Paul's Song Of Songs (Romans 8)

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PAUL'S SONG OF SONGS
A Practical Exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans
by John MacDuff, 1891

He prolongs the defiant challenge. "It is God who justifies; who is he that condemns?" The spiritual cast-away who has fled to the Rock may at times be the prey of unworthy fear, and tremble for his safety. But the Rock itself is immovable--it is the Rock of Ages.

There is a four-fold answer and rebuke to any such charges--a four-fold armor for the spiritual warrior in an otherwise unequal conflict--a four-fold ground of triumph and safety. "Who shall condemn?" "Who shall separate?" None. For

"Christ has died."
"Christ has risen."
"Christ is at the right hand of God."
"Christ makes intercession for us."

A famous historical "Quadrilateral" no longer exists--a single campaign demolished it--erased it from the map of Europe. But here is a defenced city "which lies four-square." Salvation, the salvation of God's dear Son, has He "appointed for walls and bulwarks." Or, adhering to our figure, it is a symphony in the midst of the Song, in four parts.

(1) None can condemn; for "it is Christ who DIED." He reverts to the foundation truth of all, without which not one of the privileges enumerated in the previous context could have been ours. Every spiritual blessing emanates from, and revolves around the Cross! Hear how the Apostle commences that other chapter which alone is parallel to the present in power, beauty, and comfort (1 Corinthians 15;3). "For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." All that mystery of suffering connected with the typical sacrifices of the ancient dispensation has its explanation in Him, who is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." On that ever memorable evening when the orphaned disciples met in the twilight of the upper chamber, what was the special revelation which dispersed their fears, imparted peace and joy, and assured triumph? It was the sight of Him who DIED for them--the sight of the Crucified. For it was after He had pointed to the signs of death on His own glorified body; it was after He had "shown them His hands and His side," we read--"Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord;"--"Christ crucified, the power of God unto salvation."

(2) None can condemn--for Christ has RISEN. "Yes rather, that is, risen again." In one very emphatic sense no utterance that ever ascended from earth to heaven can compare in its momentousness with the one solitary cry--the shout of triumph waited for by all time, and which is to go echoing on through eternity--"It is finished!" But if I would have this great fact corroborated and confirmed, I must go in the dim dawn of that Jerusalem morning, to the empty sepulcher, and hear the angel-message, "He is not here, He is risen." If God the eternal Father had not accepted the work of His Son; or, had one sin laid to the charge of His elect been unatoned for, the overlying stone would still have been there--the weeping watchers would have been weeping still. Not the angels of hope, but gloomy warders would have wailed their dirge of despair over a world unredeemed. In the citadel of Christianity the Resurrection of Jesus is the key of the position--that lost, all is lost. "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you are yet in your sins. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of those who slept. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15;17, 20, 22). He has burst the bands of death, and triumphed over principalities and powers. Every true believer can respond to the beauty of the vision in the greatest poem of Germany, when the despondent hero awakes to life, hope, and joy, as he listens on Easter morn to the bells of the adjacent cathedral mingling their chimes with a choir of voices--"The Lord is risen!" "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (Romans 4;25).

Note, yet once more the emphatic word, "Yes, rather, who is risen again." It was not a dead, but a living Christ that was the central article in the creed of the early Church. The dead Christ who has been made so familiar to us by the great mediaeval painters, was a thought repellent to the faith of these earlier ages. The crucifixion and its accessories which became so painfully realistic in future centuries, and perpetuated in revolting form in Continental way-side shrines, was absolutely unknown in the etchings and mosaics of the Catacombs. The Crucifix is unrecognized before the sixth century. Its more extended form in the delineation of the great hour of agony, had not existence before the ninth. Not "Jesus dead," but "Jesus lives," was the key-note of homily, creed, and Song. They celebrated, not the triumph of, but the glorious victory over, "the last enemy."

