Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Is it possible to fall from grace?Galatians 5:4, Hebrews 6:4-6, and 2 Peter 2:20-21 all explicitly treat falling away from saving grace as possible — Hebrews even pronounces it irrevocable.
1 Corinthians 15:57(v37)But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:4(v37)You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
John 10:28(v38)I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
2 Corinthians 2:14(v37)Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.
1 John 5:4-5(v37)For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. Who is he who overcomes the…
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John 10:28-30(v39)I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is…
Romans 8:35(v39)Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 14:8(v38)For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
Revelation 21:7(v37)He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
2 Timothy 1:12(v38)For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to…
Revelation 12:11(v37)They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.
Romans 5:8(v39)But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Jude 1:24(v37)Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
1 John 4:19(vv37, 39)We love him, because he first loved us.
Ephesians 3:18-19(v39)may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know Christ’s love which…
2 Corinthians 12:9(v37)He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in…
Galatians 2:20(v37)I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live…
John 16:33(v37)I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
1 Peter 5:8-10(v38)Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.…
John 3:16(v39)For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
1 John 4:9-10(v39)By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is…
1 Peter 3:22(v38)who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
Revelation 17:14(v37)These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him…
Ephesians 1:4(v39)even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,
Ephesians 5:2(v37)Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
Colossians 1:16(v38)For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or…
1 Corinthians 3:22-23(v38)whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and you are…
Revelation 1:5(v37)and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and…
John 16:27(v39)for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.
John 17:26(v39)I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Colossians 2:15(v38)Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
2 Chronicles 20:25-27(v37)When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their plunder, they found among them in abundance both riches and dead bodies, and precious…
Ephesians 1:21(v38)far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
Ephesians 6:11-12(v38)Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and…
Colossians 3:3-4(v39)For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in…
1 John 4:16(v39)We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
Romans 4:21(v38)and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
1 Corinthians 15:54(v37)But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will…
1 Corinthians 15:54-58(v38)But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will…
2 Corinthians 4:13(v38)But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and…
Isaiah 25:8(v37)He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away…
2 Thessalonians 2:16(v37)Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
Titus 3:4-7(v39)But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but…
Revelation 7:9-10(v37)After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and…
2 Corinthians 5:4-8(v38)For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened, not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that…
Ephesians 2:4-7(v39)But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive…
1 John 4:10(v37)In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Revelation 3:9(v37)Behold, I give some of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie—behold, I will make them to come…
Revelation 11:7-12(v37)When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill…
2 Corinthians 11:14(v38)And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 12:19(v37)Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your…
Philippians 1:20-23(v38)according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will in no way be disappointed, but with all boldness, as always, now also Christ will…
Hebrews 11:13(v38)These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they…
Ephesians 5:25-27(v37)Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed…
Exodus 9:16-17(v39)but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth, because…
Isaiah 24:21(v39)It will happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.
Romans 11:33(v39)Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
Psalms 64:6(v39)They plot injustice, saying, “We have made a perfect plan!” Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning.
Proverbs 20:5(v39)Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12(v39)even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness…
Isaiah 10:10-14(v39)As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria; shall I not, as I have…
Isaiah 10:33(v39)Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.
Daniel 4:11(v39)The tree grew, and was strong, and its height reached to the sky, and its sight to the end of all the earth.
Daniel 5:18-23(v39)“You, king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty. Because of the greatness…
Matthew 24:24(v39)For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even…
2 Corinthians 2:11(v39)that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
2 Corinthians 11:3(v39)But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is…
Psalms 93:3-4(v39)The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. Above the voices of many waters,…
2 Thessalonians 2:4(v39)he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting…
Revelation 2:24(v39)But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as don’t have this teaching, who don’t know what some call ‘the deep things of…
Revelation 12:9(v39)The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown…
Revelation 13:1-8(v39)Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten…
Revelation 13:14(v39)He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast, saying to those who dwell…
Revelation 19:20(v39)The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the…
Revelation 20:3(v39)and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were…
Revelation 20:7(v39)And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison,
76 distinct cross-references across this passage (77 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv37–3937. We do more than conquer, etc.; that is,…
37. We do more than conquer, etc.; that is, we always struggle and emerge. I have retained the word used by Paul, though not commonly used by the Latins. It indeed sometimes happens that the faithful seem to succumb and to lie forlorn; and thus the Lord not only tries, but also humbles them. This issue is however given to them, — that they obtain the victory.
That they might at the same time remember whence this invincible power proceeds, he again repeats what he had said before: for he not only teaches us that God, because he loves us, supports us by his hand; but he also confirms the same truth by mentioning the love of Christ. And this one sentence sufficiently proves, that the Apostle speaks not here of the fervency of that love which we have towards God, but of the paternal kindness of God and of Christ towards us, the assurance of which, being thoroughly fixed in our hearts, will always draw us from the gates of hell into the light of life, and will sufficiently avail for our support.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v37We are not only not overcome with so great…
We are not only not overcome with so great and many miseries and calamities, but also more than conquerors in all of them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv37–3937 Nay, in all these things we are more…
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Ver. 37. We are more than conquerors] What is that? Triumphers, 2Co 2:14. We do over overcome; because through faith in Christ we overcome before we fight, and are secure of victory. {a} And again, "we are more than conquerors," because we gather strength by our opposition (as that giant that fought with Hercules is fabled to do, by his falling to the earth), we conquer in being conquered. The tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina: and, We are ashamed, O emperor; the Christians laugh at your cruelty and grow the more resolute, said one of Julian’s nobles to him.
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{a} υπερνικωμεν Super superamus. Super vincimus.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv37–39Nay, in all these things; i.e. in tribulation, distress,…
Nay, in all these things; i.e. in tribulation, distress, & c. as before, Rom 8:35.
We are more than conquerors; or, we overcome. We conquer when we ourselves are conquered; we conquer by those which are wont to conquer others; we beat our enemies with their own weapons. The meaning seems to be this: The devil aims, in all the sufferings of God’s children, to draw them off from Christ, to make them murmur, despair, &c.; but in this he is defeated and disappointed, for God inspires his children with such a generous and noble spirit, that sufferings abate not their zeal and patience, but rather increase them. "We Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute," said one of Julian’s nobles to him.
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Through him that loved us: a short description of Christ, together with a reason of a Christian’s success. The conquest he hath over sin, and over sufferings also, is not from himself, or his own strength, but from Christ, &c.: see Rom 7:24,25; 1Co 15:57; 2Co 2:14; 2Ti 4:17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt1703 · Public DomainOn vv37–38As if the apostle had said, "We are so…
As if the apostle had said, "We are so far from being separated from Christ, by the afflictions and persecutions which we undergo, that we are conquerors by our patience, nay, more than conquerors: we do not only bear our trials, but we glory in tribulations; we conquer by our patience, we are more than conquerors by our cheerfulness."
But because these words, more than conquerors, look big, and sound great, the apostle instantly subjoins, that ’tis by Christ’s strength, and not by our own, that we overcome and conquer; More than conquerors through him that loved us, which words are a periphrasis of Christ: It is both a proper description of him, and a comprehensive description.
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When the apostle said, he that loved us, he doth in effect say everything else; he that was born for us, that died for us, that redeemed and saved us; all these were the effects and fruits of his love, and they are all comprehended in this saying, Him that loved us.
Note, lastly, how the believer is said to overcome by the help of this person. More than conquerors through him that loved us.
Whence learn, That all a Christian’s strength lies in Christ, and not in himself; all his strength for victory over sin, all his strength for victory over suffering, is all received from Christ, is all to be attributed and ascribed to Christ; the strength of every saint, yea, the whole host of saint, lies in the Lord of hosts.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv37–39Nay, in all these things,.... The former words being…
Nay, in all these things,.... The former words being inserted in a parenthesis, these are an answer to the question in Rom 8:35, "what shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation?" &c. "nay", it shall not, nor any of the other things mentioned: "in all these things"; afflictions, distresses, persecutions, famine, nakedness, sword, or any other thing of the same kind:
we are more than conquerors; not only over sin and Satan, but the world, the reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions of it; which they cheerfully and courageously undergo, insomuch that they are not only conquerors, but "more than conquerors": they have above overcome, they have exceedingly the better of it; for they not only patiently bear afflictions and persecutions, but they glory in them; their experience, faith, and joy, are often increased by them; they have sometime solicited, and even wearied their persecutors; they have got the victory with ease, over Satan and his hellish emissaries, by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony: but this is not owing to themselves, or through their own strength, but
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through him that loved us; meaning either God the Father, whose love is mentioned in the following verses, or rather the Lord Jesus Christ; and so some copies express it, "through Christ that loved us": "through him", who has got the victory over all his and his people's enemies, and makes them sharers in his conquests; "through him", who is able to help them, and has strength sufficient to carry them through, and brings them off more than conquerors; who has loved them, still loves them, and whose love engages his power to stand by them and protect them against all their enemies.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv37–38We more than conquer - We are not only…
We more than conquer - We are not only no losers, but abundant gainers, by all these trials. This period seems to describe the full assurance of hope.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv37–39Verse 37. Nay] as the prophet adds in the…
Verse 37. Nay] as the prophet adds in the same place, all this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, nor dealt falsely in thy covenant, Ro 8:17; Ro 8:18, so all these things may happen unto us; but in all these things we are more than conquerors; WE abide faithful in the new covenant of our God; and HE is faithful who has promised to support and make us more than conquerors; i.e. to give us a complete triumph over sin, and death, and hell, not leaving one enemy unsubdued.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v38Rom 8:38-39. For I am persuaded, &c. — This…
Rom 8:38-39. For I am persuaded, &c. — This period describes the full assurance of hope, and the inference is made in admirable order; neither death — Terrible as it is to natural men, a violent death in particular; nor the fear of it, Rom 8:36; nor life — With all the affliction and distress it can bring, Rom 8:35; or a long, easy life, and the love of it; or all living men; nor angels — Whether good (if it were possible they should attempt it) or bad, with all their subtlety and strength: nor principalities, nor powers — Not even those of the highest rank, or of the most eminent power. “Because angels are distinguished from principalities and powers, Beza and some others are of opinion that powers in this passage, as Luk 12:11, signify the persecuting rulers and potentates of the earth, who endeavoured to make the first Christians renounce their faith. But as evil angels, in other passages of Scripture, are called principalities and powers, and as the apostle rises in his description, it is probable that he speaks of these malicious spirits, the inveterate enemies of mankind; and that he calls them principalities and powers, by a metonymy of the office, or power possessed, for the persons possessing it.” — Macknight. Nor things present — Difficult as they are, or such as may befall us during our pilgrimage, or till the world passeth away; nor things to come — Extreme as they may prove; that is, future sufferings, or things which may occur, either when our time on earth is past, or when time itself is at an end, as the final judgment, the general conflagration, the everlasting fire. The apostle does not mention things past, because they have no influence on the mind, unless so far as the like things are either hoped or feared. Nor height, nor depth — The former sentence respected the differences of times; this respects the differences of places. How many, great, and various things are contained in these words, we do not, need not, cannot know yet. The height, in St. Paul’s sublime style, is put for heaven; the depth for the great abyss: that is, neither the heights, I will not say of walls, mountains, waves of the sea, but of heaven itself, can move us; nor the abyss itself, the very thought of which might astonish the boldest creature. Or his meaning may be, Neither the height of prosperity, nor the depth of adversity can move us. Nor any other creature — Above or beneath, in heaven, earth, or hell: nothing beneath the Almighty. In this general clause the apostle includes whatever else could be named, as having any influence to separate believers from the love of God, exercised toward them through Christ: shall be able — Either by force, Rom 8:35, or by any legal claim, Rom 8:33, &c., to separate us from the love of God in Christ — Which will surely save, protect, and deliver us, who believe, and persevere so to do, in and through, and from them all.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv37–39Nay - But. Notwithstanding our severe pressures and trials.
Nay - But. Notwithstanding our severe pressures and trials.
In all these things - In the very midst of them; while we are enduring them we are able to triumph; compare 1Co 15:57.
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We are more than conquerors - We gain the victory. That is, they have not power to subdue us; to alienate our love and confidence; to produce apostasy. We are the victors, not they. Our faith is not destroyed; our love is not diminished; our hope is not blasted. But it is not simple victory; it is not mere life, and continuance of what we had before; it is more than simple triumph; it augments our faith, increases our strength, expands our love to Christ. The word used here is a strong, emphatic expression, such as the apostle Paul often employs (compare 2Co 4:17), and which is used with great force and appropriateness here.
Through him ... - Not by their own strength or power. It was by the might of the Saviour, and by his power pledged to them, and confirmed by the love evinced when he gave himself for them; compare Phi 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv38–39Certus sum, Greek: pepeismai, persuasus sum. No one has…
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
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Certus sum, Greek: pepeismai, persuasus sum. No one has an absolute certainty that they shall be saved.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv37–39Nay, in all these things we are more than…
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us--not, "We are so far from being conquered by them, that they do us much good" [HODGE]; for though this be true, the word means simply, "We are pre-eminently conquerors." See on Rom 5:20. And so far are they from "separating us from Christ's love," that it is just "through Him that loved us" that we are victorious over them.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv37–3937. More than conquerors—The slaughtered sheep are more than…
37. More than conquerors—The slaughtered sheep are more than victors; or, rather, superabundantly conquerors. The persecutor can butcher them, but they gloriously defeat their persecutor.
