‘MORE THAN CONQUERORS’
‘We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’
Here is a glorious vision indeed. St. Paul is so confident that he speaks of the future as if it were present (cf. Romans 8:30). His lips are touched with the power and the sweetness of the eternal song. He dreams a golden dream that he is home at last, and his feet are standing within the gates of the New Jerusalem.
I. Who are the victors?—By nature they were far off, lost in the dust and slime of the great city of Rome, but they were ‘beloved of God, called to be saints,’ saved by grace. St. Paul is sure that neither tribulation, nor anguish, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword shall separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
II. Who are the enemies?—The angels in Romans 8:38 are evil angels. Matthew Arnold said the modern Christian had too little conflict with the devil. It seemed strange for him to say so, but he was perfectly right (cf. Ephesians 6:12).
III. Why the victors overcame.—It was ‘through Him that loved us.’
IV. Learn these two things:—
(a) How very dear Christ’s people are to Him (Ephesians 1:18).
(b) That it is most desirable to be numbered among them.
Rev. F. Harper.
Illustration
‘In a certain crisis in the battle of Marengo it was the presence of Napoleon that turned a certain defeat into a glorious victory. So it is the Presence of Christ and the Blood of Christ that gives the victory in the holy war. It has been well said that “the Apostle always put Christ first, and not the Bible, or the miracles, or the creeds.” ’