UV 291-10,000 Romans 8 v 39

Rom 8:39 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.


Death is one of the principal enemies of mankind. The other twin ally being sin or separation from God. Together these ensure that romantic love, labour, wealth,pleasure, fame, wisdom and conquests are all in vain. (Only God sees that sin is an even bigger enemy) Death slew the greatest conqueror in human history, Alexander the Great. A simple Indian malarial mosquito is said to have killed him. That makes that mosquito( we may say proudly Indian) a greater conqueror than Alexander. When Alexander died, legend has it, that both of his hands were extended palm up out of two holes in his grand coffin to show that he took nothing from his extensive conquests with him. Death had separated him from his conquests, his triumphs, his wealth.. No wonder that the fear of death envelops and paralyses all of mankind before and since.
Christ alone in all of history proved that the love of God both hidden and manifested in His person was greater than death and sin. If any one else claims to have done this and has demonstrated it non-verbally in action, he or she deserves our attention and our worship. But, the unique love of Christ manifested in His birth, life, death and resurrection makes Him alone Lord ( Love that Rises over death) of our lives.

Living in an age of Roman conquest and rule, St Paul by the time he was inspired to write this had matured both in his faith and his knowledge and understanding of God’s love to affirm that we are more than conquerors, that nothing in all of reality can now separate us from the love of God in Christ. We have an absolute sense of security and absolute security in this assurance that no force or person or event can rob us of. The depth of God’s love demonstrated in Christ exceeds any depth of turmoil or sorrow or loss that any of us can ever go through. It will see us through the deepest valley. The height of God’s love in Christ exceeds the height of any challenge or difficulty. It will take us over the highest mountains. The length of God’s love in Christ exceeds by far the duration of any of our ailments or grievances. It will see us endure it. After we deal with all of it, we will still have enough surplus faith and fruit to take with us into the heavenly realms. We will not go empty handed like Alexander. We will bear fruit on both banks of the river of life, while living and after physical death.

Prateep V Philip

HOW an instrument of progressive death became hope

Uni-verse 277/10,000 Galatians 2 v 20
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.


The God-man separation is the ultimate curse, the ultimate penalty. When we are separated from God, we are cut off from the source of our life, the source of our power, the source of unfailing love. The God-man separation ended potentially on that accursed despicable pieces of joined wood- the Roman cross. The cross was designed to be an instrument not of swift execution like the clinically precise guillotine but an instrument of progressive death. It was to be a spectacle for all the world to see to deter the wrong-doer. But, it was also a symbol of a life of separation from God. Our life without God is but a progressive death.

History was split into BC and AD( not the secular , now fashionable BCE and CE) in that one cathartic act of dying by the sinless Christ on the sinful cross . The defining moment in our lives happens when we stop living in our BC period where we rely on our sense and senses, on our own light and our own strength. The defining moment happens when we move into the year(s) of grace (AD period). We no longer live by sight but by faith.

Everything about Jesus Christ was predicted well ahead of time: His immaculate birth, His sinless life, His ‘sin-ful’ death, His glorious Resurection and His even more glorious Return. But, nothing that He does and what He is going to do in the lives of those who believe and trust Him is predictable. It is interesting to note that this uni-verse speaks not of living by faith in the Son of God but living by the faith of the Son of God. It means we need to move from a level of faith in Jesus to the level of His absolute trust and obedience of the Father that Jesus demonstrated. Nothing, absolutely nothing can now separate us from the love of God. “I-in-Him” becomes “He-in-me”. Listen to this blessong:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOY0mjjmx8Y&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Prateep V Philip