“I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38–39).

This certainty of God's love does not depend upon us but upon the person of God, who is love. We are loved by God, whether we are good or bad. He loves us because what he made he sees as good. At the same time he does not love some of our actions, which separate us from him. In this sense nothing can separate us from God from his part. Our separation comes from our choices, which are selfish rather than other. Even if a person is eternally separated from God by choice, God still loves that person as he respect the free choice the person made. 

Paul is reminding us that if we truly love God, nothing can separate us from him. For in truth when we love God, we choose him over anything that could attempt to separate us from him. That is why our love for God is so essential to our eternal existence. That is why total love of God is the first and most important requirement of our relationship with him. At the same time, we are called to love what God loves, namely, those created in his own image and likeness as ourselves.