WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS

PREAMBLE

History has seen many conquerors. One of the greatest conquerors ever to exist was Alexander the
Great. Alexander the Great was the greatest ruler of ancient Greece. Arrian said of him:

“there has never been another man in all the world, who by his own hand succeeded in
so many brilliant enterprises”.

Phil Grabsky, in his recent book and T.V. series says:

“Alexander the Great is considered the greatest of all history’s commanders. Many
have tried to emulate him - and failed. Men like Caesar and Napoleon, who honoured
no-one but themselves, bowed before his memory”.

Alexander was a Macedonian. At the age of twenty, after his father’s death he set about claiming his
fathers throne. He travelled throughout Greece, and defeated anyone that dared to challenge his right
to the throne. When his position as king of all Greece was secure, Alexander turned his attention to
enemies outside Greece. At that time most of the known world was ruled by the Persians - they had
conquered Babylon, Assyria and Palestine. Alexander attacked the king of Persia, Darius III, and
defeated him against all odds. He then went on to conquer Assyria, Babylon, Palestine, Egypt, Persia
and India. All of this was completed before he reached the age of thirty-two.

But I tell you this; Alexander was not the greatest conqueror that the world has ever known. That
honour goes to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus did not simply conquer over earthly kings and
human soldiers; Jesus conquered over the prince of evil, over sin and over death. Christ’s victory is an
eternal victory; He will remain upon the throne forever.

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:28-39.

1. How Do We Conquer

“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.”

verses 35-37.

Firstly, Alexander had real enemies, he fought real battles, and he won real victories. It is easy to see
that Alexander was a real conqueror. But for us it is not so easy to see that we are conquerors. Isn’t
this just a phrase that Christian’s have invented for themselves so that they can feel a little better?
Surely we cannot expect people to really believe that we are conquerors.

So if we are conquerors, over what have we conquered?

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Paul (or rather the Holy Spirit that inspired him) actually anticipated this question, and has provided a
list here in verses 35 and 36 - we have conquered over trouble, over hardship, over persecution, over
famine, over nakedness, over danger, over the sword, and over death.

This is fighting talk form Paul. You may say “Well its okay for Paul to say something like that. Paul
was a mighty man of God; he was fearless in every situation. Of all people, Paul could say something
like that, but you cannot expect us mere mortals to be conquerors, much less more than conquerors”.
Incidently, when you picture the apostle Paul, what kind of man do you see. I always used to imagine
this very tall, broad man with bulging mussels. A little bit like Arnold Swarzneggar. Why, well Paul
was a brave man. He led a small army before his conversion. After his conversion he seemed to be
totally fearless no matter what the situation. Well, we don’t have to guess what Paul looked like
because we have a description of him which was recorded in documents not in the Bible, but of the
same age. This is the description:

Paul was “a man small in size, with meeting eye brows, with rather a large nose,
baldheaded, bowlegged, strongly built...”

He could describing Wyn Lewis. But he goes on to say that Paul was:

“...full of grace, for at times he looked like a man, and at times he had the face of an
angel.”

Paul was an ordinary man folks. He looked just like you or me. There was nothing special about the
man, except that God had chosen him for a purpose, just like He has chosen each of us for a purpose.

These things (trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, the sword and death) are
conquered in our lives not because we will never face them. When we become Christians we do not
receive exemption from persecution or from hardship. Indeed the apostle says (in a quote from Psalm
44:22) that we face death all day, and that we are considered as sheep for the slaughter.

These things are conquered in our lives because they cannot separate us from the love of God.

How have we overcome these things? Again the answer is in the passage - through Christ. We are
conquerors through Christ, not through any thing that we have done, and not through any merit of
our own.

So how can we actually experience this tremendous victory that Christ has won? Last time I preached
here we were looking at Living in Christ’s Victory and we said that to enter in to this victory we
must first join Christ at the point of His victory, that is on the cross. The cross is the place to which we
must go if we wish to experience Christ’s victory. We must first allow ourselves to be defeated by
Jesus. I was talking to my parents at lunch time. They have a new pastor, and he was recently giving
his testimony to the church. He said that he had made a decision to follow Jesus as a child, but that it
was not until he surrendered his life to Jesus in his twenties that he actually experienced full victory
in his life.

