More Than Conquerors (Romans 8:37)
Romans 8 has always been regarded as a precious chapter of the Bible. Reading through it has been compared to a walk through the Alps, with the reader ascending mountain after mountain and being given a majestic view of the spiritual life from a wide variety of viewpoints. And we are invited to stand on such a spiritual peak and consider how believers are more than conquerors.
The apostle Paul has mentioned a set of issues that will not prevent believers from having spiritual victory. He makes this pronouncement even although appearances suggest otherwise. After all, if someone is put to death for believing in Jesus, it would look as if that person had been defeated. If someone had succumbed to a fiery interrogation, it would like he or she had been defeated.
In addition, Paul affirms that this total experience of victory will be the experience of every Christian. He does not suggest that it is only believers who march confidently along the road to heaven who will participate in the triumph. If that was the case, Paul himself would be excluded because as he says elsewhere he often had fears, and felt that he was the chief of sinners.
What is necessary for conquering?
We need to remind ourselves of what is necessary in order for a person to become a conqueror. The essential requirement is a correct response to the gospel of Christ. In the gospel, sinners are told what Jesus did and are invited to accept his forgiveness for their sins. When they repent of their sins and trust in Jesus, they receive his mercy. This practice of repenting and trusting becomes the outlook of their hearts. While they are forgiven at the initial moment of faith in Christ, they continue to have faith in him and repent of their sins. It is important to remember what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who trusts in Jesus for forgiveness and is sorry for his or her sins. That is the basic feature of them, and because they have those outlooks now they will be more than conquerors in the future.
The threats to conquering
What are the threats that we face? The first one is sin. In a sense, there are only two kinds of sin – those we commit before conversion and those we commit after conversion. Can either type of sin prevent us from conquering? The answer is no, and the reason for this is found in what Jesus did. On the cross, he paid the penalty for all the sins of his people. Obviously, sin after conversion has consequences in the sense that we will be deprived to some extent of the degree of glory promised in the gospel, but even when that happens the pardoned sinner will be more than a conqueror. The Christian who fails the most will have a place in heaven, and that can only be described as more than conquering.
The second threat is the devil. Is he able to to drag any of Christ’s people out of the grip of the Saviour? Will he be able by his accusations to persuade the Saviour that a particular sinner has committed too many sins and should therefore be thrown away? Was he able to remove the cowardly Peter from hold of the Saviour? Did David, after his sins, find himself discarded by his God? The answer is that Satan cannot prevent any of Christ’s people from reaching their heavenly destination. All his guile cannot achieve such an end.
A third threat is the world and it takes many forms. There is the form caused by not wanting to look different from others. It is hard for most people to be regarded as odd by the majority and the pressure to compromise is always there. Inevitably, all of Christ’s people will have done so to some degree, but they will still be more than conquerors. Then there is the form of pleasure, which the world has in abundance. Many a Christian is taken in by this aspect of the world’s contribution, even if only for a season, and even during their short availability those pleasures are found to be inadequate in satisfying human hearts. Nevertheless, being led astray in this way does not prevent believers becoming more than conquerors.
None of the above means that it is a light thing to be defeated by the world, the flesh and the devil. Capitulating to them causes Christians to have many bitter tears. Yet it is important to remember that they do not prevent sinners being more than conquerors. Nothing can overcome the effectiveness of the atonement of Jesus, nothing can reverse the regeneration brought about by the Holy Spirit. There will be degrees of growth in grace, there will be times of backsliding, but believers will be more than conquerors.
The nature of the conquering
Paul uses the present tense when he says that believers are more than conquerors. How can he use this tense since they are conscious of their weaknesses? The answer to this question is that they have the assurance of victory contained in the great promises of God. Those promises are numerous, but here are a couple of them.
Jesus said on one occasion that no-one could pluck any of his sheep out of his hand or out of his Father’s hand. That is a form of double security, designed to inform his disciples of the reality of the divine promises. Something similar is said by the apostle Paul when he reminded the Colossians that their lives were hid with Christ in God, even although they had not been what they should have been. It is very important to feed our souls on the promises of God in whatever state we are in.
All the promises of God in the Bible are given to sinners, so believing and repentant sinners should make use of them. Of course, if we are indulging in sin at present, we cannot use the promises in a a manner that allows such behaviour. But neither should we use such behaviour to nullify the promises if we have repented of those sins and asked the Lord for forgiveness.
There is a future aspect to the conquering as well. Conquerors usually showed their victory in a parade through the capital city. That is where believers are heading towards despite their many failures. The day is coming when they will, as it were, march together through the heavenly city. Of course, that is only a picture of the heavenly world – the reality will be far greater. But all of the conquerors will be clothed in white garments, whatever the degree and nature of their failings in this life. All of them will be wearing palm branches, the symbol that conquerors used to highlight that they were victorious. Who is standing there in white waving a palm branch? There is Saul of Tarsus, who sinned greatly before his conversion. There is Lot, there is David, there is Peter, who sinned greatly after their conversion.
The cause of conquering
Paul mentions the reason why God’s people will conquer – it is because of the love of Jesus. The apostle had asked in verse 35, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ We know now that the day will come when it will be seen that nothing did separate them from Jesus. So it is appropriate to reflect a little on his love.
The love of Jesus for his people is eternal. It never had a beginning. His love for them did not ignore that they were sinners, pretending that they were otherwise. Rather it took a serious view of their sins. Yet that reminds us that the love of Jesus is redeeming love. While our sins deserved eternal death, Jesus instead paid the penalty for them on the cross, and he accepted each stage of it lovingly. It is inconceivable to imagine that any of his redeemed will perish, and they will not perish even although they fail frequently.
The eternal, redeeming love of Jesus is also a sanctifying love. The blood of Jesus continues to cleanse his people from their sins after they have believed in him. His sanctifying love is marked by him knowing that the objects of his affection are those who have become sons of God and he is not ashamed to regard them as his brothers. He is determined that each of them will reach the inheritance and enjoy it as conquerors for ever.
Moreover, the love of Jesus is a love that compels him to be with his people. Who is with that Christian who is the only one in a large factory? Jesus is with him lovingly. Who is with that Christian who is the solitary believer in a school classroom? Jesus is with her lovingly. Who is with that poor believer who has just succumbed to temptation and is bemoaning himself? Jesus is there lovingly. Who is with the believer who had outlived his friends and now is lonely every day? Jesus is there lovingly. Who is that with the believer who has made a mess of things and has no idea how to resolve it? Jesus is there lovingly.