Peace in the Midst of Peril

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [36] As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [37] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. [38] "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] 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

This world's a crazy place. There's not a day goes by that the media is not filled with distress, persecution, famine, peril, wars, or poverty. When we read Paul's letter to the Roman church, it's as though he had been transported to the 21st century! Yet the early Christian church faced the same peril that we face every day.
Our Scripture, Romans 8:31-39, presents the climax of Paul's great exposition of "God's Plan of Salvation" in the first eight chapters of Romans. They contain some of the most wonderful words from the pen of the noble apostle. This Scripture presents the thought that the battle of life is to live victoriously.

When Paul asks, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" he does not speak figuratively but literally. Daily, men and women faced those terrors for the name of Jesus. The Christians in Rome had their perils and we have ours.
Look at the challenges we face today. Yes, every generation has its perils. But Paul says that there is NOTHING that can occur in the life of a Christian that can force him to take his focus off Jesus Christ. Let me repeat that. There is no peril in your life that can force you to take your focus off Jesus Christ….unless YOU choose to.

When the Romans began to persecute the early Christian church, those new Christians had a decision to make. Face death with Jesus, or face it alone. Paul had to remind them there is nothing that can force you to take your eyes off Jesus Christ. It was their choice. And they chose Jesus!

Man desperately struggles against the pressures and forces from without. He struggles against the weight and discouragement of trials; against the pollution and corruption of life; against the relentless accusations and bombardments of conscience and law; against the pain and decay of his body; against the striking fear and hopelessness of an eternal judgment hereafter. He struggles against the unknown and against pain, hurt, sorrow, loneliness, alienation, aging, death, and hell. And all of man's suffering, says Paul, points us to one simple solution...Get right with God! If we can establish a right relationship with God, we WILL make it through our perils.

To face your peril, you must first be set free from your peril, for sin enslaves, accuses, condemns, and strikes hopelessness within the heart (Romans 7:1-25). "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). "I thank God [that] Jesus Christ our Lord" shall free me from struggling and suffering (Romans 7:25a; Romans 8:1-39).

Christ protects the believer from the severest circumstances. "Who [or what] can separate us from the love of God?" Too many people, even believers, feel that God does not love them, that He just could not love them. They feel unworthy of His love, for they come too short, are too disobedient, and have failed too often. How could God possibly love them when they go against His will so much? To them I say, "There is no circumstance, no situation, no event that can cause Christ to turn away from you." The turning is yours to do. You can turn toward Him, or you can turn away from Him.

Paul was whipped, beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, left for dead…yet he learned to trust Christ. No matter how terrible or severe the situation, it cannot separate the true believer from the love of Christ, because Christ loves the believer regardless of circumstance.
Scripture declares loudly and clearly…There is absolutely nothing-no matter how dark and depressing, no matter how severe-that can separate the believer from the love of Christ. Circumstances are not evidence that God does not love us. God loves us, whatever our circumstances may be.

No matter the circumstances, we are more than conquerors through Christ who has loved us (Romans 8:37).

Christ offers peace in the midst of peril. Here Him as He says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

Christ does not remove all temptation, but he does provide us with an escape from temptation. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Christ does not remove all trials, but He does comfort us through all trials. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Christ cares for us no matter the situation. He calls you today to cast "all your care upon him; for he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).No trial, No poverty, No government, No war, No pestilence, No shame, No failure, No persecution, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus".

The Victory Is in Christ. "We are more than conquerors through him that loved us"(Rom. 8:37). The victory is in Christ and in Him alone is victory because:

A. In Christ one is on God's side. "If God be for us, who can be against us?"(Rom. 8:3 1).
B. In Christ one is justified. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. 8:33,34). No one can condemn a person whom God has justified on the basis of Jesus' atonement. In heaven Jesus intercedes for us. He pleads not our righteousness but His own. (See Rom. 5:1,2; 8:1,2; Heb. 4:14-16.)
C. In Christ one has the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps the Christian overcome sin (Rom. 8:4-13). The Holy Spirit guides (Rom. 8:15,16). The Holy Spirit helps the Christian to pray (Rom. 8:26,27)

D. The Assurance of Victory Is in Christ's Love. In our text, Romans 8:3 5- 3 7, Paul exhausts his vocabulary in an effort to state that nothing past, present, nor future, in heaven, earth, or hell can ever separate us from God's love revealed in Christ.

The proof of God's love is in the cross. If God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32).

Conclusion. The victory is in Jesus Christ. Trust Him. He invites you to come. "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37), He assures. Trust God. Trust Jesus. If Jesus Christ be true it matters everything; if Jesus be false, nothing matters.