Jesus must become our Lord, our sovereign and our king. This seams to be backward philosophy; in
order to be conquerors we must first allow ourselves to be conquered. Only by allowing ourselves to
be defeated by Jesus can we experience true freedom, true blessedness, and true victory. Although this
may seem to be a strange concept, it is in fact the sound teaching, and this can be shown as follows:
i) We are created beings, and hence, we are derived - we are not self existent. If
we were self existent, if we existed by some driving force within us that seeks
ever to improve life (as is claimed by those who teach evolution), then surely
by this stage we would have evolved the ability to live forever;

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 ii) We have no life of our own. For life we are continually dependent upon God
“in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). God is the
fountain and source of all life;

iii) Only by fully depending on God can we experience the full potential for
which we were created. We were created in the image of God, and so to throw
off this image, this character with which we were created we loose our
identity and our purpose.

Tozer says that without God:

“...we are but half-men, malformed and unbeautiful members

of a noble race once made to wear the image of its creator”.

So we must surrender to Jesus and join Him on the cross. But that is not the end of the story - praise
the Lord! The cross is not the end of the road, it is simply the gate through which we enter the road.
Jesus did not expect his followers to stay on the cross - He is our example, and He remained on the
cross for only six hours. We do not stay non the cross, but we cannot enter into Christ’s new,
victorious life without having been on the cross. Towards the end of last year we looked at “He is
worthy”, and we saw that even in heaven, Jesus is the Lamb that was slain. When the cross has done
its work, life, His life enters into our beings and takes over.

Tozer says this:

“His (that is Christ’s) joyful resurrection followed hard upon His joyless crucifixion.
But the first had to come before the second. The life that halts short of the cross is but
a fugitive and condemned thing, doomed to be lost beyond recovery. That life which
goes to the cross and loses itself there to rise again with Christ is a divine and
deathless treasure. Over it death hath no more dominion. Whoever refuses to bring
his old life to the cross is but trying to cheat death, and no matter how hard he may
struggle against it, he is nevertheless fated to lose his life at last. The man who takes
his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is away from the
sepulchre. Death is behind him and a joyous and increasing life before. His days will
be marked henceforth not by ecclesiastical gloom, the churchyard, the hollow tone,
the black robe (which are all but the cerements of a dead church), but by ‘joy
unspeakable and full of glory’.

You cannot be raised to life without first dying. You cannot enter a new life without dying to the first
life.

So we are conquerors through Christ. We become conquerors by associating ourselves with the
supreme conqueror - Jesus Christ; and we do this by surrendering ourselves to Him completely. But
the apostle says more than this; he says that we are more than conquerors.

2. What Does It Mean To Be More Than Conquerors?

The passage that we read says that we are not only conquerors, but that we are more than conquerors.
How can anyone be more than a conqueror? What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? We
looked at the example of Alexander - he conquered the known world. What more could Alexander
have done than that. No-one could beat Alexander; he was the greatest military leader in world history.

I watched some of the England - Scotland rugby game yesterday. It was a desperately close match
which England won in the last seconds of the game. It was a victory for England, but it was far from a
convincing victory. You could say that the Scots were desperately unlucky to lose the game.

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Interviewed after the game, Will Carling, the England captain expressed his relief at winning the
game, but said that a victory is a victory. You see to be a conqueror does not always mean that you can
completely defeat the opposition. Sometimes it is a close run thing. You may win, and hence live to
fight another day - but on that day, will you win?

A victory is a victory. It does not matter whether it is a slim victory or a complete thrashing; a victory
is a victory. A victory may be deserved or undeserved; but a victory is a victory.

At the age of 32, Alexander died; tradition has it that he died a drunkard. Alexander, who could not be
conquered by any man or any army, was eventually conquered by his own stupidity. His victories were
temporal, they came to an end. Other great conquerors such as Caesar and Napoleon were eventually
defeated.

To be a conqueror today does not guarantee victory tomorrow. But Christ has made us part of His
victory, and no-one can take that victory away from Him.

These, then, are the ways in which we are more than conquerors:

a) All things work together for our good (verse 28);

b) If God be for us who can be against us (verse 31);

c) Nothing can separate us from the love of God (verse 38).

a) All Things Work Together For Our Good

“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.”

verse 28.

