I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.

Of everything Rome was known for, it was most known as an unstoppable conquering Empire. Rome had been founded 800 years earlier as a simple city built on seven hills on the Italian peninsula. That city would grow to become the largest empire to have ever existed, an empire that swallowed up over 2.3 million square miles and subjected many millions to its absolute reign. The average Roman citizen grew up with this conquering mentality, and this caused many to view this new sect of Christianity as a very different and upside-down mentality to their own. They saw Christians as pacifists, servants, and weak people who were a liability to the strength of the empire. Over time, that would change, but for now, Paul had to remind newly converted Roman Christians that they were conquerors of another kingdom with a far more important and noble calling than simply to defeat their enemies militarily.

Paul ends chapter 8 by building to this statement that in Christ, we are more than conquerors. But how can this be? What has been conquered? Paul explains that this victory has taken place in the far more important spiritual realm. As Christians, death has been conquered. Sin and condemnation have been conquered. The enemy has been conquered. Pain and suffering have been conquered. And ultimately, the eternal consequences of sin have been conquered. Christians overcome and conquer these things not in their own strength and ability but by the power of Jesus and for the glory of God. Jesus conquered all of these things on the cross. He crushed the head of the Serpent. And despite the pain he would endure by taking on our sin, Jesus still considered that the future glory far outweighed the present sufferings because of the hope of heaven. It is this heavenly hope that makes the Christian life the wisest and best choice a person could make. Without the hope of heaven, any life is foolish, pointless and tragic. Paul also makes clear that while the spiritual is the priority, the physical is not to be cast aside or forgotten. He explains that God does not ignore our physical bodies in His plan of redemption. His plan for these bodies is resurrection: when the corruptible must put on incorruption, when the old must be set aside for the new, and when this mortal body must put on immortality at the end of the age. All this we have to look forward to, as long as we are in Christ. But not all gifts come at the end of the age, Jesus himself declared that the gift of the Holy Spirit would come to guide the church, which happened on Pentecost. From the Holy Spirit would flow a variety of spiritual gifts, which would help to accomplish the great and mighty plans God had. The gift of tongues enables us to communicate with God in a manner that is not limited to our own knowledge or ability to articulate our heart before God. Paul explains that the Holy Spirit searches the hearts of those whom He helps, and He is able to guide our lives and our prayers according to the will of God.

God’s sovereignty and ability to manage every aspect of our lives is demonstrated in the fact that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Though we must face the sufferings of this present time, God is able to make even those sufferings work together for our good and for His good. God didn’t begin a work in the Roman Christians simply to abandon them in the midst of their present suffering. God is the author of our salvation from beginning to end. The job is not done at Salvation; it is only just beginning! God's goal for his church is that we might be fully conformed to the image of His Son, and this is a process that God does with our cooperation and participation, not something He just “does” to us or forces upon us. God adopts us into His family for the purpose of making us like Jesus Christ, and this process of transformation will continue our entire lives. If all we had was the first few chapters of the Book of Romans, some might believe that God was against us with all the bad news. But now that Paul has shown the lengths that God went to save man from His wrath and equip him for victory over sin and death, who can doubt that God is for us? Most men say or think that God is for them – terrorists commit horrible crimes, thinking that God is for them. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit guards this statement with an “if,” so we may know that just because a man thinks God is with him does not make it so. God is only for us if we are reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ and doing the work the Holy Spirit is leading us into. We certainly can be deceived into thinking that God is for us when He actually is not (as do cultists and those like them). Yet it cannot be denied that for those who are in Jesus Christ, God is for them! And if God is for them, what does it matter if others are against them? Even if it is legions of enemies coming against us, and even the demons of hell, one person plus God makes an unconquerable majority, and it is because of this truth that we are more than conquerors in Christ.