38: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which in in Christ Jesus our Lord....Pretty poetic, eh? But what makes it so?
Is it the polysyndeton, where Paul lists these attributes of existence in a rapid-fire manner, using the negative form of these junctures to emphasize how nothing can separate us from the love of God?
Or perhaps it's the abundance of coupled contraries, each establishing spectrums of life's characteristics on which everyone resides, but are all apparently moot in this instance?
Maybe it's the use of climax, since we don't know what Paul is talking about until the moment of arrival at the end of the verse, but we definitely understand its importance by that time?
Whatever the case may be, this scripture's abundance of poetry and rhetoric makes it memorable, provides room for an emotional connection, and teaches truth in a simple (yet powerful) way: And Paul's own ethos, having experienced just how far God's love can reach after meeting Christ on the road to Damascus, is in no way less important. Love it.
