No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37, NIV)
Those who love competition often say that the best happening in sports is a Game 7. Two teams battle through a series of games until, with their having claimed three wins each, the seventh game will decide the champion. As a golfer, I may suggest that the 72nd hole in a closely contested major is even better, but I won’t argue with the sentiment. The moments before a winner triumphs can be some of the most exciting we’ll ever watch.
And yet I see this: The path to victory is not always victorious. The team who wins Game 7 has lost three games in the series before finding their way to celebration. The golfer who hoists the trophy has made bogeys and doubles and slept restlessly throughout the week.
Paul saw this, too, but not in the limited sense of an athlete. He saw it in all of life—namely, the life of those who dared to walk the way of Jesus.
Though Paul was locked up in a prison cell, he did not lose his freedom in Christ, nor did he surrender his fearlessness in witnessing for Christ.Consider the lines in Romans 8 that lead up to Paul’s expression that we are “more than conquerors” through Christ:
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” [Psalm 44:22].
Then Paul wrote that it is “in all these things” that Christ makes us conquerors. In these things, not after these things. A victor in Christ is victorious all along the way, just as a team can be “winning” even while they are behind on the scoreboard.
This is, friends, a deep dive into the question of identity. When our identity is fixed in Christ, the events that surround us do not change who we are. Though Paul was locked up in a prison cell, he did not lose his freedom in Christ, nor did he surrender his fearlessness in witnessing for Christ. All of these (and more!) were a part of him, no matter what troubles he faced. And now to the Romans he was saying that even the worst of life’s hardships could not steal the victory he had in Christ. Excuse me—the victory we have in Christ. With Paul, we are more than conquerors through Christ. We can never be separated from our Savior’s love.
—
Jeff Hopper
November 22, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
Other devotions in this series:
1 Who Am I? Created by God
2 Who Am I? Children of God
3 Who Am I? Crucified with Christ
4 Who Am I? Resurrected with Christ
5 Who Am I? Born Again
6 Who Am I? A Witness for Christ
7 Who Am I? A Citizen of Heaven
8 Who Am I? A Fearless One
9 Who Am I? Free in Christ
11 Who Am I? Gifted for Good
12 Who Am I? God’s Friend
13 Who Am I? Complete in Christ