control over that bring you comfort?

Actually there is something that can separate you from God’s love. You. You can ignore it, not believe in it and turn your back on it. It will still be there but you will just not be acknowledging it exists. But then why would anybody want to do that?