July 27, 2008 — Romans 8:35-39 — MORE THAN CONQUERORS — Pastor Jerome Teichmiller
Teichmiller Comments OffMORE THAN CONQUERORS
Romans 8:35-39 
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this mornings meditation is recorded in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 8, verses 35 through 39, particularly these words, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is our text.
In the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian friends. When we look at the Apostle Paul, we see a man who was very BOLD in his faith. When he was in Greece, he was accused of preaching about a foreign God. So he pointed to a temple right there in their city dedicated to “the Unknown God”, and proclaimed to the people, “That is the God I make known to you.”
Even in the face of persecution at almost every town that he and his followers entered, Paul continued to preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Paul never seemed to fear the consequences. He just continued to spread the message of God’s love through Jesus Christ.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Christians at Rome, he told them in the first Chapter, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes.”
And even up to his death, Paul remained confident in his faith and in his message, for he said, “For me to live is Christ, for me to die is gain.”
Are you and I as confident today, as Paul was in his day? Are we as willing to stand up for Jesus Christ as Paul was? Do we have the boldness to shout out the message of God’s love to a world that really doesn’t want to listen? I’m afraid that each of us has to answer no to each of these questions. When we compare ourselves to the Apostle Paul, we are all kind of shy when it comes to speaking up about our faith and what Jesus Christ means to us personally.
You and I might be more confident if we understood why Paul was so confident. In our text for today, Paul gives his reason for such outstanding confidence and boldness.
Paul starts out by listing some of the problems that Christians will face during their lifetimes. He lists in our text, “trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness danger, and sword (another word for death itself). And he asks the questions “Can these separate us from the love of Christ?”
Paul knew all of these problems in his day. You and I, compared with Paul’s experience, know them only slightly. None of us has gone through what Paul went through. What is trouble and hardship for us today? May be when the car is in the shop to be repaired and we have to car pool with someone else, that’s a hardship! When we have disagreements with our wives or our children, that is trouble in our lives. The only persecution because of our faith that we face in the world today is the indifference and apathy of those around us. Today there are a lot of people in our world who really don’t care about God, or about religion, or about church. In the United States, there is great prosperity compared with the rest of the world. Severe hunger and poverty we see in magazines and on the T.V. news, but seldom in real life. Even the homeless standing on the street corners in Houston look well-fed.
Danger and death are two things that we do face. Every time you get into your car, you face danger as 1,000s of people are killed on American highways each year. Death is a reality we all have to face at one time or another, some sooner than others. But we all face the reality of death.
You and I do face many problems and hardships every day of our lives. That is why the Old Testament Scripture passage which Paul quotes in our text applies to each of us also. It reads, “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” The Christian is going to suffer. The Christian is going to face hardships. The Christian is going to face danger, and eventually death itself. As Christ said, “We take up our Cross and follow him.”
But even in a pessimistic, painful, cruel and sinful world, the Christian — and ONLY THE CHRISTIAN — can rejoice. ONLY the Christian can be bold. ONLY the Christian can be confident. WHY? Because Paul tells us straight out in our text, “In all these things we are more than conquerors, in all these things we have total victory through him who loved us!”
The troubles of this life should not bother us, we have total victory. The hardships of this life should not bother us, we have complete victory. The persecutions we face, the dangers we face, — and especially the death we face — should not bother us. For as Paul said in our text, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Just imagine if you can, a corn seed that was absolutely, positively guaranteed to produce a bumper crop every year no matter what the circumstances. Do you think that seed would sell? This seed is guaranteed to produce full heads of corn no matter how dry and hot the summer is, no matter if the fields are flooded by too many thunderstorms, no matter how cold or late the spring, no matter what the weather or soil conditions happen to be, this seed is guaranteed to produce — do you think people would use that seed?
Of course they would buy it — and they would plant it — and they would probably keep some of the seeds back for planting next year. There would be no maybes, no guessing, no gambling with that perfect, guaranteed seed.
Paul tells us there are no maybes, no guessing, and no gambling on the Christ faith either. Paul says in our text, “I am certain” (He didn’t say, “I Hope,” or “I think,” he said “I’m Absolutely, positively, certain.”) “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord
After all, it is His victory. We are the victor, but it is He who has won the battle. It looked like defeat. Judas won the first round and Jesus was arrested. The High Priests won the second round with false witnesses and a kangaroo court. The crowd won the third round as they blackmailed Pilot into a sentence of death. The devil won the fourth round as the crucified Savior was teased and mocked by the crowd that gathered at the foot of his cross. And death itself won the fifth round as the Savior yelled, “It is finished”, and died. It looked like complete defeat for the man who claimed to be the Son of God
Yet on Easter morning there was the shout of victory, “He is not here, He is risen!” With his resurrection, the powers and the forces of evil were once and for all defeated. The battle and the war was won. Our risen Lord and Savior was victorious.
That victory in now your victory and mine. Paul said in the text, “We are more than conquerors.” Yes much more! We are heirs of Heaven: Children of God, bought and paid for with the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Why was Paul so bold — so confident – even in trials, and tribulations – He knew he had the victory. There will be troubles, hardships, persecutions, poverty, hunger, pains, and many other worries in this life, — but in all these things we have the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the worst fear of most people — DEATH itself — no longer gives the Christian deep concern. We need not ever fear death! As the Scriptures promise, “Death too is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s our strength. That’s our confidence. That’s our total Victory in Jesus Christ out Lord. To Him be the glory now and forevermore. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
