“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39).
Do you notice what is obviously missing from that list of things that cannot separate us from God? YOU, yourself, and SIN! Notice, it is “any OTHER creature” that cannot separate you from God. Only you, yourself can do that. Also, nothing SINFUL is mentioned in that long list of things that cannot separate you, for Paul taught, as do many other scripture writers, that SIN can indeed separate you from God. Paul had just written in verses 12 and 13 of that same chapter, “Therefore BRETHREN, we are debtors, not to the flesh (its pulls and temptations) to live after the flesh, For if ye (you BRETHREN) live after the flesh, ye shall die (the second death as we are ALL going to die the first death regardless of how we live), but if ye through the Spirit (the only way possible) do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live (eternally).” The ONLY humans who will avoid the first death are those true believers still living at the time Jesus Christ returns. All the rest of us will die the first death.
Speaking to His people Israel through His prophet Hosea, the God who changes not, says “All their wickedness (their sinning) is in Gilgal: for there I HATED THEM for the wickedness of their doings. I will drive them out of mine house, I WILL LOVE THEM NO MORE. All their princes are revolters” (See Hosea 9:15). “But your iniquities (their SINS) HAVE SEPARATED BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD, AND YOUR SINS HAVE HID HIS FACE FROM YOU, that He will not hear (when they pray)” (See Isaiah 59:2). And the verse right before that says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (verse 1).
The ONLY thing that will prevent God from saving someone is continued sin. Sin that is not repented of and abandoned SEPARATES US FROM GOD, preventing Him from saving us. As Paul says in Romans 8, no OTHER creature can separate us from God, only we can do that ourselves by continuing in sin as sin separates any human from God if persisted in, if unconfessed and unforsaken!
Remember, Paul told his accusers, “But this I confess to you that according to the Way which they call a sect, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the prophets” (See Acts 24:14). So, Paul absolutely believed what God said through the prophets Hosea and Isaiah. You could have read those verses to Paul and asked, “Is there anything we can do to where God will say to and about us, ‘I will love them no more?’” His reply would have been, “Yes, continue in wickedness and sin!” (Hosea 9:15). You could have asked, “Is there anything WE can do ourselves that will separate us from God?” Paul would have instantly replied, “Iniquity (sin) if continued in and not abandoned will separate you from God” (Isaiah 59:1-2). Remember, Paul said no OTHER creature can separate us from God, and in that long list of things he names in Romans 8 that cannot separate us from God Paul never mentions anything sinful, as he knew and taught that sin will indeed separate us from God.
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). We do not rightly divide the Word when we isolate verses of scripture and build a doctrine wherein we ignore what God has said on a given subject through many other scriptures!!
Jude was not giving an idle warning when he wrote, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (See Jude 21). As an anointed teacher of God, Jude well knew of the texts in Hosea and Isaiah we have just looked at. He knew God had thundered to His ancestors: “I will love them no more!” Such verses of scripture seem shocking to those who have often heard the opposite from preachers they highly respected and were certain taught only the truth of God. Radio preachers and world famous evangelists can be and often are WRONG in some of the things they say and teach. Fail to believe and see that and I guarantee you that you will embrace doctrines that are utterly contrary to the plain truth of scripture.
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest (self-evident), which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying s, murders drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you (warned you) in time past, that they (those believers) who do such things SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD” (Galatians 5:19-20). Paul was making no idle threat to the Galatians, nor was he contradicting what he had written the believers in Rome. He was in full agreement with Jude, Hosea and Isaiah and all other Bible writers. Sin, unabandoned, unconfessed, unforsaken will keep the rebel believer OUT of the kingdom of God!!!
Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE” (John 15:9). And HOW do we continue in Christ’s love? “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love…” (verse 10, same chapter). And what is obviously the opposite of that statement of Jesus Christ? Continue to break our Lord’s commandments, that is, continue in sin, and you will not abide in His love!
One thing, and one thing only, will cut men off from God in any age, under any covenant – SIN! So says your Bible. All too many read that long list of things that CANNOT separate us from God in Romans 8, and think Paul is saying, “For I am persuaded that neither murder, nor incest, nor suicide, nor prostitution, nor any other sinful thing shall be able to separate us from God.” Such sinners think, “Hallelujah, we are still going to heaven no matter what we do!” Again, I warn you, that is a doctrine of demons regardless of who preaches or teaches it.
“Take heed, BRETHREN, lest there be in any of YOU (you brethren) an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God” (Hebrews 3:12). Although God vows never to forsake us, we can forsake Him, and we do so quite effectively by continuing in sin. We then depart from God.
Following the prophet Nathan’s visit, accusing him of adultery and murder, David penned the 51st Psalm wherein he begged God, “Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me” (verse 11). David knew what continued, unconfessed and unforsaken sin could and DOES do. He had witnessed it in the life of his predecessor Saul. God had taken His Spirit from Saul and cut him off. David knew God has no respect of persons and would do the same to him. This is true even of angels. Those angels that sinned were cast away from God.
The blinding power of Satan is staggering. If we don’t get to know the Word of God intimately well and walk in uninterrupted obedience to God, we can embrace error that is far reaching and deadly in its consequences! We can begin to teach others doctrines that are utterly false and have no basis in scripture. That is WHY James warns believers, “My brethren, be not many masters (teachers), knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” (James 3:1). God is highly displeased when those who teach the scriptures teach error. All teachers will answer to God for what they teach others.
Before writing Romans 8, Paul had written in Romans 6: “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin UNTO DEATH, or of obedience unto righteousness” (verse 16). Yes, believers can become servants of Satan, and, if and when they do, it is unto death – NOT eternal life. Satan’s servants will not inherit eternal life and will not be found in the kingdom of God. Paul says the end, or final result, of continued sinful conduct is death. (See verses 21 thru 23, Romans 6).
“For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has ANY inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one (no preacher, no TV evangelist) deceive you with empty words for because of these things (these sins) the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:5-6). You’ll not find one disobedient son in the kingdom of God. So says your Bible.
I know that those who teach the “once saved, always saved” doctrine believe themselves to be honoring God and His Word by doing so. God in His infinite mercy and understanding will take this into consideration when judging them and their teachings. They are not willfully teaching error. Nonetheless, they ARE teaching error – profound error.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley