More than conquerors! These words were addressed to a little group of Christians located in imperial Rome, where power was deified, where the highest honors and the loudest plaudits were accorded to the conqueror who, having crushed the resistance of the enemies of the empire on the battlefield, was returning laden with the spoils of victory. To him the triumphal arch was erected, and to keep his memory alive his statue was placed in the halls of fame. The military conqueror was considered to have reached the highest rung in the ladder of success.
But in the light of heaven, the little band of poor and obscure men and women to whom the apostle wrote his wonderful epistle were greater than such. They were more than conquerors, greater than the world's greatest men. In Christ they had obtained a new conscience and a new understanding, so that they had to change their values and saw better wherein true glory consists.
Already the older revelation had declared, "Greater is he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh a city." But that did not go so very far beyond the light bestowed upon the men of Attica, the wisest of the race, as they sat down to ponder the mystery of life. The love of God in Christ Jesus comes into a groaning and travailing creation and enables faith to strike a deeper note. It not only empowers men to rise superior to the contradictions and disagreeable elements of our earth life. It not merely teaches us how to extract the sharp sting out of sorrow. It is not merely in spite of "tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword," but because of them we become more than conquerors through Him that loved us. The evils of life are transmuted into benefits. The things we naturally shrink from as hurtful, looked at in the love of Christ, have a friendly face. Better thus to have been in the dungeon with Joseph, in the den of lions with Daniel and in exile with Ezekiel. Better thus the valley of thorns with Jesus, than a luxurious bed of roses without Him. Better to share His bitter cup, than to see it pass by in answer to our tearful entreaty. "In all those things" we are more than Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon--through that One whose love has come into our lives and made all things new.
The great question is: Is the love of Christ real to us? Have we met Him, heard Him, been conquered by Him, opened to Him for ourselves? Have we owned Him before the visible and invisible world? Has He touched us with His Spirit and kindled in our withered hearts an unquenchable flame of faith and love? Can we speak of lusts He has destroyed, fetters He has broken, hidden wounds He has healed, tempers He has tamed, fears He has cast out, hungry cravings He has appeased? Have we looked long enough into His face -- marred more than any man's; bedewed with the blood from the thorn pierced brow--to see the glory of God there, the glory of suffering yet triumphant love, overcoming evil with good? Then we have learned Paul's secret for ourselves, and we shall have melody in our hearts amidst the discords of earth and may even enable others to hear the music of this wonderful love, till their hearts also are set in tune with the heavenly strain.
In bringing these lines to a conclusion, my eye fell on the following words of Meister Eckhart's (A. D., 1260-1327), which I will transcribe here: "This is the chief significance of the suffering of Christ for us, is that we cast all our grief into the ocean of His suffering. If thou sufferest only regarding thyself, from whatever cause it may be, that suffering causes grief to thee, and is hard to bear. But if thou sufferest regarding God and Him alone, that suffering is not grievous, nor hard to bear, because God bears the load. The love of the Cross must swallow up our personal grief. Whoso does not suffer from love, for him sorrow is sorrow, and grievous to bear; but whoso suffers from love, he sorrows not, and his suffering is fruitful in God. Therefore is sorrow so noble. No mortal's sorrow was like the sorrow which Christ bore; therefore He is far nobler than any man. Verily were there anything nobler than sorrow, God would have redeemed man thereby. Through the higher love the whole life of man is to be elevated from temporal selfishness to the spring of all love to God. Man will again be master over all nature by abiding in God and lifting her up to God."