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...
In their distress “But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them” (2 Chronicles 15:4). It is easy to be discouraged when we are in distress. If we falter in times of trouble, we are showing that our strength is limited (Prov. 24:10). Therefore, we should not be discouraged. Rather, we must cry out to God in times of trouble (Ps. 120:1). We must always strive to pray in times of trouble (Rom. 12:12). In doing so, God will answer us (Ps. 120:1). When we look at Chronicles 15:4, the Bible says “in their distress”. Here, “in their distress” means in those day of Israel when “it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil” (v. 5). In those days “One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress” (v. 6). At that time the people of Israel we...