Introduction
Well, since I started with Lord of the Rings the last few weeks, I suppose I have to keep the streak going. And honestly, there’s another scene that fits our passage perfectly. Near the end of The Return of the King, Aragorn and the armies of the West stand before the Black Gate of Mordor. They are completely outnumbered. The enemy is greater. The darkness seems overwhelming. And everyone there knows that, humanly speaking, they do not have the strength to win that battle on their own.
And yet right as the army looks ready to run, Aragorn rides before them and says, “Hold your ground! Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand!!!” And then comes that beautiful scene where evil tries to corrupt him, but instead he says, “For Frodo!” and charges forward to battle the enemy.
Now what makes that scene so powerful is that they march forward, not because the circumstances look favorable, but because conviction and hope still remains. They have a comfort and hope that trumps what they can see. Though they cannot yet fully see it, the fate of the Ring is already being decided elsewhere. The decisive battle is already underway. And because of that, they can stand their ground and move forward with courage even in the face of overwhelming darkness.
And in many ways, that is exactly where the Christian lives. We look around and see suffering, persecution, temptation, death, hostility toward Christ, and a world that often seems consumed by darkness. And if we look only at circumstances, it can seem as though defeat is inevitable. But Romans 8 reminds us that the decisive victory has already been won in Christ. Jesus has died, risen, ascended, and taken His seat at the right hand of the Father. Sin has been defeated. Death has been conquered. Satan has been disarmed. And because Christ reigns, the church does not fight for victory, but from victory.
That does not mean Christians will avoid suffering. It does not mean the battle will be easy. But it does mean that no tribulation, persecution, danger, power, ruler, or force in all creation can separate God’s people from the love of Christ or stop His Kingdom purposes through them.
Thesis
Because believers are united to Christ through His covenant love—secured by His sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, triumphant ascension, and ongoing glorious reign and intercession—no suffering, persecution, trial, spiritual power, or force in all creation can separate us from Him or stop His Kingdom purposes in and through His people. Though the church may suffer greatly in this fallen world, we do not suffer as the defeated, but as those who are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. And that’s what we’re going to see in God’s Word today. So look with me at Romans 8:35-39.
Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Context
Last week we saw that because God has justified us in Christ, no accusation can ultimately stand against us. The Judge of all the earth has declared His people righteous in and through the perfect life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and glorious reign of Jesus Christ. And because God is for us in Christ, nothing can finally condemn us, disinherit us, or stop what God is doing in and through us. The Father has predestined us, the Son has redeemed us, and the Spirit is conforming us more and more into the image of Christ so that we might walk in faithful obedience, advance Christ’s Kingdom, and heavenize the earth as restored image-bearers. We saw that our obedience is backed by a finished cross, an empty tomb, a present throne, and a living Advocate who even now intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father.
But that raises another question. If God is truly for us… if Christ truly reigns… if the gospel really has secured our victory… then what about suffering? What about tribulation, persecution, danger, hardship, and death? What happens when the church suffers? What happens when obedience is costly? Can suffering separate us from Christ? Can persecution stop God’s purposes? Can the powers of darkness finally overcome the people of God? And what we are going to see in God’s Word today is that the answer is an emphatic no. The love of Christ does not merely comfort us in suffering—it carries us through suffering into conquest. Though the people of God may suffer greatly in this fallen world, nothing in heaven, on earth, or under the earth can separate Christ from His people or stop His Kingdom purposes through them.
So with that in mind, look with me at verses 35-36.
The Love of Christ Does Not Remove Suffering
Paul asks, “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’” Paul moves from legal/courtroom language to relational/covenantal language…
As you all know, I despise the fluffy commercialized “Christian” lingo of, “Not perfect, just forgiven…” Christians are not just forgiven… We are covenantally united to our Lord and Savior, King Jesus. And in Him we are forgiven, because His perfection, His righteousness is accredited to us because of our covenantal union with Him. All that He is, all that He has done, is doing, and will do is ours by faith, because we are His and He is ours.
