April 10 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"...more than conquerors..." (Romans 8:37).

Devotional

The original word admits a stronger rendering than our translators have allowed. Elsewhere, this same word is rendered "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17, KJV). Thus, in the present instance it might be translated, "far more exceeding conquerors."

The phrase seems to imply that the believer gains more than a mere victory. A conqueror may win a battle at a severe loss to himself—a great leader may fall at the head of his troops; or, the flower of an army may be destroyed, and the best blood of a nation's pride may be shed.

But the Christian conquers with no such loss. Nothing whatever that is essential to your well-being is imperiled. Your armor, welded to your soul by the Holy Spirit, you cannot lose. Your life, hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3), can never be endangered. Your Leader and Commander, once dead, is alive—alive forevermore, and has the keys of Death and Hades (Rev. 1:17–18).

You shall lose nothing valuable and precious. There is not a grace in your soul that shall not come out of the battle with sin, Satan, and the world, purer and brighter for the conflict. The more thoroughly the Lord brings your graces into use, the more fully he develops them, and the more vigorously he empowers them. Not a grain of grace shall perish in the threshing; not a particle of faith shall be burned up in the refining.

Losing nothing, you gain everything! You return from the battle loaded with the spoils of a glorious victory—"more than a conqueror." All your resources are increased by the result. Your armor is brighter, your sword is sharper, your courage is bolder—all on account of the conflict.

Every grace of the Spirit is matured. Faith is strengthened. Love is expanded. Experience is deepened. Knowledge is increased. You come out of the trial more holy and more valiant than when you entered it. Your weakness has taught you where your strength lies. Your necessity has made you better acquainted with Christ's fullness. Your peril has shown you who trained your hands for war and your fingers for battle (Ps. 144:1), and whose shield covered your head in the day of battle. You are "more than conqueror"—you are triumphant!

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
you who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
for I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

"E'en down to old age all my people shall prove
my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
and when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."

("K" in Rippon's Selections, 1787)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.