(3) None can condemn, for Christ "is even at THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD." Resurrection was the pledge on earth of completed atonement. Entrance within the gates of glory furnished the assurance that Jesus not only had "overcome the sharpness of death," but that He had "opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." In the majesty of His ascension glory, the roll of Providence in which was inscribed the destinies of His Church is confided to His keeping. All power is committed unto Him, both in heaven and in earth. "He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet." As in the case of His beloved Apostle in Patmos, He lays on each ransomed head His right hand--the hand of power--saying "fear not; I am He who lives and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore."
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PAUL'S SONG OF SONGS
A Practical Exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans
by John MacDuff, 1891

(4) None can condemn. For as the concluding ground of confidence and joy, "He also MAKES INTERCESSION for us." The type of the old economy is complete. The great High Priest has entered into the Holiest of all--the Mighty Pleader in behalf of His Church, bearing on His breastplate the names of His Covenant people. The worshipers of Israel, on the day of their greatest ceremonial, crowded the outer courts of the Temple, listening in profound reverence for the sound of the golden bells on the fringe of the High Priest's official garments. The chime of these formed the sure evidence that he was engaged ministering before the mercy-seat, proceeding with, and perfecting the great Oblation as the nation's Representative. We may spiritually do the same. The ear of faith may listen to the voice and intercession of Him who ever lives and ever loves--Who has "entered, not into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9;24).

These are cursory thoughts that might well be expanded into a volume--for they are in truth an epitome of the work of Redemption. But to enlarge would be out of place here. They form a four-fold chain, whose links cannot be broken. They give the Apostle's triumphant answer to every doubt and cavil as to the fidelity of God to His promises. Every impeachment of His love is silenced. Heart and lip are attuned to the patriarch's Song, as he rushes into the divine Rock-cleft from the gathering storm--"Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him." For, be it observed, in closing, that in answer to suggested questionings, it is on the divine side, and the divine side alone, the believer in these verses takes his stand. He fetches his arguments for present peace and final safety from what God and Christ have done for him. He pleads not a word of his own; no weapons are taken from the armory of earth; they are all fetched from that of heaven; they are God's decrees, God's purposes, God's gift. It is Christ the Surety-substitute responsive to His Father's will. It is His doing, His dying, His rising, His session at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He is "the Prince who has power with God and prevails." Faith can rest with the greater confidence in her triple challenge--

God justifies--who shall lay anything to our charge?
Christ died--who shall condemn?
Christ lives--who shall separate?

"Believe, O man," says Clement of Alexandria in one of his glowing utterances, "in Him who suffered and was adored, the living God. Believe and your soul shall receive life…in Him, the Bearer of peace, the Reconciler, the Word--our Savior; a Fountain giving life and peace poured out over all the face of the earth; through whom, so to speak, the universe has become a seed of blessings." Jesus with us and for us! then perish every desponding thought! Heart and flesh may faint and fail, but He, a loving changeless Savior, is the strength of our heart and our portion forever.

Let these concluding cadences in this Song of Songs inspire us with the music of His own last words when about to ascend to His Father's presence, "Lo, I am with you aways, even unto the end of the world." Let us bow at His feet and exclaim--"This God shall be our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death."



15. PAEAN OF ASSURED VICTORY.

Yes, "Paean." The shout of victory, similar to what Israel raised of old amid the palms of the Arabian shore, when Miriam and her sisterhood of minstrels awoke timbrel and harp over the submerged hosts of Pharaoh, and they sang of Him who had triumphed gloriously, casting the horse and his rider into the depths of the sea. The believer, too, with the consciousness of every spiritual foe vanquished--the legion-hosts of Satan discomfited--death itself, the last enemy, left a discrowned and unsceptred king--can exclaim, "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 Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (v. 35, 36, 37).

Moses, the ideal chief and legislator, was, after all, human--"compassed with infirmity." By reason of that infirmity neither he nor Aaron were permitted to conduct the pilgrim multitude into the land of promise. In both cases, in answer to the question, "Who shall separate?" Mount Nebo and Mount Hor were ready with a doleful reply. But Christ "is counted worthy of more glory than Moses." "This Man, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood." Israel, in crossing the Jordan with their final burst of praise, had to mourn the withdrawal of both their venerated leaders. But the Christian, amid the manifold chequered scenes of his wilderness journey, yes, on the banks of the typical Jordan itself, can utter the challenge regarding his Lawgiver, Priest, and King--"Who shall separate from the love of Christ?"
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PAUL'S SONG OF SONGS
A Practical Exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans
by John MacDuff, 1891

With the special enumeration of trials and afflictions here given, in v. 36, we cannot doubt that the Apostle had again very specially his Roman converts in view. Too faithfully had coming events cast their shadows before. Already, if Nero's most ferocious edicts had not yet gone forth, there were abundant indications that the storm-cloud would before long burst. His unscrupulous tribunals and lying witnesses and flagrant miscarriage of justice were the tremors preceding the earthquake which was to wreck (if human daring or diabolical wilfulness could succeed in wrecking) the fortunes of the early church. But the imperial savage had to reckon with a stronger than he--"The Lion of the tribe of Judah." The terror inspired by the one had its triumphant counterpoise in the power and love of the other. In spite of of barbarous cruelties--hecatombs of dead and dying, there were those who, even in their dungeons of despair, could cheer themselves and their fellow victims with the words "Who shall separate?"

