ROM. viii. 37. “More than conquerors.”

THE key-note of the text is Victory. It is the characteris-
tic of all God’s works, that whatever He does, He does
abundantly. There is always something in excess; a
David’s cup that mantles over, or a Joseph’s bough which
runneth over the wall.
Every miracle was done overflowingly. The lame man
not only walked but leapt. When the daughter of Jairus
was raised to life, Jesus commands that “something be
given her to eat;” and the very fragments of His feedings
are “twelve baskets full.” Christ came into this world
“that we might have life, more abundantly.” The life in
union with Him is a truer and a greater life than unfallen
life, than any angel’s life could ever have been. “We are
more than conquerors.”
I. Consider how Christ was “more than conqueror.”
1. In His death. A prayer for His enemies—a provision
of filial tenderness for His mother—a free pardon to a
sinner—the largess of a kingdom with a royal hand—these
were the achievements of the dying man Christ Jesus.
“More than conqueror.”
2. In His rising. The victory would have been com-
plete if that body had come forth the same, but He did
more. The body was more beautiful, more spiritual than
the body which was laid in the grave.
3. In His ascension and exaltation. He ascends but
does not leave His followers to weep—for He is more with
them than before—He is exalted, and none are orphaned.
” He is more than conqueror.”
II. The believer is “more than conqueror.”
In the contest with Satan God undertakes that His
people shall not be overcome, and more, that they shall
overcome and put the enemy in fear. “He will flee from
you.”
Then a sin overcome necessarily becomes a virtue.
Satan is foiled with his own weapons, and Israel enriched
with the spoils of Egypt. That too much speaking will
become eloquence for Christ, that temper will make zeal.
The Christian would not exchange the dark memories
of sorrow and bereavement for the sunniest of the world’s
hours; there was so much of Christ in them, so much of
a tranquil mind, so much of heaven, that he comes out
of the sorrow “more than conqueror.” And so when we
die, like a ship, at high tide, pressing full-sailed into port,
“an entrance is ministered unto us abundantly” into the
kingdom. The world conquers—the Church is “more
than conqueror.”
James Vaughan, M.A.