More Than Conquerors
(Rom. 8:31-39)
In this passage we have read how that nothing and that no one is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Of all the things that Paul lists, he states that nothing can overcome or defeat the loving and gracious salvation of our Lord. No person or circumstance is able to cause a believer in Christ to lose our salvation in Christ. We read that in all those things that are named and that we might face, the fact is as it says in verse 37 is that we are “more than conquerors” over those things through Christ. Today, we will look at the reasons why we are “more than conquerors” through Christ.
I. 1st reason - “God is for us” (v.31-32, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?)
The main reason that we should know that our salvation with Christ is secure is that God is for us. Who can overcome God? We know that answer is no one. So if we are God's own then who can take us out of the hand of God? No one (John 10:28-29 - “I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand”. If God is for us then who can be against us? The answer is still the same, no one. Ps. 27:1 declares, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”. God knew before we came into existence that humanity would fall; but in His wondrous love and grace determined that He would save us from our sins. God the Father reached out to us in grace through His Son Jesus Christ, by His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection, to bring salvation to every person who would receive Christ by faith. What a glorious and miraculous power that God performed in order to just save us. The love, the pain, the suffering, the death and resurrection Christ went through on our behalf (Rom. 5:8 - “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”). Christian doesn't that show, doesn't that reveal this fact that God is for us? When we can get our minds and our hearts wrapped around this glorious truth, it is then we can have that peaceful assurance that we are eternally secure in our saving relationship with Christ. To grasp that we cannot save ourselves, that it is the sole work of Christ in the heart of a man or woman and nothing that we do can save us. It is God that's got us and it's God that keeps us and it's God that will present us on that final and ultimate day (Jude 1:24-25 - “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen”). God's got us; God is for us. In Christ we are forgiven, accepted, kept, and sealed until we are one day glorified. No one and nothing can undo the fact of our salvation in Christ. Only the One who has given us salvation can possibly take that away but that is a foolish thought because it says right here in v. 32 that “He ...did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all”, God will never throw out or turn away any of His children that have been purchased by the blood of Christ. For God to cast away any of His children after He has delivered up His Son as a sacrifice for our sins; He would never turn His back on us after He has cleansed us from sin by Christ's blood and made us righteous and acceptable in His sight. By the death and resurrection of Christ we know and understand that God is for us.
II. 2nd reason – Christ Intercedes for Us (v. 33-34 - “Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”)
There are many accusers of the faith. Our greatest accuser is Satan and that's what the name Satan means. We can see in the book of Job where Satan accuses Job worshiping God out of selfishness rather than out of reverence and love (Job1:8-12). But we can see for the rest of the book of Job that the testing of Job could not destroy Job's persevering faith in God. There are other passages that show the accusations of the enemy against God's children. The world and Satan will always accuse believers in God. In the book of Zechariah 3:1-5, Satan tries accusing the high priest Joshua of wearing dirty garments while attending in the Tabernacle, it says, “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?" Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you." Then I said, "Put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by”. Although Joshua wore “filthy garments”, that is still living in this sinful body of flesh, he was one of God's redeemed and Satan can bring no accusation against him, Satan was powerless to destroy and discredit God's servant. Now every accusation of this world or by Satan are not always false because we are still not sinless. But even though the accusation is true, the charge made is powerless. If we are Christ's then every sin past, present, and future are forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ. The eternal salvation of Christ destroys all accusations of damnation by the accusers. Our salvation is not determined on our ability or us trying to be perfect (which is impossible) but it is based upon our God who has justified us through the person and work of Jesus Christ (His suffering, death, & resurrection). The accusations against us to condemnation are powerless in the light that Jesus saved us and keeps us because His sacrifice gave us the finished work of salvation. Because Christ provided for our salvation and when He finished that work the Bible says the He “sat down at the right hand of God – (Heb. 10:12)”. Although the work of atonement was finished, Jesus is still at the right hand of the Father ministering intercession for all of us who are redeemed until we have made it to our Heavenly Home (Heb. 7:25 - “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them”). When we gain a pure understanding of the work Christ did on the cross to save our wretched souls then we can understand what it means to be secure in that salvation. All of us who were vile, sinful, wretched, and ungodly have been shown the love of God through the Father sending His Son to die for us, so how can we who have been saved by that love knowing that God's love is powerful to save, lack the power to keep us saved. If Jesus had the power to deliver us from the bondage of sin, then how can He lack the power to keep us saved? To believe that a Christian can lose his salvation and to deny the security of the believer is to misunderstand the wonderful gift of Christ and misunderstand the wonderful heart of God. It all comes down to ignorance of the biblical meaning of salvation. Be sure of this Christian, Jesus is ever interceding for His children and we are eternally secure in Him.
III. 3rd Reason – Nothing and No One Can Separate Us (v. 35-39 - “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "For thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”).
Let us look at first set of things that cannot separate us from the “love of God”: tribulation – severe hardship(hard times), distress – extreme stress, persecution – suffering for the sake of Christ, famine – lack of food and hunger, nakedness - destitution, peril – exposed to danger, or sword – assassination. Paul says that will not separate us from the love of God. How does Paul know this? Because he faced all of these things (2 Cor. 11:23-27 - “Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure”), but he still served God because it could not separate him from the love of God. Paul faced persecution and eventually martyrdom, why did Paul face all these things? It was because God loved him first (1 John 4:19 - “We love, because He first loved us”). Any Christian's love for God is the direct result of God so wonderfully loving us first, in the heart of every child of God is the seed of God's love that must grow and blossom into a love for His Lord that will want to sow the seeds of God's love in other people lives. Paul finishes this chapter with the truth that we are “more than conquerors” in Christ in spite of any attempt that this world or Satan tries to throw at us. Let me finish with the last two verses of this passage: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. There is nothing in heaven nor earth, no angel nor demon, no king nor president, no high mountain range nor ocean depths, and no human nor beast that can ever steal my salvation or destroy the love that Christ has for me.
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