Firstly, this is a limited or conditional statement. You may be surprised at me saying that, but it is true
nonetheless. We cannot simply say that all things work together for good. If this were the general rule
then this world would be a much happier place to live. We must take the full sentence; “...all things
work together for good to those who love God...”

It is not the case that all things work together for good to those outside of God’s kingdom. It applies
only to those who love God, those inside God’s kingdom.

Not that the statement applies only to:

i) those that love God;

That is those that have real and deep affection towards God. When we
love God in this way every moment we have is moment that we want
to spend with him. We follow His leading and we trust Him
completely, and hence, we simply enjoy serving Him and receiving
every blessing from Him;

ii) and who are called according to His purpose;

We are called according to His purpose. God has chosen us, not
because of our merits but simply because He has a plan for us. He
will lead us through that plan. Not everything in that plan will be
pleasant. Sometimes we need to have the rough edges to be trimmed

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 away.

Think of the diamond. When it’s mined it is valuable, but it is so

much more valuable when it has been cut.

Think of gold. Is it not more precious when it has been so refined that
it reaches complete purity. To get there it must first be placed in the
furnace and melted. This, one might imagine, is a brutal treatment for
the gold. Brutal it is, but the amazing thing is this - the gold is not
harmed in any way by such treatment. All that happens is that the
impurities rise to the surface and are removed.

Secondly, the statement is limited to those things in which God works. For instance we cannot
include our sins in this statement. God has no part in our sinning, and hence we cannot continue to
sin and expect God to work through these sins for our benefit. However, His allowing us to sin may
work for our good insomuch that we learn that we cannot rely on our own strength or on our own
abilities.

Thirdly, all things work together for our good. They conspire, they interact. No one thing, no one
situation or circumstance in isolation can achieve the end goal that Jesus has for us. He takes us
through many situations and many circumstances before we complete the course that he has set for us.
Why? because we must have faith for small things before we can have faith for large things. Last week
David Sullivan talked about the marathon runner. When he first starts training he does not go out and
run twenty-six miles. If he did he would probably kill himself. No he starts with say one mile, and
even that hurts. He will persist at running one mile until, eventually, running one mile becomes too
easy. Then he’ll increase the distance to two miles, three miles, until eventually he can manage the full
twenty-six miles. All of the training works together for the purpose of running that one race. It would
ridiculous to expect one training run to work for the good of the runner, but all training runs together
do work for his good.

Fourthly, all things work together for good. What does it mean? Some suppose that this means our
temporal good, i.e. nice house, good job, flash car, etc. But that is not the meaning here. I’m not trying
to say that we shouldn’t have any of these blessings, or that God does not supply these things, he does.
But God is more interested in our eternal and spiritual good. God has a plan for us, and we can be sure
that his plan is the best thing that can happen to us.

After all God created us for a purpose, and things are always best used for their intended purpose. For
instance the electric food whisk is a really useful tool in the kitchen. It can save a lot of time whisking
eggs, cake mixtures, etc. But can you imagine somebody trying to use one for curling their hair?

So we can see that all things work together for our good, and so for this reason we are more than
conquerors.

b) If God Be For Us Who Can Be Against Us?

Firstly, let us really allow it to sink into our minds that God is for us. Jesus defeated Satan and death
when he died on the cross, and by that he reconciled us to God. But this relationship is not simply an
alliance.

We see so many alliances in the world today. Look at the Atlantic alliance. Britain and America are
allies. However, both retain their independence. Britain and America keep their own identities, and
remain separate from each other. Their alliance simply means that they are not against each other, and
they will, to an extent, support each other. This support is limited, however. For instance, when Britain
was at war with Argentina, it did not follow that America, as our ally, would go to war also.

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God is not simply not against us, He is actively for us. That is in all things He works for our good.
Everything that God does is for our benefit. God has not simply rescued us from death and said “right
now just get on with it”. The hymn writer says:

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me,

Buried, He carried my sins far away,
Rising, He justified freely for ever:
One day He’s coming - O glorious day.

We have a full relationship with God. He loves us with an everlasting love. His love is perfect. More
than that we have been adopted into His family. Sometimes we sing that chorus:

Father God I wonder

How I managed to exist without
The knowledge of Your Parenthood
And Your loving care.
But now I am Your son,
I am adopted in Your family,
And I can never be alone,
‘Cos Father God You’re there beside me.

