More Than Conquerors
I love the last few verses of Romans 8. They move me at the core of my being. Tomorrow’s passage is one of the greatest sentences in all of the Bible. Today we read verses 35-37: “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. “This passage begins with a question that will be answered fully in tomorrow’s passage but the answer begins here. What or who can separate you from the love of Christ…really…what do you think? Unfortunately we can act like some things can separate us. But they cannot. Paul’s list of famine, distress, tribulation, persecution, nakedness, peril and sword is a pretty ominous list. I doubt too many of us have faced more than one or two of these at any one time. But the next phrase is the key to not feeling separated. “For Your sake we are killed all day long…We are counted as sheep for the slaughter”.
Theologically we know that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love but practically it might not feel that way. But if we already know that we are counted as sheep for the slaughter…if we already know that our life is not our own…that in this world we will have tribulation…then when the trouble hits, we won’t see it as a separation from Christ’s love. We won’t see our circumstances as indicating that God doesn’t love us. Rather, we will see our negative circumstances as confirmation of Christ’s love. It’s all a matter of perspective. The final sentence reminds us that we are more than conquerors. We are victors. We are on the winning side. In all the difficult things, we are more than conquerors. We can’t lose. We can only win…and we have won…through the love of Christ. Beloved, don’t forget this. Live in the light of this glorious truth. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