God’s conquering love

Rev Dwight Fletcher

Today we celebrate the greatest demonstration of God’s love as we celebrate Him sending His Son, Jesus. It is not just Jesus Christ’s birth but more significantly, His life and death that have made life worth living for mankind. The Bible tells us that God so loved the world that, “…God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17 (NIV). And that love is unshakeable!

Romans 8:35, 38-39 (NIV) says “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There is no way that we can lose Jesus’ love. There’s no one more powerful than Christ and no one can remove believers from the hand of God. Jesus said, “27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me … 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:27,29 (NIV).

Life, even at its worst cannot remove us from Christ. Tribulation refers to the ‘strong pressures in life’, like the treading of grapes in a winery. These are the pressures that, like the treaded grapes, burst when we can’t withstand the pressure. Distress is ‘hardship, outward affliction, and inner stress and anguish’. The word used describes being caught in a tight place between high rocks. Even when we feel like we’re caught in a tight place and life is squeezing in on us, God’s love will not abandon us. If life has become an overwhelming burden, Jesus says, “Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”, Matthew 11:28 (NIV). God offers to exchange our burdens for His rest.

Persecution refers to ‘being hunted down like an animal and killed’, but God’s Word tells us that “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing”, Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV). Since God’s Word is true, our attitude toward the pressures, challenging circumstances, and changes that come in life should be hopeful.

Christ’s love toward us never changes and believers are designed to overcome. Jesus overcame the grave to demonstrate that we can overcome everything else. “… we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37 (NIV). More than conquerors in the Greek comes from the word ‘hupernikao’ which combines ‘nikao’, meaning ‘to conquer, to carry off the victory, come off victorious’, and ‘huper’ which means ‘above’. We’re therefore ‘super conquerors’, i.e., more than victors, we gain surpassing victory.

Nothing in life can stop God from loving us. God sometimes accomplishes His eternal purposes in our lives through pain, suffering, tribulations, and stress but nothing and no one will defeat God’s eternal purposes. God repeatedly turns our defeats and disasters into victory because of His great love for us, making us super conquerors.

Jesus came so that we can walk in that victory when we choose to follow Him. So this Christmas Day, let’s all celebrate and thank Him and if you haven’t yet, choose to follow Him.