More than Conquerors

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

(Romans 8:31-37 ESV)

I've been considering what it means to be more than a conqueror in my own life. This chapter begins with the awesome truth that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and this passage is a completion of that thought. When sin comes to rob me of my joy and tell me how horrible and worthless I am, I look to Him who loved(s) me. I can either stop and dwell on my sin and fall into spiritual depression and condemnation, or I can acknowledge the problem of my sin, confess it to God and have it be removed from me, no longer presenting a stumbling block in my relationship with God.

The way I am more than a conqueror in this situation is to take what would have caused me to become depressed and use it for joy. If I can remind myself that this is merely one more thing that I am saved from, and the blood of the Lamb covers even this sin, that God's grace is greater that any sin I could sin, have sinned or will sin, than this is cause for incredible thanksgiving and praise of God. Turning our occasions of sin into worship of God is being more than a conqueror. Obviously, we should not pervert this and sin under the guise of an occasion to worship.

Another way to be more than a conqueror is alluded to in the text. We are going to be buffeted and rocked by the enemy of our souls. We may bask in the sunlight one moment and be shattered upon the rocks the next. Sometimes he will succeed in shaking us, but overall we will be victorious. In those moments of failure we can rejoice because God is redeeming it. He is using it to build us. An anonymous author once wrote the lines “How He hammers [us] and hurts [us], And with mighty blows converts [us], How He bends but never breaks, when [our] good He undertakes.” God can use even the attacks of the devil and our failures to strengthen us. We can be more than conquerors, through Him, in the midst of trials and failures, persecution, famine, or death.

This is by His Grace alone, through His Love alone, by His Spirit alone.