Through him— Not even martyrdom is, in itself, a glory and a crown; it is glorious and crowned through Him who gives it all its value.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv37–3937. Nay] Lit., and perhaps better, But: q. d.,…
37. Nay] Lit., and perhaps better, But: q. d., “Such are indeed our sufferings; but in all these things &c.”
we are more than conquerors] “Wir überwinden weit;” Luther.—If this glorious utterance (a single word in the Gr.) must be analyzed, we may explain it as saying that through these sufferings the saints come out not only unhurt, but with the precious advantage of a firmer faith, and more burning love, and so a deeper capacity for eternal bliss. See 2Co_4:17.
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through Him that loved us] Even in the thought of personal victory St Paul does not forget that the source of strength is wholly above.—For this Title of the Saviour see Rev_1:5; (where however read “loveth us.”) See too Gal_2:20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv37–39(37) Nay.—Yet, or But. So far from being vanquished,…
(37) Nay.—Yet, or But. So far from being vanquished, we are conquerors: when we are weak then are we strong.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn v38Vers. 38, 39. For I am persuaded that no…
Vers. 38, 39. For I am persuaded that no powers or circumstances whatever, external to ourselves, will ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, or consequently bar our attainment of our final inheritance.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life…
Rom_8:38-39
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life … shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
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The best persuasion
A visitor said to a poor wounded soldier, who lay dying in the hospital, What Church are you of? Of the Church of Christ, he replied. I mean, what persuasion are you of? Persuasion! said the dying man, as he looked heavenward, beaming with love to the Saviour, I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Loves triumph
These rapturous words are the climax of the apostles long demonstration that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. His argument started with sombre, sad words about mans sinfulness; like some stream rising among black and barren cliffs, or melancholy moorlands, and foaming through narrow rifts in gloomy ravines, it reaches at last fertile lands, and flows calm, the sunlight dancing on its broad surface, till it loses itself at last in the unfathomable ocean of the love of God. We are told that the biblical view of human nature is too dark. Well, the important question is not whether it be dark, but whether it be true. Certainly, a part of it is very dark. The picture of what men are, painted at the beginning of this Epistle, is black like a canvas of Rembrandts. But to get the whole doctrine, we have to see what men may become. Christianity begins indeed with, There is none that doeth good, no, not one, but it ends with this victorious paean, which tells us that the love of God is--
I. Unaffected by the extremest changes of our condition.
1. The apostle begins his catalogue of vanquished foes by a pair of opposites, neither death nor life, which cover the whole ground, and represent the extremes of change which can befall us. If these two stations, so far from each other, are equally near to Gods love, then no intermediate point can be far from it. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. His love to us makes no account of that mightiest of changes. How should it be affected by slighter ones? The distance of a star is measured by the apparent change in its position, as seen from different points of the earths surface or orbit. But this great light stands steadfast in our heaven, nor moves a hairs breadth, nor pours a feebler ray on us, whether we look up to it from the midsummer of busy life, or from the midwinter of death.
2. Of course the confidence of immortality is implied in this thought. Death does not affect the essential vitality of the soul; so it does not affect the outflow of Gods love to that soul. It is a change of condition and circumstance, and no more.
3. How this thought contrasts with the saddest aspect of the power of death! Death unclasps our hands from the closest, dearest grasp, parts soul and body, loosens every bond of society; but there is one bond which his abhorred shears cannot cut. Their edge is turned on it. One Hand holds us in a grasp which the fleshless fingers of death in vain strive to loosen. The separator becomes the uniter; he rends us apart from the world that he may bring us to God. The love filtered by drops on us in life is poured upon us in a flood in death!
II. Undiverted from us by any other order of beings. Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers. The supposition which is, indeed, an impossible one, that these ministering spirits should so forget their mission and contradict their nature as to seek to bar us out from the love which it is their chiefest joy to bring to us; and its very impossibility gives energy to his conclusion (see also Gal_1:8), preaching another gospel than that which he had preached to them. The general thought implies--
1. The utter powerlessness of any third party in regard to the relations between our souls and God. We have to do with Him alone. These two, God and the soul, have to transact, as if there were no other beings in the universe.
(1) Angels, principalities, etc., may behold with sympathetic joy, and minister blessing in many ways; but the decisive act of union between God and the soul they can neither effect nor prevent.
(2) And as for them, so for men around us; the limits of their power to harm us are soon set. They may shut us out from human love by calumnies, and annoy us in a thousand ways; they may build a wall around us, and imprison us from many a joy and fair prospect: but they cannot put a roof on it to keep out the sweet influences from above, or hinder us from looking up to the heavens. Nobody can come between us and God but ourselves.
2. These blessed spirits do not absorb and intercept His love. The planet nearest the sun is saturated with fiery brightness, but the rays pass on to each of the sister spheres in its turn, and travel away outwards to where the remotest of them all rolls in its far-off orbit. Like that poor woman who could lay her fingers on the hem of Christs garment, notwithstanding the thronging multitude, we can reach our hands through all the crowd, or rather He reaches His strong hand to us and heals and blesses us. All the guests are fed full at that great table. Ones gain is not anothers loss. The multitudes sit on the green grass, and the last man of the last fifty gets as much as the first; and more remains than fed them all. This healing fountain is not exhausted of its curative power by the early comers.
III. Raised above the power of time. Nor things present, nor things to come. We had first a pair of opposites, and then a triplet; now again a pair of opposites, again followed by a triplet. The effect of this is to divide the whole into two, and to throw the first and second classes more closely together, as also the third and fourth. Time and space, these two mysterious ideas, which work so fatally on all human love, are powerless here.
1. The great revelation of God, on which the whole of Judaism was built, was that made to Moses of the name I am that I am. And parallel was that symbol of the bush, which signified not the continuance of Israel, unharmed by the fiery furnace of persecution, but the eternity of Israels God. Both proclaimed the same great truth of self-derived, self-determined, timeless, undecaying being.
2. And this eternity of being is no mere metaphysical abstraction. It is eternity of love, for God is love. We know of earthly loves which cannot die, and we have to thank God for such instances of love stronger than death, which make it easier for us to believe in the unchanging duration of His. But we know, too, of love that can change, and we know that all love must part. How blessed then to know of a love which cannot change or die! The past, the present and the future are all the same to Him. The whole of what He has been to any past, He is to us to-day.
3. So we may bring the blessedness of all the past into the present, and calmly face the misty future, sure that it cannot rob us of His love. Looking on all the flow of ceaseless change of earthly affection, we can lift up with gladness, heightened by the contrast, the triumphant song of the ancient Church, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever!
IV. Present everywhere. The apostle ends with, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, as if he had got impatient of the enumeration of impotencies, and having named the outside boundaries in space, flings, as it were, with one rapid toss, into that large room the whole that it can contain, and triumphs over it all. As the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of time, so this proclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creatural life which we call space. Height or depth, it matters not. That diffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions. The distance from the centre is equal to Zenith or to Nadir. Here we have the same process applied to that idea of omnipresence as was applied in the former clause to the idea of eternity. That thought, so hard to grasp with vividness, and not altogether a glad one to a sinful soul, is all softened and glorified, as some solemn Alpine cliff of bare rock is when the tender morning light glows on it, when it is thought of as the omnipresence of love. Then, God, seest me, may be a stern word, if the God who sees be but a mighty Maker or a righteous Judge. But how different it all is when we can east over the marble whiteness of that solemn thought the warm hue of life. In that great ocean of the Divine love we live and move and have our being, floating in it like some sea flower which spreads its filmy beauty and waves its long tresses in the depths of mid-ocean. The sound of its waters is ever in our ears, and above, beneath, around us, its mighty currents run evermore. We need not fear the omnipresence of love, nor the omniscience which knows us altogether, and loves us even as it knows. Rather we shall be glad that we are ever in His presence.
Conclusion:
1. The recognition of this triumphant sovereignty of love over all these real and supposed antagonists makes us, too, lords over them, and delivers us from the temptations which some of them present us to separate ourselves from the love of God. They all become our servants and helpers, uniting us to that love. So we are set free from the dread of death and from the distractions incident to life. So we are delivered from superstitious dread of an unseen world, and from craven fear of men. So we are emancipated from absorption in the present and from careful thought for the future. So we are at home everywhere, and every corner of the universe is to us one of the many mansions of our Fathers house. All things are yours … . and ye are Christs; and Christ is Gods.
2. But remember that this love of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Love illimitable, all-pervasive, eternal; yes, but a love which has a channel and a course, love which has a method and a process by which it pours itself over the world. In Christ the love of God is all centred and embodied, that it may be imparted to all sinful and hungry hearts, even as burning coals are gathered on a hearth that they may give warmth to all that are in the house. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Persuaded of the constancy of the Divine love
We begin with the form of protestation, I am persuaded, where the apostle, while he speaks of the state of a true believer in reference to grace and salvation, speaks of it as a matter of certainty and full persuasion. There are two manner of ways especially, whereby we come to be assured of our salvation.
1. By the inward persuasion of the Holy Ghost in our own consciences.
2. We come to be assured of our condition, from the reflection of conscience itself, our rejoicing is this (2Co_1:12; 1Jn_3:21). The second is the matter of it, or thing itself protested; and that is much one with that which he had before harped upon, That nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Now this again is here laid down in these two verses together, two manner of ways. First, by an enumeration or induction of the several particulars; and secondly, by a winding-up of all together in one general conclusion. First, death shall not do it; death, it makes a great separation, it separates the soul from the body, two friends which have been a great while joined together, and it separates a man from the world. Oh! but for all this it does not separate a believer from Christ. First, for the souls of Gods children; these are not separated from Him by death. Not separated? Nay, they are so much the more conjoined. St. Paul desired to be dissolved, that he might be with Christ (Php_1:23; 2Co_5:6; 2Co_5:8). And so likewise for the bodies of Christians; these they are not separated from Christ neither, even when they lie in the grave, they are very accountable in the eyes of God, and He has a special care of them and regard unto them. The very dust of Gods people is precious, and their very bones are numbered by Him. No, nor secondly again by life; that is another part of this link. Life, it shall not prove hurtful or prejudicial to the people of God. First, not the good of life--I mean the outward good, and comfortableness of it. There is a great deal of hazard and danger in this. First, as it is an occasion to make men to be so much the more in love with the world. But Gods children are delivered from it, as having their affections weaned in them. A second evil of life in the prosperous part of it is, that it makes a man to defer his repentance and conversion to God. Thirdly, life is thus far dangerous, as it keeps a man from suffering for Christ; the more that any man has to lose, the less commonly is he willing to it. So again, as to the evils of life, ye may take it there also, that life in this sense is not prejudicial to Gods servants, but sanctified to them. First, as it is a time of sinning, for so this present life is, and therein irksome to Gods children. Secondly, as it is a time of misery. And thirdly, as the time of deferring of their reward; as long as Gods children live they are kept out of their inheritance. Thus we see how Gods children have an interest in life and death both, as making for their advantage, and it does belong unto them, as it is elsewhere expressed (Rom_14:8). The second is, Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers. First, not the good angels. Why? Whoever suspected them? What need was there for the apostle to put in that? I answer upon a double account. First, by way of supposition. The apostle seems to argue here, as he does also in another place, Though we, or an angel from heaven, etc. (Gal_1:8). Not as if they were likely to endeavour it, but if they should do it, it would be to no purpose, for they should never effect it. The good angels may be conceived to be possibly prejudicial to the saints and servants of God ministerially, and in reference to their office; and that is, by the withdrawing of their help to us, or as being instruments of inflicting punishment and vengeance upon us; but thus now they are not to Gods elect, for they are still active for them to good upon all occasions. We may understand it of the devils. Thus (Rev_12:8) it is said that Michael and his angels fought, and the dragon and his angels. It is most certain that the devil, that is, the chief and principal of them, hath very great power for a while permitted unto him, as to the trouble of Gods servants. I will instance in one particular amongst the rest, and that is his casting of evil and troublesome fancies and conceits into the mind, and that sometimes with that force and violence, as that the mind shall not be able to resist them or keep them out. These are those kind of thoughts wherewith the devil does oftentimes disturb and perplex the minds of Christians; but that these are no way prejudicial to them in matter of guilt, or arguments for the questions of Gods love, or real ground of disquieting to them, will appear unto us upon these considerations. First, from their manner of acting and proceeding in the soul itself, wherein there is neither assent nor consent given unto them, but only a bare apprehension of them. Secondly, this may also appear from the suddenness and quickness of them; for they are commonly darted into the mind without any connection or dependence, whereas a mans own proper thoughts are with more leisure, and deliberation, and subordination of one thing to another. Thirdly, from the frequency and multiplicity of them, together with their unseasonableness; for they may be a thousand times in a day passing as lightning into an house from one end of it to another, and in continual motion. Fourthly, from the quality and condition of them, as being contrary to the very light of nature, and the habitual frame and disposition of the soul, which of itself is considerable in it. The main ground and foundation of this restrainedness of Satans power is intimated to us in the text, and that is in reference to Christ; it is the love of God in Him, and therefore Satan cannot separate us from it; and Christ is considerable of us under a double notion, of an head, and of an advocate. The third is neither things present nor things to come. These shall not be able neither to separate us from Gods love in Christ. First, not things present; they shall not be able to do it, whether we take it in good things or in evil. This is a point very satisfactory in the worst times that are. No, nor yet, secondly, Things to come, These shall not do it neither. Things to come--they are such things as are hid from mens discerning, and they know not what to make of them; yea, but thus far they are certain, as they shall make for the good of Gods people; and therefore in the place before cited (1Co_3:22), as things present are made a part of their portion, and said to be theirs; so are things to come likewise. And so indeed upon the point, all things in the full latitude and extent of being. If we speak of things to come, but as to this life, and as taken under the notion of uncertainty, Gods children are not at a loss here, but upon very good terms; but then if we speak of things to come as to the life following, and as under the notion of certainty, here they are infinitely and transcendently glorious. Things to come--these are the greatest interest and concernment of believers, and such as above all others they do most reckon and depend upon. It is the great disadvantage and prejudices of men of the world that their happiness it is confined to things present. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
The triumphant hope of the Christian
Who can look upon the sun setting in the west and not be silent with wonder? One who sees Mont Blanc from the Lake of Geneva for the first time, lifting itself in awful splendour and glory, does not break forth into words, but gazes silently. So there are texts which, like the one before us, subdue us to silence.
