"More than conquerors"

by LA UBF   12/28/2019     0 reads

Question

MORE THAN CONQUERORS

Romans 8:31-39

Key Verse 37

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

  1. Read verses 31-35. Meditate on these seven questions. How did God show us His love in and through Jesus Christ? What personal questions and answers have you found, based on God’s love despite your troubles?

  2. Read verses 36-37. What is the meaning of Psalm 44:22, which is quoted in v36? (36) What difference does it make to know that we are “more than conquerors” as opposed to just “conquerors”? (37a) What is our source of victory? (37b)

  3. Read verses 38-39. What is Paul’s personal conviction? What does this passage reveal about the nature of God’s love for us?

Manuscript

Biblenote

MORE THAN CONQUERORS

Romans 8:31-39

Key Verse 37

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Introduction

We will have two passages for the preparation of the new year. One is “more than conquerors.” The other is “What is impossible for man is possible with God.” Romans 8:31-39 is arguably one of the most encouraging and affirming passages in all of God's Words. Paul has established that God is for all of us who are in Christ; for those who have been saved by their faith. No charge or accusation made against us can stand, because God has provided for our justification and Christ is interceding for us. Hard things will happen, indeed. Yet, none of them will cause our Father to stop loving us, nor are any of them signs that He has abandoned us. Our salvation is entirely, absolutely secure thanks to His great love. Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” All things in our lives as a Christian are for our good. Often times we feel defeated in our spiritual struggles. But Paul declares that we are more than conquerors. Let us learn today why and how we are more than conquerors. May the Lord richly bless our New Year for His own glory!

  1. Read verses 31-35. Meditate on these seven questions. How did God show us His love in and through Jesus Christ? What personal questions and answers have you found, based on God’s love despite your troubles?

1-1, Read verses 31-35.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

1-2, Meditate on these seven questions.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

7 questions;

  • What, then, shall we say in response to these things?

  • If God is for us, who can be against us?

  • 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

  • 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

  • It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns?

  • 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

  • Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

  • In the previous passage from Romans 8:18-30, apostle Paul talked about “present suffering and future glory.”

  • Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

  • So our bottom line is “God loves us.” He demonstrated his love for us when he sent his own Son to save us while we were still sinners.

  • But our enemy Satan tries very hard to plant doubt in us about God’s love when we see very tedious progress in light of our Bible students and our children.

  • But he points out in verse 31, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

  • Paul asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” What is his answer? He says in verse 32: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

  • Paul asks three more similar questions with the same answer in verses 33- 36. Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

  • It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

  • Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

1-3, How did God show us His love in and through Jesus Christ?

If God is for us,

  • Almighty God is in favor of us. When God is for us, He will orchestrate every happenings for the goodness of His children. God wants to save and glorify human beings, not angels. Then God did not spare anything, even His Son.

32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all

  • God, in his great love, did not spare anything for us. He even gave up his own Son so that we can have life. It wasn’t something that we deserved, but purely by grace God sacrificed his Son Jesus on the cross to give us our salvation.

  • He gave up everything to be with us. As parents, we would do anything to protect our children from any harm. We could never sacrifice them for something else.

  • But out of His love, power, and sovereignty, God gave up His one and only Son, Jesus Christ for us. If God did that for us, then what limits are there to his love?

  • Every once in a while, as we try to serve the Lord, it looks as if the Lord is taking everything away from us. It looks as if we are called to lose everything.

  • But it is a matter of trust in the Lord our God to the end. God is always a good God who wants to give us what is best all the time!

  • The reasonable thought is that when we always remember the fact that the Lord gave us His one and only Son, we are rest assured that the Lord God will give us all other good things!

No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

  • Satan has three ways to deprive us of our faith through deceiving, discouraging, and destroying. But we better fix our eyes on Jesus and what he has done for us.

  • “Christ Jesus who died”: Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He already paid the price for our sins and his death wiped our records clean.

  • Because of Jesus’ death, none of our sins can be held against us. Jesus rose from the dead. Death could not keep its hold on Jesus.

  • Because of Jesus’ resurrection, death has no more power over us. Now Jesus is at the right hand of God. The right hand is considered the position of power.

  • This Jesus who died for us and conquered the power of death is the same Jesus who rules creation with the full authority of God.

  • Always Jesus is interceding for us. Jesus died, was raised to life and sits at the right hand of God to serve as an advocate for our salvation.

  • But Jesus works as our defense attorney. Whenever our inner enemy accuse us, we better look up to Jesus who sits at the hand of God.

It is God who justifies.