They knew full well that hidden to the human eye, yet cognizant to the eye of faith, there was a living Redeemer who would judge righteous judgment, and attune the lips of the doomed and incarcerated to "Songs in the night." A beautiful saying in the days of the Incarnation would carry its parable of comfort to not a few of these smitten hearts--"Behold Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not" (Luke 22;31). What a consolatory assurance for all ages, specially for the ages of martyrdom--Christ with His people in every season of affliction--the frail bark tempest-tossed in the angry sea, but an invisible chain of grace linking it within the veil; telling of an Omnipotent Savior "who makes the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still."

"Sword"--"Sheep for the slaughter;" the words seem to indicate a terrific forecast in the breast of this champion of the faith--himself one of the foredoomed. But how true also his prognostications of triumph--the victory of endurance--"more than conquerors." Scarcely another two centuries would pass before multitudes, unswerving in their loyalty to Christ and His truth, would be ready to confront persecution in its direst forms. No intensity of torture would be spared. Before long the sword would have done its cruel work on the Apostle's own aged frame. The forlorn hope, so nobly led, would see him fall mangled in the hour of victory. We may have read the testimony of Ignatius of Antioch, "That I may attain unto Jesus Christ--come fire, and iron, and grappling with wild beasts,…come cruel torture of the devil to assail me; only be it mine to attain unto Jesus Christ." Tens of thousands thus met unflinching the Lybian lions in the Roman amphitheater, and gave truth and inspiration to the familiar strain in the Church's best uninspired Song--"The noble army of martyrs praise You!"

It has been made a question, and there are not lacking names on either side--what the opening challenge of the verse imports. Is it "Who shall separate our love from Christ?" or "His love from us?"

The former is indeed a beautiful thought and in many cases as true as it is beautiful--the fidelity of the believer to his faithful Lord--that unswerving allegiance, never more conspicuous than in the case of Paul himself, who with self-renouncing lowliness, yet with fearless confidence and sincerity of heart could say, "Yes, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." He, and not a few who have attained to the same lofty standard, never loved father, mother, brother, sister, friend, as they did the Christ of Nazareth. But the whole drift of the chapter, the whole scope of the previous argumentative discussion, (add to this, the wording of the last verse of all) negate this first suggested meaning.

Each preceding proposition sets forth the believer's security, not arising out of his personal relationship to God, but from the relationship of the Divine Trinity to him--the relation of the Father in election, heirship, final glorification--the relation of the Son in His dying, rising, and ascending to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens--the relation of the Holy Spirit in making "intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered." The theme of the chapter may be briefly summarized as "the grounds of the Christian's confidence in a triune God." It would be a comparatively poor buttress to the Apostle's argument were he to interrupt its continuity by describing the believer's love (fluctuating at the best) to his Redeemer. But when we read, as described in our chapters, of all that has been achieved by Christ for His people, it seems the most suitable of topics, in drawing to a close, to speak of the utter unchangeableness of that love--the love He bears to us--the love which had its agony and triumph on Calvary, and which now, on the mediatorial throne, is immutably pledged for our salvation. While, therefore, it is a cheering assurance that we shall never forsake Christ, much more cheering, exalting, comforting, strengthening, is the confidence that He will never forsake us.

And note, after the enumeration of existing or possible evils and antagonisms, the Apostle makes the strong affirmation, "No in all these things we are MORE THAN conquerors." This is a remarkable expression. By the use of hyperbole he emphasizes his assurance. It recalls words of his, already quoted, nearly allied though not exactly parallel (2 Corinthians 4;17), where he speaks of "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The verse might be rendered "more exceeding," or, "still more surpassing conquerors." The dying utterance of an ever revered friend and Christian patriarch come appropriately to memory--"Sin abounded--grace super-abounded."
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PAUL'S SONG OF SONGS
A Practical Exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans
by John MacDuff, 1891