I. This crowning love of God is made known to us in the Bible. The sea swelling with its tides, this great earth revolving on its axis, and rushing forward in its orbit the systems of worlds, all speak of the power of God. That He is a God of beauty we read in the leaf, the flower, the sea shell. But we do not find out from nature that God loves. When we understand this love of God, then are we ready to understand redemption.
II. This love fastens itself upon human beings. Compared with the mighty forces of nature, how weak we are; compared with eternity, how brief is life. What is man that God should observe him, and, much less, love him? Then we are so severed from God in capacity of mind, and so impure. We can readily believe that God loves the Church, or this and that eminent Christian, or the martyrs, but we doubt concerning ourselves. So many a Christian walks this world with timid apprehensions instead of the assurance of one who walks a world he knows his Father rules. If he realised that God loved him, then would he be joyous and triumphant--be strong for any service.
III. The eternity of this love. We feel at times that God loves us. But is this love eternal or fleeting? Is it fastened upon our personality, or upon our changing disposition? If we have been deceived in the character of one we love, or if that character has undergone a change, our love changes. Now if there is a radical change or degradation of character, Gods love may change; but aside from such change, it is not possible that anything can produce a change in the love of God. The assurance of this is the wine of life, poured from the chalice in Gods hand, into our fainting hearts.
1. Death cannot separate from the love of God. We go with a friend up to the last moment on earth. We see the mind still active, the memory clear, the noble impulses of the soul still predominant. Do you suppose that he who built the cathedral is ended while the work of his hand calls forth the admiration of mankind? We have the assurance in the resurrection of Christ, that death does not destroy the soul. Rather it sets the soul free from the lassitude and inactiveness of the body. The body hampers and manacles the soul. Now, can you conceive that death, which so adds to the spirit, can separate from the love of God? Death does not affect our love for our departed friends, save to augment it. How much more will it but augment the love of God.
2. But may not life? Life may reach its fourscore years and work many changes. The vigour is gone, and the beauty; decrepitude has come. But what is life to eternity? A dewdrop to the ocean; less than a single modest daisy to the innumerable worlds above. Shall the decrepitude of this brief life stand against an eternity without decrepitude? No changes wrought in the circumstances of life can affect the love of God. These are as nothing to the God of infinite resources. To Him, what matters it whether we dwell in a palace or a cottage? The favour is rather on the side of those who are in adverse circumstances. We love these who struggle more than those who enjoy; those who suffer patiently more than those who reign in royal splendour. Christ, when in the world, did not take His apostles from among the rulers; He made His abode with the poor rather than the rich. No; life cannot bring from the love of God, but rather brings us nearer because of its trials, temptations, and weaknesses.
3. But may not other powers? There are mighty ones above. May not these absorb the love of God? No; He takes care of the least as of the greatest. No star staggers in its course and halts to be caught in the grasp of God and held in its place. All the universe goes on evenly, quietly, surely. His love cannot be exhausted any more than His power. Weakness makes more certain this love. He sees us struggling against temptation which angels cannot experience, Nay, more, this love came to us through Jesus, His only Son.
4. May not time produce this separation? In the unrolling cycles, may not changes be wrought, powers developed, etc.? No; here come in the unchanging nature and the eternity of God. The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Yesterday just gone, to-day which is here, and for ever--oh, what a launch of thought!
5. May not space cause this separation? When we think of the vast distances in the universe; that the diameter of this system is seven hundred million miles; that astronomers, by an approximate parallax, show us that yonder star is so far away that it would take its light, travelling twelve millions of miles a minute, seventy-two years to reach us; that the unresolved nebula is so far away that its light would not reach us for seven hundred thousand years. When we think of these vast spaces, have we not reason to be fearful that there may be something in them that can separate us from Gods love? No, God is everywhere Master.
Conclusion:
1. What a terrific power is sin, since it can separate us from this love of God! More powerful than life or death, than all the universe.
2. What a privilege is this of the Christian to be safe in the love of God beyond all power of harm, to have a portion with God for ever. (R. S. Storrs, D.D.)
Things that cannot separate from the love of God
First, neither the height of worldly advancement nor the depth of worldly abasement. First, honour and advancement, dignity and height of place or preferment, that shall not do it. It is that which it sometimes does to some kind of persons, when they are not more watchful of themselves; high-standing it is apt to make men giddy, especially when they shall look down upon others which are far inferior to them. And there are great temptations which are now and then attending thereupon, of pride, and scornfulness, and security, and self-confidence, and the like. A child of God he shall not be afraid of that which is high, as we find the phrase used in another sense, and upon another occasion, in Ecc_12:5. And so for abasement and lowness of condition; he does not suffer from that neither, as St. Paul says of himself in another place: He knows how to abound, and he knows to be abased; to be full, and to be hungry; to abound, and to suffer need. There is a depth of affliction as well as an height of prosperity. And so for all other kinds and conditions of abasements of reproach, and contempt, and ignominy, which is cast upon them; these things they are digested by them. He that is low in his own eyes he can be content to be low in anothers. Secondly, not the height of spiritual enlargement, nor the depth of spiritual desertions. Spiritual enlargement, it is an height, and a very great one. Neither is the doctrine of assurance a doctrine of pride; neither is the state of assurance a state of pride. So again, as to spiritual desertions; the depth of that shall not hinder neither. This in Scripture is sometimes called a depth, as in Psa_130:1. Thirdly, take this height and depth here spoken of, as to the mysteries, whether of faith or providence, and ye shall find that neither these shall prove any disparagement to Gods servants. Lastly, neither height nor depth; that is, neither things above nor things below. It is a large and comprehensive expression which the Scripture uses in suchlike cases, when it will take in all, and so speak of anything, as to leave nothing out. Yet if we will take it more restrainedly and particularly, we may take it thus. First, take it as to the influences of Heaven. These are such as many people, especially now at this time, have a great regard unto, and that a great deal more than to other things which are more to be regarded. But those which are the servants of God are above all these heights. Those who are the children of God, and careful to walk in His fear, they shall not need to be dismayed at the signs of heaven (Jer_10:2). And so likewise we may take it as to the earth and the depths thereof. How many dangers are we here incident to, and yet graciously preserved from them? Now while the apostle is thus curious in this exact enumeration of particulars, and such as are so full and comprehensive, there are two things which we may gather from it: First, the weakness of our faith, especially in times of temptation, which the Spirit of God is fain to provide for, by such a complete dealing with us. Secondly, it shows the certainty of our own salvation. Seeing none of these things fore-mentioned are able to hinder us, we may from hence take notice of the sureness of the thing itself against all opposition. The second is, the general conclusion or main doctrine itself, and that is, that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Wherein again we have two branches more: First, the firmness or immovableness of Gods affection. That nothing whatsoever shall be able to separate us from it. This is agreeable to the whole current of Scripture (Psa_125:1; Heb_12:28). Now the firmness and stability of Gods people, in regard of their spiritual estate, may be thus surrendered: First, from the promise of God; it is a part of His gracious covenant with them. Secondly, the strength and power of Christ, that does likewise lay a ground for this truth; there His ability joined to Gods faithfulness, and the power of God joined to the truth of God (Heb_7:25). Thirdly, it may be further evinced from the nature of saving grace itself, and the work of regeneration, which is a constant and abiding principle, and so is signified to us to be in 1Jn_3:9. Take anything else in the world, besides true grace indeed, and ye shall find an uncertainty in it; let it be education, or custom, or natural conscience, or the credit of religion; none of these things are sure to hold or to continue long. But now for the power of godliness, and a true gracious heart in good earnest, it is such as is lasting and remaining. Fourthly, a Christians unmovableness is confirmed from the intercession of Christ. Whatever it is that Christ asks in the behalf of believers, it is most undoubtedly granted unto them. Fifthly, from the nature of election, which is a firm, and unchangeable decree; thus in verse 33 of this present chapter, Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? And so much may suffice to have spoken of the first particular in this second general, which is the firmness or immovableness of Gods affection considered in itself; that nothing is able to separate true Christians and believers from His love. The second is the ground or conveyance of this affection, and that is expressed in these words--Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. First, He is the conveyance of His Fathers love unto us, by virtue of that near union and relation which we have to Him; forasmuch as we are very members incorporate into Him, and made one with Him. Secondly, Christ is also the conveyance of the Fathers love to us meritoriously, and by way of procurement; Christ has obtained of God the Father to love us together with Himself. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
Faiths final paean
We seem to have been climbing up Jacobs ladder, all through this magnificent dissertation, and now we have reached its summit. The base was on earth, and there we found peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; the summit is the skies, and here the song which we sing is one of enraptured triumph. Christ is the first and the last in the scale of the Christians boasting and joy. It is through Him that we have no condemnation; and now it is in Him that we have confidence of happiness for ever. In the matter of our redemption He is all and in all, the Alpha, and the Omega, the author and the finisher of our faith.
I. The constancy of the love of God to them that are in Christ Jesus.
1. We are the objects of Gods love. Now, it is the very nature of love, in its truer and more noble forms, to be constant. Love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, etc. Love is not mere transient sentiment; it is a passion which moves with innate energy; of all moral forces the strongest. You may torture and slay a man, but you cannot coerce his affections. Formidable difficulties may oppose his love in its course, but love will surmount them or perish in the attempt. There may be unworthiness on the part of its objects, but even then how often have we seen a mothers, a wifes, a daughters love burn as brightly as ever. Love can accomplish what no mechanical or physical force can. There is truth in the quaint old fable, which represents a traveller pursuing his way with a mantle round his shoulders. The sun and the wind contested as to which was strong enough to compel the wayfarer to abandon his cherished covering. First, Boreas blew his fiercest blast, but the harder he blew, the faster did the traveller bind and clasp his cloak. Then Sol began to pour upon his head his melting beams. In a little while our hero freely surrendered; the oppressive garment was unwrapped, and loosened, and thrown open, and finally flung away altogether. The wind represents physical force, and the sun the energy of love. Well, now, God loves us; and we may at least be sure of this, that Gods love is a nobler affection than any human love whatever (Isa_49:15; Jer_31:3).
2. This love is Gods love. If it were the love of a creature, mighty and good, we might fairly put confidence in its stability; but now we see it to be that of the Creator. If He loves us, who can separate us from His love? Look at--
(1) The power of the Almighty. There may be angels, men, heights, depths, things present and things to come; but all are equally powerless against the Omnipotent. None can injure whom He defends; none can impoverish whom He enriches.
(2) The sovereignty of His will (Mal_3:6). God knew everything about us before He set His love upon us. He has nothing further to learn concerning us. We cannot surprise Him by new revelations of character. He elected us as objects of His love while we were yet sinners. All being known to Him, and all being in His hands, surely it is impossible that if He once resolved to love us, He could ever be moved from that love.
3. Gods love is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, it is a love whose outflow and development are based upon the redeeming work of Christ, and whose constancy, therefore, is guaranteed and assured by all the value and validity which attach to that work.
II. The creatures presumably hostile to the saints.
1. Death, whether natural or by violence, may sever us from many comforts and companions, but not from Jesus or His love. On the contrary, death brings us nearer to Christ than we were before. When we die, we go to be with Jesus, which is far better. Death, then, is an enemy converted into a friend.
2. Life. It is often a more perilous thing to live than to die. But let us not fear life. If for us to die would be gain, for us to live is Christ.
3. Angels, nor principalities, nor powers. We conceive of the angels as divided into ranks; some being higher and more powerful than the rest. But whether they are the ordinary angels, or whether they be the captains and chieftains, subordinate or supreme, of the angelic creation, all alike are powerless to intercept Gods love. But suppose it possible that all the angels, good and bad together, were to be in league against us; suppose that the malice of the one class were to be combined with the majesty of the other, we should still be secure, invulnerable, inviolable, and nothing they could do should separate us from the love of God.
4. Things present. Things visible are all our present surroundings of difficulty and circumstances of trial. These are enumerated, in some measure, in the former verses; but God loves us through them all. He will not suffer us to be tempted beyond our power of endurance, but does with every exigency open a door for our escape.
5. Things to come. We often forebode evil, and dread the future. But things to come are known to God; and whatever may betide, He will stand by us to the last. As our days, our strength shall be.
6. Height and depth. Whatever high thing there is, or whatever low thing, it need not alarm, as it cannot over power us. It may be worldly honour or abasement, but still we need not fear them. Neither the luxurious blandishments of affluence, nor the humiliating straitnesses of penury, shall separate us from God or destroy our interest in His love.
7. Any other creature. There, I have mentioned everything I could think of, and if I have omitted anything there is nothing to fear. (T. G. Horton.)
