Romans 8:26-39

Nothing can separate us from the love of God

In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words.  All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God’s people.  We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him.  They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose, and he has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son, so that his Son would be the first of many children.  God then accepted the people he had already decided to choose, and he has shared his glory with them.

 

God’s Love

What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us?  God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won’t he freely give us everything else?  If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them?  Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed! Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God’s right side, speaking to him for us.  Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death?  It is exactly as the Scriptures say,

“For you we face death

all day long.

We are like sheep

on their way

to be butchered.”

In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us.  I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Contemporary English Version (CEV) - for other versions see BibleGateway.com