"More than conquerors."--It is a wonderful but faithful testimony to the influences and results of trial--not as some would naturally think to cool ardor, eclipse faith, and un-nerve heroism--like the children of Ephraim, who, carrying bows, turned faint in the day of battle. The whole history of the Church and its martyrology gives a distinctly different verdict. It represents faith, and love, and devotion, and soul-consecration, as being, on the contrary, inspired, developed, expanded, in the midst of adverse circumstances. We see this illustrated in the sufferings of the Roman Christians. Not only victims in the strength of manhood and in the feebleness and decrepitude of age, but the willing self-surrender even of tender youthful heroines, such as Blandina, Perpetua, and Felicitas. Their bravery had its counterpart in distant centuries, in the Vaudois Valleys of Lucerna, Perosa, and San Martino, the dungeons by the Rhone and Danube, the martyr roll-call of Spain and France, Holland and Britain. We see it conspicuously in modern times. To take one out of many examples, from the soldiers of the cross who "foremost fighting fell" in Central Africa. Be it Bishop or Evangelist, no sooner is one struck down by fever or sword or spear, than another is ready to fill the gap and bear in true apostolic succession the honored banner. The trumpet in that stern battle seems never to sound retreat, but onward!--"Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." "Out of weakness they are made strong, wax valiant in fight, and turn to flight the armies of the aliens." They are divinely strengthened for superhuman endurance. The device on that banner tells the secret--"Made more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

Though we have just quoted the writer of our verse as a notable illustrative example, we may well linger on the singular corroborative testimony he bore to these twin-clauses; "more than conqueror"-- "through Him that loved us." He had everything, humanly speaking, to quench his zeal, impair his ardor, undermine his constancy--nothing perhaps more so, than the loneliness of a life that so often showed its yearning need of human sympathy and genial companionship. There is much comprehended in the terse, bitter wail, "all men forsook me"! But the lessening of human friendships, the removal of human props, the discovery of the treachery and desertion of "summer friends" only seemed to strengthen his faith and deepen his love for One "who sticks closer than a brother." Man may fail me--man has failed me; but, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ?" And the conscious love for him of that Brother-man on the throne, quickened his sensibilities. Love begat love. His own weakness was perfected in Almighty strength. He gloried in his infirmities, for the power of Christ thereby rested more abundantly upon him. He felt its reality, its stability. "Such a one as Paul the aged" was "made more than conqueror," through the exalted sympathy of the once Prince of sufferers. Aye, and when he saw the gleam of the "sword"--the weapon with which he ends his enumeration in the passage we are considering, he could raise the Victor's Song--"I know whom" (not in whom, but WHOM--the living Person of his loving Lord)--"I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."

We shall close with two thoughts.

(1) Let us advert, once more, to the designation here given to Christ--it is "Him that loved us." We cannot fail to recall the parallel--indeed the identical words in the opening verses of the book of Revelation. John (himself the Apostle of love) appears to deem it needless to name which Person in the Holy Trinity it is to whom he refers in his dedication. "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Revelation 1;5). Let us think of that name and title in its sacred relation to ourselves. "Him that loved us" would often be poorly descriptive of human friends and friendships. That may be a fitful affection, the memory of which is all that remains. In His case, loving once He loves forever. It is love incapable of diminishing or decay. The opening challenge will be prolonged and deepened through eternity--"Who shall separate?"

(2) Take it in another aspect? The noblest of earthly heroes may fail in their exploits; heroic efforts may be confronted and covered with defeat. Khartoum will always have its mournful associations and memories in British annals, where a noble soul--an ideal warrior, man, Christian, dared all and lost all. Like the mother of Sisera, it is at times vain and delusive counting up spoils and trophies never to be ours. Arbitrary and capricious often are the so-called "fortunes of war." So it may be under the noblest and ablest of human champions. But with Christ failure is impossible, triumph is assured. "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save" (Isaiah 63;1).