Assurance, not presumption
From this passage you see how safe and scriptural a full assurance is. By assurance I mean a firm, unfaltering trust in the declarations and promises of God. By personal assurance I mean a firm, unfaltering trust in the promises of God, as made to me from the moment that by believing in Jesus I make these promises my own. The apostle first of all believed in Jesus, and then as a believer in Jesus he was sure that he would go to heaven. He cast his helpless, guilty soul on Christ, and from that moment he was persuaded that he was the object of Gods love, and was persuaded that nothing could ever separate him from that love. And he was anxious to bring his Roman friends to the same persuasion. For the sake of their salvation he wished them to repose entirely on the finished work of Christ, but for the sake of their comfort and eminent sanctification, he wished them, having done this, to rejoice in hope of glory. Some tender-hearted Christians almost deprecate personal assurance, and probably the reason is that they have seen some profess assurance whose hope was evident presumption. But no two things can be more distinct. Presumption is Satans lie; assurance is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Presumption is hope without foundation; assurance is founded on the Word of God without, and the work of the Spirit within. Presumption makes a man proud and hard-hearted, censorious and flippant, reckless and undevout. Assurance makes a man stoop in humility lower and lower, the more be is persuaded of his heavenly Fathers love. And it gives him a panting after the living God. And it makes him tender-hearted--makes him like his Master, who does not despise the day of small things, who, when a bruised reed is put into His hand, does not snap it asunder and fling the fragments from Him; who, when a smoking flax is put upon His altar, does not sweep it off because it is flax, nor extinguish it because it is only smoking, but cherishes and fans that smouldering tow, till it burst in flames and fire the living sacrifice; and who shows His power and Divine compassion by taking the drooping shattered reed, and making it the rod of His might, a staff of strength in His hand. Even so real assurance is considerate and tender-hearted, does not scowl disdain on the smoky beginnings of grace in any heart, but finds a godlike pleasure in fostering it into a flame. Presumption is an intoxicating poison, and sends the self-deceiver reeling forward in a merry delusion, neglecting known duty and perpetrating known sin from day to day, and yet fancying that the Spirit of Christ is in him; assurance enlightens the eyes, and whether sedate or ecstatic, is always a cautious and circumspect thing, abhorring the garment spotted with the flesh. Presumption is impudent; assurance is filial and affectionate. Presumption talks about crosses; assurance carries them. Presumption is bustling and loquacious; assurance is full of zeal, but is often doing much when it says nothing. Presumption is heady and high-minded; assurance is sober, and vaunteth not itself. Presumption is self-indulgent; assurance is self-denied. Presumption, like an eastern nabob, would shut his eyes, and fold his hands, and nestle his cheek upon some balmy pillow, and then without any trouble to himself be walled to heaven in a silken palanquin; whilst assurance, like a primitive disciple, is content to strap on the pilgrims sandals, and shoulder the weighty cross, and foot it all the way to glory in the steps of the great Forerunner. Presumption is a vile fleshly counterfeit; assurance is a holy and sanctifying grace, because the gift of the holy and sanctifying Spirit. (J. Hamilton, D.D.)
Christian confidence
The account given of the death of Mr. Robert Bruce of Kinnaird is very beautiful in its simplicity: That morning before the Lord called him to his rest he came to breakfast at his table. After he had eaten, as his use was, a single egg, he said to his daughter, I think I am yet hungry; you may bring me another egg, and instantly fell silent; and, after having mused a little, he said, Hold, daughter, hold; my Master calleth me. With these words his sight failed him, and he called for the Bible; but finding he was not able to read, he said, Cast me up the eighth chapter to the Romans, verses twenty-eight to thirty-nine, much of which he repeated, particularly I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord, and caused his finger to be put upon them, which was done. Now, said he, is my finger upon them? They told him it was. Then he said, God be with you, my children; I have breakfasted with you, and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ this night, and straightway gave up the ghost without one groan or shiver.
Security
A lady was riding in her carriage, when, spying a beautiful flower by the side of a large rock, she alighted to take it up, that she might remove it to her conservatory, but found that, delicate as it appeared, it resisted all her efforts, because the root ran under the rock. Ah, thought she, this is an illustration of the safety of the Christian, whose life of beauty is under the shelter of the Rock, and whose root of strength runs far beneath it.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson1891 · Public DomainOn vv37–3937. Nay. Not all these sufferings can lead us…
37. Nay. Not all these sufferings can lead us from Christ, for in all these things we are more than conquerors. We overcome by the aid of him that loved us.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey1900 · Public DomainOn vv37–3837. “But in all these we are more than…
37. “But in all these we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn vv37–38
Romans
MORE THAN CONQUERORS
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Rom 8:37.
In order to understand and feel the full force of this triumphant saying of the Apostle, we must observe that it is a negative answer to the preceding questions, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ A heterogeneous mass the Apostle here brigades together as an antagonistic army. They are alike in nothing except that they are all evils. There is no attempt at an exhaustive enumeration, or at classification. He clashes down, as it were, a miscellaneous mass of evil things, and then triumphs over them, and all the genus to which they belong, as being utterly impotent to drag men away from Jesus Christ. To ask the question is to answer it, but the form of the answer is worth notice. Instead of directly replying, ‘No! no such powerless things as these can separate us from the love of Christ,’ he says, ‘No! In all these things, whilst weltering amongst them, whilst ringed round about by them, as by encircling enemies, “we are more than conquerors.”‘ Thereby, he suggests that there is something needing to be done by us, in order that the foes may not exercise their natural effect. And so, taking the words of my text in connection with that to which they are an answer, we have three things-the impotent enemies of love; the abundant victory of love; ‘We are more than conquerors’; and the love that makes us victorious. Let us look then at these three things briefly.
I. First of all, the impotent enemies of love.
There is contempt in the careless massing together of the foes which the Apostle enumerates. He begins with the widest word that covers everything-’affliction.’ Then he specifies various forms of it-’distress,’ straitening, as the word might be rendered, then he comes to evils inflicted for Christ’s sake by hostile men-’persecution,’ then he names purely physical evils, ‘hunger’ and ‘nakedness,’ then he harks back again to man’s antagonism, ‘peril,’ and ‘sword.’ And thus carelessly, and without an effort at logical order, he throws together, as specimens of their class, these salient points, as it were, and crests of the great sea, whose billows threaten to roll over us; and he laughs at them all, as impotent and nought, when compared with the love of Christ, which shields us from them all.
Now it must be noticed that here, in his triumphant question, the Apostle means not our love to Christ but His to us; and not even our sense of that love, but the fact itself. And his question is just this:-Is there any evil in the world that can make Christ stop loving a man that cleaves to Him? And, as I said, to ask the question is to answer it. The two things belong to two different regions. They have nothing in common. The one moves amongst the low levels of earth; the other dwells up amidst the abysses of eternity, and to suppose that anything that assails and afflicts us here has any effect in making that great heart cease to love us is to fancy that the mists can quench the sunlight, is to suppose that that which lies down low in the earth can rise to poison and to darken the heavens.
There is no need, in order to rise to the full height of the Christian contempt for calamity, to deny any of its terrible power. These things can separate us from much. They can separate us from joy, from hope, from almost all that makes life desirable. They can strip us to the very quick, but the quick they cannot touch. The frost comes and kills the flowers, browns the leaves, cuts off the stems, binds the sweet music of the flowing rivers in silent chains, casts mists and darkness over the face of the solitary grey world, but it does not touch the life that is in the root.
And so all these outward sorrows that have power over the whole of the outward life, and can slay joy and all but stifle hope, and can ban men into irrevocable darkness and unalleviated solitude, they do not touch in the smallest degree the secret bond that binds the heart to Jesus, nor in any measure affect the flow of His love to us. Therefore we may front them and smile at them and say:
‘Do as thou wilt, devouring time,
With this wide world, and all its fading sweets’;
‘my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.’
You need not be very much afraid of anything being taken from you as long as Christ is left you. You will not be altogether hopeless so long as Christ, who is our hope, still speaks His faithful promises to you, nor will the world be lonely and dark to them who feel that they are lapt in the sweet and all-pervading consciousness of the changeless love of the heart of Christ. ‘Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution?’-in any of these things, ‘we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’ Brethren, that is the Christian way of looking at all externals, not only at the dark and the sorrowful, but at the bright and the gladsome. If the withdrawal of external blessings does not touch the central sanctities and sweetness of a life in communion with Jesus, the bestowal of external blessedness does not much brighten or gladden it. We can face the withdrawal of them all, we need not covet the possession of them all, for we have all in Christ; and the world without His love contributes less to our blessedness and our peace than the absence of all its joys with His love does. So let us feel that earth, in its givings and in its withholdings, is equally impotent to touch the one thing that we need, the conscious possession of the love of Christ.
All these foes, as I have said, have no power over the fact of Christ’s love to us, but they have power, and a very terrible power, over our consciousness of that love; and we may so kick against the pricks as to lose, in the pain of our sorrows, the assurance of His presence, or be so fascinated by the false and vulgar sweetnesses and promises of the world as, in the eagerness of our chase after them, to lose our sense of the all-sufficing certitude of His love. Tribulation does not strip us of His love, but tribulation may so darken our perceptions that we cannot see the sun. Joys need not rob us of His heart, but joys may so fill ours, as that there shall be no longing for His presence within us. Therefore let us not exaggerate the impotence of these foes, but feel that there are real dangers, as in the sorrows so in the blessings of our outward life, and that the evil to be dreaded is that outward things, whether in their bright or in their dark aspects, may come between us and the home of our hearts, the love of the loving Christ.
II. So then, note next, the abundant victory of love.
Mark how the Apostle, in his lofty and enthusiastic way, is not content here with simply saying that he and his fellows conquer. It would be a poor thing, he seems to think, if the balance barely inclined to our side, if the victory were but just won by a hair’s breadth and triumph were snatched, as it were, out of the very jaws of defeat. There must be something more than that to correspond to the power of the victorious Christ that is in us. And so, he says, we very abundantly conquer; we not only hinder these things which he has been enumerating from doing that which it is their aim apparently to do, but we actually convert them into helpers or allies. The ‘more than conquerors’ seems to mean, if there is any definite idea to be attached to it, the conversion of the enemy conquered into a friend and a helper. The American Indians had a superstition that every foe tomahawked sent fresh strength into the warrior’s arm. And so all afflictions and trials rightly borne, and therefore overcome, make a man stronger, and bring him nearer to Jesus Christ.
Note then, further, that not only is this victory more than bare victory, being the conversion of the enemy into allies, but that it is a victory which is won even whilst we are in the midst of the strife. It is not that we shall be conquerors in some far-off heaven, when the noise of battle has ceased and they hang the trumpet in the hall, but it is here now, in the hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot death-grapple that we do overcome. No ultimate victory, in some far-off and blessed heaven, will be ours unless moment by moment, here, to-day,’ we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’
So, then, about this abundant victory there are these things to say:-You conquer the world only, then, when you make it contribute to your conscious possession of the love of Christ. That is the real victory, the only real victory in life. Men talk about overcoming here on earth, and they mean thereby the accomplishment of their designs. A man has ‘victory,’ as it is phrased, in the world’s strife, when he secures for himself the world’s goods at which he has aimed, but that is not the Christian idea of the conquest of calamity. Everything that makes me feel more thrillingly in my inmost heart the verity and the sweetness of the love of Jesus Christ as my very own, is conquered by me and compelled to subserve my highest good, and everything which slips a film between me and Him, which obscures the light of His face to me, which makes me less desirous of, and less sure of, and less happy in, and less satisfied with, His love, is an enemy that has conquered me. And all these evils as the world calls them, and as our bleeding hearts have often felt them to be, are converted into allies and friends when they drive us to Christ, and keep us close to Him, in the conscious possession of His sweet and changeless love. That is the victory, and the only victory. Has the world helped me to lay hold of Christ? Then I have conquered it. Has the world loosened my grasp upon Him? Then it has conquered me.
Note then, further, that this abundant victory depends on how we deal with the changes of our outward lives, our sorrows or our joys. There is nothing, per se, salutary in affliction, there is nothing, per se, antagonistic to Christian faith in it either. No man is made better by his sorrows, no man need be made worse by them. That depends upon how we take the things which come storming against us. The set of your sails, and the firmness of your grasp upon the tiller, determine whether the wind shall carry you to the haven or shall blow you out, a wandering waif, upon a shoreless and melancholy sea. There are some of you that have been blown away from your moorings by sorrow. There are some professing Christians who have been hindered in their work, and had their peace and their faith shattered all but irrevocably, because they have not accepted, in the spirit in which they were sent, the trials that have come for their good. The worst of all afflictions is a wasted affliction, and they are all wasted unless they teach us more of the reality and the blessedness of the love of Jesus Christ.
III. Lastly, notice the love which makes us conquerors.
The Apostle, with a wonderful instinctive sense of fitness, names Christ here by a name congruous to the thoughts which occupy his mind, when he speaks of Him that loved us. His question has been, Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? And his answer is, So far from that being the case, that very love, by occasion of sorrows and afflictions, tightens its grasp upon us, and, by the communication of itself to us, makes us more than conquerors. This great love of Jesus Christ, from which nothing can separate us, will use the very things that seem to threaten our separation as a means of coming nearer to us in its depth and in its preciousness.
The Apostle says ‘Him that loved us,’ and the words in the original distinctly point to some one fact as being the great instance of love. That is to say they point to His death. And so we may say Christ’s love helps us to conquer because in His death He interprets for us all possible sorrows. If it be true that love to each of us nailed Him there, then nothing that can come to us but must be a love-token, and a fruit of that same love. The Cross is the key to all tribulation, and shows it to be a token and an instrument of an unchanging love.
Further, that great love of Christ helps us to conquer, because in His sufferings and death He becomes the Companion of all the weary. The rough, dark, lonely road changes its look when we see His footprints there, not without specks of blood in them, where the thorns tore His feet. We conquer our afflictions if we recognise that ‘in all our afflictions He was afflicted,’ and that Himself has drunk to its bitterest dregs the cup which He commends to our lips. He has left a kiss upon its margin, and we need not shrink when He holds it out to us and says ‘Drink ye all of it.’ That one thought of the companionship of the Christ in our sorrows makes us more than conquerors.
