READ: Rom. 8:35-37: … We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
In verse 37 Paul does not mean to say that we will only be shown to be more than conquerors at Christ’s return. That is true in itself — then the cause of Christ’s church will prove to be the cause of Christ Himself. Then all oppression will be judged, and those who suffered for Christ’s sake will be exalted. That is our comfort.
Yet in verse 37 Paul is not speaking about that future. He says: “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” This refers to verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
It is about perseverance in faith under extremely difficult circumstances — perseverance in which you remain bound to Christ and His love, and in Him to God. The situations described could lead one to lose the love of Christ and thus be lost.
Not by our own strength can we persevere, but by God’s nearness, His love, and the working of His Spirit we are enabled to stand firm. For we know: God is for us, He gave His Son for us out of love. His Son intercedes for us. And we know that God makes everything — even extreme circumstances — work together for good. That faith and that hope enabled martyrs to endure terrible opposition.
Paul compares such extreme afflictions to the situation of sheep destined for slaughter (Ps. 44:22). But even with death before our eyes, we can persevere and be more than conquerors. Even now, our expectation is that God will enable us as believers to endure, through the love of Christ who died for us. In that faith we continue to follow Him wherever He goes.
We know that in the future it will become very heavy (Matt. 24:22; Rev. 11:7). But even then, God will hold us up (Matt. 16:18). “He who overcomes shall inherit all things” (Rev. 21:7).
How can you be a conqueror when everything is against you?
Sing: Hymn 27:2,3 (1984) / 35:2,3 (2014)