Let that name and the assurance it conveys stimulate us. Christ--He who thus loved us, might have made our wilderness journey one of triumphant and unchequered progress, without Red Sea, or Marah-pool, or fiery serpent--the way without a thorn--the sky without a cloud--no enemy to be seen or encountered. He has well and wisely ordered it otherwise. We are happily ignorant of, and exempt from, the stern and dreadful trials which belonged to the primitive Roman Church; though in other forms and modified shapes, distress, peril, tribulation still cast their shadows. The apostolic words are unrescinded and unrevoked--"We are in heaviness through manifold temptations." The "tribulation"--the "tribulum" so well known in the Roman threshing-floor--the root-word, as Trench has pointed out, of the tribulation of our verse, has still, and ever will have, its reality, in connection with the divine dealings. Stroke after stroke is needed. But, as in the hands of the Roman husbandman, the "flail" was used to sift and separate the husk from the grain; so, that tribulum of God in His threshing-floor is designed for the same purpose in a higher sense, to remove moral husks and incrustations, to fit the grain of wheat for its place in the garner, or it may be to aid its germinating power in the earth for the better bringing forth of fruit to His glory. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom." If such be our present experience, let us meet all sufferings and trials as Paul met them, "more than conquerors." Tribulation, Distress, Persecution, Famine, Nakedness, Peril, Sword--that music of winds and waves, the deep bass of the Song, should only make us exult more in "the impregnable Rock."
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PAUL'S SONG OF SONGS
A Practical Exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans
by John MacDuff, 1891

Changing the figure, let us listen to the prolonged trumpet-peal in another place, summoning not to tent or camp, but to arms and battle--"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand" (Ephesians 6;10-13).

And if he and they of whom he here speaks, counted not their lives dear unto them--if they have fought the good fight, finished the course and kept the faith, let us hear their voices gliding down from heaven in beautiful cadence--"Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." While we respond, in the paean of eternal victory, "thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ."



16. HALLELUJAH CHORUS.

In the preceding strains of this Song of Songs, we have been listening to deep-sea music. Now the billows are resonant on the Eternal Shore!

"Christ Jesus our Lord." These are the four words which end our chapter, the closing note of Paul's Golden Canticle; a reigning Christ in the midst of His ransomed Church--"Hallelujah…He shall reign forever and ever."

"Christ Jesus our Lord!"--Befitting finale for the Song of the Redeemed on earth--befitting refrain for the Anthem of the Church glorified--"Strong Son of God, Immortal Love!"

The "No condemnation in Christ," has now reached its climax in "No separation from Christ." With these concluding strains, the outcome of all that have preceded, he defies the confederate forces of the material and spiritual Creation--the foes of "a present evil world,"--the principalities and powers of heaven and hell; the heights above, the depths beneath--all space, all time, all eternity, to hush that everlasting chorus and separate from that everlasting love!

"In Christ Jesus." "Is this," says Leighton, "he that so lately cried out, 'O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?' who now triumphs 'O happy man, who shall separate me from the love of Christ?' Now he has found a deliverer to whom he is forever united. So vast a difference is there between a Christian taken in himself and in Christ." The author of The Christian Year--adopting the figure of our volume, thus appropriately sings of the Apostle ever after the hour of his conversion--

"From then, each mild and winning note
(Like pulses that round harp-strings float
When the full strain is over),
Left lingering in his inward ear
Music that taught as death drew near,
Love's lesson, more and more."

Let us give the words now to be considered in full.

"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" (v. 38--39)

These successive clauses, to vary the metaphor, are like so many perches in the writer's upward flight, as with the eagle-wing of his brother Apostle of love he soars to the seventh heaven, and sinks into the clefts of the true Rock for ever!

"Christ Jesus our Lord." Yes, but neither may the terminating words be dissevered from those which precede them. It is the combination which makes a full Gospel-harmony. They form a divine epigram of comfort and consolation--"the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The love of the Father is here co-ordinated with the love of the Son. It is the apostolic echo of the Great Master's own saying--the saying which of all He uttered was most descriptive of His mission; the saying which perhaps of all He uttered we would be the most loath to part with--"God so loved the world, as to give His only Begotten Son."

We have presented to us in this brief sentence of our concluding meditation not only the stream of Salvation in Christ, but we are conducted to the fountainhead in the Infinite love and sovereign grace of the First Person in the Blessed Trinity. In the original that love is emphasized--the special love. In the previous portion of his Epistle, what we may call its forensic or dialectic chapters, Paul had of necessity to vindicate the character of God in His dealings with sinners, as the Righteous, the Holy, the Just--the Moral Governor, whose laws dare not be violated with impunity. But here, after the sublime unfolding of Redemption, he singles out, for his terminating note of triumph, the attribute which spans the life of every believer like a divine rainbow, from his predestination to his glorification. He had immediately before sounded the defiant note--"Who shall separate?" There seems to be a momentary hush. He waits, so to speak, to hear if a response be given. There is no reply. The silence is broken by an answer from his own lips. The answer declares separation to be impossible--that nothing can frustrate God's purpose, or alter His affection for His Church and people. With Him, in the outgoings of that love, "tomorrow will be as today, and much more abundant." The flower of grace, here often battered with wind and rain, shall never cease to bloom in heaven. The great ocean-tide will then roll on without ebb "through the ages of the ages."
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PAUL'S SONG OF SONGS
A Practical Exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans
by John MacDuff, 1891

But let us enter the arena and listen to our Apostle-herald as he sounds his challenges, and utters his assertions, in succession.

