Love, Love, Love

I've got a short thought for you today. (I know, I know--you'll believe I'm brief when you see it.)

I was talking to a friend earlier today who hadn't had a very good day. I shot her Romans 8:37: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

After I texted her, I started wondering what "more than conquerors" means. I mean, isn't "conqueror," like, the highest you can go? How can we be more than conquerors? What is Paul talking about?

As I said, I'm working on being brief, so I'm not going to deconstruct the context of that verse; you can read it for yourself.  But I will give you the next verse:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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.

I can almost hear Paul laughing with joy when I read that. Nothing in all creation. Literally, nothing can separate you from His love in Christ Jesus. Do you know why? Because His love came to earth, found you, bought you with a heavy price, and will never let you go.

As verse 33 says, nobody can accuse us of sin and thereby separate us from God's presence. The matter has already been settled out of court, and the devil has lost. He no longer has any power to separate you from God, because God loved you by placing His Son on the cross in your place. That's past tense. The deal is sealed (with the Holy Spirit! See Ephesians 4:30). He has engraved you on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16). He has bought you; the bill has been paid.

We are more than conquerors through him who loved us....that's Jesus. Through Jesus, we've conquered sin and death. But how are we more than conquerors?

Jesus conquered sin and death when He became the perfect sacrifice on the cross. If He had stopped there, we would have just been conquerors over sin and death, which is pretty awesome in itself. But He didn't stop there. He rose to life again. And, when He rose to life, He gave us back our royalty as sons and daughters of God. In effect, He didn't just go to court and pay our debt; He signed, sealed, and delivered the paper that names us His adopted sons and daughters--heirs in the royal kingdom, with all relational rights that a prince or princess would have in the lap of his or her father, the king.

A lot of us struggle with accepting that identity. Like Mia in The Princess Diaries (yes, I am referencing a chick flick, for the sake of the argument), we feel awkward, undeserving, and unfit for the job. But that doesn't matter. Like genetics does for Mia, blood speaks on our behalf...in this case, not blood heredity, but the blood of Christ (Hebrews 12:24).

Check out these verses:

John 1:12
Luke 12:32
John 14:12
1 John 4:17
Romans 8:15 and 29

We are His heirs along with Jesus. Legally, we have just as much authority on the earth as Jesus does.  But the heart of the matter is not authority, but love. His love is all-consuming, perfect, and pure, and  it is so powerful that nothing can separate us from it. Sin, death, hard times, earthly authority--they don't stand a chance. Not only will we live forever, we will live forever in the love of a Father.

It's the difference between being freed slaves and being adopted by the king. It's the difference between being conquerors and more than conquerors. It is the Father's delight to grant you the kingdom.

Yes. The Father really does love you like that. If you don't believe Him, look at Jesus on the cross.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).

Happy Valentine's Day.