  • We better not rely on our emotions or negative thoughts. Rather we rely on our God and His truth in any circumstances, for in God’s perspective everything will be for the good of those whom he loves! Sometimes our hearts are condemning us. But God justifies us through our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us.

1-4, What personal questions and answers have you found, based on God’s love despite your troubles?

  • Personal reflection!

  1. Read verses 36-37. What is the meaning of Psalm 44:22, which is quoted in v36? (36) What difference does it make to know that we are “more than conquerors” as opposed to just “conquerors”? (37a) What is our source of victory? (37b)

2-1, Read verses 36-37.

36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

2-2, What is the meaning of Psalm 44:22, which is quoted in v36? (36)

36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

  • By quoting this from the Psalms, Paul is showing that God's people have faced persecution and hardship.

  • Paul wants the Christians in Rome to have the right perspective on the circumstances of their daily lives.

  • Whether or not they experienced hard times or good times, it does not change whether God loves them or not.

  • Paul has made it clear that God's love is absolute, and God will fulfill His purpose for them: He will succeed in bringing them to glory.

  • Now he seems to want them to be ready for trouble in light of eternity. They should not be surprised when it comes.

  • In fact, they should be ready to be killed, slaughtered like sheep, for Christ's sake. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).

  • When faced with any hardship and danger on the line of duty as a witness of Jesus Christ, we can feel like we want to fight back.

  • We need to conquer those feelings. We think that we should fight back with protests or pray to God that these people will die.

  • We are tempted to beat those who persecute us mercilessly just to show them how it feels.

  • We think that it is our right as Christians and that we have been empowered to do so. But that is not our calling. We are followers of Jesus Christ who became sheep to be slaughtered for God’s name sake, because we will be like Him.

2-3, What difference does it make to know that we are “more than conquerors” as opposed to just “conquerors”? (37a)

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors

  • “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” When we face problems, we think about how we can get through them.

  • We think about how we can get justice for being persecuted. We want to survive and thrive, but that is such a narrow view of life.

  • We don’t exist to merely survive. We were not called by God to merely survive, but to transcend and be more than conquerors.

  • We overwhelmingly conquer “in all these things.” We conquer through these things. We are victorious when we suffer the calamities of life, in faith, trusting in God, knowing that He is accomplishing His purposes through our affliction.

  • If suffering was God’s will for His sinless, beloved Son, is it not also His will for His sons, the sons of God?

  • And the very One who is giving us the victory is the one “who loved us,” who loved us through the suffering and death of His Son. Our confidence must not end when the going gets tough. The testing of our faith really begins here.

  • God does not promise to take us out of our afflictions. But He does promise that we will emerge from them more than victorious like Jesus who was raised from the dead.

  • We will be victorious in the sense that we will grow in our personal faith, hope and love. We will conquer in that we will become more like Christ due to our sufferings.

  • We will conquer in that God’s purposes will be achieved through us and others will see God is at work in us. Praise Jesus!

2-4, What is our source of victory? (37b)

through him who loved us.

  • Jesus gave us life so that we could be heirs of God, inheritors of His great kingdom.

  • After considering what had happened to our eldest brother, Jesus Christ who died on the cross, raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God, we are rest assured that we will be more than conquerors rather than mere survivors.

  • Praise Jesus! When we rely on ourselves, we fail. But when we rely on Jesus only, we win always. The source of victory is Jesus Christ! Yes always in Him!

  1. Read verses 38-39. What is Paul’s personal conviction? What does this passage reveal about the nature of God’s love for us?

3-1, Read verses 38-39.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.

3-2, What is Paul’s personal conviction?

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.

  • Paul suffered a lot in order to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the Gentile world. He was chained, thrown into the dungeon, and beaten almost to the point of death.

  • Once people threw his body outside the city thinking he would die there. But here, Paul gives a powerful testimony about the love of Christ.

  • He said he was convinced that neither death nor life, or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  • Among the lists that he mentioned, we have difficulty understanding how they try to separate us from God’s love such as angel, demon, future, height, depth.

  • But no matter what it may be, still we are more than conquerors in and through Jesus Christ who had conquered all things.

3-3, What does this passage reveal about the nature of God’s love for us?

Conclusion

Our final victory against the enemy is certain because of God’s love for us. God is love. God works for the good of those who love him. We are God’s children. If God is for us, who can be against us? Yes, at present, we believers have to endure suffering for Jesus. But as Paul did, we can joyfully participate in his sufferings, fully convinced that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

One word: more than conquerors through him

Manuscript

List