We are not just forgiven. We are in covenant union with the perfect God man, Jesus Christ. And that union is what is behind the word love here. The love of Christ is the steadfast covenant love of God. His love that endures forever.
The Greek word translated love here is the word ἀγάπη—divine love characterized by sacrifice in the pursuit of another person’s good. This is gospel love. And in that vein, this phrase, the love of Christ, is being used to summarize all the beautiful benefits of the gospel that Paul has been laying out… Predestination and election—where God chose us and set His love on us in eternity past all because He is rich in mercy… Our effectual calling and justification—where God has made us alive with Christ and set us free from condemnation in Christ Jesus, and thus freed us from sin and death and enabled and empowered us by the Spirit to walk by faith in obedience to the righteous requirements of God’s good Law… And along with that, the love of Christ is tied to God’s glorifying call on the whole of our lives where we are not only guaranteed future glory with Christ, but even now we are called and enabled to seek to subdue the earth and take dominion by taking all things captive for Christ and heavenizing the world for God’s glory and the life of God’s world. We seek to glorify God by beautifying His world in Christ… Not only praying for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, but seeking to make it happen.
2 Corinthians 1:20 says, all the promises of God find their yes and amen in Christ. And here Paul is asking if anyone can separate us from these promises and God’s great love for us in Christ Jesus. The question assumes conflict. God’s Word does not promise exemption from suffering… It assumes it. And here Paul is asking if suffering—if tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword—can separate us from the covenantal love of Christ, from the electing, redeeming, shepherding, Kingly, sacrificial love of Christ?
And before we seek to answer that we must first realize that Christianity is not escape from the battle. But how often do we live, or hope and pray that that’s the case? So many seem to think that salvation means exemption from suffering. But Paul has already told us in Romans 8:17 that we are God’s children, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” We are going to suffer in this life, through trials, tribulations, and any number of other things. But Paul also reminds us in Romans 8:18, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” As well as in and through us…
Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword may indeed come our way. No doubt, trials and tribulations of some kind are certainly going to come our way. We are not promised exemption from the battle. Which is why Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 here, saying, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
He quotes a Psalm of lament, reminding us that suffering has always marked out God’s covenant people. And that’s especially true of God’s New Covenant people who follow the Suffering Servant. Faithfulness did not exempt our Lord from suffering, so neither will it exempt us from suffering.
Notice the Psalmist says that it is for God’s sake that we suffer. And that is exactly right. The world hates Christians because it hates Christ. Satan hates the godly because he hates God. R. J. Rushdoony said it well when he said, “Our offense in the eyes of the ungodly is not our sins but our Christ and our faith in Him.”
But remember what Jesus calls you to when such things happen. He says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12). You see, this is nothing new for God’s people. But Christ calls us to rejoice and be glad when we suffer in such ways. And because of Christ we can.
We are like sheep to be slaughtered because we follow the Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of the world. The Lamb, who is actually our great Shepherd, suffered, therefore the flock suffers. But the slain Lamb is also the resurrected and enthroned King.
So yes, we will suffer, and we will battle much in this life. Remember what Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” We must fight evil. We must fight the flesh. And because we are Christ’s, evil will fight us. But we must seek to put the whole evil body politic of this world to death by seeking to take it all captive for Christ.
I love the way Van Til put it. He said, “The individual believer has a comprehensive task. His is the task of exterminating evil from the whole universe. He must begin this program in himself. As a king reinstated it is his first battle to fight sin within his own heart. This will remain his first battle till his dying day.” But he must work out from there. And we would be fools to think that evil will go down without a fight. That so, we certainly aren’t promised exemption from the battle, but because Christ didn’t just suffer and die, but rose again in power and ascended on high, we are promised victory through the battle. Which is why, come what may, we can, and we must rejoice and be glad.
