ESF Lord’s Day service message

5/4/2025

More than Conquerors

Romans 8:31-39

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² 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? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. 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. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ 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.

 

There are four famous conquerors in Western history. Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon. Although they conquered the world, their lives ended tragically. Alexander died at an early age in a state of debauchery. Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the enemies he had slaughtered, committed suicide by swallowing poison. Julius Caesar stained his garments in the blood of one million of his foes, conquering 800 cities. But he was stabbed by his best friends at the pinnacle of his power. Napoleon conquered almost all of Europe. But at one time, he was defeated, lost everything, and forced to be exiled. He died in the exile with empty hands.

Paul says here that we believers are more than these conquerors. Why? Because we have the power in God’s love which is stronger than the powers of all conquerors.

 

When we are connected to the power in God’s love, there isn’t any force which can break or destroy our lives. Even the power of death can’t destroy us.

 

To prove this truth, Paul asks several questions in this text:

1). “Who can be against us?”

2). “Who will bring a charge against us” and “Who is the one who condemns?”

3). “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

 

The answer to each question is, “No one.” Paul does not mean that we have no enemies or no problems. Paul means that, with God’s love, we have the power to win over all adversaries.

 

 

Who can be against us? No one. (verses 31-32).

In our lives, there are many adversaries and obstacles we must fight. Sometimes we feel that the entire world is against us. But even though the entire world may oppose us, if we trust in God’s love, He is on our side. When God is our support and our backbone, there is no one who can be against us.

 

How do we know that God is on our side? How can we be sure that He loves us enough to be on our side? Where there is true love, there is sacrificial action. And nothing can stand against true love that comes from sacrificial action.

 

On May 2, 1962, a dramatic advertisement appeared in the San Francisco Examiner: “I don’t want my husband to die in the gas chamber for a crime he did not commit. I will therefore offer my services for 10 years as a cook, maid, or housekeeper to any leading attorney who will defend him and bring about his vindication.”

One of San Francisco’s greatest attorneys, Vincent Hallinan, read the ad and contacted Gladys Kidd, who had placed it. Her husband, Robert Lee Kidd, was about to be tried for the slaying of an elderly antique dealer. Kidd’s fingerprints had been found on a bloodstained ornate sword in the victim’s shop. During the trial, Hallinan proved that the antique dealer had not been killed by the sword, and that Kidd’s fingerprints and blood on the sword got there because Kidd had once toyed with it while playfully dueling with a friend when they were both out shopping. The jury, after 11 hours, found Kidd to be not guilty. Attorney Hallinan refused Gladys Kidd’s offer of 10 years’ servitude.

 

As a sure sign of His love for us, God did not just say, “I love you.” But He has proven His love through marvelous sacrificial action. Look at verse 32, “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?”

 

 

God loves us so much that He gave up His most precious possession, His only Son- Jesus. If we have this love, what does it matter if all the power in this world lines up against us?

 

Powerful adversaries may intimidate us when we have no power to fight them. We are so small and so weak in front of great adversaries. But we shouldn’t be intimidated, because when God is on our side, He enables us to overcome them.

 

Jesus assures us of this in Matthew 12:20-21: A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope.

 

When you face the enormous power of your adversaries, you may feel like a bruised reed, a damaged blade of grass swaying in the wind. You may feel like a candle whose wick is about to be snuffed out in the wind. But when you trust that the almighty God loves you and fights for you, He enables you to overcome the power of all adversaries.

 

 

In the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel chapter 17), David was only a boy, and Goliath was a gigantic warrior. David was a shepherd who had never been trained to be a fighting soldier. Goliath was a well-trained soldier. David had no weapon but some stones in his hands. Goliath had a huge weapon that could crush any opponent. But the conclusion of the story is that David was able to fight Goliath and defeat him. How? David believed that the almighty God was with him and fought for him. 1 Samuel 17:45-47 

 ⁴⁵ David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, …This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. …it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

 

Like the boy David, we can fight against any powerful enemy, and we can be victorious when we trust that the Almighty God is with us and fights for us.

 

Who will bring any charge against us and who is the one who condemns us? No one. (verses 33-34)

The archenemy in our lives is the devil. Why? The devil has the power to attack and destroy anyone in the world. The devil has tools and weapons to deceive and control man regardless of status, power, knowledge, or wealth.