"DEATH shall not separate." Alas, in one sense, too sadly, too truly, Death does separate. Too sadly, too truly, is Death the severer of bonds. The very name is allied and associated with pain, suffering, dissolution. There is one inscription common to all ages and generations--"They were not allowed to continue by reason of death." The world is full, day by day, of aching hearts. Long and loud is the wailing strain--the dirge over buried love! Those are not to be credited with sincerity, or with the tenderest instincts of humanity, who affect to speak lightly of such severances. The cold icy river seems to cut us off at once from the land of love--the love of earth and the love of heaven. But, in another and elevated sense, the sense inspired by gospel faith, there is no absolute separation in the case of those united to Christ. Our life is "hid with Christ in God." "It is He alone," says Pere Didon, at the close of the Introduction to his great Work, "who pours into the soul a divine life which no pain can overwhelm, which trial only strengthens, and which can despise death, because it permits us to face it with the fullness of immortal hope."

To the true Believer, the Gate of Death is the Gate to the second Paradise. It is the Exodus of the Soul from its bondage--the entrance into the beatific vision--the fullness of God. Death is pictured to our thoughts under the Bible figure of a lonely Valley. Nor is it strange that the idea of solitude and solitariness should be blended with the emblem. But there can be no real solitude to him who can sing at his death bed--"YOU are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me." In the words of a sainted and saintly writer "Death is a leap into the arms of Infinite love." So far from being the separator from God, it is the "Beautiful Angel" who leads home to Himself. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written--"Death is swallowed up in Victory." "Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalms 116;15, Prayer Book Version).

"LIFE shall not separate." Life, with its vivid realities and engrossing interests, and enthralling fascinations on the one hand; Life with its depressing cares and anxious struggles--its gnawing heartaches and bitter bereavements on the other; Life with its April day of fitful alternation--cloud and sunshine, shall not blur the "Summer of the Soul" and dim the divine--the Eternal sunshine. The Christian engaged in its urgent duties--grappling with its stern difficulties and fiery trials, feeling that he is "appointed thereunto," has truly his citizenship in heaven. His heart and home are in one sense on earth; in an equally truthful, more exalted sense, he can sing as the chartered citizen of glory--"Who has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ." "Whether we live we live unto the Lord; or whether we die we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's" (Romans 14;8 ).

"ANGELS, PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS shall not separate." Not Angels--the living creatures with whom alike poetry and Scripture have made this earth to teem "both while we sleep and while we wake." It is the most impossible of impossible things, that a loyal heaven shall conspire in strange league of hostility against the children of the kingdom. The Apostle here makes the unlikeliest of suppositions, simply to strengthen the believer's confidence. Not demons--not the host of heaven and hell combined in gigantic conspiracy against the believer's peace. Persecutors and persecutions--the base abettors of cruelty and wrong-doing who did their utmost in the Apostle's time, and would do their utmost still, to deflect from the path of allegiance to the Gospel; tempting to abjure faith, instilling doubts, and lording it over conscience. These are the "Spiritual 'wickednesses' in high places," led on by Apollyon "the Destroyer." But God's true people will be fortified against their combined assaults by the same Power that is pledged for their salvation. "I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven" (Luke 10;18 ).

"THINGS PRESENT AND THINGS TO COME shall not separate." The Apostle comes down again from the ideal to the actual--from a hypothetical impossibility to life's realities. This world of change has its blighted hopes and frustrated schemes--"things present"; the future--that unrevealed future has, with many, its pale and ghastly shadows--the ghosts of dreaded evil--"the fear of the fearful"--"things to come." But one divine assurance there is, beyond vacillation. No time with its ages and millenniums and cycles can affect or diminish the love in the heart of God. All else may and must change; but "He is faithful."

