Rom 8:36-37 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Paul quotes David here in verse 36 (Ps 44), where David was crying out to God concerning his situation. David said he knew all the stories about how God had come through for Israel during times of persecution, but at that moment he was overwhelmed by his circumstances. He cried out to God… Where are you?
All of us have quoted these words of Paul in times of struggle. Times when the enemy has come in like a flood and we feel overwhelmed. We stand firmly on that promise, but have you ever asked the question? Have you ever thought what Paul was saying, what did he mean?
To be a victor certainly means to have victory over our enemy and be in control of our circumstances, but to be more than a conqueror means something much deeper. What Paul was saying is that no matter who wins the battle, we are victorious. To be more than a conqueror means that we not only have “victory” over the situation, we have victory in it! No matter what happens in the battle, we know that the Lord is with us. We might not understand at all what He is doing but we have total trust in Him because:
Rom 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is nothing in this world, be it natural or spiritual, that can separate us from God’s love… from God’s victory. All we have to do is look back at the Cross and we know that to be true. And that’s the reason we can stand victorious in the midst of all the challenges that come along in this life. We can stand as more than a conqueror because Jesus has already conquered whatever it is that we’re facing. We can stand victorious in the face of our enemies and put the fear of God in them because we know that we have already won… no matter the outcome of the current battle.
The Lord wants us to understand that we are more than conquerors because He has a perfect plan for each of us to follow on our way to heaven and there are going to be battles along the way that we can’t avoid. He wants us to keep our focus on eternal things and not on the temporal things around us, and the only way to do that is to not allow the enemy to distract us with his lie that we have lost.
So, we can stand firm in the face of the enemy’s attacks because we are already assured of the outcome. There is nothing more frightening than to face an enemy who is so secure in his victory that he has no fear of you. That’s who we can be if we will just remember… in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.