 

One of the weapons the devil uses to destroy us is “accusation.” The Bible calls the devil, “the accuser” (Rev. 12:10). The devil brings charges against us day and night. The devil uses evil spirits and people as his agents to accuse us. The devil or his agents bring charges against our conscience, like a prosecuting attorney. They bring charge after charge against us, saying: “You have done this bad thing and that bad thing. You have sinned this way and that way. I have all the evidence and facts of your sins. You are a dirty sinner. You deserve to be punished.” With such charges, the devil keeps condemning us and making us hopeless.

 

But we have to know that God’s judgment is the final judgment, and it is the only one that counts in the end. Even if the devil accuses you of countless sins with undeniable evidence, it’s God’s judgment that matters.

 

There is a story of a baseball umpire named Pinelli. In a game, he once called Babe Ruth out on strikes. When the crowd booed with sharp disapproval at the call, Ruth turned to the umpire and said, “There’s 40,000 people here who know that the last pitch was a ball, tomato head.” Babe Ruth thought that the umpire would erupt with anger. However, the cool-headed umpire replied, “Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts.”

 

Even if you conquer many things in this world, you will be a loser if you can’t be justified by God. Because you will live with constant oppression in your heart caused by the guilty feelings from your sins.

 

How does God judge a person? God judges according to whether a person believes in His way of righteousness. His way of righteousness is that all men are sinners, and no one can be righteous before Him by any human efforts or merits. His way of righteousness is that only by faith in the blood of Christ who sacrificed His life to pay the price for the sins of man, a person can be righteous before God.

 

 

No matter what accusations or charges or evidence or arguments are brought against you, God is the one who justifies you. When all the world brings charges against you, God cancels all charges against you and God declares you are free from condemnation. And that is what the phrase means: It is God who justifies.

And the reason He justifies you is not because of who you are or what you have done, but because of what Christ has done for you. The reason God is in favor of you is because you are in Christ. Through His death on the cross, Jesus broke down the dividing wall between us and God. And God says that we are right with him. Christ died for you, was raised to life and is at the right hand of God, interceding for you. When you stand in God’s courtroom, Jesus Christ will be your defense lawyer. God accepts Jesus’ plea for you, and He rejects all the accusations against you.

After hearing everything that can be said against you, the judge gets up from the bench and says to you, “I know you have done all those things, and you deserve to be condemned. But I gave my son to redeem you from condemnation. My Son suffered your penalty, so based on His suffering, I declare that you are free from condemnation in this courtroom (Romans 3:24).”

That declaration guarantees that you are a child of God, the King of all kings. The declaration sets you free from all the curses caused by your mistakes and sins. The declaration guarantees that you will be with God eternally. That is why you are more than conquerors.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? No one. (verses 35-39).

Men conquer the world with extra ordinary courage, strength, endurance, skills, talents, and wisdom. And they become conquerors. But there is no conqueror who can conquer all troubles in life. And they don’t have the power to overcome death and the fear of death. However, those who believe in Christ have the power to overcome all troubles in life including the fear of death.

 

God does not always pull His children out of all hardships and troubles. But God enables them to victoriously overcome all troubles.

Stephen was a young man “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:50). But he was stoned to death. Look at the fate of some of the apostles. James was executed by king Herod. John was a prisoner on a desolate island. Paul went through all those things too. He said in 2 Cor. 11:23‑27.

 …. I have…  been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, … I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

 

They were not defeated by those hardships or the fear of death. They conquered all of them with God’s love. They suffered but they were able to overcome all the suffering and became victorious. While Stephen was dying, he victoriously overcame the fear of death. He testified of the victory: “Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).

Paul testified how he became more than a conqueror in all troubles in 2 Cor. 4:8‑10, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

With God’s love for us in Christ, we have the same strength and privilege they had.

A certain rich man died and left no heirs. When his household goods were auctioned off, an elderly lady dressed in shabby garments was the only one to bid on the picture of the dead man’s son. It had been greatly cherished by the wealthy father because his only child had died at an early age. But the crowd that had gathered for the sale showed no interest in it. When the woman who bought the portrait was asked why she wanted it, she said she had been the boy’s nurse many years before and had loved him dearly. Later, she examined the picture closely and noticed a bulge in the heavy paper on the back. Making a small cut, she removed an envelope which turned out to be the man’s missing will. The document very clearly stated that he wanted to leave his property to the person who still held dear the memory of his beloved son.

This woman is a representative of any child of God, who because of the love for His beloved Son, Jesus, receives the greatest inheritance known to humanity.

God’s love for you in Christ attaches you to Him forever. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Nothing. In the midst of all life’s afflictions, God assures you that he will never forsake you.

In Christ, our heavenly Father is on our side. With His aid we can handle all that Satan, and the world can throw at us. We will be super-conquerors through Christ.