More Than Conquerors- Romans 8:37

We have already seen, in our previous post, how when Paul tells us we are “more than conquerors” he does not mean that we overcome every mountain or obstacle in our lives by having them magically removed from our path simply by asking. We have seen how this did not happen in the life of Jesus, and it would therefore be proper to conclude that it will not happen in our lives either. The mountains were put there by God in the first place, and they have a purpose, just as the mountain of Calvary was put in Jesus life by God the Father and had a purpose. If that mountain was removed as Jesus asked, we all would still be headed for hell. The word nikao is used by Paul in another instance in the New Testament, and we will turn there to find out just what Paul means when he says we are more than conquerors over the mountains and obstacles in our lives (which is the context of Romans 8:34-39). We turn to 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, where Paul tells us that “death has been swallowed up in victory”. The context here is the future resurrection of the church, when “the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality”. At that time, death will be fully and finally defeated and we will undergo its effects no more. Death will be “swallowed up in victory”. The word victory here is nikao, and we are told that this victory is over death itself, which is the last enemy to be defeated, the last obstacle in our path. Interestingly enough, this is also the enemy which Jesus defeated at the cross of Calvary, paying the price to redeem us from sin, and therefore from death, which is the final result of sin. He did so at the cross by “swallowing up” death and sin, and in this swallowing up, He “overwhelmingly conquered” the mountain in His life. The Greek term “swallowed up” here is katapino- literally to “drink down”. Jesus here ingested the poison of death, taking it into Himself and overcoming it. He didn’t avoid the mountain in His path but faced it head on, went over it and came out on the other side, accomplishing God’s purpose and plan for Him in the process. Our goal is always to be like Jesus, and God helps us in this not by removing the mountains from our path, but by giving us the strength to go over them, to face them head on and come out on the other side, a stronger and better person for it. We “swallow up” the mountains in victory, we are “more than conquerors” not because the mountains are all moved out of our paths, but because we “swallow up” whatever the mountain has to offer. Like Jesus. we trust in our Father that the mountain is there for a reason, and He will give us what we need to face the mountain head on, coming out on the other side more like Christ, and accomplishing God’s purpose and plan for us in the process. In this way, victory is ours, we are truly “more than conquerors”, overcoming the opposition not by avoidance, but by “swallowing it up”, using that opposition to become what God wants us to be, to become more like Christ, who “swallowed up death in victory”.