You will often hear about the vertical and horizontal aspects of the Christian life as a way of speaking of its cruciform shape.

The vertical dimension is our relationship to God, the horizontal our relationship to our neighbor. This is a very common way of expressing these dimensions.

But one thing that’s often neglected in these conversations is that you yourself, and your own life, is also included in the horizontal dimension.

Indeed, that’s an incredibly important thing for every believer to grasp.

The vertical dimension for a Christian is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Period. There are no gaps in it that must be filled by our obedience, good works, or improvement.

So it is written:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.
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Ephesians‬ ‭2:8-9‬ ‭KJV‬‬

And:

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
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Romans‬ ‭4:5‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Here’s a couple more you may not have considered.

… we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all … For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
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Hebrews‬ ‭10:10, 14‬ ‭KJV‬‬

That one’s important because it tells us that there’s no gaps we have to fill between us and God by our personal holiness or moral improvement. Those who believe in Christ are sanctified once for all and perfected forever in God’s sight by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

He alone makes us acceptable before God, by grace through faith. Period.

And then there’s this:

… he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ
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Philippians‬ ‭1:6‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Ultimately, your salvation is on God. It’s from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. God will continue His good work in you throughout your life, and complete it when Christ returns and you join Him in resurrection.

But I’m still not finished.

Christian, what you absolutely must understand is, nothing in the horizontal dimension—which is all the stuff of life in this world—can derail or diminish the peace with God Christ has won for you in the vertical dimension.

Christ Himself has promised that:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
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John‬ ‭10:27-29‬ ‭NKJV

Now, add to this these words of St. Paul, and you realize that no one and nothing in the horizontal dimension can pluck you from Christ’s hand. This is your assurance and security in the vertical dimension:

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.
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Romans‬ ‭8:38-39‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Nor any other creature means nothing in creation, which is the horizontal realm.

Not distance—nor height, nor depth.

Not time—nor things present, nor things to come.

Not spiritual beings—nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers. That includes the demons of hell and the devil himself.

And, says St. Paul, neither death nor life shall separate us from God’s love in Christ. For the Christian, death has been transformed from an eternal judgment, to the door through which we must pass to glory. Death brings us to resurrection and eternal life.

But let’s zero in on life. Life cannot separate us from God’s love in Christ.

Pause, dear Christian, and consider it. Life—your life, not some imaginary person’s life, not that guy over there who seems to have it more together than you’s life—but your ordinary life, with all of its shortcomings and struggles and mundane details, cannot separate you from God’s love in Christ.

Very often our struggles in the horizontal realm tempt us to believe that we are in trouble in the vertical realm.

When we keep falling into the same sins. Or the depression won’t let us get out of bed. Or the bills are overdue and we can’t even make the ends wave hello to each other. Or our marriage fails. It’s very easy in those times to say: How could God love a failure like me?

Indeed, Satan—our accuser—loves to seize upon our unimpressive lives, with all their failures and shortcomings, and shame us into believing God is really not for us after all.

I am convinced that is why St. Paul assures us that life—our ragged lives and spotty performance—will not separate us from the love of God in Christ.

The next time Satan—that crafty old serpent—latches onto your heart and lets loose his fiery venom of despair—remember what St. John told us:

For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.‬‬

I John‬ ‭3:20‬ ‭NKJV

God knows all things—including all things about you—and loves you anyway. The Psalmist says: You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways (Psalm‬ ‭139:2-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). God knows things about you that you don’t know—including sin in your heart you don’t even recognize—and still He relentlessly loves you.

God knew all of it—all of your sins and struggles and shortcomings—from eternity … and in love chose you anyway (Ephesians 1:4-5)! Specifically, believer, He chose you to be blameless and holy before Him. And that will not be completed until you are raised immortal, imperishable, and incorruptible, perfectly conformed to the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:52-55; Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:2; Romans 8:29-30).

Until then, we rest assured—and we struggle assured—that the vertical dimension has been perfectly secured by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. You cannot be snatched from His hand that bled for you, and not even your unimpressive life will separate you from God’s love in Him. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to perfection.

The great Princeton theologian Geerhardus Vos said that: The best proof that He will never cease to love us lies in that He never began.

Once you have taken that to heart, nothing can shake your assurance that God loves you, He has loved you from eternity, and in Christ nothing can tear you away from Him.

Once you trust completely that your vertical relationship with God is secured by the Father’s invincible love, the Son’s perfect sacrifice, and the seal of the Holy Spirit—you may very well find that your struggles in the horizontal realm are a bit more bearable, too.