<p>8:35&nbsp;<i>Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?</i>- The &ldquo;who?&rdquo; may be a reference to God, because the &ldquo;who?&rdquo; of Rom. 8:33,34 was God. But the point there as here was that seeing God is the only One who can do such things, then we can rest assured that they will not happen. Because God, for the sake of His Son, will not do these things. We are &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo; by status, and what happened at baptism is not breakable by anything human. We cannot be separated from Him by all the calamities listed in this verse, an 8:36 goes on to remind us that this cannot happen because we are counted as the slaughtered Lamb, the Lord Jesus. The Greek for &ldquo;separate&rdquo; is usually used about divorce (1 Cor. 7:10,11,15; Mt. 19:6; Mk. 10:9). Only if we chose to as it were divorce from Christ can we be separated from Him. Only we can make that choice- no human situation in our lives is to be interpreted as meaning that Christ has withdrawn His love from us. Reading the list of awful tribulations which follows, we are to understand that the love of Christ does not, therefore, guarantee that we will not suffer in this life. Indeed, as Rom. 8:36 will go on to show, we as &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo; must be prepared to be slain with Him all the day long, so as to live with Him. &ldquo;The love of Christ&rdquo; frequently refers to His death for us. The fact He died for us should be enough to persuade us that having loved us so much, no human tribulation could possibly be interpreted to mean that He in fact doesn&rsquo;t love us. And yet people stumble from their faith in Christ because of tribulation, as the parable of the sower makes clear. Why this happens is partly because they have failed to be focused daily upon the cross- that He there, then, did that&nbsp;<i>for me</i>&nbsp;today. This, then, is our challenge- to view all of life&rsquo;s tragedies, pain and unfairness through the lens of the simple fact that the Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me, and I as a man or woman in Him shall therefore live eternally.</p><p><i><br />Shall tribulation- </i>See on Rom. 5:3; 8:18. The word used in the parable of the sower and also about the tribulations of the last days before Christ returns (Mt. 13:21; 24:9,21). Only through such tribulations shall we enter the Kingdom (Acts&nbsp;14:22). Significantly, Paul uses the word earlier in Romans, in speaking of the tribulation which shall come upon the rejected at the last day (Rom. 2:9). It&rsquo;s either tribulation then, or now. In this sense we can glory in tribulation, knowing it is the guarantee that we are really in Christ (Rom.&nbsp; 5:3). Hence in the practical part of Romans we are exhorted to patiently endure tribulation (Rom. 12:12).</p><p><i>Or anguish- </i>Again, the same word used in Rom. 2:9 &ldquo;anguish&rdquo; about the distress of the rejected in the last day. We must experience it now, or then. Paul uses this word again in 2 Cor. 12:10, along with words similar in meaning to the list here in Rom. 8:35, in saying that we experience distresses &ldquo;for Christ&rsquo;s sake&rdquo;, for the sake of the fact we are in Him and must have a part in His sufferings.</p><p><i>Or persecution- </i>The same word is used in the parable of the sower (Mt. 13:21), to which Paul seems to be making allusion in Rom. 8:35. Many of the words in this list are appropriate to Paul&rsquo;s personal sufferings for the sake of His being &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo;. He too was persecuted (Acts 13:50; 2 Tim. 3:11), distressed etc. The list of his sufferings in 2 Cor. 12:10 includes this word and others in the list here. Again and again, Paul writes as if talking to himself, and as such sets himself up as the parade example of what he means.</p><p><i>Or famine- </i>Lack of food. Again, this word is in the list of Paul&rsquo;s own sufferings in 2 Cor. 11:27. Perhaps Paul has specific reference to the famine which there was in the first century which affected the believers (Acts 11:28). And again, famine is to be one of the latter day tribulations (Mt. 24:7).</p><p><i>Or nakedness- </i>Lack of clothing. Again, this word is in the list of Paul&rsquo;s own sufferings in 2 Cor. 11:27.</p><p><i>Or peril- </i>This word is only used elsewhere in the list of Paul&rsquo;s own sufferings in 2 Cor. 11:26.</p><p><i>Or sword</i>- Note that Paul envisaged his readership as likely to suffer from the sword. And yet in Rom. 13:4 he speaks of the first century authorities as using the sword to execute God&rsquo;s will against those who do wrong. This would lead us to interpret Rom. 13:4 as having specific and limited reference in time and space, perhaps only to the Rome ecclesia at a certain point in time and in some aspects of justice. Nothing, whatever, can separate us from the love of Christ towards us in His death (Rom. 8:35). His cross is therefore the constant rallying point of our faith, in whatever difficulty we live through. The resolve and strength we so need in our spiritual path can come only through a personal contemplation of the cross.</p><p>This list is to be understood in the context of Rom. 8:36, that we are counted as in Christ, the slaughtered lamb, and therefore all His sufferings we expect to be somehow articulated in our own lives, just as His resurrection life also shall be. In the first century context, this list was the kind of &lsquo;par for the course&rsquo; which anyone could expect who had signed up to be counted as &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo;. Twenty centuries later, the list may be more subtle, but nonetheless as painful. For the cross of Christ is the cross of Christ. The forms in which we share it may vary over history and geography, but the essence shall remain. Shall divorce, betrayal, cancer, false accusation- separate&nbsp;<i>us</i>&nbsp;from His love? They should not, but rather be seen as a very real sharing in His death and sufferings, from which we shall just as surely arise into new and eternal life. There are many connections between Romans the visions of Revelation. The whole court scene presented here in Romans 8, whereby the accuser of Christ&rsquo;s brethren is now no longer in court, he and his case &lsquo;thrown out of court&rsquo;, is naturally reminiscent of the scene in Revelation 12. There, the accusers of Christ&rsquo;s brethren are likened to the great Satan, the personified power of sin in its political manifestation, and this is also thrown out of &lsquo;heaven&rsquo;, out of the Heavenly court / throne room. The fact that&nbsp;<i>sin</i>&nbsp;has been conquered by Christ and &lsquo;thrown out&rsquo; is therefore the guarantee that whatever oppressive sinful powers are now in authority, they in their turn will likewise be cast out. It&rsquo;s only a matter of time now- because sin in its essence has been cast out already. This explains the seamless way in which Paul now moves on from speaking of how the power sin has been nullified to talking of how therefore and thereby, all human opposition to God&rsquo;s people is now ultimately powerless.</p>