Romans 8:38

38. Persuaded Such assurance does Christianity give me that I rest firmly upon it.

Neither death, nor life The two potencies of existence; namely, the two stages of human existence, life and death. These are both mighty powers over human destiny. Personified life is armed with terrible dangers; and death is the very king of terrors.

Nor angels, nor principalities Two potencies of living agents in the supersensible spiritual world.

Angels throughout Scripture are the messengers of God, armed often with divine authorities.

Principalities are the ranks and orders of beings in the background, never appearing to human view, and but dimly presupposed and rarely alluded to in Scripture. So Paul in Colossians 1:16, speaks very indefinitely of thrones, dominions, principalities, powers; and in Ephesians 1:21, principality, power, might, dominion, and every thing named in this world and that to come. All of which intimates that the New Testament, by a glimpse into the spiritual world, authorizes the belief of a great variety of classifications without giving us any distinct description of their nature. They come but very slightly within the range of the redemptive scheme; and so scarce within the limits of the purpose of Scripture revelation.

Nor powers Perhaps including the grand physical forces of universal nature, known to science, especially to astronomy, in the abstract, but sometimes personified in Scripture as living agencies, and even identified with angels. From the Greek word δυναμεις come our dynamics, dynamical. And then we have a sublime conclusion. Not all the forces, even, that move the astronomic worlds could separate the redeemed from Christ. This is a thought which was not fully taken in by the apostle’s mind, yet his words seem pregnant with it, and legitimately express it to us.

Nor things present, nor things to come Two potencies of time; embracing the vicissitudes of the present and the unknown revolutions of the future.