"NOR HEIGHT, NOR DEPTH, NOR ANY OTHER CREATURE can separate." As all time and all eternity are challenged, so is all space. The herald roams creation; he roams the universe. Mountain might be piled on mountain, planet might be added to planet, star conjoined to star, if a barrier could thus be reared between the soul and God. Or, take a different supposition. Our own earth, by some strange erratic impulse or some diabolical plot, might be sent wandering into the depths of the infinite to accomplish separation and isolation from its divine Creator. But each of its redeemed inhabitants, conscious of the same unchanging love, could utter the challenge--"If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Your hand lead me and Your right hand shall hold me" (Psalms 139;8, 9, 10). I defy all time, all place, all space, all possible combinations and contingencies; all heights of prosperity, all depths of adversity; the giddy eminences of rank and power, the extremes of poverty and need--the roll and revolution of ages, when "time shall be no longer"--to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord!
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[nChrist]

PAUL'S SONG OF SONGS
A Practical Exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans
by John MacDuff, 1891

"Led by paths we cannot see,
Unto heights no guess can measure,
Draw we nearer Thee!
Nearer You through every aeon,
Every universe of Thine;
Man and seraph swell one paean,
Harmonizing chords divine.

O, from You no power can sever;
Through death's valley Your face to see;
Saved, forever and forever,
Drawing nearer Thee."

And all this of which we have now been speaking was no occasional confidence of Paul. (Latin Vulgate "I am certain"). Here is what theologians call "the assurance of faith" in its noblest form. No wavering or incertitude. A triumphant testimony. It is as if, after the many gracious assertions of the chapter--the successive clauses, comprehensively setting forth the believer's creed--some had ventured to interpose and say--"All this is abstract truth cogently stated in logical and dogmatic shape. But it may be purely conjectural. Who can bear personal witness to the reality, the inner experiences?" "I," replies the Apostle, as if putting his own seal and endorsement to every foregoing proposition--"I am persuaded!" It recalls a similar personal attestation in the Old Testament Scriptures. We find this glowing delineation of the believer's happiness and peace--his abiding strength and joy, in one of the most beautiful of the Psalms--"The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing; to show that the Lord is upright." But, as if some one, here too, had ventured the question--who can bear individual testimony that all this is true?--"I" replies the Psalmist, "He is MY Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him" (Psalms 92;12-15). Both Old and New Testament saints, "chief musicians"--could say and sing with the assured confidence of another sacred writer--"We have known and believed the love which God has to us" (1 John 4;16).

Let us close with TWO PRACTICAL THOUGHTS.

(1) We are occasionally in these modern times confronted in print and in speech with the cynical query--"Is life worth living?" This Song of Songs, in its varied notes and harmonies, supplies surely an amply sufficient answer. Not indeed an answer to those whose hopes and aspirations are bounded by time--those who are of the earth, earthy. The chapter to such has but one solemn word in reply--"The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God." But to all who can, in some feeble measure, claim a saving interest in the Gospel Repertory of faith and love, hope and promise, which this Great Canticle so abundantly supplies--to all who have listened to the divine absolution--"no condemnation,"--to all who have been brought under the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, and quickened, through Him, to a life of righteousness--to all who have the happy consciousness of being "heirs of God"--ushered into "the liberty of the glory of His children;"--who, it may be amid manifold outward trials, have been able to grasp the assurance, that all things are working together for their spiritual good; and that the sufferings of the present time are utterly insignificant compared with the glory yet to be revealed--put to them also the question, "Is life worth living?" Conscious of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, the reply will be instantaneous--"He asked life of You, and You gave it to him, even length of days forever and ever" (Psalms 21;4).

(2) Seek, reader, as the final lesson of the chapter--the golden note of this Song of Songs--to live now under the influence of that changeless love of God manifested in Christ. Make it the dominating power--the impelling force of your new nature. Let these be your sacred mottoes and watchwords--"I am not my own, I am bought with a price." "The love of Christ constrains me." "I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me…I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."

There is a tradition regarding Ignatius of Antioch, that when the sword of the executioner had hewn his heart in pieces, each separate fragment had the name of "Jesus" upon it in glowing letters. The myth might well be a reality in the case of every true believer. We have spoken indeed in the earliest part of the volume, of faltering purposes and unreached ideals--the presence and power of two antagonistic principles. "These are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would." Jubilant songs are alternated with plaintive dirge-notes. But if it be your constant and growing aim to "keep yourself in the love of God,"--to have your will concurrent with the divine, setting Christ ever before you as your great Example and Pattern, you may rely on the promised aids of the Spirit to strengthen your purposes and help your infirmities. The prophetic strains of the dying Jacob regarding one of the Palestine tribes will, in a figurative sense, be true of every believing Israelite--"Gad, a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last" (Genesis 49;19).

