Blessed Assurance

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christos?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who 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 (powerful) to separate us from the love of God which is in Christos Iesou our Lord."  Romans 8:35, 37

After many, many centuries these words are a source of comfort for the constantly believing ones.  These words pulsate with incredible power and hope.  One can tell that these words are the product of a life lived deeply and richly in Iesou.

Paul was a spiritual pioneer in Iesous.  Paul said, "for me to live is Christos." That statement was the secret to the rich power of his life.  Paul also said that he "gave up all the trappings of earthly prestige and success."  He said that "such things were a hindrance to following the Iesou."  And so that no one would misinterpret his motive Paul emphatically stated that he counted the cosmic definition of success as dung.

Paul had found in the person of the Iesous the meaning of life.  For Paul and countless others the Iesous is the Logos.  That is, He is the Word of Life.  The spiritual life is higher than the physical life.  The spiritual life is cultivated under both pleasant and difficult conditions.  Life is filled with many challenges, but the spiritual one knows that he does not face these challenges alone.

He knows that the temporal life has been swallowed up by the spiritual life.  The temporal order has an inherent and relentless jealousy of the spiritual life.  It seeks to hold the attention of the spiritual life by appealing to the base instincts.  Flattery, sensual pleasure, inordinate business, and zombie-like attention to entertainment.

Paul has known the risks of the spiritual life, but it is an identity that he will not discard because of negative temporal experiences.  He knows that he belongs to a higher order, and he will not capitulate to a lesser life.  He is unashamedly bold and decisive about this matter.  There is no compromise for him.  Paul knows the reality of communion with God.  He will never walk away from that eternal encounter for the Siren song of triviality.

Life can be disconcerting and discouraging, but Paul knows enough about being a spiritual one that he does not allow the momentary light affliction to eclipse his grasp of the reality of the Iesous.  Paul knows that those things that are allowed to pass by will not stay in his life.  He knows that above the dark and threatening storm there is the love of Iesou.  Paul has blessed assurance.  His belief structure is sound.  He has not built his life on the sand.  He has built his life upon the Rock of the Iesous.

Because he has founded his life upon the Iesous Paul knows a radically different view of life.  He does not walk between the shadows seeking to affirm a religious position.  Remember Paul was a Pharisee.  He walked away from religion.  He found that religion was hostile to real spiritual life.  The life that God offers in Iesous is not religious.  God offers eternal life in the Iesous.

Paul believes that this temporal life with its array of threats and opportunistic problems are overcome and supplanted by the love of Iesous.  Things can get really bad in this life, and sometimes we can lose everything that others have told us are the marks of success.  You feel ashamed that your things have disappeared from your life.  Beloved the 'stuff' is gone, but the love of God remains.  One can recover and buy new stuff and reclaim social acceptance.  Hopefully, though, something new has taken over in your life and you have learned the folly of living for the accumulation of stuff.

Paul got rid of his stuff to make room for the living Iesous.  Do you have stuff in your life that is keeping you from Iesous?  Do you feel that without the stuff life would be so different?  You're right.  Do you feel trapped by stuff in your life? I mean people, things, and circumstance that you need to let go.  God's plan is better than your plan.  God can make all things new for you.

Read Paul's words in these verses.  God can take the most adverse encounter and change it for the good, and there is nothing in this life that we will experience that will separate us from Him.  Are you ready to live for God?   Has he been speaking to you about releasing those temporal things that you have come to believe are essential?  Take all the stuff before God and leave the stuff at the prayer altar.  Don't be surprised if you see me there with stuff that I have to discard.  Blessings to you.

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