ACC ~ Romans 8 v35

WHO SHALL SEPARATE US? CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Let us bear about a deep love for the Creator, let us cleave to him with our whole heart, let us not wickedly waste the substance of reason like the prodigal. Let us obtain the joy laid up, in which Paul, exulting, exclaimed: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” FRAGMENTS 11.7.

WHEN IN DISTRESS. ORIGEN: Paul says this about those who have been united to Christ in all the ways mentioned above. When tribulation comes, we shall say to God: “Thou hast given me room when I was in distress.”If we have distress in the world, arising from the needs of the body, we shall call on the breadth of God’s wisdom and knowledge, in which the world cannot distress us. For I shall return to the wide fields of the holy Scriptures and look for the spiritual meaning of God’s Word, and there no distress will take hold of me. … If I suffer persecution and confess Christ before men, I am certain that he will confess me also before his Father, who is in heaven. Famine cannot disturb me, for I have the bread of life which comes down from heaven and refreshes weary souls; nor can that bread ever be wanting, for it is perfect and eternal. Nakedness does not confound me, because I am clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. … I shall not fear peril, because “God is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?” The earthly sword cannot frighten me because I have “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHY PERSECUTION? CYPRIAN: None of these can separate believers; nothing can snatch away those clinging to Christ’s body and blood. This persecution is for the examination and evaluation of our heart. God wanted us to be tried and proved, as he has always tried his own, and yet, in his trials, never at any time has his help failed believers. LETTER 11.5.

AMBROSIASTER: This means: “Who will turn us away from the love of Christ, who has given us such great and innumerable gifts?” No torments will overcome the love of a mature Christian. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE MEANING OF TRIBULATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Even though it is easy to make a list like this one, each word contains thousands of lines of temptation. “Tribulation,” for instance, includes prisons and bonds, calumnies and banishments, and all other such hardships. A single word covers oceans of dangers and reveals to us all the evils which people encounter in life. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

AUGUSTINE: Paul is exhorting his hearers to not be broken by persecution, for perhaps they had been living according to the wisdom of the flesh. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 57.

PELAGIUS: After so many and such splendid benefits and promises, what affliction could be so heavy that it might tear us away from love for Christ? In saying “us” Paul is saying that we should all be the sort of Christians that even dangers cannot separate from Christ. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: Good Christians are not separated from Christ even by torture. Tepid and careless ones however, are sometimes separated from him by idle tales; if they suffer even a slight loss they are immediately scandalized, dare to murmur against God and return to their impious, detestable omens. SERMON 54.2.

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