More Than Conquerors

Real hard things. Paul did not pretend that life is easy. He wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (8:18). Sufferings are hard things: sickness, sadness, loss and being treated badly. Not a punishment. Paul has already said there is “no condemnation” for those who belong to Jesus. So when hard things happen, it does not mean God is angry with you. Glory. Glory is God’s bright, wonderful goodness. God promises to share it with His children. Next to that glory, today’s hard things are small and short. Creation is waiting. “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (8:19). Creation means everything God made. Picture someone standing on tiptoe to see a friend coming. Why the world hurts. Creation “was subjected to futility” (8:20). Futility means things do not work the way they should. Because of sin, flowers fade, things break and people die. Birth pangs. “The whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (8:22). That kind of pain ends in new life. Many Christians see this as the day Jesus comes back and makes everything new. We wait too. Believers have “the firstfruits of the Spirit” (8:23). Firstfruits were the first part of a harvest, a promise that more was coming. Hope. “But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (8:25). Perseverance means not giving up. What this means for you. Your hard days are real, and God sees them. They are not the end of your story. If someone is hurting you, tell a parent or a trusted grown-up.

The weighing (8:18). “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” “Consider” is the word of someone adding up an account. Paul puts present sufferings on one side of the scale and future glory on the other, and it is not close. Suffering is not a verdict. Paul has already said there is “no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). Hard things in this life do not mean God has turned against His children. Creation leaning forward (8:19). “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” The whole created world is pictured watching for the day God shows who His children are. Subjected in hope (8:20-21). “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.” After Adam’s sin, God put the ground under a curse. Yet even then He promised freedom: creation “will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Groaning together (8:22-23). “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” Birth pains are real pain, but they end in new life. Many Christians see this as the day Christ returns and makes all things new. Believers groan too, “eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” Firstfruits (8:23). The first sheaf of a harvest promised that the rest was coming. The Holy Spirit living in a believer now is God’s pledge of everything still ahead. Hope that is not seen (8:24-25). “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.” Biblical hope is confident waiting for what God has promised but we cannot see yet, and we wait for it “with perseverance.” Application. Your pain is real, and God does not ask you to pretend. Bring it to Him honestly, and keep trusting what He has promised. If anyone is hurting you, tell a parent or another trusted adult.

Paul knew that life can be hard. People get sick. Families feel sad. Some kids have a hard time at home. Hard things do not mean God is angry with you. If someone is hurting you, tell a parent or a trusted grown-up. Paul said hard times are small next to the glory to come. Glory means God’s bright and wonderful goodness. One day God will share it with His children. God’s whole world is waiting for that day. Right now things break and wear out. It is like waiting for a baby to be born. The waiting hurts, but new life is coming. Many Christians see this as the day Jesus comes back. We cannot see that day yet. So we hope, and we wait patiently.

Hard days will not last forever. God has glory for His children. If you feel scared, tell a grown-up you trust.

Likewise. Paul has been writing about waiting and groaning. Now he says, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses” (8:26). We are not left to wait alone. Our weakness. “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought” (8:26). Sometimes we are too tired, too sad or too mixed up to know what to ask. The Spirit prays. “But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (8:26). To make intercession means to speak to God for someone else. Groanings are deep sighs that go beyond words. Who the Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is not just a feeling. He is God, and He lives in every person who trusts Jesus. God searches hearts. “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is” (8:27). God sees inside you, deeper than your words. God’s way. The Spirit “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (8:27). Saints means all of God’s people. The Spirit always prays for what God wants, and God always wants what is truly good for His children. Hard days. When you are sick, scared or sad and do not know what to say, you can still pray. Telling God that you do not know what to say is a good prayer. What this means for you. You never have to find the perfect words. The Spirit helps you, and God understands you.

Likewise (8:26). Creation groans (8:22), believers groan (8:23), and now “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.” The Spirit does not stand outside our struggle; He comes into it with us. Helps. The word pictures someone taking hold of a heavy load together with another person. The Spirit does not take prayer away from us; He lifts it with us. Honest weakness (8:26). “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.” Paul includes himself. Not knowing how to pray is not a failure of faith; it is part of living in a groaning world. Groanings (8:26). “But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” To intercede is to speak to God on someone else’s behalf. The Spirit’s prayers go deeper than any words we could find. The Searcher (8:27). “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” The Father searches the heart; the Spirit prays within it; the two are perfectly agreed. More help to come. In 8:34 Paul will add that Christ Jesus also speaks to God for us. God’s children are surrounded by help. According to the will of God. We may ask for the wrong thing, but the Spirit never does. That is why a believer can pray honestly and then rest. Application. On days when you have no words, bring God your silence, your sighs and your tears. He reads them all, and His Spirit turns them into prayer that pleases Him.

Have you ever felt too sad to pray? Maybe you did not know what to say. Paul wrote, “the Spirit helps us.” The Holy Spirit is God. He lives in everyone who trusts Jesus. When we are weak, He helps us. When we do not know what to pray, He prays for us. He speaks to God with deep feelings. Words cannot explain those feelings. God knows what is in your heart. He understands the Spirit’s prayers. The Spirit always prays the way God wants. So you never have to find perfect words. Even a sigh or a tear can be a prayer. God hears you.

