More than Conquerors

In Romans 8:31-39, Paul writes about being "more than conquerors" - "supra-conquerors" is the word. It means to go above and beyond mere conquest. It is not necessarily deliverance from famine and slaughter that demonstrates divine victory. The true battle against the situations and forces Paul describes is not simply against the specific tribulations and distresses, but against their tendency to separate us from the love of God.

Paul does not say that the conquest consists in escaping these things, nor in their removal. To Paul, the conquest is that even the most horrible of powers and events 'cannot separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus' (Rom.8:39).

What is the greatest exhibition of the power of God? Not to remove pain or take away the slaughter, but to keep us in the love of God through it all.

The despair of the sufferer is not caused by the depth of the suffering but by the depth of the sense of separation from God. When you finally 'get hold' of God, peace comes. The suffering won't diminish, it will be as deep as ever, but the sense of separation will vanish. You no longer feel separated from God.
On the cross, Jesus never cried out about the pain of the nails and the agony of the sword or the shame of the nakedness. This was His despair: 'My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mt.27:46).

from "When Heaven is Silent", Ronald Dunn

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