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More Than Conquerors
More Than Conquerors Romans 8:18-39 Key Verse: 8:37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” In the last passage we learned that there is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus. It is because through the death and resurrection of Christ, our debt was paid in full. Moreover, God gave us the Holy Spirit. Now the Spirit leads us as our shepherd and counselor. He guides us according to His infinite wisdom and unconditional love. He makes us alive to God. He gives us peace in our hearts. He gives us assurance that we are God’s children and heirs of the kingdom of God. Today we want to think about how we are more than conquerors in Jesus. What exactly does this mean, “More than conquerors?” Well, every conqueror meets situations that they can’t overcome, but in Jesus we never have to meet such a situation. In every situation, we can be assured that God loves us and is working for our good. If we come across a situation that we think we cannot handle all we have to do is remember that God is for us. If God is for us who or what can stand against us? Paul knew deep in his heart that God had called him, God had justified him and God had given him a great mission. With this knowledge, Paul knew there was nothing that could stand in his way. We need to have Paul’s absolute faith – God is for us so who can stand against us. May God bless our study of this passage and give us “More than conquerors” faith. First, we have the hope of glory (18-25) Look at verse 18. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Paul begins by acknowledging that, as Christians, we do have sufferings in this world. As God’s children, we not only have the everyday sufferings just to survive in this fallen world, but we must suffer to carry out God’s mission. This is not always easy. It requires that we give up our precious time to serve others. It means that instead of simply relaxing and reading a book or watching some television in our free time, we should use this time to care for God’s flock by studying the Bible with them, cooking a meal for them, helping them with their homework or simply being there for them so they can talk with us and share their burdens of suffering with us. Suffering for mission is beautiful and it makes people beautiful. However, there is another kind of suffering. We also suffer because we live in the fallen world. Look at verse 20. “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it....” As Genesis teaches us, God cursed creation after man’s sin. God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field” (Gen 3:17,18). This curse brought pain to both man and woman. This curse brought fruitlessness. This curse brought decay and death to the beautiful world God made. All we have to do is look around us and we can see this everywhere. There is disease, starvation, and wars going on all over the world. These are a direct result of the fall of mankind from God’s rich blessings and they effect Christians and non-Christians alike. Of course, this curse was punitive, but it was also redemptive. It was meant to bring us to repentance and salvation. Look at verse 19. “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” The creation, including animals, plants and all things, has a hope. Sometimes even animals are more spiritually enlightened than sinful man is. For example, God told Balaam not to go with Balaak to curse the Israelites, but Balaam went anyway to satisfy his greed. Along the way, an angel of the Lord appeared with drawn sword to stop him. To save their lives, Balaam’s donkey would not go forward. Balaam got angry and began to beat his donkey. Finally, the donkey had to turn around and explain what God was doing to Balaam. The donkey saw God, but his owner did not; the donkey was more spiritually enlightened than his master. Creation has God’s hope for complete restoration. Look at verse 21. “...in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The creation longs for restoration. In the meantime, it groans to endure the presence of men who do not know God. The creation groans to serve vile and ungodly men who do not know what they are doing. We can see this every day. The creation groans because ungodly men cut down the forests just to make a profit. The creation groans because ungodly men dump toxic pollution into our rivers, lakes and oceans. The creation groans because ungodly men hunt innocent animals just for fun and not for food. Yet the creation has the hope that God’s children will bring about a new era of glorious freedom. Then there will be no more curse. God’s rule will be restored. Creation will once again be holy and blessed to glorify God to the fullest extent. Therefore, when the children of God are revealed, the entire creation will rejoice. Isaiah foresaw the restoration of God’s righteous rule over man and the world. He prophesied to the redeemed, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands” (Isa 55:12). Look at verse 22. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Paul compares the groaning of creation under curse to a woman giving birth. This is logical given God’s words to the woman after she had eaten the fruit, “I will make your pains in childbearing very sever; with painful labor will you give birth to children.” A woman giving birth endures excruciating pain. But she has hope, the hope of bringing a new life into the world. When the baby appears, great joy fills the mother’s heart. One moment, she says, “Ohh!” and the next moment, she says, “Praise God!” We must have this perspective on our suffering in this world. Of course, it hurts for a while. But God is using it to restore his creation. Someday, only the men and women of God, saved by Jesus’ blood, will be the stewards of the world. They will rule the creation for the glory of God. There will be no more ungodliness, pain, mourning, or death. There will be no more violence, injustice, or scandals in the news. There will be no more tragedies. Instead, there will be peace and righteousness. The words of Isaiah will be fulfilled, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them...They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isa 11:6-9). Think of it! All of creation will acknowledge God, live before him, and serve him gladly. The creation has a great and glorious hope of liberation. In addition, each of us has a personal hope. Look at verse 23. “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” We have the firstfruits of the Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit puts to death our sinful nature and makes us alive to God. We are changing day by day, though sometimes slowly. Because the Spirit has begun a good work in us, we are happy. Still, we groan inwardly. Sometimes we groan because of our sins. We groan to be more like Jesus. We also groan inwardly because we have mortal bodies. We have backaches. We have sleeping disorders. We have mental problems. We have diabetes. When we face the limitations of our