More Than
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
:36 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.
It’s sort of like the ‘paper/scissors/rock’ game. Though the rock is hard and can crush the scissors, it can be covered by the paper.
When thinking about being more than a conqueror, I’ve often had visions of being this person that defeats every opposing person or situation according to the standards of earthly victory, where I’m standing on the victory stand, not only a conqueror, but more than a conqueror. Somehow this element of love is the force that would cause me to win in every situation. I have found, though, through experience and through the context surrounding this 37th verse of Romans 8 that what makes one more than a conqueror has nothing to do with earthly standards relating to the elimination of the opposition. In fact, the magnitude of the more-than-conqueror is increased according to the significance of the death to these elements, rather than an apparent victory over them. Though the circumstances surrounding us may be bone crushing and cut us to the depths of our souls, there is something that will cover all their devastation- the love of God. We may be apparently conquered by tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword, but a greater heart victory has taken place in the surrender of our hearts to the Great Conqueror, and nothing this earth hits us with can separate us from the reality of His love victory in our lives.
A young woman was taken by an invading, conquering force because of her beauty. She was a treasure and spoil of war- part of the benefits for being of superior power and strength. There was someone, though, that held something that could never be conquered by a foreign entity. A young man with whom she had grown up had won the girl’s heart, and no distance, no culture and no humiliation would ever separate him from the part that he alone could conquer. The powerful invaders may have made the circumstances appear bleak and impossible, but the young man was more than any conqueror in that his victory would span any distance and it could never be stolen or removed.
Challenged and presented with earthly impossibilities, there is a victory that is ours to celebrate no matter the difficulty. In the surrender of our hearts to the Greater One, His victory is made to be ours, and nothing can separate or keep us from the wonder of His love. Though it may require the continual death of what our flesh might be telling us, based upon circumstances, with each death is a magnified realization of just how powerful is His love in our hearts. We are taken from glory to glory by His Spirit and no matter the dominance of the opposing forces, there will never be anything or anyone that can conquer what will forever be held by Him. We will always be more than conquerors through Him that loved us.