Romans 8:38-39
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.
The power of this love is not a mere sentiment, but a divine reality that transcends every conceivable barrier. Paul lists every category of existence, every dimension of space and time, every form of power, and declares them all insufficient to sever the bond that God has forged with us in His Son. It is a declaration of ultimate security, meant not to make us complacent, but to anchor our souls in a peace that the world cannot threaten.
--John Chrysostom, *Homilies on Romans*
To believe in the inseparability of God’s love is the foundation of Christian freedom. It is a freedom from fear, from the need to prove our worth, from the anxiety that we might somehow disqualify ourselves from His grace. This love is not sustained by our strength but by His faithfulness. It is in the darkest moments, when all other securities fall away, that this truth becomes our only and all-sufficient refuge.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, *Life Together*
Athanasius of Alexandria, *On the Incarnation*, circa 328 AD. Written to explain why the Son of God had to become human.
“He, the Life of all, our Lord and Saviour, did not die after the manner of His own death... but He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those other His special enemies, a death which they who conspired against Him thought terrible and ignominious and shameful, that by it He might utterly abolish death in whatever form they offered it.”
True peace of heart is to be found in resisting passions, not in yielding to them.
What fear am I allowing to speak louder than God's promise of inseparable love?
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
--Seneca
St Clair, Michigan -- Overcast, 28F / 18F