Remember what 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” The way of escape is the ability to endure. It’s not exemption from the battle, but victory through the battle. The Christian life is not easy… it’s hard. As most things worth doing are. It’s so hard in fact that we may suffer and die, but Christ will hold us fast, and by the Spirit we can hold fast to Him. And this is where Paul goes next.
The Love of Christ Makes Us More Than Conquerors
In verse 37 he says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We aren’t victims. We aren’t survivors. We are conquerors—more than conquerors—through union with Christ, through Christ’s sacrificial and covenantal love for us. Does suffering mean God doesn’t love us, or that we are somehow being separated from God’s love? No! Paul emphatically rejects the idea that suffering disproves God’s love. Again, God nowhere promises that the Christian life will be easy.
Time and time again I have seen Christians play the victim. Victims of their flesh, victims of Satan and the world, and even victims of God… sitting and soaking in their sin, claiming they would change if God would first change their heart. But that’s not how it works, Christian. If you see your sin for what it is that’s evidence that God has already changed your heart. So remember who you are. You are not a victim. You are a conqueror. Suffering cannot separate you from God’s victorious gospel love. And God’s victorious gospel love is enabling you to fight sin, pursue holiness, and do the next right thing… You need only do it.
To be sure, we will suffer afflictions… But for Christians affliction is not separation from Christ; instead it becomes the arena of Christ’s victory. Again, back in Romans 8:17 Paul linked our suffering with Christ with our being glorified with Christ. And as we have seen our being glorified with Christ is not only tied to the final glory to come on the last Day, but also our being given crowns of glory with Christ now as His co-heirs, who are called and enabled to take dominion in Him and under Him here and now, by grace through faith. As we embrace the call to suffer, fighting sin and evil in a broken world, we are slowly but surely working towards the Day when, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
You see, we are more than conquerors, we are triumphant victors because Christ is more than a conqueror. He didn’t merely defeat death through His death… He proved to be a triumphant victor in and through His justifying resurrection and glorious ascension. And remember what Romans 8:29 said—He is the firstborn among many brothers. He died to sin and was raised to newness of life so that He could lead us into the same. As Paul says so well in 2 Corinthians 5:14-17, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
In and through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ the New Creation has begun… And it starts with us. In Christ we are a New Creation. And as such we usher in the New Creation in and through our faithfulness in all of life, even in the midst of suffering. But Christians do not suffer needlessly. And we do not merely seek to survive tribulation. In Christ we inherit the world through it. As Romans 8:28 promises us, God not only works all things together for our good, but He works with us in all things for good—especially the good of all things… all things rightly coming under the Lordship of Christ.
And this is all because of Christ’s great love for us. He loved us and gave Himself for us. And now His love compels us to do the same. And by His grace we can. We are more than conquerors through Him and His great love for us. Indeed, in His great love for us He is sovereignly working His great purposes for us. And that’s what we see next.
The Love of Christ Is Stronger Than Every Created Power
Look at verses 38 and 39. Paul says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Church, this is glorious. Here we see that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ because Christ reigns above death, demons, empires, persecution, future fears, cosmic powers, and any and everything else. Christ reigns over all, therefore the church must not fear. But that also means the church must not compartmentalize. It must be all of life for all of Christ.
As Abraham Kuyper famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Therefore, “Wherever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand—in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science—he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of God. He is employed in the service of his God. He has strictly to obey his God. And above all, he has to aim at the glory of his God.” If God is sovereign over all—and He is—all must be leveraged for His glory.
Jesus is the Lord of all, and in His sovereign grace He makes everything work for our good so that nothing can fully and finally bring us harm—nothing can separate us from His love. But that doesn’t simply mean that we can sit back, let go, and let God. Our job is to seek to bring everything under His Lordship rightly. Since Adam the world has been in rebellion and ruin… But we are to bring reformation and restoration out of the ruins… We are to seek to resist the world and to reform the world by bringing every area of life in line with God’s Word.
