Romans 8: 35-37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Paul presents us seven challengers which try to convince us that God doesn’t love us. These are our personal experiences. “Trouble or hardship”–both words in the Greek have the sense of a situation that is narrow and squeezes and puts us under all kinds of pressure. We feel trapped, like we can’t escape. The life is being crushed out of us. It could be a manager asking us to do something unethical or be fired, a class at school that’s gotten bigger than us, a health issue that seems to have no solution, a bad relationship that is smothering us.

“Persecution.” The kind we face is subtler than the kind that put Jesus on the cross, or drove Paul out of so many towns where he was trying to share the gospel. But Bible-believing Christians will likely see more of this in our own country before we see less. For those who reject Bible morals or Bible faith, “tolerance” only applies to themselves. The world doesn’t seem to love us. When we are persecuted, does God?

“Famine or nakedness.” Jesus promised that our Father would take care of food and clothes. He taught us to pray for our daily bread. So what are we supposed to conclude when we can’t make ends meet? Has no Christian ever died of hunger, or exposure, or had to file for bankruptcy? Of course they have. Maybe you and I have faced the possibility. Maybe we wonder how a loving God could let us struggle so.

“Danger or sword.” We could literally be left bleeding and dying from crime, war, terrorism, or natural catastrophe some day. This and everything just mentioned can create a crisis of faith. “We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” We aren’t the dear little lambs of the Good Shepherd. We are just so much meat at the slaughterhouse. God has us here just so that he can butcher us, or that is what we fear.

But that is not the case. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” It’s not just that we will survive the challenges. In a war one side may win, but they often do so at the expense of many, many lives, leaving even the victors severely weakened. In athletics the runner may flop himself across the finish line first and need someone to help him get up and walk around long after the race is finished. The team may send man after man to the locker room with injuries, ending their seasons, before they score the winning points in the closing seconds and win the game. In each case these are victories, but not by much.

That’s not like the victory God gives to those he loves. We don’t squeeze out a victory by the thinnest of margins. Even when the pressures are killing us, and persecutors won’t leave us alone, and we have nothing in all this world to live one, and death itself is all that’s left for us here, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” More than conquerors!

When the dust settles on all these threats and dangers, we are still standing, it is true. But more than that, even at their worst, all these things serve us. They serve us! They force us closer to our Savior in faith. There is no better place to be! They help to strip us of our worldliness and taste for sin. They build Christian character and godly wisdom. Even if they end our lives, they are merely ushering us into God’s presence, opening the door to the glory and bliss of a new and higher life that never ends. Even when they try to hurt us they help us, because God still loves us and we are more than conquerors.

List all the things that look powerful to you, the things you fear, the things that look bigger than you any way you can. God’s love is stronger, greater, bigger than them all. Nothing can separate us from his love in Christ Jesus.