I found the passage readings in Streams today to be...less meaty than other days...So, I pulled out a commentary and read about the verse. Here's what it says:
"There are passages of the Bible that are so familiar that we often pass over truths that would be startling if we were coming to them ofr the first time. Romans 8:37 is an example. We have just been reminded in the previous verse, by a quotation from the Old Testament, that the people of God "face death all day long" and are "considered as sheep to be slaughtered" (Ps. 44:22). But now, in verse 37, we are told that nevertheless, we are all "more than conquerors."
Sheep that conquer? We can think of lions that conquer, or wolves or polar bears or wild buffalo. Edgar Allan Poe even spoke of "the conqueroring worm," meaning that at last death comes to all. But sheep? The very idea of sheep as conquerors seems ludicrous.
This is a figurative language, of course. But the image is not meaningless, nor is it as ludicrous as it seems. In contrast tot eh world and its power, Christians are indeed weak and despised. They are as helpless as a flock of sheep. But they are in fact conquerors, because they have been loved by the Lord Jesus Christ and have been made conquerors "through him."
Yet even that is not the most startling thing about this verse, for the victory of Christians is described as being more than an ordinary victory. In the English words "we are more than conquerors."...But how can that be? How can those who are despised and rejected---troubled, persecuted, exposed to famine and nakedness, danger adn sword---how can such people be thought of as overcomers, super-overcomers at that?
It is a question worth pondering--and answering. Let me suggest a few reasons we may think like this.
Against Supernatural Forces - ...we are fighting against an enemy who is more than human...(Eph. 6:12)...The devil is the embodiment of these hostile spiritual forces, adn he is a cunning foe. I have often said that we must not overrate Satan's strength, as if he were the evil equivalent of God. Satan is a creature. Therefore he is not omnipresent, omniscient, or omnipotent. Only God is that. However, Satan is dangerous. And crafty? The devil devises more schemes in a minute than we can conceive in a lifetime, and all of them are directed toward our destruction. How can we stand against such an evil, crafty foe, let alone be a "super conqueror" of him and his forces? It is not in our own strength, of course. It is as the test says: "through him who loved us." Martin Luther stood against these spiritual forces, prevailed over them through Christ, and wrote about it in the hymn we know as "A Mighty Fortress"...None of us could stand against Satan's hostile forces even for a moment, but in Jesus Christ we can stand firm and fight on to victory.
Lifelong Battles - Second, Christians are "more than conquerors" because the warfare we are engaged in requires us to fight lifelong battles. In his excellent study of this verse, Donald Grey Barnhouse sharply contrasts our battles as Christians with the limited battles other soldiers fight: "In earthly battles soldiers are sometimes called upon to fight day and night. But there comes a moment when flesh and blood cannot take more and the struggle comes to an end through the utter exhaustion of the soldier. but in the spiritual warfare there is no armistice, no truce, no interval. The text is in the present tense...in the Greek: 'For thy sake we are being killed all the day long' (rsv). From the moment we are made partakers of the divine nature, we are the targets of the world, the flesh and the devil. There is never a moment's reprieve. It follows, then, that our conquest is more than a conquest, and thus we are more than conquerors."