And lastly, this dying Lover of our souls communicates to us all, if we will, the strength whereby we may coerce all outward things into being helps to the fuller participation of His perfect love. Our sorrows and all the other distracting externals do seek to drag us away from Him. Is all that happens in counteraction to that pull of the world, that we tighten our grasp upon Him, and will not let Him go; as some poor wretch might the horns of the altar that did not respond to his grasp? Nay what we lay hold of is no dead thing, but a living hand, and it grasps us more tightly than we can ever grasp it. So because He holds us, and not because we hold Him, we shall not be dragged away, by anything outside of our own weak and wavering souls, and all these embattled foes may come against us, they may shear off everything else, they cannot sever Christ from us unless we ourselves throw Him away. ‘In this thou shalt conquer.’ ‘They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey1914 · Public DomainOn vv37–39Nay, in all these things we are more than…
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us . [But though we be in tribulation, and be slain like sheep, yet in all these things we not only gain the conquest, so that we survive them, but we come out more than victors, for we are crowned over them with immortality and eternal life. But this victory is achieved not of ourselves, but because of the love of Christ, who, by his death, won for us these better things. The phrase "more than conquerors" is a single word in the Greek, and means, literally, "over-conquerors." Some see in this a peculiar kind of victory. "This is a new order of victory," says Chrysostom, "to conquer by means of our adversaries." "The adversaries," says Chillingsworth, "are not only overcome and disarmed, but they are brought over to our faction; they war on our side." If such a meaning may be properly put upon this word, then the idea here is beautifully harmonious and consonant with the thought expressed in verse 28, which shows that God indeed causes things which seem to be inimical to serve our interests and further our blessedness.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn vv38–39(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angels
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v37we are more than conquerors
we are more than conquerors
"we have complete victory"
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through the one who loved us
You can make explicit the kind of love that Jesus showed. AT: "because of Jesus, who loved us so much he was willing to die for us" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
I have been convinced
"I am convinced" or "I am confident"
governments
Possible meanings are 1) demons or 2) human kings and rulers.
nor powers
Possible meanings are 1) spiritual beings with power or 2) human beings with power.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv37–39 37. We do more than conquer, etc.; that is,…
37. We do more than conquer, etc.; that is, we always struggle and emerge. I have retained the word used by Paul, though not commonly used by the Latins. It indeed sometimes happens that the faithful seem to succumb and to lie forlorn; and thus the Lord not only tries, but also humbles them. This issue is however given to them, — that they obtain the victory.
That they might at the same time remember whence this invincible power proceeds, he again repeats what he had said before: for he not only teaches us that God, because he loves us, supports us by his hand; but he also confirms the same truth by mentioning the love of Christ. And this one sentence sufficiently proves, that the Apostle speaks not here of the fervency of that love which we have towards God, but of the paternal kindness of God and of Christ towards us, the assurance of which, being thoroughly fixed in our hearts, will always draw us from the gates of hell into the light of life, and will sufficiently avail for our support.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v37 We are not only not overcome with so great…
We are not only not overcome with so great and many miseries and calamities, but also more than conquerors in all of them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv37–39 37 Nay, in all these things we are more…
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Ver. 37. We are more than conquerors] What is that? Triumphers, 2Co 2:14. We do over overcome; because through faith in Christ we overcome before we fight, and are secure of victory. {a} And again, "we are more than conquerors," because we gather strength by our opposition (as that giant that fought with Hercules is fabled to do, by his falling to the earth), we conquer in being conquered. The tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina: and, We are ashamed, O emperor; the Christians laugh at your cruelty and grow the more resolute, said one of Julian’s nobles to him.
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{a} υπερνικωμεν Super superamus. Super vincimus.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv37–39 Nay, in all these things; i.e. in tribulation, distress,…
Nay, in all these things; i.e. in tribulation, distress, & c. as before, Rom 8:35.
We are more than conquerors; or, we overcome. We conquer when we ourselves are conquered; we conquer by those which are wont to conquer others; we beat our enemies with their own weapons. The meaning seems to be this: The devil aims, in all the sufferings of God’s children, to draw them off from Christ, to make them murmur, despair, &c.; but in this he is defeated and disappointed, for God inspires his children with such a generous and noble spirit, that sufferings abate not their zeal and patience, but rather increase them. "We Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute," said one of Julian’s nobles to him.
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Through him that loved us: a short description of Christ, together with a reason of a Christian’s success. The conquest he hath over sin, and over sufferings also, is not from himself, or his own strength, but from Christ, &c.: see Rom 7:24,25; 1Co 15:57; 2Co 2:14; 2Ti 4:17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv37–38 As if the apostle had said, "We are so…
As if the apostle had said, "We are so far from being separated from Christ, by the afflictions and persecutions which we undergo, that we are conquerors by our patience, nay, more than conquerors: we do not only bear our trials, but we glory in tribulations; we conquer by our patience, we are more than conquerors by our cheerfulness."
But because these words, more than conquerors, look big, and sound great, the apostle instantly subjoins, that ’tis by Christ’s strength, and not by our own, that we overcome and conquer; More than conquerors through him that loved us, which words are a periphrasis of Christ: It is both a proper description of him, and a comprehensive description.
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When the apostle said, he that loved us, he doth in effect say everything else; he that was born for us, that died for us, that redeemed and saved us; all these were the effects and fruits of his love, and they are all comprehended in this saying, Him that loved us.
Note, lastly, how the believer is said to overcome by the help of this person. More than conquerors through him that loved us.
Whence learn, That all a Christian’s strength lies in Christ, and not in himself; all his strength for victory over sin, all his strength for victory over suffering, is all received from Christ, is all to be attributed and ascribed to Christ; the strength of every saint, yea, the whole host of saint, lies in the Lord of hosts.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv37–39 Nay, in all these things,.... The former words being…
Nay, in all these things,.... The former words being inserted in a parenthesis, these are an answer to the question in Rom 8:35, "what shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation?" &c. "nay", it shall not, nor any of the other things mentioned: "in all these things"; afflictions, distresses, persecutions, famine, nakedness, sword, or any other thing of the same kind:
we are more than conquerors; not only over sin and Satan, but the world, the reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions of it; which they cheerfully and courageously undergo, insomuch that they are not only conquerors, but "more than conquerors": they have above overcome, they have exceedingly the better of it; for they not only patiently bear afflictions and persecutions, but they glory in them; their experience, faith, and joy, are often increased by them; they have sometime solicited, and even wearied their persecutors; they have got the victory with ease, over Satan and his hellish emissaries, by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony: but this is not owing to themselves, or through their own strength, but
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through him that loved us; meaning either God the Father, whose love is mentioned in the following verses, or rather the Lord Jesus Christ; and so some copies express it, "through Christ that loved us": "through him", who has got the victory over all his and his people's enemies, and makes them sharers in his conquests; "through him", who is able to help them, and has strength sufficient to carry them through, and brings them off more than conquerors; who has loved them, still loves them, and whose love engages his power to stand by them and protect them against all their enemies.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv37–38 We more than conquer - We are not only…
We more than conquer - We are not only no losers, but abundant gainers, by all these trials. This period seems to describe the full assurance of hope.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv37–39 Verse 37. Nay] as the prophet adds in the…
Verse 37. Nay] as the prophet adds in the same place, all this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, nor dealt falsely in thy covenant, Ro 8:17; Ro 8:18, so all these things may happen unto us; but in all these things we are more than conquerors; WE abide faithful in the new covenant of our God; and HE is faithful who has promised to support and make us more than conquerors; i.e. to give us a complete triumph over sin, and death, and hell, not leaving one enemy unsubdued.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v38 Rom 8:38-39. For I am persuaded, &c. — This…
Rom 8:38-39. For I am persuaded, &c. — This period describes the full assurance of hope, and the inference is made in admirable order; neither death — Terrible as it is to natural men, a violent death in particular; nor the fear of it, Rom 8:36; nor life — With all the affliction and distress it can bring, Rom 8:35; or a long, easy life, and the love of it; or all living men; nor angels — Whether good (if it were possible they should attempt it) or bad, with all their subtlety and strength: nor principalities, nor powers — Not even those of the highest rank, or of the most eminent power. “Because angels are distinguished from principalities and powers, Beza and some others are of opinion that powers in this passage, as Luk 12:11, signify the persecuting rulers and potentates of the earth, who endeavoured to make the first Christians renounce their faith. But as evil angels, in other passages of Scripture, are called principalities and powers, and as the apostle rises in his description, it is probable that he speaks of these malicious spirits, the inveterate enemies of mankind; and that he calls them principalities and powers, by a metonymy of the office, or power possessed, for the persons possessing it.” — Macknight. Nor things present — Difficult as they are, or such as may befall us during our pilgrimage, or till the world passeth away; nor things to come — Extreme as they may prove; that is, future sufferings, or things which may occur, either when our time on earth is past, or when time itself is at an end, as the final judgment, the general conflagration, the everlasting fire. The apostle does not mention things past, because they have no influence on the mind, unless so far as the like things are either hoped or feared. Nor height, nor depth — The former sentence respected the differences of times; this respects the differences of places. How many, great, and various things are contained in these words, we do not, need not, cannot know yet. The height, in St. Paul’s sublime style, is put for heaven; the depth for the great abyss: that is, neither the heights, I will not say of walls, mountains, waves of the sea, but of heaven itself, can move us; nor the abyss itself, the very thought of which might astonish the boldest creature. Or his meaning may be, Neither the height of prosperity, nor the depth of adversity can move us. Nor any other creature — Above or beneath, in heaven, earth, or hell: nothing beneath the Almighty. In this general clause the apostle includes whatever else could be named, as having any influence to separate believers from the love of God, exercised toward them through Christ: shall be able — Either by force, Rom 8:35, or by any legal claim, Rom 8:33, &c., to separate us from the love of God in Christ — Which will surely save, protect, and deliver us, who believe, and persevere so to do, in and through, and from them all.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv37–39 Nay - But. Notwithstanding our severe pressures and trials.
Nay - But. Notwithstanding our severe pressures and trials.
In all these things - In the very midst of them; while we are enduring them we are able to triumph; compare 1Co 15:57.
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We are more than conquerors - We gain the victory. That is, they have not power to subdue us; to alienate our love and confidence; to produce apostasy. We are the victors, not they. Our faith is not destroyed; our love is not diminished; our hope is not blasted. But it is not simple victory; it is not mere life, and continuance of what we had before; it is more than simple triumph; it augments our faith, increases our strength, expands our love to Christ. The word used here is a strong, emphatic expression, such as the apostle Paul often employs (compare 2Co 4:17), and which is used with great force and appropriateness here.
Through him ... - Not by their own strength or power. It was by the might of the Saviour, and by his power pledged to them, and confirmed by the love evinced when he gave himself for them; compare Phi 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv38–39 Certus sum, Greek: pepeismai, persuasus sum. No one has…
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Certus sum, Greek: pepeismai, persuasus sum. No one has an absolute certainty that they shall be saved.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv37–39 Nay, in all these things we are more than…
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us--not, "We are so far from being conquered by them, that they do us much good" [HODGE]; for though this be true, the word means simply, "We are pre-eminently conquerors." See on Rom 5:20. And so far are they from "separating us from Christ's love," that it is just "through Him that loved us" that we are victorious over them.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv37–39 37. More than conquerors—The slaughtered sheep are more than…
37. More than conquerors—The slaughtered sheep are more than victors; or, rather, superabundantly conquerors. The persecutor can butcher them, but they gloriously defeat their persecutor.
Through him— Not even martyrdom is, in itself, a glory and a crown; it is glorious and crowned through Him who gives it all its value.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv37–39 37. Nay] Lit., and perhaps better, But: q. d.,…
37. Nay] Lit., and perhaps better, But: q. d., “Such are indeed our sufferings; but in all these things &c.”
we are more than conquerors] “Wir überwinden weit;” Luther.—If this glorious utterance (a single word in the Gr.) must be analyzed, we may explain it as saying that through these sufferings the saints come out not only unhurt, but with the precious advantage of a firmer faith, and more burning love, and so a deeper capacity for eternal bliss. See 2Co_4:17.
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through Him that loved us] Even in the thought of personal victory St Paul does not forget that the source of strength is wholly above.—For this Title of the Saviour see Rev_1:5; (where however read “loveth us.”) See too Gal_2:20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv37–39 (37) Nay.—Yet, or But. So far from being vanquished,…
(37) Nay.—Yet, or But. So far from being vanquished, we are conquerors: when we are weak then are we strong.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v38 Vers. 38, 39. For I am persuaded that no…
Vers. 38, 39. For I am persuaded that no powers or circumstances whatever, external to ourselves, will ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, or consequently bar our attainment of our final inheritance.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life…
Rom_8:38-39
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life … shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
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The best persuasion
A visitor said to a poor wounded soldier, who lay dying in the hospital, What Church are you of? Of the Church of Christ, he replied. I mean, what persuasion are you of? Persuasion! said the dying man, as he looked heavenward, beaming with love to the Saviour, I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Loves triumph
These rapturous words are the climax of the apostles long demonstration that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. His argument started with sombre, sad words about mans sinfulness; like some stream rising among black and barren cliffs, or melancholy moorlands, and foaming through narrow rifts in gloomy ravines, it reaches at last fertile lands, and flows calm, the sunlight dancing on its broad surface, till it loses itself at last in the unfathomable ocean of the love of God. We are told that the biblical view of human nature is too dark. Well, the important question is not whether it be dark, but whether it be true. Certainly, a part of it is very dark. The picture of what men are, painted at the beginning of this Epistle, is black like a canvas of Rembrandts. But to get the whole doctrine, we have to see what men may become. Christianity begins indeed with, There is none that doeth good, no, not one, but it ends with this victorious paean, which tells us that the love of God is--
I. Unaffected by the extremest changes of our condition.
1. The apostle begins his catalogue of vanquished foes by a pair of opposites, neither death nor life, which cover the whole ground, and represent the extremes of change which can befall us. If these two stations, so far from each other, are equally near to Gods love, then no intermediate point can be far from it. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. His love to us makes no account of that mightiest of changes. How should it be affected by slighter ones? The distance of a star is measured by the apparent change in its position, as seen from different points of the earths surface or orbit. But this great light stands steadfast in our heaven, nor moves a hairs breadth, nor pours a feebler ray on us, whether we look up to it from the midsummer of busy life, or from the midwinter of death.
