Thoughts on the Epistle to the Romans (147) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:35-37

Thoughts on the Epistle to the Romans (147)
Christ intercedes for believers (v. 34), and no-one can separate them from His love, even if there are still hostile forces in this world.

Some problems that believers experience, e.g. persecution, arise through wicked people. Others affect the Christian, who still belongs to the old creation through his mortal body, as the result of the fall of sin. Some Christians encounter what is described in the Old Testament by the words "sheep to the slaughter" in its full force: they suffer a martyr's death.

Yet none of this can separate the believer from the love of God. Strengthened through Christ and the Holy Spirit, he proves to be a conqueror. He has a share in Christ's victory, who overcame the world (John 16:33). And what is more: through such experiences a Christian becomes more firmly founded in the truth of God and the love of Christ. They contribute to all that is good for him (v.28) and lead to his spiritual profit.

Christians are "more than conquerors", not in their own strength but "through him who loved" them. During His life on earth Christ, in His love, endured all these difficulties in an extreme mea­sure: and "in that he himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18).

(to be concluded next Sunday)

Today's reading: Leviticus 24:1-23 · Psalm 69:13-28