Eternal Results - The third reason why Christians are more than conquerors is that the spiritual victories achieved by God's people are eternal. This is a very important point and one we need to remind ourselves of constantly. We are creatures of time, and we live in a perishing world. Apart from spiritual battles and spiritual victories, everything we accomplish will pass away, no matter how great an earthly "victory" may seem in the world's eyes or our own. How can it be otherwise when even "heaven and earth will pass away" (Matt. 24:35)? ...I am convinced that this is what our earthly struggles are about and that this how we are to view them...I am convined that in his supreme wisdom God has ordered history in such a way that fore every child of Satan who is suffering, a child of God is suffering in exactly the same circumstances. And for every child of Satan who enjoys the fullness of this world's pleasures, there is a child of God who is denied those pleasures. The unbeliever curses his or her lot if deprived and made to suffer. The believer trusts and praises God and looks to him for ultimate deliverance. Unbelievers boast of their superiority if they are forunate in securing this world's success and treasure. Believers acknowledge God as the source of whatever good fortune they enjoy, and if deprived of these things, as is frequently the case, they say, as Job did, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised" (Job 1:21b)....when Christians are persecuted, they count it a privilege, for it shows that they are standing with Jesus, belong to his kingdom...Victories in such sufferings are eternal in the same way that the victory of our Lord upon the cross is eternal. Our sufferings endure for a moment, but they achieve an eternal victory. They point to the truth and grace of God forever. I am convinced that in the farthest reaches of heaven, in what we would call billions of years from now, there will be angels who will look on everyone who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ and thrust into spiritual warfare by him, and they will say, "Look, there is another of God's saints, one who triumphed over evil by the Lord's power!" Reverlation 12:11-12 describes how they will exclaim of our great victories over Satan: "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!" In achieving those eteranl victories, we who love the Lord Jesus Christ will have indeed been more than conquerors.
Eternal Rewards - the fourth reason why we are more than conquerors in the struggles of life is that the rewards of our victory will surpass anyuthing ever attained by earthly conquerors...The world's soldiers have thier rewards, but they are earthly rewards. The people of God look for rewards in heaven....(1 Cor 9:24-25). In this life, like our Master, we may wear nothing but a crown of thorns. But in heaven we will wear crowns that are incorruptible and will possess an inheritance that will never slip away.
No Greater Cause - The final reason why we are more than conquerors is that teh goal of our warfare is the glory of God, and that is an infinitely worthy and utterly superior thing....I wrote of our reward as being imperishable crowns, using the image the Bible itself gives us. With that in mind, I call your attention to a scene in Revelation 4:1-11. The setting is the throne room of heaven, and there, before the throne of Almighty God, are twenty-four elders who represent teh people of God saved from all nations and all ages. They too, are seated on thrones and wear crowns, because the saints reign with Jesus. in the center, immediately surrounding the throne, are four living creatures who cry out day and night, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." (v. 8). Whenever the four living creatures worship God with these words, the twenty-four elders rise from their thrones, fall before God, and worship him. Then--and this is the point for which I recall this picture--they lay their crowns before the throne saying, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being" (v. 11). This picture is extremely beautiful, for it shows that the crowns of victory won by God's people are won by God's grace and therefore rightly belong to him. They are our crowns, but they are laid at the Lord's feet to show that they were won for his honor and by his strength. In this, as well as in all the other things I mentioned, we are more than cnoquerors.
But there is one more thing to say: The way to victory is not by "going up" to any self-achieved glory but rather by "stooping down" in suffering.
Remember the picture of Satan given in Isaiah 14? Satan said, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. i will ascend above the tops of the couds; I will make myself like the Most Hight" (vv. 13-14). But God tells Satan, "you [will be] brought down to the grave, to teh depths of the pit" (v.15). Where Satan aimed to sit is in so me measure where the saints of all ages are raised, for the sit on teh "mount of assembly," higher than anything except the throne of God, as we have just seen. But notice how they get there. Not by trying to dislodge the Almighty from his throne. Rather, the are exalted because they have followed in the steps of their Master, who...did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:6-11)
Jesus was a prototype--the true sheep fit only "to be slaughtered." He was "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). But he was also a super-conqueror, and we are more than conquerors through him.
Romans - Volume 2 - An Expositional Commentary by James Montgomery Boice
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2 comments:
Thanks for sharing. :) This idea of being conquerers is interesting. I like how you said it's not in the way of the world. The world might not see us as conquerers, but we are. I've been praying that we can learn to act like conquerers more often-- conquerers who have a soldier who fights for us. One who has overcome. I hope we can have joy and thankfulness shining out and not portray heaviness and dullness to the world.