2. Of course the confidence of immortality is implied in this thought. Death does not affect the essential vitality of the soul; so it does not affect the outflow of Gods love to that soul. It is a change of condition and circumstance, and no more.
3. How this thought contrasts with the saddest aspect of the power of death! Death unclasps our hands from the closest, dearest grasp, parts soul and body, loosens every bond of society; but there is one bond which his abhorred shears cannot cut. Their edge is turned on it. One Hand holds us in a grasp which the fleshless fingers of death in vain strive to loosen. The separator becomes the uniter; he rends us apart from the world that he may bring us to God. The love filtered by drops on us in life is poured upon us in a flood in death!
II. Undiverted from us by any other order of beings. Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers. The supposition which is, indeed, an impossible one, that these ministering spirits should so forget their mission and contradict their nature as to seek to bar us out from the love which it is their chiefest joy to bring to us; and its very impossibility gives energy to his conclusion (see also Gal_1:8), preaching another gospel than that which he had preached to them. The general thought implies--
1. The utter powerlessness of any third party in regard to the relations between our souls and God. We have to do with Him alone. These two, God and the soul, have to transact, as if there were no other beings in the universe.
(1) Angels, principalities, etc., may behold with sympathetic joy, and minister blessing in many ways; but the decisive act of union between God and the soul they can neither effect nor prevent.
(2) And as for them, so for men around us; the limits of their power to harm us are soon set. They may shut us out from human love by calumnies, and annoy us in a thousand ways; they may build a wall around us, and imprison us from many a joy and fair prospect: but they cannot put a roof on it to keep out the sweet influences from above, or hinder us from looking up to the heavens. Nobody can come between us and God but ourselves.
2. These blessed spirits do not absorb and intercept His love. The planet nearest the sun is saturated with fiery brightness, but the rays pass on to each of the sister spheres in its turn, and travel away outwards to where the remotest of them all rolls in its far-off orbit. Like that poor woman who could lay her fingers on the hem of Christs garment, notwithstanding the thronging multitude, we can reach our hands through all the crowd, or rather He reaches His strong hand to us and heals and blesses us. All the guests are fed full at that great table. Ones gain is not anothers loss. The multitudes sit on the green grass, and the last man of the last fifty gets as much as the first; and more remains than fed them all. This healing fountain is not exhausted of its curative power by the early comers.
III. Raised above the power of time. Nor things present, nor things to come. We had first a pair of opposites, and then a triplet; now again a pair of opposites, again followed by a triplet. The effect of this is to divide the whole into two, and to throw the first and second classes more closely together, as also the third and fourth. Time and space, these two mysterious ideas, which work so fatally on all human love, are powerless here.
1. The great revelation of God, on which the whole of Judaism was built, was that made to Moses of the name I am that I am. And parallel was that symbol of the bush, which signified not the continuance of Israel, unharmed by the fiery furnace of persecution, but the eternity of Israels God. Both proclaimed the same great truth of self-derived, self-determined, timeless, undecaying being.
2. And this eternity of being is no mere metaphysical abstraction. It is eternity of love, for God is love. We know of earthly loves which cannot die, and we have to thank God for such instances of love stronger than death, which make it easier for us to believe in the unchanging duration of His. But we know, too, of love that can change, and we know that all love must part. How blessed then to know of a love which cannot change or die! The past, the present and the future are all the same to Him. The whole of what He has been to any past, He is to us to-day.
3. So we may bring the blessedness of all the past into the present, and calmly face the misty future, sure that it cannot rob us of His love. Looking on all the flow of ceaseless change of earthly affection, we can lift up with gladness, heightened by the contrast, the triumphant song of the ancient Church, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever!
IV. Present everywhere. The apostle ends with, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, as if he had got impatient of the enumeration of impotencies, and having named the outside boundaries in space, flings, as it were, with one rapid toss, into that large room the whole that it can contain, and triumphs over it all. As the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of time, so this proclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creatural life which we call space. Height or depth, it matters not. That diffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions. The distance from the centre is equal to Zenith or to Nadir. Here we have the same process applied to that idea of omnipresence as was applied in the former clause to the idea of eternity. That thought, so hard to grasp with vividness, and not altogether a glad one to a sinful soul, is all softened and glorified, as some solemn Alpine cliff of bare rock is when the tender morning light glows on it, when it is thought of as the omnipresence of love. Then, God, seest me, may be a stern word, if the God who sees be but a mighty Maker or a righteous Judge. But how different it all is when we can east over the marble whiteness of that solemn thought the warm hue of life. In that great ocean of the Divine love we live and move and have our being, floating in it like some sea flower which spreads its filmy beauty and waves its long tresses in the depths of mid-ocean. The sound of its waters is ever in our ears, and above, beneath, around us, its mighty currents run evermore. We need not fear the omnipresence of love, nor the omniscience which knows us altogether, and loves us even as it knows. Rather we shall be glad that we are ever in His presence.
Conclusion:
1. The recognition of this triumphant sovereignty of love over all these real and supposed antagonists makes us, too, lords over them, and delivers us from the temptations which some of them present us to separate ourselves from the love of God. They all become our servants and helpers, uniting us to that love. So we are set free from the dread of death and from the distractions incident to life. So we are delivered from superstitious dread of an unseen world, and from craven fear of men. So we are emancipated from absorption in the present and from careful thought for the future. So we are at home everywhere, and every corner of the universe is to us one of the many mansions of our Fathers house. All things are yours … . and ye are Christs; and Christ is Gods.
2. But remember that this love of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Love illimitable, all-pervasive, eternal; yes, but a love which has a channel and a course, love which has a method and a process by which it pours itself over the world. In Christ the love of God is all centred and embodied, that it may be imparted to all sinful and hungry hearts, even as burning coals are gathered on a hearth that they may give warmth to all that are in the house. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Persuaded of the constancy of the Divine love
We begin with the form of protestation, I am persuaded, where the apostle, while he speaks of the state of a true believer in reference to grace and salvation, speaks of it as a matter of certainty and full persuasion. There are two manner of ways especially, whereby we come to be assured of our salvation.
1. By the inward persuasion of the Holy Ghost in our own consciences.
2. We come to be assured of our condition, from the reflection of conscience itself, our rejoicing is this (2Co_1:12; 1Jn_3:21). The second is the matter of it, or thing itself protested; and that is much one with that which he had before harped upon, That nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Now this again is here laid down in these two verses together, two manner of ways. First, by an enumeration or induction of the several particulars; and secondly, by a winding-up of all together in one general conclusion. First, death shall not do it; death, it makes a great separation, it separates the soul from the body, two friends which have been a great while joined together, and it separates a man from the world. Oh! but for all this it does not separate a believer from Christ. First, for the souls of Gods children; these are not separated from Him by death. Not separated? Nay, they are so much the more conjoined. St. Paul desired to be dissolved, that he might be with Christ (Php_1:23; 2Co_5:6; 2Co_5:8). And so likewise for the bodies of Christians; these they are not separated from Christ neither, even when they lie in the grave, they are very accountable in the eyes of God, and He has a special care of them and regard unto them. The very dust of Gods people is precious, and their very bones are numbered by Him. No, nor secondly again by life; that is another part of this link. Life, it shall not prove hurtful or prejudicial to the people of God. First, not the good of life--I mean the outward good, and comfortableness of it. There is a great deal of hazard and danger in this. First, as it is an occasion to make men to be so much the more in love with the world. But Gods children are delivered from it, as having their affections weaned in them. A second evil of life in the prosperous part of it is, that it makes a man to defer his repentance and conversion to God. Thirdly, life is thus far dangerous, as it keeps a man from suffering for Christ; the more that any man has to lose, the less commonly is he willing to it. So again, as to the evils of life, ye may take it there also, that life in this sense is not prejudicial to Gods servants, but sanctified to them. First, as it is a time of sinning, for so this present life is, and therein irksome to Gods children. Secondly, as it is a time of misery. And thirdly, as the time of deferring of their reward; as long as Gods children live they are kept out of their inheritance. Thus we see how Gods children have an interest in life and death both, as making for their advantage, and it does belong unto them, as it is elsewhere expressed (Rom_14:8). The second is, Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers. First, not the good angels. Why? Whoever suspected them? What need was there for the apostle to put in that? I answer upon a double account. First, by way of supposition. The apostle seems to argue here, as he does also in another place, Though we, or an angel from heaven, etc. (Gal_1:8). Not as if they were likely to endeavour it, but if they should do it, it would be to no purpose, for they should never effect it. The good angels may be conceived to be possibly prejudicial to the saints and servants of God ministerially, and in reference to their office; and that is, by the withdrawing of their help to us, or as being instruments of inflicting punishment and vengeance upon us; but thus now they are not to Gods elect, for they are still active for them to good upon all occasions. We may understand it of the devils. Thus (Rev_12:8) it is said that Michael and his angels fought, and the dragon and his angels. It is most certain that the devil, that is, the chief and principal of them, hath very great power for a while permitted unto him, as to the trouble of Gods servants. I will instance in one particular amongst the rest, and that is his casting of evil and troublesome fancies and conceits into the mind, and that sometimes with that force and violence, as that the mind shall not be able to resist them or keep them out. These are those kind of thoughts wherewith the devil does oftentimes disturb and perplex the minds of Christians; but that these are no way prejudicial to them in matter of guilt, or arguments for the questions of Gods love, or real ground of disquieting to them, will appear unto us upon these considerations. First, from their manner of acting and proceeding in the soul itself, wherein there is neither assent nor consent given unto them, but only a bare apprehension of them. Secondly, this may also appear from the suddenness and quickness of them; for they are commonly darted into the mind without any connection or dependence, whereas a mans own proper thoughts are with more leisure, and deliberation, and subordination of one thing to another. Thirdly, from the frequency and multiplicity of them, together with their unseasonableness; for they may be a thousand times in a day passing as lightning into an house from one end of it to another, and in continual motion. Fourthly, from the quality and condition of them, as being contrary to the very light of nature, and the habitual frame and disposition of the soul, which of itself is considerable in it. The main ground and foundation of this restrainedness of Satans power is intimated to us in the text, and that is in reference to Christ; it is the love of God in Him, and therefore Satan cannot separate us from it; and Christ is considerable of us under a double notion, of an head, and of an advocate. The third is neither things present nor things to come. These shall not be able neither to separate us from Gods love in Christ. First, not things present; they shall not be able to do it, whether we take it in good things or in evil. This is a point very satisfactory in the worst times that are. No, nor yet, secondly, Things to come, These shall not do it neither. Things to come--they are such things as are hid from mens discerning, and they know not what to make of them; yea, but thus far they are certain, as they shall make for the good of Gods people; and therefore in the place before cited (1Co_3:22), as things present are made a part of their portion, and said to be theirs; so are things to come likewise. And so indeed upon the point, all things in the full latitude and extent of being. If we speak of things to come, but as to this life, and as taken under the notion of uncertainty, Gods children are not at a loss here, but upon very good terms; but then if we speak of things to come as to the life following, and as under the notion of certainty, here they are infinitely and transcendently glorious. Things to come--these are the greatest interest and concernment of believers, and such as above all others they do most reckon and depend upon. It is the great disadvantage and prejudices of men of the world that their happiness it is confined to things present. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
The triumphant hope of the Christian
Who can look upon the sun setting in the west and not be silent with wonder? One who sees Mont Blanc from the Lake of Geneva for the first time, lifting itself in awful splendour and glory, does not break forth into words, but gazes silently. So there are texts which, like the one before us, subdue us to silence.
I. This crowning love of God is made known to us in the Bible. The sea swelling with its tides, this great earth revolving on its axis, and rushing forward in its orbit the systems of worlds, all speak of the power of God. That He is a God of beauty we read in the leaf, the flower, the sea shell. But we do not find out from nature that God loves. When we understand this love of God, then are we ready to understand redemption.
II. This love fastens itself upon human beings. Compared with the mighty forces of nature, how weak we are; compared with eternity, how brief is life. What is man that God should observe him, and, much less, love him? Then we are so severed from God in capacity of mind, and so impure. We can readily believe that God loves the Church, or this and that eminent Christian, or the martyrs, but we doubt concerning ourselves. So many a Christian walks this world with timid apprehensions instead of the assurance of one who walks a world he knows his Father rules. If he realised that God loved him, then would he be joyous and triumphant--be strong for any service.
III. The eternity of this love. We feel at times that God loves us. But is this love eternal or fleeting? Is it fastened upon our personality, or upon our changing disposition? If we have been deceived in the character of one we love, or if that character has undergone a change, our love changes. Now if there is a radical change or degradation of character, Gods love may change; but aside from such change, it is not possible that anything can produce a change in the love of God. The assurance of this is the wine of life, poured from the chalice in Gods hand, into our fainting hearts.
