“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.” Romans 8:38-39
Did you notice how the text of this passage starts off? It begins with the word “for.”
“For I am persuaded.” What does that mean? It shows that Paul was continuing the previous thought which was : “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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God , which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
Paul’s persuasion was founded in Jesus Christ, and that helped Paul to be even more determined, because it helped to bring him to victory.
The dictionary defines the word Persuasion as:“To make someone do or believe something by giving them a good reason to do it or by talking to them and making them believe it”
Paul was persuaded to the point of death because he saw that he was unworthy of such a noble calling to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He saw a risen Jesus on Damascus Road, He heard the command to join Him, he believed his calling, despite what others thought about him.
Have you ever done something so wrong that if it ever got out in the open, you felt you would be in big trouble and never forgiven? Paul did. He was on a death binge against the Early Church, convinced that what he was doing was right because he had the direct support of the religious leaders. Paul was on his way through Damascus when he would run into a series of events that would forever change his life. He met Jesus.
What a radical change of persuasion Paul went through. from a murderer of the followers of Jesus to a persuader that Jesus was worth dying for.
“For I am persuaded….”
Paul was persuaded that Jesus Christ would not leave him, and that he would not be allowed to leave Christ, and this stirred him up to deeds of daring.
Where there is real cause for fighting, there cannot be victory without striving! Paul was so persuaded that Jesus Christ would never leave him that he became a fighter, and he went in with all his might against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Paul had been persuaded by his own experience of suffering unto Jesus Christ.
- Paul endured persecution.
- Paul was imprisoned.
- Paul experienced famine.
- Paul was shipwrecked.
- Paul suffered scorn, scandal, pain of body, depression of spirit.
“A night and a day” Paul said, “I have been in the deep”.
Many a night and many a day he had been in spiritual deeps…… and yet; he survived them all. Paul could testify to the faithfulness of His Lord, and say at the end, as the issue of his sufferings, ‘I am persuaded that nothing in creation is able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
Paul is persuaded that they are not able to separate us……and yet these are the strongest forces imaginable- Death, Life, Angels, Principalities, Powers. Paul summons all our foes in this life, and sets them in battle array against us. And when he has added up the total of all their worth, he says that he is persuaded that they are not able…. to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
This passage really hit home with me, listening to Paul go through all the enemies he was facing on a daily basis: Death, Life, Angels, Principalities, Powers. I am facing my daily enemy in the form of 8 chemotherapy pills a day, with a one day drip concentrate that makes me feel like some of things Paul was talking about.
Specifically the one about being shipwrecked. But one thing I do, is take passages of Scripture like this one and make it my badge of honor, that I can say by days end that my persuasion is to be founded in Jesus Christ, to be found in Him as I lay my head down at night to sleep. I want to be determined in this because if it helped to bring Paul to victory, I want the same.
I’m beginning to get a whole new light on suffering through this passage. For sure, the suffering I’m going through isn’t happening because God doesn’t love me. It certainly isn’t because He isn’t powerful enough to help. Suffering has simply become a part of the experience. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us” Romans 8:18
Paul’s persuasion was founded in Jesus Christ, and that helped Paul to be even more determined, because it helped to bring him to victory.
What is your persuasion? What are you bound and determined to do with what Christ has given you? Can you say that whatever the enemies that come in battle array against you that none of it will separate you from the love of God, in Christ Jesus.
If you were given an untimely report, that would challenge your faith in such a way as Paul’s, and say at day’s end that the victory has already been had in Jesus Christ, and that……is enough for me; no matter what.
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“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.” Romans 8:38-39
Here’s today’s video, God bless……
Walking the Berean Road 