Take a look at the blunder that Martin Luther made after reading Paul’s statement that nothing shall separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39).

Luther says: “Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your faith in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. This life is not a place where righteousness can exist.  No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery a thousand times each day.” 

This is nothing but a devilish statement from a so-called great Christian theologian. Our faith in Christ cannot be strong if we kill and commit adultery 1,000 times each day.

Nothing shall separate us from the love of God. Nevertheless, sin separates us from the love of God. There is no contradiction because both statements are true.

God continues to love us, even when our sins separate us from Him: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:9).

When we sin, God’s love for us remains. Our sin does not make Him stop loving us. But when we sin, we separate ourselves from God’s love. God does not move away, but we move away: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13). God does not divorce sinners. But sinners divorce God.

Kingdom dynamics

Before we can internalise the scripture that nothing will separate us from God’s love, we must first acknowledge that sin will separate us from His love. Otherwise, we will abuse the privilege of God’s everlasting love. We will tell ourselves that it does not matter what we do, how we live, and how we behave. This ensures that His everlasting love becomes inapplicable to us.

The scripture cannot be broken. God’s everlasting love will not come to an end. Nevertheless, we must guard it jealously. We must not take God’s love for granted because His everlasting love can send us into disastrous captivity.

When Israel was going into captivity, God told the people: “I am sending you into captivity because I love you with an everlasting love.” “I am sending you into captivity because I don’t want anything to separate you from my love.”

“After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:10-11).

We like to quote the end of this scripture, but we ignore the beginning. God loves the Israelites with an everlasting love, nevertheless, His love sends them into captivity.

That gives us two options. God can love us with an everlasting love and His love sends us into captivity, or He loves us with an everlasting love and His love does not send us into captivity.

Which do we prefer?

We need to recognise that God’s everlasting love can kill us. And then, His everlasting love will bring us back to life. However, we would have gone through the agony of death.

His everlasting love can forgive us our sins. Or His everlasting love can redeem us from destruction after we have been destroyed.

Which do we prefer?

Old Testament Jesus

Everything changes when we come to realise that Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. It took me 25 years to realise this. It took Moses 40 years to be able to fulfil his ministry. It took Abraham 25 years to have Isaac. He even had Ishmael on the way. It was not a mistake, it was appointed.

It took me 25 years to realise that Jesus is the God who told Saul: “Go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel, and donkey.” (1 Samuel 15:3).

If you do not believe, here is the same Jesus in the New Testament talking about killing children: “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts.” (Revelation 2:22-23).

But how can the God who is love kill babies and nursing infants? Is that not a contradiction? I have news for you.

God says: “You shall not kill.” However, God Himself kills millions of people every day. It is God who kills everyone who dies. It is God who appoints the day of death. Some He kills with death. Some He kills with sickness. Some He kills with accidents. Some He kills with old age.

It is His prerogative. He is God and He is not answerable to anyone. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). God has absolute rights over life and death.

He says: “It shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men who are settled in complacency, who say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil.’ Therefore, their goods shall become booty, and their houses a desolation; they shall build houses, but not inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine.” (Zephaniah 1:12-13).

Enduring mercies

God killed all the sinners in the time of Noah. Did He love them with an everlasting love? Before I answer, let me say this for emphasis: God killed everybody, only eight people were left. 

But did God love them with His everlasting love? Yes, indeed! He killed them because He loves them. How do we know this? We know because when Jesus died on the cross, He went to Hades to preach to them and to save them. (1 Peter 3:18-20).

God’s mercy always rejoices over His judgment. It is God’s mercy, and not His judgment, that endures forever. God even redeems those He destroys. The psalmist says:

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” (Psalm 103:2/4).

He destroys us, redeems our lives from destruction, then crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Here is the process: “The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up.” (1 Samuel 2:6).

“Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.” (Isaiah 26:19).

Do not let the everlasting love of God kill and destroy you.

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