Martyrs vs. Conquerers.

In Romans 8, Paul writes to the believers about suffering.

He reminds them that "God works for the good of those who love Him...for those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son."

Paul begins by stating that God is using all the circumstances of our lives for good, and that, through those circumstances, He is working to make us more like Jesus.

A few passages later, Paul asks a question:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

And following that question, Paul quotes a verse from the Old Testament. This is VERY important for the meaning of Paul's argument. Whenever an Old Testament verse is quoted, take note and go back and read the whole passage. Biblical Jews knew the text from memory, and would have immediately taken the verse in its entire context. Since we don't know the Bible as well as they did, we must go back and read the full passage, so as to get the entire meaning of the argument and what is being asserted in Paul's words.

The verse quoted is this:

For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

This is a passage from Psalms 44. In this Psalm, David is wrestling with the Lord. He begins the Psalm by reminding God of what he has been told from His fathers about all the Lord has done in the past. Then, David challenges the Lord, saying,

But now you have rejected us and humbled us, you gave us up to be devoured like sheep...all this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant...if we had forgotten the name of our God...would not God have discovered it?...Awake Oh Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

In the midst of all this, David speaks the verse that Paul quotes: for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered...

Do you hear the attitude that rings out in this Psalm, the message that is being implied to God from David?

God, look what we have done. we have not forgotten your covenant, and yet, you leave us as sheep to be slaughtered. How can you abandon us like this? Where are you? We've done our part, now You need to do yours. We are faithful. But YOU, you remain silent.

Basically David tells God He is being unfair.

It is the attitude of a martyr.

And what does Paul have to say about that spirit of matrydom?

NO.

We are not matryrs. And we have no right to claim ourselves as such, as if we had anything to offer God, as if God owes us anything.

Not even when it feels like we are sheep being led to slaughter - not even when it seems like God is hiding His face from us.

No, even then, God is working.

Who has the right to condemn? Jesus, and Jesus alone. The only person who gets to claim martyrdom is Jesus himself. Because He alone was blameless, and yet gave Himself up for us.

And it is only because of His grace, the grace that springs up from that sacrifice, that we are CONQUERERS.

HE sacrificed. HE saved. HE conquered.

And when we look at our circumstances and our sufferings as something that we are giving to God, as something good that we are doing, as something that He in turn, owes us for - then our heart is in the wrong place.

Because God does not owe us anything.

He never did.

And yet, He did not spare even His own Son, but sacrificed Him for OUR GOOD.

There is no room for self-righteousness in this equation. There should only be gratitude, humility, love.

And no matter the circumstances, whether they be good or bad (life, death, angels, demons, present, future, height, depth, or ANY powers), we need to know and claim that Jesus has conquered all things, and that we are conquerers with Him.

His martyrdom makes us conquerers, and nothing can separate us from that truth.

God is working for our good. He is trying to make us like His Son. And through it all, we conquer.

And so, when suffering comes, we rejoice. Because through it we have an opportunity to become more like Jesus, a man who was well-aquainted with suffering.

A man who suffered for no other reason than His love for us.