Here is another view of the December 18th devotion from a young mother of three children with incurable cancer. She wrote this on November 5th; it is well worth reading.
Streams in the Desert, by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman was first published in 1925. Almost 100 years later, its words have never been more true. For anyone facing hardship, this devotional is a beacon of light in the midst of darkness. It seems to speak directly to my heart daily. Whatever the circumstances of the day, Streams in the Desert seems to be right on point.
My next scan is December 18th so last night I decided I would jump ahead and see what the December 18th entry said. Not because I think this book is some type of “Crystal Ball”, but just because God has used it to offer me such a sense of peace on all of my test days that I just became curious as to what type of message of peace would be waiting for me on December 18th. I guess you can tell that I’ve never been too big on surprises. As a child I think I got caught more than once sneaking around looking for my Christmas presents. Some things never change. What I found on the December 18th entry brought tears to my eyes. It absolutely changed my survival paradigm and I couldn’t wait to share it. I’ve copied some of the text below with my comments following. I hope it means as much to you as it means to me…
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Romans 8:37.
The Gospel is so arranged and the gift of God so great that you may take the very enemies that fight you and the forces that are arrayed against you and make them steps up to the very gates of heaven and into the presence of God….
….You know when one army is more than conqueror it is likely to drive the other from the field, to get all the ammunition, the goods and supplies, and to take possession of the whole. That is just what our text means. There are spoils to be taken!
Beloved, have you got them? When you went into that terrible valley of suffering did you come out of it with spoils? When that injury struck you and you thought everything was gone, did you so trust in God that you came out richer than you went in? To be more than conqueror is to take the spoils from the enemy and appropriate them to yourself. What he had arranged for your overthrow, take and appropriate for yourself. --- From Streams in the Desert December 18, 2008.
War is not a football game. You’re not fighting for the “W”. In war, the victor takes home the possessions of the offender. The victor leaves the enemy with nothing. The victor doesn’t go home the same. The victor goes home with gain. The victor takes the spoils.
Spiritual warfare surrounds us. Christ has already promised the victory and sometimes we become so focused on the victory that we treat it like a football game. We just want the “W.” But Christ has promised us so much more than just the victory. His desire for us is to not only be victorious, but also to be “more than conquerors.” He wants us to take the spoils.
There are some of you that are still in the middle of your fight thinking, “Spoils? I just want to survive!” And you are right. The middle of the fight is no time to think about spoils. When you’re in the fight you are to do one thing – fight. But there are others of you who have finished the fight, but left the spoils lying on the ground. Have you lost a child, spouse, or parent and, by the grace of God, started adjusting to your new normal? Have you come through a bitter divorce? Is there finally a light at the end of the tunnel of your financial debt? Have you recovered from a serious illness? Have you recovered from childhood abandonment? Are you holding your child after years of infertility? What are you doing with your victories? Have you simply closed that chapter of your life refusing to see any blessing in that dark hour? Or have you taken the spoils?
After a time of severe distress most of us sit back, reflect on the moment, praise God that the hardship has drawn to a close, and count it a blessing that we are no longer in the middle of the battle. But very, very few of us take the spoils. Christ doesn’t call us to go through extreme hardships only so we can say that we have defeated Satan by the grace of God and merely survived. Oh no, dear friends. That is only the beginning. Take the spoils! Take every arrow Satan threw at you. Take every tear you cried. Take from the enemy every supply, every piece of ammunition, every good. Take possession of the whole. Take it all. Then take it to the cross and watch Christ transform it into steps to the very gates of heaven. Take the spoils. The battle is won. You can walk away from your fight with victory alone or you can walk away with victory and with more blessing than you ever had before – but only if you choose to take the spoils. Don’t leave them lying on the ground. Don’t leave them behind. Don’t leave every tool Satan threw at you in a place where he can gather it up. The battle is won. Through Christ, the victory is yours. Rejoice. Be blessed. Take the spoils!
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