We quote Romans 8:37 in song and we plaster the verse on our walls but do we take that verse in the context it was written? A Conquerer, by definition, must have fought a battle of some sort and came out the other side as the victor.
Video Transcript
Hi there and welcome back to Daily Bible Promises with a Twist. And today as usual, we’re going to be reading one singular verse from the New International Version. “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37.
But now let’s put this one verse into context and we’re going to be reading from the New American Standard Bible. But we are going to be reading from verse 35 to Verse 39 to get this familiar verse into the context where it belongs.
Starting at verse 35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, our sword? Just as it is written, ‘For thy sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”
Hallelujah. There’s a whole lot of homes who have this verse in a cross-stitch, framed on their wall. People have it tattooed on their bodies. But if you don’t know the full context of this verse, this verse doesn’t mean a heck of a lot.
What does it mean to be a conqueror? It means that you have conquered something. That means that there must have been some sort of struggle, or power play, or fight, or battle that you went through that you came out the other side as the winner. And that’s exactly what Paul’s talking about here. Paul again is writing to the church in Rome and Paul is declaring all the wonderful things that God has done for him and how firm he is in his stance. Nothing will ever separate him from the love of God.
Paul, the transformed persecutor of the Christian faith, went through immense persecution himself. He was stoned, he was beaten, he was thrown into prison. He was shipwrecked several times. Paul earned the right to say with full confidence, “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us.”
So here’s my challenge for you today. Write down at least 10 incidents in your life where you can look back and say that you were able to come out the other side as a conqueror through Jesus Christ. And the next time you are going through an immense struggle, take that sheet of paper out. Look at that file on your computer and read them out loud and declare with Paul.
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”
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©2018 Katherine Walden
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