1. Death cannot separate from the love of God. We go with a friend up to the last moment on earth. We see the mind still active, the memory clear, the noble impulses of the soul still predominant. Do you suppose that he who built the cathedral is ended while the work of his hand calls forth the admiration of mankind? We have the assurance in the resurrection of Christ, that death does not destroy the soul. Rather it sets the soul free from the lassitude and inactiveness of the body. The body hampers and manacles the soul. Now, can you conceive that death, which so adds to the spirit, can separate from the love of God? Death does not affect our love for our departed friends, save to augment it. How much more will it but augment the love of God.
2. But may not life? Life may reach its fourscore years and work many changes. The vigour is gone, and the beauty; decrepitude has come. But what is life to eternity? A dewdrop to the ocean; less than a single modest daisy to the innumerable worlds above. Shall the decrepitude of this brief life stand against an eternity without decrepitude? No changes wrought in the circumstances of life can affect the love of God. These are as nothing to the God of infinite resources. To Him, what matters it whether we dwell in a palace or a cottage? The favour is rather on the side of those who are in adverse circumstances. We love these who struggle more than those who enjoy; those who suffer patiently more than those who reign in royal splendour. Christ, when in the world, did not take His apostles from among the rulers; He made His abode with the poor rather than the rich. No; life cannot bring from the love of God, but rather brings us nearer because of its trials, temptations, and weaknesses.
3. But may not other powers? There are mighty ones above. May not these absorb the love of God? No; He takes care of the least as of the greatest. No star staggers in its course and halts to be caught in the grasp of God and held in its place. All the universe goes on evenly, quietly, surely. His love cannot be exhausted any more than His power. Weakness makes more certain this love. He sees us struggling against temptation which angels cannot experience, Nay, more, this love came to us through Jesus, His only Son.
4. May not time produce this separation? In the unrolling cycles, may not changes be wrought, powers developed, etc.? No; here come in the unchanging nature and the eternity of God. The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Yesterday just gone, to-day which is here, and for ever--oh, what a launch of thought!
5. May not space cause this separation? When we think of the vast distances in the universe; that the diameter of this system is seven hundred million miles; that astronomers, by an approximate parallax, show us that yonder star is so far away that it would take its light, travelling twelve millions of miles a minute, seventy-two years to reach us; that the unresolved nebula is so far away that its light would not reach us for seven hundred thousand years. When we think of these vast spaces, have we not reason to be fearful that there may be something in them that can separate us from Gods love? No, God is everywhere Master.
Conclusion:
1. What a terrific power is sin, since it can separate us from this love of God! More powerful than life or death, than all the universe.
2. What a privilege is this of the Christian to be safe in the love of God beyond all power of harm, to have a portion with God for ever. (R. S. Storrs, D.D.)
Things that cannot separate from the love of God
First, neither the height of worldly advancement nor the depth of worldly abasement. First, honour and advancement, dignity and height of place or preferment, that shall not do it. It is that which it sometimes does to some kind of persons, when they are not more watchful of themselves; high-standing it is apt to make men giddy, especially when they shall look down upon others which are far inferior to them. And there are great temptations which are now and then attending thereupon, of pride, and scornfulness, and security, and self-confidence, and the like. A child of God he shall not be afraid of that which is high, as we find the phrase used in another sense, and upon another occasion, in Ecc_12:5. And so for abasement and lowness of condition; he does not suffer from that neither, as St. Paul says of himself in another place: He knows how to abound, and he knows to be abased; to be full, and to be hungry; to abound, and to suffer need. There is a depth of affliction as well as an height of prosperity. And so for all other kinds and conditions of abasements of reproach, and contempt, and ignominy, which is cast upon them; these things they are digested by them. He that is low in his own eyes he can be content to be low in anothers. Secondly, not the height of spiritual enlargement, nor the depth of spiritual desertions. Spiritual enlargement, it is an height, and a very great one. Neither is the doctrine of assurance a doctrine of pride; neither is the state of assurance a state of pride. So again, as to spiritual desertions; the depth of that shall not hinder neither. This in Scripture is sometimes called a depth, as in Psa_130:1. Thirdly, take this height and depth here spoken of, as to the mysteries, whether of faith or providence, and ye shall find that neither these shall prove any disparagement to Gods servants. Lastly, neither height nor depth; that is, neither things above nor things below. It is a large and comprehensive expression which the Scripture uses in suchlike cases, when it will take in all, and so speak of anything, as to leave nothing out. Yet if we will take it more restrainedly and particularly, we may take it thus. First, take it as to the influences of Heaven. These are such as many people, especially now at this time, have a great regard unto, and that a great deal more than to other things which are more to be regarded. But those which are the servants of God are above all these heights. Those who are the children of God, and careful to walk in His fear, they shall not need to be dismayed at the signs of heaven (Jer_10:2). And so likewise we may take it as to the earth and the depths thereof. How many dangers are we here incident to, and yet graciously preserved from them? Now while the apostle is thus curious in this exact enumeration of particulars, and such as are so full and comprehensive, there are two things which we may gather from it: First, the weakness of our faith, especially in times of temptation, which the Spirit of God is fain to provide for, by such a complete dealing with us. Secondly, it shows the certainty of our own salvation. Seeing none of these things fore-mentioned are able to hinder us, we may from hence take notice of the sureness of the thing itself against all opposition. The second is, the general conclusion or main doctrine itself, and that is, that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Wherein again we have two branches more: First, the firmness or immovableness of Gods affection. That nothing whatsoever shall be able to separate us from it. This is agreeable to the whole current of Scripture (Psa_125:1; Heb_12:28). Now the firmness and stability of Gods people, in regard of their spiritual estate, may be thus surrendered: First, from the promise of God; it is a part of His gracious covenant with them. Secondly, the strength and power of Christ, that does likewise lay a ground for this truth; there His ability joined to Gods faithfulness, and the power of God joined to the truth of God (Heb_7:25). Thirdly, it may be further evinced from the nature of saving grace itself, and the work of regeneration, which is a constant and abiding principle, and so is signified to us to be in 1Jn_3:9. Take anything else in the world, besides true grace indeed, and ye shall find an uncertainty in it; let it be education, or custom, or natural conscience, or the credit of religion; none of these things are sure to hold or to continue long. But now for the power of godliness, and a true gracious heart in good earnest, it is such as is lasting and remaining. Fourthly, a Christians unmovableness is confirmed from the intercession of Christ. Whatever it is that Christ asks in the behalf of believers, it is most undoubtedly granted unto them. Fifthly, from the nature of election, which is a firm, and unchangeable decree; thus in verse 33 of this present chapter, Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? And so much may suffice to have spoken of the first particular in this second general, which is the firmness or immovableness of Gods affection considered in itself; that nothing is able to separate true Christians and believers from His love. The second is the ground or conveyance of this affection, and that is expressed in these words--Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. First, He is the conveyance of His Fathers love unto us, by virtue of that near union and relation which we have to Him; forasmuch as we are very members incorporate into Him, and made one with Him. Secondly, Christ is also the conveyance of the Fathers love to us meritoriously, and by way of procurement; Christ has obtained of God the Father to love us together with Himself. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
Faiths final paean
We seem to have been climbing up Jacobs ladder, all through this magnificent dissertation, and now we have reached its summit. The base was on earth, and there we found peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; the summit is the skies, and here the song which we sing is one of enraptured triumph. Christ is the first and the last in the scale of the Christians boasting and joy. It is through Him that we have no condemnation; and now it is in Him that we have confidence of happiness for ever. In the matter of our redemption He is all and in all, the Alpha, and the Omega, the author and the finisher of our faith.
I. The constancy of the love of God to them that are in Christ Jesus.
1. We are the objects of Gods love. Now, it is the very nature of love, in its truer and more noble forms, to be constant. Love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, etc. Love is not mere transient sentiment; it is a passion which moves with innate energy; of all moral forces the strongest. You may torture and slay a man, but you cannot coerce his affections. Formidable difficulties may oppose his love in its course, but love will surmount them or perish in the attempt. There may be unworthiness on the part of its objects, but even then how often have we seen a mothers, a wifes, a daughters love burn as brightly as ever. Love can accomplish what no mechanical or physical force can. There is truth in the quaint old fable, which represents a traveller pursuing his way with a mantle round his shoulders. The sun and the wind contested as to which was strong enough to compel the wayfarer to abandon his cherished covering. First, Boreas blew his fiercest blast, but the harder he blew, the faster did the traveller bind and clasp his cloak. Then Sol began to pour upon his head his melting beams. In a little while our hero freely surrendered; the oppressive garment was unwrapped, and loosened, and thrown open, and finally flung away altogether. The wind represents physical force, and the sun the energy of love. Well, now, God loves us; and we may at least be sure of this, that Gods love is a nobler affection than any human love whatever (Isa_49:15; Jer_31:3).
2. This love is Gods love. If it were the love of a creature, mighty and good, we might fairly put confidence in its stability; but now we see it to be that of the Creator. If He loves us, who can separate us from His love? Look at--
(1) The power of the Almighty. There may be angels, men, heights, depths, things present and things to come; but all are equally powerless against the Omnipotent. None can injure whom He defends; none can impoverish whom He enriches.
(2) The sovereignty of His will (Mal_3:6). God knew everything about us before He set His love upon us. He has nothing further to learn concerning us. We cannot surprise Him by new revelations of character. He elected us as objects of His love while we were yet sinners. All being known to Him, and all being in His hands, surely it is impossible that if He once resolved to love us, He could ever be moved from that love.
3. Gods love is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, it is a love whose outflow and development are based upon the redeeming work of Christ, and whose constancy, therefore, is guaranteed and assured by all the value and validity which attach to that work.
II. The creatures presumably hostile to the saints.
1. Death, whether natural or by violence, may sever us from many comforts and companions, but not from Jesus or His love. On the contrary, death brings us nearer to Christ than we were before. When we die, we go to be with Jesus, which is far better. Death, then, is an enemy converted into a friend.
2. Life. It is often a more perilous thing to live than to die. But let us not fear life. If for us to die would be gain, for us to live is Christ.
3. Angels, nor principalities, nor powers. We conceive of the angels as divided into ranks; some being higher and more powerful than the rest. But whether they are the ordinary angels, or whether they be the captains and chieftains, subordinate or supreme, of the angelic creation, all alike are powerless to intercept Gods love. But suppose it possible that all the angels, good and bad together, were to be in league against us; suppose that the malice of the one class were to be combined with the majesty of the other, we should still be secure, invulnerable, inviolable, and nothing they could do should separate us from the love of God.
4. Things present. Things visible are all our present surroundings of difficulty and circumstances of trial. These are enumerated, in some measure, in the former verses; but God loves us through them all. He will not suffer us to be tempted beyond our power of endurance, but does with every exigency open a door for our escape.
5. Things to come. We often forebode evil, and dread the future. But things to come are known to God; and whatever may betide, He will stand by us to the last. As our days, our strength shall be.
6. Height and depth. Whatever high thing there is, or whatever low thing, it need not alarm, as it cannot over power us. It may be worldly honour or abasement, but still we need not fear them. Neither the luxurious blandishments of affluence, nor the humiliating straitnesses of penury, shall separate us from God or destroy our interest in His love.
7. Any other creature. There, I have mentioned everything I could think of, and if I have omitted anything there is nothing to fear. (T. G. Horton.)
Assurance, not presumption
From this passage you see how safe and scriptural a full assurance is. By assurance I mean a firm, unfaltering trust in the declarations and promises of God. By personal assurance I mean a firm, unfaltering trust in the promises of God, as made to me from the moment that by believing in Jesus I make these promises my own. The apostle first of all believed in Jesus, and then as a believer in Jesus he was sure that he would go to heaven. He cast his helpless, guilty soul on Christ, and from that moment he was persuaded that he was the object of Gods love, and was persuaded that nothing could ever separate him from that love. And he was anxious to bring his Roman friends to the same persuasion. For the sake of their salvation he wished them to repose entirely on the finished work of Christ, but for the sake of their comfort and eminent sanctification, he wished them, having done this, to rejoice in hope of glory. Some tender-hearted Christians almost deprecate personal assurance, and probably the reason is that they have seen some profess assurance whose hope was evident presumption. But no two things can be more distinct. Presumption is Satans lie; assurance is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Presumption is hope without foundation; assurance is founded on the Word of God without, and the work of the Spirit within. Presumption makes a man proud and hard-hearted, censorious and flippant, reckless and undevout. Assurance makes a man stoop in humility lower and lower, the more be is persuaded of his heavenly Fathers love. And it gives him a panting after the living God. And it makes him tender-hearted--makes him like his Master, who does not despise the day of small things, who, when a bruised reed is put into His hand, does not snap it asunder and fling the fragments from Him; who, when a smoking flax is put upon His altar, does not sweep it off because it is flax, nor extinguish it because it is only smoking, but cherishes and fans that smouldering tow, till it burst in flames and fire the living sacrifice; and who shows His power and Divine compassion by taking the drooping shattered reed, and making it the rod of His might, a staff of strength in His hand. Even so real assurance is considerate and tender-hearted, does not scowl disdain on the smoky beginnings of grace in any heart, but finds a godlike pleasure in fostering it into a flame. Presumption is an intoxicating poison, and sends the self-deceiver reeling forward in a merry delusion, neglecting known duty and perpetrating known sin from day to day, and yet fancying that the Spirit of Christ is in him; assurance enlightens the eyes, and whether sedate or ecstatic, is always a cautious and circumspect thing, abhorring the garment spotted with the flesh. Presumption is impudent; assurance is filial and affectionate. Presumption talks about crosses; assurance carries them. Presumption is bustling and loquacious; assurance is full of zeal, but is often doing much when it says nothing. Presumption is heady and high-minded; assurance is sober, and vaunteth not itself. Presumption is self-indulgent; assurance is self-denied. Presumption, like an eastern nabob, would shut his eyes, and fold his hands, and nestle his cheek upon some balmy pillow, and then without any trouble to himself be walled to heaven in a silken palanquin; whilst assurance, like a primitive disciple, is content to strap on the pilgrims sandals, and shoulder the weighty cross, and foot it all the way to glory in the steps of the great Forerunner. Presumption is a vile fleshly counterfeit; assurance is a holy and sanctifying grace, because the gift of the holy and sanctifying Spirit. (J. Hamilton, D.D.)
