The Inseparable Love of God (1) [ Romans 8:38-39 ] Why can nothing separate us from the love of God? 1. Because God’s love is eternal. Romans 8:29a says: “For those whom He foreknew…” The word “foreknew” refers to before eternity began —before the creation of heaven and earth . The phrase “those whom He foreknew” does not simply mean knowing about someone intellectually, but rather loving them. In other words, it refers to “those whom God loved from eternity past.” Amos 3:2a says: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” If “known” merely meant intellectual knowledge, that would imply that God only knew Israel and did not know the other nations—which cannot be true, because the all-knowing God lacks knowledge of nothing. Therefore, “I have known you only” means “I have loved you only.” God loved Israel among all the nations of the earth. Hosea 13:5 says: “I knew you in the wilderness , in the land of great drought.” The “wilderness” was where the Israelite...
They were tempting Jesus not to die on the cross but to live.
When Jesus was on the cross, people passing by shook their heads and
mocked Him, saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild
it in three days, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from
the cross." The chief priests,
along with the teachers of the law and the elders, also mocked Him, saying,
"He saved others, but He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we
will believe in Him. He trusts in God;
let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said, 'I am the Son of
God.'" Even the robbers who were
crucified with Him heaped insults on Him (Matthew 27:38-44, Modern Korean
Bible).
When I meditated on these verses, I thought that just as Jesus was
tempted by the devil before He began His public ministry (4:1-11), He was also
tempted by the devil’s agents (1) "the people passing by," (2)
"the chief priests," "the teachers of the law and the
elders," and (3) the two "robbers" crucified with Him while He
was on the cross. In short, the
temptation can be summarized as: "Save yourself from the cross." In
other words, they were tempting Jesus not to die on the cross but to live.
When we face such temptations, if we, like the apostle Peter, fall into
Satan’s temptation and think only of human matters rather than God’s work, we
may refuse to take up our cross and seek to save our lives. However, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit
and think of God’s work, we will obey Jesus’ words, take up our cross, follow
Him, and lay down our lives for Him. Jesus’ words are: "Whoever wants to
save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find
it" (Ref.: 16:22-25, Modern Korean Bible).
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