Romans 8:35-37 (KJV)

35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36. As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

There are some passages in Scripture that speak to us at different times and in different ways. This passage has been a classic catalyst for comfort throughout the centuries for Christians undergoing persecution, as was the 1st century church to whom Paul was writing. Though we may not be facing persecution as severe as the early church faces, we can still take the principles found in this text and apply them in a couple of ways:

1. In those situations when family and friends turn on us for our faith in Christ.
2. In those situations when our lives are afflicted by difficult circumstances.

1. God's love for us is more the focus of Scripture than our love for God.
   This is very difficult for some people to grasp. Some wrongly say, "Who can separate us from the love of Christ" means "Who can stop me from loving my God."
   1. The entire focus of this passage is God, not us (vs. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35).
   2. Our own experience tells us our love for God often wanes.
      The church at Ephesus "left their first love (Jesus Christ)" (Rev. 2:4).
   3. God's loves is personal and effectual, not impersonal and ineffectual.
      God's love for His people always leads to His people loving Him.
      "We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19).
2. The presence of affliction in our lives does not mean the absence of God's love.
   The health, wealth and prosperity gospel teaches that sickness, poverty and a lack of success are all spiritual problems that can be solved if you just love God more. When you love Him more, then He will reward you with doors of success wide open. But the Apostle Paul says, "Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, are often common problems to the people God loves." To back this statement Paul quotes from Psalm 44:22 where the Psalmist laments the troubles of Israel. "It is impossible to measure God's love by any outward visible signs: good or bad."
3. Christians are said to be "more than conquerors" in the midst of affliction.
   What does it mean to be "more than conquerors?" To conquer something means you beat it. To be more than a conqueror means you enjoy the process of beating it. "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). As Haldane puts it: "It is better for the Christian to suffer than if he had not been called to suffer at all."
4. When darkness seems to hide His face, rest on His unchanging grace.
   You would think that the Apostle would say, "through Him that loves us" but he uses the past tense and says we more than conquer "through him that loved us." This is the pattern of Scripture: "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25). Paul said, "Christ loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). When current circumstances lead you to doubt God's love for you, look to the cross and ask, "He that spared not His own Son . . . how shall he not freely give?"