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nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:39 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from God’s love, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • KJV 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.
  • BSB neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • NKJV nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • NLT No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Neither height, depth, nor anything in all creation can separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus. The chapter ends with an unconditional guarantee of the believer's eternal security.

Overview

Completing the list begun in v. 38, Paul sweeps in every remaining possibility and concludes that no created thing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love that saves is located in Christ, so it is as secure as Christ himself. This triumphant climax of Romans 8 assures believers that their salvation rests on God's invincible love, not their own fragile grip.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 36

  • John 10:28–30I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
  • Rom 8:35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
  • Rom 5:8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
  • 1 Jn 4:19We love him, because he first loved us.
  • Eph 3:18–19may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,
  • 1 Jn 4:9–10By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
  • John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
  • Eph 1:4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love;
  • John 17:26I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
  • John 16:27for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.
  • 1 Jn 4:16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
  • Col 3:3–4For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  • Titus 3:4–7But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared,
  • Eph 2:4–7But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
  • Exod 9:16–17but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;
  • Rom 11:33Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
  • Isa 24:21It shall happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.
  • Ps 64:6They plot injustice, saying, “We have made a perfect plan!” Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning.
  • Prov 20:5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.
  • 2 Th 2:9–12even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
  • Dan 4:11The tree grew, and was strong, and its height reached to the sky, and its sight to the end of all the earth.
  • Isa 10:10–14As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
  • Matt 24:24For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
  • Dan 5:18–23You, king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty:
  • 2 Cor 2:11that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
  • 2 Cor 11:3But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
  • Isa 10:33Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.
  • Rev 2:24But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as don’t have this teaching, who don’t know what some call ‘the deep things of Satan,’ to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you.
  • 2 Th 2:4he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
  • Rev 12:9The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
  • Rev 13:14He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived.
  • Rev 20:7And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison,
  • Ps 93:3–4The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
  • Rev 20:3and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
  • Rev 13:1–8Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names.
  • Rev 19:20The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 8:39YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.

How Romans 8:39 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.