August 12

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us.—Romans 8:36, 37.

After showing his great providence over us from the first, the apostle afterwards brings out what comes next in a bold style, and does not say ye ought also to love him, but, as if grown enthusiastic at this unspeakable providence over us, he says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And he does not say of God, so indifferent is it to him whether he mentions the name of Christ or of God. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Observe the blessed Paul's judgment. For he does not mention the things that we are daily getting taken by, love of money and desire of glory, and the thralldom of anger, but things that are far more enthralling than these, and of power put a force upon nature itself, and to wrench open the sternness of the resolution many times even against our will, are what he puts down here, tribulations, and distresses. For even if the things mentioned are easy to tell up, still each single word has in it thousands of lines of temptation. For when he says, tribulation, he mentions prisons and bonds, and calumnies, and banishments, and all other hardships, so in one word running through an ocean of dangers without stint, and exhibiting to us, in fact by a single word, all the evils that men meet with. Yet still he dares them all! Wherefore he brings them forward in the shape of questions, as if it was incontrovertible that nothing could move a person so beloved, and who had enjoyed so much providence over him. Then that this might not seem as if he had forgotten himself, he brings in the prophet also, who declared this before, a long while ago, and saith,

For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. That is, we are exposed to all to be evil entreated of them. But yet against so many and so great dangers and these recent horrors, the object of our conflicts is given as a sufficient consolation, or rather not sufficient only but even much more. For it is not for men, nor for any other of the things of this life that we suffer, but for the King of the universe. But this is not the only crown, for he encircles them with another besides, and that varied and manifold. Since then, as they were men they could not have deaths without number to undergo, he shows that in this way the prize is none the less. For even if by nature it were fated to die once, by choice God hath granted us to suffer this every day, if we be so minded. Whence it is plain that we shall depart with as many crowns as we have lived days, or rather with many more. For it is possible in a day to die not once alone or twice but many times. For he who is ready unto this, keeps continually receiving a full reward. This then is what the Psalmist hints at, when he says all the day. And for this reason the apostle also brought him before them to rouse them up the more. For if, he means, those in the old dispensation, who had the land as their reward, and the other things which come to a close along with this life, did so look down upon the present life and the temptations and dangers of it, what pardon should we find if we deal so languidly after the promise of heaven, and the kingdom above, and its unutterable blessings, so as not to come even up to their measure? And this he does not say indeed, but leaves it to his hearers' consciences, and is satisfied with the quotation alone. He shows too that their bodies become a sacrifice, and that we must not be disturbed or troubled at God having so ordered it. And he exhorts them in other ways besides. For to prevent any from saying that he is merely philosophizing here before having any experience of realities, he adds, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, meaning the daily deaths of the apostles. You see his courage and his goodness. For as they, he means, when slaughtered make no resistance, so neither do we. But since the feebleness of the mind of man, even after so great things, was afraid of the multitude of temptations, see how he again rouses the hearer, and gives him a lofty and exulting spirit, by saying,

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For what is indeed wonderful is this, not that we are now conquerors only, but that we are so by the very things meant as plots against us. And we are not merely conquerors, but we are more than conquerors, that is, are so with ease, without toil and labor. For without undergoing the real things, by only setting our mind aright, we raise trophies against our enemies. And with good reason. For it is God that striveth together with us. Do not then be doubtful, if though beaten we get the better of our beaters, if driven out we overcome our persecutors, if dying we put the living to flight. For when you take the power and also the love of God into account, there is nothing to prevent these wondrous and strange things from coming to pass, and that victory the most advantageous should shine upon us. For they did not merely conquer, but in a wondrous way, and so that one might learn that those who plotted against them had a war not against men, but against Might invincible. See the Jews then with these among them, and at a loss quite, and saying, What are we to do to these men? For it is marvellous indeed, that though they had hold of them, and had got them liable to their courts, and imprisoned them and beat them, they were yet at a loss and in perplexity, as they got overcome by the very things whereby they expected to conquer. And neither kings nor people, nor ranks of demons, nor the devil himself, had power to get the better of them, but were all overcome at a very great disadvantage, finding that all they planned against them became for them. For this was a new rule of victory for men to prevail by their adversaries, and in no instance to be overcome, but to go forth to these struggles as if they themselves had the issue in their own hands. Therefore he says we are more than conquerors.