Footsteps #355. Sometimes we get the idea that as Christians we will always be safe as long as we remain faithful; that all we have to do is pray and God will send a squadron of angels to make sure no one hurts us. Nothing could be further from the truth! The life of Christ Himself demonstrates that even God’s own perfect Son suffered pain and death. Paul’s experience reinforced that truth. Martyrdom is an important aspect of church history. The apostle’s point isn’t that Christians won’t suffer, but that nothing outside themselves can separate them from Christ’s love and their salvation. 

To illustrate his point that being a follower of God does not exempt one from trouble, he quotes Psalm 44:22, which pictures Israel’s persecution by the nations. Better any sorrow with Him, than every joy without Him! Paul would pass on a similar message to Timothy for those living in the Christian era: “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2 Tim. 3:12. NLT). 

The cost of serving God has been historically high. According to Heb.11, God’s faithful people had suffered for centuries at the hands of the Gentiles but also from their fellow believers. (Heb.11:35-37). 

Yet none of those things were able to separate them from the love of Christ. That lesson was important for the Roman Christians because of the times in which they lived. It is also vital to us, because of what the Bible teaches will happen before the Second Advent. But we, like Christians of old, can rest in the assurance that even though troubles will come, nothing can separate us from God’s love. 

 ‘Slaughtered like sheep’ but ‘More than conquerors’ is one of the Bible’s more memorable phrases. I can imagine conquering Lions or bears – but a conquering sheep? Sheep are noted for helplessness, not aggression. (I was knocked to the ground once by a sheep that didn’t want to go through a gate!) 

Of course, Paul’s images are figurative, but they are not meaningless. It is the sheeplike characteristics of Christians that make them more than conquerors. Never forget that we are more than conquerors “through Christ who loved us”. We are not triumphant on our own, but in the strength of Jesus Christ, who met the devil on his own turf and defeated him. PTL! 

Our strength as Christians relies on a recognition of our helplessness, our recognition that we are sinners, our recognition that we have no righteousness of our own, our recognition that our salvation is totally by grace and that we can do nothing to earn or even supplement the value of God’s gift. In short, a Christian’s strength lies in his or her sheeplike characteristics, those traits that drive us to the foot of the cross. 

We are more than conquerors because we realise that holding on to Christ by faith and letting Him direct our lives, is the only thing that enables us to face the troubles without and the tensions within caused by our less than perfect lives. Even our weakness and sinfulness point us back to our constant need for Jesus and His grace