I will sing praises,

I will sing praises,
I will sing praises for evermore.

We are part of God’s royal family. He loves us because we are His children. He loved us so much that
He sent His only son Jesus to be a sacrifice in our place. That cost God very, very dearly, and so He is
not going to allow His children to harmed in any way.

We know something of this. If anyone here has been fortunate enough to own a new car, or has known
someone that has owned a brand new car, you know that that person is very protective of that new car.
They are out there very often polishing the car, and if they ever see a scratch on the car they seem to
think that the world has ended. Why is this? Well the car has cost them a lot of money, and it has
become their pride and joy because it is so valuable to them. So it is with God. He has bought us at a
very high price - the blood of His only son, and so we are very, very dear to God, and He is very
careful not to allow us to be harmed.

So if God is for us, who can be against us. Matthew Henry says this:

“While God is for us, and we keep in His love, we may with a holy boldness defy all
the powers of darkness. Let Satan do his worst, he is chained; let the world do its
worst, it is conquered: Principalities and powers are spoiled and disarmed, and
triumphed over, in the cross of Christ. Who then dares fight against us, while God
himself is fighting for us?”

c) Nothing Can Separate Us From The Love Of God

“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, neither anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”

verses 38-39.

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Paul states here that he is convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The word used
by Paul is πέπεισμαι (root word is πέιθώ). This means to persuade or convince. It denotes a persuasion
that is so strong that it causes one to put their complete trust, their confidence upon that thing to which
they have been persuaded. Paul was totally and utterly convinced that nothing could separate us from
the love of God. He was so convinced that he goes on to consider how we may be separated from this
love:

a) Neither death nor life. Neither the terrors of death on one hand, nor the
comforts and pleasures of life on the other; neither the fear of death, nor the
hope of life. Furthermore, we can know and experience God’s love now while
we live: living does not prevent us from knowing God’s love. Moreover, we
cannot be separated from this love when we die. We know that death, in the
physical sense is simply the doorway into heaven, and eternity with Jesus.
Rowland Bell used to say that one day we read that he had died, but that we
were not to believe it, because at that moment he would be more alive than he
had ever been, because then he would be with Jesus.

b) Neither angels, nor demons, nor principalities, nor powers. All of these
are spiritual beings, whether they be righteous beings from the throne of God,
or evil beings from the pits of hell. But none can separate us from the love of
God. The angels are friends sent to protect and guide us, the evil beings are
restrained and defeated foes.

c) Neither the present, nor the future. There is nothing in our present
circumstances that can separate us from the love of God; and there will be
nothing in the future that can separate us from that love either. The present
separates us from the future; and the future separates us from the present, but
God’s love is eternal. As the hymn writer says:

Yesterday, today, forever,

Jesus is the same,
All may change,
But Jesus never.
Glory to His Name.

d) Neither height, nor depth. Neither the height of triumphal living, nor the
depth of despair can separate us from the love of God. God’s love is not
dependent on our circumstances. God’s love remains the same through all
eternity. He is with us always. He comforts us when we weep, and He joins
with us when we rejoice.

e) Nor anything else in all creation. There is nothing that has been created that
can separate us from the love of God. We have already looked at several
things that can not separate us from the love of God: death, life, angels,
demons, principalities, powers, the present, the future, height, depth - but now
Paul looks at all that is left after considering these things, animals, plants,
earth, sun, stars, there is nothing that can separate us from sin.

After looking at the evidence Paul concludes that nothing can snatch us from the love of God. But lets
just remind ourselves where to find that love - its here at the end of the passage:

“...the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We are secure as long as we remain in Christ Jesus. Sin is the only thing that can separate from the
love of God. So we must remain in Jesus. We must follow Him. We must let His Holy Spirit rule our

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lives. We must accept His direction, His guidance, and His love. We must allow ourselves to die to
sin.

This, then is how we are more than conquerors:

i) We share in Christ’s victory;

ii) Our victory is secure forever because:

-All things work together for our good;

-If God be for us who can be against us;

-Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

A conqueror could always be defeated at his next battle. We are more than conquerors because we can
never be defeated.