An Address by Dr. H. A. Ironside in the D. L. Moody Memorial Church

IT has been announced that I will speak to you on a subject which has occasioned a good deal of controversy among the people of God. I want to take as a starting-point — not exactly as a text, because we shall be looking at a good many scriptures — Romans 8:38, 39: “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.” This is the inspired answer to the question of verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” That is, once we are Christians, once we know the love of Christ, once we have been justified by faith, who is there, what power is there, that can separate from the love of Christ? And the answer, how full, how clear, not a shadow, not a doubt, not a question left, when the apostle says that neither death nor life shall separate! Can you think of anything which is neither included in death nor in life? Neither death nor life shall separate!
Then, no unseen powers can separate the believer from Christ, “Neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers.” These terms are used again and again in the New Testament, particularly in the Epistles, for angelic hosts, good and evil. When our Saviour rose from the dead He spoiled principalities and powers, that is, He defeated all the, hosts of evil led by Satan; and so we may take it that the angels referred to here are good angels, and the principalities and powers are possibly evil angels. But there is nothing that good angels would do, and nothing that evil angels can do, which will result in the separation of the believer from Christ. And then further, he says, “Neither things present nor things to come.” Again let me put the question, Can you think of any experience through which a believer might ever go which is neither a thing present nor a thing to come? And the Holy Ghost says that neither things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ. As though that were not enough, He speaks in a more general way when He says that neither “height nor depth (nothing in heaven, nothing in hell), nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It looks to me as though we are pretty safe if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.