Afflictions you must have. Storm and cloud will appear suddenly in brightest skies; whatever else may be escaped, there is the terminating encounter of the pilgrimage--the last fight of all; and "there is no discharge in that war." But above tempest and din of battle, that ancient Rock of Ages is still the same. A million of suns have risen and set on a world seething with change. But HE remains. The Immutable cannot alter. The deathless love of God in Christ is a wondrous crown to halo the brow of every pilgrim. It is told, if I may employ the words of a distinguished Divine, only substituting one quoted verse for another, "that when Bishop Butler drew near his end, he asked his chaplain if he also heard the music which filled his own heart. The music was not unreal, because the untrained ear could not catch its harmonies. And it may be that if our whole being is henceforth set heavenwards, we shall hear when we are crossing to waste places, as it seems in loneliness and sorrow and inward conflict, the great hosts by whom we are encompassed taking up our human psalm."--(our Song of Songs) and saying…"who shall separate from the love of Christ?" "HE has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." Or, as these words have been paraphrased to impart the energy of the original--"Never, no NEVER, no NEVER!" That love is guaranteed by divine oath and promise. To the challenge "Shall anything separate?" the reply, the symphonies of the blest--will go echoing down the ages--"Never! no NEVER! no NEVER!" The Miserere is heard no more; the Te Deum is the Song and the ascription of Eternity.

Let, then, one mighty orchestra be summoned in--a fervent impassioned song; not in its pagan, but in its divine Christian sense--this closing Hallelujah--the Hosanna of Immortal love. In appropriate words from Dante "Let the earth for once hear the music of heaven." Let the myriads of Redeemed below, unite with the Ransomed above. Let ministering seraphim and burning cherubim combine with "the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of prophets, the noble army of martyrs, the holy Church throughout all the world,"--and let this be the ever-deepening chorus--"WHO SHALL SEPARATE?" Let the notes ripple on forever.

"Hallelujahs, full and swelling,
Rise around His throne of might,
All our highest laud excelling,
Holy and immortal, dwelling
In the unapproached light.
As the sound of many waters
Let the full Amen arise;
Hallelujah! ceasing never,
Sounding through the great forever,
Linking all its harmonies."

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, AMEN.

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

I wanted to add that John MacDuff was not a Calvinist, but he did point out some glorious truths associated with the terms that are used in Calvinism.

I hope that you read and listened to the entire SONG because that's the only way to really appreciate and understand it. Romans 8 also makes for a wonderful Bible Study and beautiful references in many other portions of Scripture. I want to close this with quoting two different Versions of Romans 8:  The King James Version and The Amplified Bible Version. Romans 8 is truly beautiful, and it contains the foundation for our ETERNAL HOPE!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Favorite Bible Quotes 241 - John 10:29 My Father, which gave them me,
is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my
Father's hand.

[nChrist]

The King James Version:

Romans 8:1-39  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.  3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.  6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.  9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.  10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.  12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.  18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,  21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.  24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?  25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.  26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.  31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.  34  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.  35  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.

[nChrist]

The Amplified Version:

Romans 8:1-39  THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. [John 3:18.]  2  For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.  3  For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice], [Lev. 7:37.]  4  So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].  5  For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.  6  Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].  7  [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot.  8  So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.  9  But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God]. [Rom. 8:14.]  10  But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you].  11  And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.  12  So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh.  13  For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.  14  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  15  For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!  16  The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God.  17  And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.  18  [But what of that?] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us!  19  For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].  20  For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it--[yet] with the hope [Eccl. 1:2.]  21  That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God's children.  22  We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now. [Jer. 12:4, 11.]  23  And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God's sons).  24  For in [this] hope we were saved. But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what he already sees?  25  But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.  26  So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.  27  And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will. [Ps. 139:1, 2.]  28  We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.  29  For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.  30  And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].  31  What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?] [Ps. 118:6.]  32  He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?  33  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?]  34  Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?  35  Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?  36  Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter. [Ps. 44:22.]  37  Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.  38  For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,  39  Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.