Sometimes we do not know what to pray. The Holy Spirit helps us. God hears even our sighs.

We know. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (8:28). Paul does not say we always understand. He says we know, because we know God. What it does not mean. This verse does not say that everything is good, or that hard things will feel good. Sickness and sadness are still hard. It says God is working in all things. What good means. The next verse explains God’s good purpose: “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (8:29). Conformed means shaped to match. God’s best good for you is to make you more like Jesus. The firstborn. Jesus is “the firstborn among many brethren” (8:29). Brethren means brothers and sisters. Everyone who trusts Jesus becomes part of His family. God planned ahead. God knew His people before the world began. He planned ahead to make them like His Son. A chain that holds. Paul lists what God does: He called, He justified, He glorified (8:30). Justified means made right with God. Glorified means given glory. Paul speaks of glory as if it has already happened, because God never fails to finish. What this means for you. When something hard happens, you can tell yourself that God is still working, and that He is making you more like Jesus. That is a promise you can trust.

Known, not guessed (8:28). “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Paul does not say that all things are good. He says that God works all things together toward good. For whom? The promise belongs to “those who love God,” the people He has called. It is family language, a promise to God’s children, not a slogan for every situation. Symmorphos (8:29). “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” “Conformed” is symmorphos (say: SOOM-mor-fos), shaped with the same form. God planned ahead, before the world began, to make His children like Jesus. That is the good of 8:28. Firstborn (8:29). “That He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Firstborn means first in rank and honor. Jesus is the eldest Brother in a growing family. The unbroken chain (8:30). “Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Every link is God’s work, and no link breaks. Glorified is written as already done, because what God begins He completes. A careful promise. Romans 8:28 is not a promise that nothing bad will happen. It is not something to say quickly to a hurting friend. It is a truth to share gently, after you have listened and cared. Application. In the hard thing, ask God how He is making you more like Jesus. That question turns 8:28 from a slogan into a prayer.

Paul wrote, “God works for the good of those who love him.” That is a big promise. Does it mean nothing bad will ever happen? No. Bad and sad things still happen. But God is never stuck. He can use even hard things for His good plan. What is that good plan? God wants His children to be like Jesus. He wants us to love like Jesus and trust like Jesus. God planned this before He made the world. He calls His people to come to Him. He makes them right with Him. One day He will give them glory. God always finishes what He starts!

God works for good in everything. Some days are still hard. God is making us like Jesus.

God is for us. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). People may be against us, but no one can win against God. The biggest gift. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (8:32). God already gave His best. He will not hold back anything we truly need. No charge. “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (8:33). God’s elect means the people God has chosen. The Judge Himself has declared them right. Risen and praying. “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (8:34). The question. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (8:35). Paul lists the hardest things he knew: trouble, hunger, danger and more. Hurt for loving God. Paul quotes Psalm 44 (8:36). Some people were hurt for loving God. Even then, nothing could take God’s love away. More than conquerors. “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (8:37). A conqueror wins a battle. More than conquerors means winning so completely that even the hard thing ends up serving God’s good plan. Persuaded. Paul was sure that nothing, “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 our Lord” (8:39). What this means for you. If you trust Jesus, nothing you face can pull you out of His love. If you are ever in danger, tell a parent or a trusted grown-up right away.

Paul’s conclusion (8:31). “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” The question is not whether anyone will oppose us, but whether any opposition can succeed. From the greater to the lesser (8:32). “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” The hardest gift has already been given. Everything else is smaller. The charges dropped (8:33-34). “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen.” The only Judge who could condemn has justified, and the One who died for us now lives to speak for us. Chorizo (8:35). “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” “Separate” is chorizo (say: kho-REE-zoh), to divide or to put a space between. Paul names the hardest things a believer can face: “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.” Psalm 44 (8:36). Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 to show that God’s people have sometimes suffered for His sake. Even then, nothing took God’s love away from them. Hypernikao (8:37). “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” “More than conquerors” is hypernikao (say: hoo-per-nee-KAH-oh), to win overwhelmingly. The victory is not that hard things never come, but that they cannot defeat God’s purpose or break His love. It comes “through Him who loved us.” Persuaded (8:38-39). Paul sweeps through every category, death and life, angels and powers, present and future, height and depth, and then closes the door with “nor any other created thing.” Only the Creator is left, and He is the One who loves us. Application. Assurance is not pretending life is easy. It is knowing whose love holds you when it is not. If you are ever in danger or being hurt, tell a parent or another trusted adult.

Paul asked, “So what should we say about this?” Here is his answer. God is for us! God gave His own Son, Jesus, for us. So God will surely give us all things. Who can say God’s people are guilty? No one can! Jesus died for us, and God raised Him from death. Now Jesus is at God’s right side. Can anything take us away from Christ’s love? Troubles cannot take His love away, and neither can hunger or danger. Some people were hurt for loving God. Even then, nothing can take God’s love away. Death cannot do it, and life cannot do it. Nothing in the whole world can! If you are in danger, tell a parent or trusted grown-up.

Some people were hurt for loving God. Even then, nothing can take God’s love away. If someone hurts you, tell a grown-up you trust.

More Than Conquerors

🎉 All Matched!