More than Conquerors

More than Conquerors

Romans 8:28-39

Predestined

If Paul had not already dropped his argumentative tone in favor of eloquent, powerful, inspired rhetoric, he might have once again interrupted himself in the middle of verses 28-30 of Chapter 8 to clear up any confusion there might be over his use of the word “predestined”. As he asked himself previously when discussing the issue of the gift of grace: “Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?” (6:1 NIV) he might now ask how it could matter what we do if we were predestined for the call of God. In fact, is there anything we can do of our own free will if the outcome is predestined?

As we consider this issue of our own free will, we should first note that there is no contradiction at all between the issue of our choice and the fact of God’s foreknowledge. In this world, we understand the issues of cause and effect, and the constant law that the cause must come before the effect. We might ask ourselves, then, if our actions are foreknown, how can they be free, and if they are not free, how can we be held accountable?

In fact, the only conflict there can be between our free will and the foreknowledge of God is manufactured when we try to limit God to the sequential, cause and effect reality of our world. The creator of this world is not limited to the reality of this world. In this world, things come to be and then later are no more. This is not so with God, who always has been, and always will be. God can know our actions before they happen because God exists outside of time. In this world of instant access, where it often seems that nothing, even in the remotest corner of the globe, happens without being recorded and almost instantly disseminated for our consumption, still we have only the vaguest understanding of why events occur and what their impact will be. But what we vaguely understand as cause and effect, before and after, God understands whole and complete. God’s knowledge does not limit our choice; it is only through the love of God that we have any choice at all.

But Paul does not only speak of what God foreknew, he also speaks of what God predestined. Paul also uses this idea of God’s predestination in 1 Corinthians 2:6-9 and in Ephesians 1:3-14. If foreknowledge of God is no threat to our free will, what can we say about this issue of predestination? We must ask ourselves what it is that has been preordained.

Though the love of God is the simplest thing there is, we often understand it as something very complex. Again, this happens when we try to impose our understanding of the way things should happen onto the will of God, or try to impose the logic of this world onto the mind of God. One of the traps we fall into is to think of the Old Testament God as distinct from the New Testament Christ. In contrast to this, we have the witness of Paul, of John, and of Jesus himself.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is also before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20 NIV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was the life. And that life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4 NIV)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me… I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know the Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:1, 6-8 NIV)

The love of God made available to us through Jesus Christ has always existed; it is not some bargain that is now available for a limited time. God is not like that. What is beyond time is also beyond change. The provision for our salvation was predestined in the sense that it has always existed and always will. It is this security that Paul refers to when he says “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” (8:28 NIV) No matter what has happened to us, or what we have done to ourselves, in whatever situation we may find ourselves, God has provided for our salvation through “the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8)

Who Is He that Condemns?

Verses 31-34 begin one of the three most recognizable passages in all of Paul’s writing. Together with the “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians and the description of Christ that Paul either wrote or quoted in Philippians (2:5-11) this section of Romans is one of the most often quoted sections of the Pauline letters. These beginning verses of the section are often quoted in the sense of the Might of the Right: with God on our side, we cannot be defeated. But this sense is not the central meaning from Paul, as we can tell from the context. Paul has just been speaking (in verses 26-27) of the way in which the Spirit intercedes for us even when we have no words to pray. Here, he goes further to say that that Jesus is also at the right hand of God interceding for us. Lest we see this picture as one in which a stern, judgmental God is tempered by the influence of the Spirit and of Jesus, who represent us, Paul reminds us that it is God himself who gave us his only son in order that we might be saved.

Paul was an Old Testament scholar, and it is certain that when he used the phrase “He who did not spare his own Son” he was thinking of Abraham and Isaac. Though Abraham was willing to give his son (Genesis 22:15-18) he was not called on to do so. But God himself, without being asked, and while we were still sinners (Romans 5:6-8) gave his only son. Though the judgment of God will fall upon the ungodly at his appointed time, the salvation of God is available at all times. God is not waiting to condemn us, but to redeem us.

If God is for us, who can be against us? It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns? (8:31b, 33b, 34a NIV)

More than Conquerors

There is so much power in the very words of this closing passage of Chapter 8 (verses 35-39) that they are a comfort simply to hear over and over again. As we hear them, we may imagine poor Tertius, the scribe who wrote down the letter (16:22) struggling to keep up and keep his amazement in check as Paul, caught up in the Spirit, paced the floor in front of him, pouring forth the words of his inspiration. There is nothing that any commentary can add to the power of these words. Even so, we might spend a moment considering what Paul means when he says that we are “more than conquerors.”

Certainly, if we consider the list of perils that Paul presents, they are formidable, and if he says that these things cannot separate us from the love of Christ, he does not mean that we will not experience them, but that they cannot overcome the promise of God, which was predestined from the foundation of the earth. Having participated in the death and resurrection of Christ (6:5, 8) the life and death of this world no longer has any claim on us. If God himself does not condemn us, then we have nothing to fear in this world or the next.

But Paul does not say we are conquerors, or even the epitome of conquerors, but that we are more than conquerors. How can this be? We are neither winners nor losers if we do not play the game. Nothing can be taken from us that we give up freely.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:25 NIV)

I have told you these things so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33 NIV)