Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35 KJV
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35 NASB
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. 2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. 2Corinthians 5:14 NASB
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:19 KJV
And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:19 NASB
While the truth of the love of Christ permeates the entire New Testament Scriptures, the phrase, “The Love of Christ,” only occurs in the three instances noted above. Each, in turn, highlights a different truth:
Romans 8:35 The Salvation and Security it Provides
Paul has reached the summit of his argument in chapter 8. Not only has the great plan of God’s salvation been presented in the wondrous scope of its provision, to it has been added the transforming effect it shall have on creation itself. Now as he reaches his grand crescendo, he reminds us of the security and assurance it affords.
Our heads, our minds are addressed and we are given the wondrous promise of eternal life. He surveys every conceivable circumstance, every possible foe; he ransacks earth, sea, and hell; he considers every possible power; his conclusion is that such is the love of Christ, that nothing can possibly separate the believer from the Christ Who loves.
2 Corinthians 5:14 The Cords of Constraint it Imposed
In 2 Corinthians 5, it is our hands that are strengthened. Paul feels a tremendous constraint. The love of Christ has enveloped him as chains envelop a prisoner. He is captive to the love of Christ and is held in its joyous grip, a willing captive to love.
That love so hemmed in Paul’s way that all thought of self-will was abolished. Willingly he surrendered, determined that he would henceforth not live unto himself but for the One Who had died for him (2 Cor 5:15).
Every relationship, every goal, and every aspiration was held subservient to the one overarching consideration – his response to love.
Ephesians 3: 19 An Ocean to Occupy
The third reference to the “love of Christ” is found in Paul’s prison prayer in Ephesians 3. There, his longing for the believers is expressed in words which almost border on the unbelievable. Concepts are spoken of such as being filled with all the fullness of God; of knowing the unknowable; and of knowing a love which is beyond knowing. Our hearts are now addressed.
Paul places before them for our meditation the grand subject of the love of Christ. It is an ocean to swim in, a sea to set sail upon which is endless and fathomless.
We would write over the title, “Impossible Mystic” were it not for the closing reminder of the One Who is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” This love is open for the personal discovery of every believer.
The love of Christ is presented for the sufferer, for the servant, and for the student. May we each be increasingly occupied with that love and its ultimate display and continuing experience?
Consider:
In Romans, the love of Christ guarantees “no separation.” Note what it guarantees in the other passages.