Proverbs 3:7 says, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.” And that means governing every area of life—living all of life in line with—the wisdom of God, and thus the Word of God. As Van Til said, “The Bible is authoritative on everything which it speaks. And it speaks of everything.” So we must seek to apply it to everything. Again, all of Christ for all of life and all of life for all of Christ.
But take heart church, though this resistance and reformation, though this restoration from the ruins is hard, and we are sure to receive much push back, remember what Jesus said, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:28-31). God values you. God cares for you. God loves you. And in His sovereign grace, God’s got you. And that’s what we see here as well.
Paul says he is sure… This is covenant confidence. This is gospel conviction, not vague optimism, not emotional positivity, or autonomous self-confidence. This is assurance grounded in God’s sovereign grace—in God’s decree, Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession, and the Spirit-wrought union with Christ.
From earthly suffering to cosmic realities, nothing can snatch us out of our gracious God’s hands. Neither death nor life—the two great tyrants that plague fallen humanity are conquered in Christ. Death does not separate the Christian from Jesus, but is now the doorway to eternal joy in Christ. Life—with all its temptations and sufferings—cannot separate us either, if we will hold fast to Him. And by His grace we can, for God has given us the tools we need, not to escape, but to endure… To be more than a conqueror, and put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit.
Neither death nor life, nor any rival power—not Cesar, not pagan gods or demons, nor angels or death itself… not the state, not the market, not academia, not cultural elites, not politicians… nothing can stand against Christ because in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension Jesus has already proven victorious over all. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. Christ reigns over all… He is Lord over every square inch of life, therefore we are liberated from fear-driven servitude… Nothing in the created order—physical or spiritual—can undo God’s covenant of grace with His people. Satan cannot sever believers from Christ, suffering cannot, persecution cannot, governments cannot, death cannot, even our weakness cannot overthrow God’s covenant purpose. Praise God! His sovereignty trumps our stupidity. Indeed, His great love for us in Christ trumps all.
Conclusion
The church does not advance because circumstances are easy. The church advances because Christ cannot lose His people and cannot fail in His mission. The love of Christ is not a shelter that hides us from battle. It is the banner under which we march into battle knowing the victory is already secured.
Remember my introduction: when Aragorn stood before the Black Gate, everything visible screamed defeat. The enemy looked too strong. Darkness looked overwhelming. Death seemed certain. And yet they marched forward because the decisive victory was already being accomplished elsewhere. And beloved, that is where the Church lives today.
We look around and see suffering, temptation, rebellion, persecution, death, and a world that often seems consumed by darkness. We battle sin in our own hearts. We bury loved ones. We grow weary. And if we look only at circumstances, fear and despair can quickly take hold. But Romans 8 lifts our eyes above what we can see.
Christ has already gone into the darkness for us. Christ has already borne the curse for us. Christ has already crushed the serpent’s head. Christ has already risen from the grave. Christ has already ascended to the throne. Christ reigns. And because Christ reigns, the Church can stand.
That means husbands and wives can labor faithfully. Parents can raise their children in hope instead of fear. Young people can pursue holiness in a corrupt age. Sick and elderly saints can face weakness and even death itself with confidence. And the Church can press forward in every sphere of life knowing that Christ is Lord over all.
Remember, Paul does not say we avoid tribulation. He says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” You are in it. But your suffering is not evidence that Christ has abandoned you. It is one of the places where Christ displays His sustaining grace and power.
So stand your ground, church. Fight sin. Love your families. Serve your neighbor. Work hard, with excellence. Speak truth boldly. Worship faithfully. Endure suffering well. And hold fast to Christ. Because nothing in heaven, on earth, or under the earth can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come what may, in life or in death, Christ is our hope, because in Him we stand secure. So hold your ground. By all that you hold dear on earth and in heaven, I bid you stand! For Christ! Amen.