More Than Conquerors

by John Allen | published on Oct 26, 2026

Discussion Questions 

  1. Read Romans 8:12-39; you can find the passage here. Then read the devotional below, “More Than Conquerors” and use these discussion questions for further reflection. 
  2. When you read the larger passage from Romans 8, does it reshape how you understand the familiar phrases of verses 31 and 37?
  3. What keeps Romans 8 from leading to a faith that shrugs at suffering? What keeps the spiritual resistance of Romans 8 from becoming another form of conquest? 
  4. The devotional writer asserts that evil cannot unmake us. What would it look like to hold that conviction in the middle of a setback, in your own life or in a cause you care about? 

Devotional 

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?… In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. – Romans 8:31, 37 (NRSV) 

In the face of suffering, calamity, and cruelty, the Apostle Paul asks the question that is on everyone’s mind. It is a question that has never left Christian hearts: “What are we to say about these things?” 

Our American culture offers an easy answer to the problem of suffering: Conquer it.  

Stand astride your own destiny. Tame the unruly frontier of your body. Bend the will of your neighbors until it matches yours. Subdue the anxious truth of your vulnerability. Grab onto every fleeting lever of control. Win the argument. Vanquish the foe.  

But we don’t need to look for vindication in the facts of our lives, not even when it feels like the whole tide of history is rushing in the wrong direction. Paul is trying to free us from this constant measuring. “Are we winning or losing? Ahead or behind? On top or defeated?” 

If we are mere conquerors, then we can only believe in God’s goodness as long as the arc of history is bending toward justice. But every rollback of justice is a catastrophe that calls into question our confidence and hope. 

Instead, Paul invites us to look to Christ, the one who is loving us. The one from whom no power or principality can separate us. Through Christ we are more than conquerors.  

The rollbacks are real. The violence is grievable. The injustice is well worth resisting. But these evils cannot unmake us. For we are more than conquerors. 

Prayer
God, free our conquering hearts for life with you. Amen.

John AllenAbout the Author
John Allen is the Senior Minister of First Parish Church UCC in Brunswick, Maine.