It was a big deal to me when I first read that nothing, absolutely nothing, could separate me from the love of God.  This very large idea set on the table of Romans 8:38-39 resonated with a very large desire: to be loved no matter the circumstances.

I once asked my parents if they would love me even if I became a drug addict.  They responded, “You’ll never do that.”  I was dissatisfied.  I wanted to know if they would love me in depravity.  When pushed, they gave way to my set up and said, “Of course.  We will always love you.”  When I asked this question of God, he responded that there was no thing that could separate me from his love.  “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NKJV)* 

My only question as a young Christian was “Why, then, do I not feel loved?”  This answer to this is multi-faceted and a long history of me, but there is one important aspect to remember, true then and today.  Although the love of God is ever present, seeking me, I can create obstacles that hinder my experience of God’s love.

Consider stepping back a bit in Romans 8 to verse 20:

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it to hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.  Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” 

We are like creation in that we were once subjected to futility, a purposeless, unfruitful existence.  Now, with the work of Christ, defeating principalities and releasing our spirits from the bondage of futility, we can be fruitful and life-giving in our spirits.  But we still have our bodies which “groan within ourselves.”

The body: My flesh and mind get in the way of my spirit, my true self.  I have long, and often, said that walking a Christian life is allowing your spirit to be its natural self.  My spirit naturally longs to walk with God.  To know God’s thoughts toward me, about me, toward others, and about others.  My spirit was created for God.  In some ways, you could say God is my soulmate.  However, I sit here at my desk subjected to a physical life.  My spirit is free to live its natural life, but my body has its current subjected condition to deal with.

Sometimes my body is tired or frustrated or my mind is bombarded with thoughts in “enmity against God.”  (Romans 8:6)  However, these things I can put off by the release Christ gave and the hope God set forth even at the beginning of time.  Like creation, we are subjected “in hope.” (verse 20) And we are “saved in this hope.”  If I am downhearted not seeing my Lord each day, I remember that “hope that is seen is not hope…but if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”

So I pick up my body and my mind and set them aside.  I allow my spirit to walk through Christ’s redemption and into God’s love and communion.  It is precisely this act of setting aside my carnality that tells me, oh I am hopeful.  I am persevering towards God’s glory.

This is my part in my spirit’s freedom.  Pick up the weights and cast them aside.  “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”  (Colossians 2:6)

Since then I have been taught that nothing can separate me from the love of God, neither should I separate myself.  I know truth that God loves me, so I walk in it, rejoice in it, and find my most natural freedom in it.

*A similar list is found in Colossians 2 speaking of those things which Christ disarmed and triumphed over in the cross.