To Encourage You

Romans 8:37-39 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In the passage above we are told that neither “height nor depth” can separate us from the love of God.  So, what does this mean? To what do height and depth refer? Well, like so much else in the Bible, it is always good to compare Scripture with Scripture, and in particular to search for other places where the same words are used.  When we do this, we find that the only other place this same word “height” is used in all the Bible is in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, which says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”  Here the words “lofty opinion” are translated from the same Greek word as “height” in Romans 8. So, in 2 Corinthians 10, we find that a “height” is some high-sounding argument coming from somewhere other than the Scriptures that seems to have legitimacy because it’s coming from some learned and intellectual source. 

For example, some of the leading arguments against the existence of God or the Christian faith come from very intelligent individuals; atheists, like Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens, who see the Christian faith as nothing more than the wishful thinking of weak people. They would tell us that all this about the love of God in Scripture may make someone feel good, but it isn’t good, because it’s all a lie. These men are intelligent, learned men.  Their arguments are designed to dispute the Word of God and to crush any hope one might take from it. But the God who knows everything would have us know that such high things that come from such high-sounding men will never, in actuality, separate anyone from His great love.

Nor will any “depths.” So where is this word used elsewhere? In some places it refers to the deep things of God, e.g., His very deep knowledge, or His very deep love (Ephesians 3:18-19). Surely it is not those depths that would separate us from the love of God.  Rather, they would only make us more certain of it. But then the Bible also mentions the “deep things of Satan” (Revelation 2:24).  Here it is talking about the false teaching that had crept into the church of Thyatira, where a false prophetess had taught that church that it was perfectly fine for its members to commit fornication. The same is happening in many churches today where sexual sin isn’t called out for the abomination against God that it is, but is spoken of as a virtue, or even called “love.” Those deep things won’t separate a true believer from the love of God, in that the one who loves God will discern these things for the wickedness that they are.

It’s God’s Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer that teaches him or her the Truth of the Word as they read and study it, and among the things He teaches us are to reject both the “high things” and the “deep things” of this world that would argue against or seek to distort the nature of His ever-present love.  God loves the believer and nothing can ever separate us from that love – including the ungodly teachings of those in the world who have rejected Him.