Christian confidence
The account given of the death of Mr. Robert Bruce of Kinnaird is very beautiful in its simplicity: That morning before the Lord called him to his rest he came to breakfast at his table. After he had eaten, as his use was, a single egg, he said to his daughter, I think I am yet hungry; you may bring me another egg, and instantly fell silent; and, after having mused a little, he said, Hold, daughter, hold; my Master calleth me. With these words his sight failed him, and he called for the Bible; but finding he was not able to read, he said, Cast me up the eighth chapter to the Romans, verses twenty-eight to thirty-nine, much of which he repeated, particularly I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord, and caused his finger to be put upon them, which was done. Now, said he, is my finger upon them? They told him it was. Then he said, God be with you, my children; I have breakfasted with you, and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ this night, and straightway gave up the ghost without one groan or shiver.
Security
A lady was riding in her carriage, when, spying a beautiful flower by the side of a large rock, she alighted to take it up, that she might remove it to her conservatory, but found that, delicate as it appeared, it resisted all her efforts, because the root ran under the rock. Ah, thought she, this is an illustration of the safety of the Christian, whose life of beauty is under the shelter of the Rock, and whose root of strength runs far beneath it.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv37–39 37. Nay. Not all these sufferings can lead us…
37. Nay. Not all these sufferings can lead us from Christ, for in all these things we are more than conquerors. We overcome by the aid of him that loved us.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv37–38 37. “But in all these we are more than…
37. “But in all these we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv37–38
Romans
MORE THAN CONQUERORS
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Rom 8:37.
In order to understand and feel the full force of this triumphant saying of the Apostle, we must observe that it is a negative answer to the preceding questions, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ A heterogeneous mass the Apostle here brigades together as an antagonistic army. They are alike in nothing except that they are all evils. There is no attempt at an exhaustive enumeration, or at classification. He clashes down, as it were, a miscellaneous mass of evil things, and then triumphs over them, and all the genus to which they belong, as being utterly impotent to drag men away from Jesus Christ. To ask the question is to answer it, but the form of the answer is worth notice. Instead of directly replying, ‘No! no such powerless things as these can separate us from the love of Christ,’ he says, ‘No! In all these things, whilst weltering amongst them, whilst ringed round about by them, as by encircling enemies, “we are more than conquerors.”‘ Thereby, he suggests that there is something needing to be done by us, in order that the foes may not exercise their natural effect. And so, taking the words of my text in connection with that to which they are an answer, we have three things-the impotent enemies of love; the abundant victory of love; ‘We are more than conquerors’; and the love that makes us victorious. Let us look then at these three things briefly.
I. First of all, the impotent enemies of love.
There is contempt in the careless massing together of the foes which the Apostle enumerates. He begins with the widest word that covers everything-’affliction.’ Then he specifies various forms of it-’distress,’ straitening, as the word might be rendered, then he comes to evils inflicted for Christ’s sake by hostile men-’persecution,’ then he names purely physical evils, ‘hunger’ and ‘nakedness,’ then he harks back again to man’s antagonism, ‘peril,’ and ‘sword.’ And thus carelessly, and without an effort at logical order, he throws together, as specimens of their class, these salient points, as it were, and crests of the great sea, whose billows threaten to roll over us; and he laughs at them all, as impotent and nought, when compared with the love of Christ, which shields us from them all.
Now it must be noticed that here, in his triumphant question, the Apostle means not our love to Christ but His to us; and not even our sense of that love, but the fact itself. And his question is just this:-Is there any evil in the world that can make Christ stop loving a man that cleaves to Him? And, as I said, to ask the question is to answer it. The two things belong to two different regions. They have nothing in common. The one moves amongst the low levels of earth; the other dwells up amidst the abysses of eternity, and to suppose that anything that assails and afflicts us here has any effect in making that great heart cease to love us is to fancy that the mists can quench the sunlight, is to suppose that that which lies down low in the earth can rise to poison and to darken the heavens.
There is no need, in order to rise to the full height of the Christian contempt for calamity, to deny any of its terrible power. These things can separate us from much. They can separate us from joy, from hope, from almost all that makes life desirable. They can strip us to the very quick, but the quick they cannot touch. The frost comes and kills the flowers, browns the leaves, cuts off the stems, binds the sweet music of the flowing rivers in silent chains, casts mists and darkness over the face of the solitary grey world, but it does not touch the life that is in the root.
And so all these outward sorrows that have power over the whole of the outward life, and can slay joy and all but stifle hope, and can ban men into irrevocable darkness and unalleviated solitude, they do not touch in the smallest degree the secret bond that binds the heart to Jesus, nor in any measure affect the flow of His love to us. Therefore we may front them and smile at them and say:
‘Do as thou wilt, devouring time,
With this wide world, and all its fading sweets’;
‘my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.’
You need not be very much afraid of anything being taken from you as long as Christ is left you. You will not be altogether hopeless so long as Christ, who is our hope, still speaks His faithful promises to you, nor will the world be lonely and dark to them who feel that they are lapt in the sweet and all-pervading consciousness of the changeless love of the heart of Christ. ‘Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution?’-in any of these things, ‘we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’ Brethren, that is the Christian way of looking at all externals, not only at the dark and the sorrowful, but at the bright and the gladsome. If the withdrawal of external blessings does not touch the central sanctities and sweetness of a life in communion with Jesus, the bestowal of external blessedness does not much brighten or gladden it. We can face the withdrawal of them all, we need not covet the possession of them all, for we have all in Christ; and the world without His love contributes less to our blessedness and our peace than the absence of all its joys with His love does. So let us feel that earth, in its givings and in its withholdings, is equally impotent to touch the one thing that we need, the conscious possession of the love of Christ.
All these foes, as I have said, have no power over the fact of Christ’s love to us, but they have power, and a very terrible power, over our consciousness of that love; and we may so kick against the pricks as to lose, in the pain of our sorrows, the assurance of His presence, or be so fascinated by the false and vulgar sweetnesses and promises of the world as, in the eagerness of our chase after them, to lose our sense of the all-sufficing certitude of His love. Tribulation does not strip us of His love, but tribulation may so darken our perceptions that we cannot see the sun. Joys need not rob us of His heart, but joys may so fill ours, as that there shall be no longing for His presence within us. Therefore let us not exaggerate the impotence of these foes, but feel that there are real dangers, as in the sorrows so in the blessings of our outward life, and that the evil to be dreaded is that outward things, whether in their bright or in their dark aspects, may come between us and the home of our hearts, the love of the loving Christ.
II. So then, note next, the abundant victory of love.
Mark how the Apostle, in his lofty and enthusiastic way, is not content here with simply saying that he and his fellows conquer. It would be a poor thing, he seems to think, if the balance barely inclined to our side, if the victory were but just won by a hair’s breadth and triumph were snatched, as it were, out of the very jaws of defeat. There must be something more than that to correspond to the power of the victorious Christ that is in us. And so, he says, we very abundantly conquer; we not only hinder these things which he has been enumerating from doing that which it is their aim apparently to do, but we actually convert them into helpers or allies. The ‘more than conquerors’ seems to mean, if there is any definite idea to be attached to it, the conversion of the enemy conquered into a friend and a helper. The American Indians had a superstition that every foe tomahawked sent fresh strength into the warrior’s arm. And so all afflictions and trials rightly borne, and therefore overcome, make a man stronger, and bring him nearer to Jesus Christ.
Note then, further, that not only is this victory more than bare victory, being the conversion of the enemy into allies, but that it is a victory which is won even whilst we are in the midst of the strife. It is not that we shall be conquerors in some far-off heaven, when the noise of battle has ceased and they hang the trumpet in the hall, but it is here now, in the hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot death-grapple that we do overcome. No ultimate victory, in some far-off and blessed heaven, will be ours unless moment by moment, here, to-day,’ we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’
So, then, about this abundant victory there are these things to say:-You conquer the world only, then, when you make it contribute to your conscious possession of the love of Christ. That is the real victory, the only real victory in life. Men talk about overcoming here on earth, and they mean thereby the accomplishment of their designs. A man has ‘victory,’ as it is phrased, in the world’s strife, when he secures for himself the world’s goods at which he has aimed, but that is not the Christian idea of the conquest of calamity. Everything that makes me feel more thrillingly in my inmost heart the verity and the sweetness of the love of Jesus Christ as my very own, is conquered by me and compelled to subserve my highest good, and everything which slips a film between me and Him, which obscures the light of His face to me, which makes me less desirous of, and less sure of, and less happy in, and less satisfied with, His love, is an enemy that has conquered me. And all these evils as the world calls them, and as our bleeding hearts have often felt them to be, are converted into allies and friends when they drive us to Christ, and keep us close to Him, in the conscious possession of His sweet and changeless love. That is the victory, and the only victory. Has the world helped me to lay hold of Christ? Then I have conquered it. Has the world loosened my grasp upon Him? Then it has conquered me.
Note then, further, that this abundant victory depends on how we deal with the changes of our outward lives, our sorrows or our joys. There is nothing, per se, salutary in affliction, there is nothing, per se, antagonistic to Christian faith in it either. No man is made better by his sorrows, no man need be made worse by them. That depends upon how we take the things which come storming against us. The set of your sails, and the firmness of your grasp upon the tiller, determine whether the wind shall carry you to the haven or shall blow you out, a wandering waif, upon a shoreless and melancholy sea. There are some of you that have been blown away from your moorings by sorrow. There are some professing Christians who have been hindered in their work, and had their peace and their faith shattered all but irrevocably, because they have not accepted, in the spirit in which they were sent, the trials that have come for their good. The worst of all afflictions is a wasted affliction, and they are all wasted unless they teach us more of the reality and the blessedness of the love of Jesus Christ.
III. Lastly, notice the love which makes us conquerors.
The Apostle, with a wonderful instinctive sense of fitness, names Christ here by a name congruous to the thoughts which occupy his mind, when he speaks of Him that loved us. His question has been, Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? And his answer is, So far from that being the case, that very love, by occasion of sorrows and afflictions, tightens its grasp upon us, and, by the communication of itself to us, makes us more than conquerors. This great love of Jesus Christ, from which nothing can separate us, will use the very things that seem to threaten our separation as a means of coming nearer to us in its depth and in its preciousness.
The Apostle says ‘Him that loved us,’ and the words in the original distinctly point to some one fact as being the great instance of love. That is to say they point to His death. And so we may say Christ’s love helps us to conquer because in His death He interprets for us all possible sorrows. If it be true that love to each of us nailed Him there, then nothing that can come to us but must be a love-token, and a fruit of that same love. The Cross is the key to all tribulation, and shows it to be a token and an instrument of an unchanging love.
Further, that great love of Christ helps us to conquer, because in His sufferings and death He becomes the Companion of all the weary. The rough, dark, lonely road changes its look when we see His footprints there, not without specks of blood in them, where the thorns tore His feet. We conquer our afflictions if we recognise that ‘in all our afflictions He was afflicted,’ and that Himself has drunk to its bitterest dregs the cup which He commends to our lips. He has left a kiss upon its margin, and we need not shrink when He holds it out to us and says ‘Drink ye all of it.’ That one thought of the companionship of the Christ in our sorrows makes us more than conquerors.
And lastly, this dying Lover of our souls communicates to us all, if we will, the strength whereby we may coerce all outward things into being helps to the fuller participation of His perfect love. Our sorrows and all the other distracting externals do seek to drag us away from Him. Is all that happens in counteraction to that pull of the world, that we tighten our grasp upon Him, and will not let Him go; as some poor wretch might the horns of the altar that did not respond to his grasp? Nay what we lay hold of is no dead thing, but a living hand, and it grasps us more tightly than we can ever grasp it. So because He holds us, and not because we hold Him, we shall not be dragged away, by anything outside of our own weak and wavering souls, and all these embattled foes may come against us, they may shear off everything else, they cannot sever Christ from us unless we ourselves throw Him away. ‘In this thou shalt conquer.’ ‘They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv37–39 Nay, in all these things we are more than…
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us . [But though we be in tribulation, and be slain like sheep, yet in all these things we not only gain the conquest, so that we survive them, but we come out more than victors, for we are crowned over them with immortality and eternal life. But this victory is achieved not of ourselves, but because of the love of Christ, who, by his death, won for us these better things. The phrase "more than conquerors" is a single word in the Greek, and means, literally, "over-conquerors." Some see in this a peculiar kind of victory. "This is a new order of victory," says Chrysostom, "to conquer by means of our adversaries." "The adversaries," says Chillingsworth, "are not only overcome and disarmed, but they are brought over to our faction; they war on our side." If such a meaning may be properly put upon this word, then the idea here is beautifully harmonious and consonant with the thought expressed in verse 28, which shows that God indeed causes things which seem to be inimical to serve our interests and further our blessedness.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv38–39 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angels
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v37 we are more than conquerors
we are more than conquerors
"we have complete victory"
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through the one who loved us
You can make explicit the kind of love that Jesus showed. AT: "because of Jesus, who loved us so much he was willing to die for us" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
I have been convinced
"I am convinced" or "I am confident"
governments
Possible meanings are 1) demons or 2) human kings and rulers.
nor powers
Possible meanings are 1) spiritual beings with power or 2) human beings with power.
translationWords
die
life
angel
power
create
love
God
Jesus
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.