flesh, we groan, but God promises the redemption of our bodies. We will receive spiritual bodies that are imperishable, powerful, and glorious. Then there will be no more groaning. We will be perfect on the inside and on the outside, just as Jesus is perfect. We will bear the full image and likeness of Christ! Now, we are waiting for this; it is our hope. Someday it will be reality. Our bodies will be strong, healthy and powerful all the time. We won’t even catch a cold. Our minds will be full of inspiration, creativity and imagination all the time. Our spirits will bear the full image of Christ. We will be as humble as Jesus. We will be as gracious as Jesus. We will be as compassionate as Jesus. We will be as holy as Jesus. Look at verse 24. “For in this hope we were saved.” God’s salvation for sinners is more than the forgiveness of sins. God saves each person to fully restore us in body, mind and spirit to the image of Christ. God will make each of us a heavenly prince or princess who inherits the kingdom of God. This glorious hope gives us joy and strength as we live in this world and we have victory in the midst of sufferings. Second, we have the Spirit’s help (26-27). Look at verse 26. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Our hope in Christ is truly glorious and wonderful. However, hope is not always enough. We are weak. Sometimes we lose direction so much so that we don’t know how we should pray. Our Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” This is a very generic and seemingly simple prayer topic, but how many of us would ever pray for it if the Spirit, that is Jesus, didn’t tell us to. As fallen individuals we think we need to pray for ourselves and our own needs and wants, but this is not what God wants us to pray for. We really don’t know what to pray for, but the Spirit of God knows exactly what we should pray for. When we accept Jesus, the spirit of God’s lives in us and leads us in the way we should pray. In UBF, the Spirit has led us to pray for 100,000 missionaries to be sent out into all the nations of the earth by 2040. This may seem like a completely unrealistic prayer topic but we should pray with this prayer topic every day because it is in absolute accordance with what Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” God gives us his Spirit to help us. The Spirit reminds us that God is the Sovereign Ruler of all creation. The Spirit reminds us that Jesus has already won the victory over sin and death and the devil. The Spirit helps us to see what God is doing. The Spirit renews our souls so that we can pray. Third, we know that God is good (28-30). As we have studied, we have a great hope in God. We also enjoy the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Still, God has given us something more. Look at verse 28. “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.” In all things–that’s right, in all things–God works for the good of those who love him. This is amazing, but it is basic Christian faith. No matter what happens, no matter how we seem to be doing, God is working for good. Someone may say, “I am going through a terrible relationship problem. I feel great pain, but there is nothing I can do.” That may be true, but the Bible says that God is working for our good. It doesn’t mean that every struggle has a fairy tale ending, or that we always feel good. How then is God working for our good? Look at verses 29-30. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” What God really wants to do is to conform each of us to the likeness of his Son Jesus Christ. This is a profound process that depends ultimately on the absolute sovereignty of God. It is for the glory of God. God knew those whom he would call, before the beginning of time. God destined them to bear the image of Christ. At his appointed time he called them, making a personal relationship with them. He justified them through the grace of Christ. He glorified them through the work of the Spirit to be holy like Jesus. It is interesting that this process is stated in the past tense. According to Paul, it is already done. As Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” It has only to unfold in the course of God’s good time. We must look up at God. God is carrying out the good work he began in us, and God never fails. God always finishes to the end. Fourth, we have the absolute love of God (31-39). Look at verses 31-32. “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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?” We must remember the nature of God’s love for us. God gave us his one and only Son as a ransom sacrifice for our sins when we were ungodly, powerless and wretched. At the very worst period of our lives, God was willing to exchange Jesus for us. God’s love is deeper than our sins. God’s love is unconditional and unchanging. God’s love will sustain us and guide us to the end. Nevertheless, the devil still tries to condemn us, working through the sinful nature. So Paul reminds us that it is God who justifies us (33b). God’s word of justification is absolute. The devil can’t accuse us because God has saved us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus. John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” When God declares us to be his children, no one can dispute it. It is God who justifies. In addition, Christ is interceding for us. Look at verse 34. “Who is he that condemns? 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.” As Paul says in verse 31, “If God is for us who can be against us?” The devil has no power or authority to accuse us because God has saved us. Let’s think about Paul’s life for a moment. Paul had gone through many sufferings to serve God. His life was definitely not always stress-free. Sometimes he may have struggled hard to see God’s purpose and to accept God’s love, but he always came back to his conclusion which can be found in 35-37. They say, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Paul found God’s victory in every trial and agony of life without exception. He saw how God used all things to fulfill his world salvation plan and form the image of Christ in him. It didn’t matter what situation Paul found himself in, he knew that God was working not only for his good, but for the good of world mission. God was completing his plan and using Paul to do it. Likewise, If we live by faith in Jesus, we can be sure, that no matter what are situation may be, God is working for our good and the good of world mission. So like Paul we can shout in joy and victory, “For 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.” Amen. In this passage we learn that we have a great and glorious hope that God will restore creation to its perfect state, we will bear the image of Christ in glorious spiritual bodies, and we can know that nothing in all creation can separate us for the love of God. Finally, we learn that in the love of God we are more than conquerors in this generation as God fulfills His world mission purpose. |
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