Romans 8:35–36

More than conquerors

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

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

Paul doesn’t give the Romans, or us, any assurance that things like trouble, hardship, persecution, or famine won’t happen. Rather, he operates with the assumption that they will happen. He cites Scripture to support his point. With his quotation he’s saying, Our situation is exactly like the one the psalmist wrote about in Psalm 44:22: We’re like sheep being led to slaughter. Nor should that surprise us. Jesus told his disciples: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24)