The Gain of the Christian Conquerors

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Rom 8:37

"We are more than conquerors." As I have said, the phrase implies that in the conquest itself is something greater than mere conquest—it is its own reward. To overcome temptation is better than to have had no temptation to grapple with, for the conquest, however hardly won, leaves the soul greater, stronger, and more blessed. Every conquered temptation deepens our love to Christ, and thus we are more than conquerors. We come here on the track of that great law of the human soul, of the action of which all life is full—the law that the trial of principle is its true strengthening. Passion catches fire by antagonism, difficulties waken it into stormy majesty, and it makes them its servants. Men speak of the power of circumstances to hinder a Christian life; of course they have a power, but it is none the less true that a strong love makes the most adverse circumstances the grandest aid to its own progress. The love of Christ to us is a pledge that our conquests will become our gains. The living Christ is watching the temptation, and He will take care that its issue is a greater glory than that which could have come from a life of perpetual repose. God will open hereafter the marvelous book of the human soul, and show how each struggle left its eternal inscription of glory there.
Its attainment. How shall we know that we are becoming more than conquerors? When the love of Christ is the strongest power in life and a progressive power. (E. L. Hull, Sermons, 1st series, p. 268)

The Keynote of Christian Victory

Every miracle of Christ was done overflowingly. The lame men not only walked, but leapt. The wine which Jesus made for the wedding feast was more than almost any company could have consumed. The very fragments of His feeding are twelve basketsful. He supplies all wants, and then He is at all costs besides—"Whatsoever thou spendest more." Now, apply this to our risen Lord. Christ has placed our life far above the level of the life we had lost. We lost a garden, we have gained a heaven.

"More than conquerors." Then, too, His seeming absence is only a more ubiquitous presence. He is richer, and none are poorer; He is exalted, and none are orphaned. The problem is solved—how there can be distance without separation—how the communion can be invisible and yet be more real than when eye meets eye and hand clasps hand, for He is more than conqueror.

"The very same principle which is thus embodied in the death and sufferings of Christ operates in the experience of every believer". Every man who is in earnest about his salvation has found, and the more earnest he is the more he has found it, that he is placed to contend not only with flesh and blood, but also with Satan. In this great contest, what is God’s undertaking for His people? That they shall overcome? More than that. The power of Christ that is in you shall do what the presence of Christ always did when He walked the earth. Whenever walking this earth, an evil spirit met Christ, the evil spirit was afraid. And they shall be afraid of you. "More than conquerors."
(J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 99)

Triumphant in Christ

This is more than victory. This is a triumph so complete that we have not only escaped defeat and destruction, but we have destroyed our enemies and won a spoil so rich and valuable that we can thank God that the battle ever came. How can we be "more than conquerors"? We can get out of the conflict a spiritual discipline that will greatly strengthen our faith and establish our spiritual character. Temptation is necessary to settle and confirm us in the spiritual life. It is like the fire which burns in the colors of mineral painting, or like winds that cause the mighty cedars of the mountain to strike more deeply into the soil. Our spiritual conflicts are among our choicest blessings, and our great adversary is used to train us for his ultimate defeat. The ancient Phrygians had a legend that every time they conquered an enemy the victor absorbed the physical strength of his victim and added so much more to his own strength and valor. So temptation victoriously met doubles our spiritual strength and equipment. It is possible thus not only to defeat our enemy, but to capture him and make him fight in our ranks. The prophet Isaiah speaks of flying on the shoulders of the Philistines (Isa_11:14).
Isa 11:14  But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 

These Philistines were their deadly foes, but the figure suggested that they would be enabled not only to conquer the Philistines, but to use them to carry the victors on their shoulders for further triumphs. Just as the wise sailor can use a head wind to carry him forward by tacking and taking advantage of its impelling force; so it is possible for us in our spiritual life through the victorious grace of God to turn to account the things that seem most unfriendly and unfavorable, and to be able to say continually, "The things that were against me have happened to the furtherance of the Gospel." -- (Life More Abundantly)

A noted scientist observing that "early voyagers fancied that the coral-building animals instinctively built up the great circles of the Atoll Islands to afford themselves protection in the inner parts," has disproved this fancy by showing that the insect builders can only live and thrive fronting the open ocean, and in the highly aerated foam of its resistless billows. So it has been commonly thought that protected ease is the most favorable condition of life, whereas all the noblest and strongest lives prove on the contrary that the endurance of hardship is the making of the men, and the factor that distinguishes between existence and vigorous vitality. Hardship makes character.
"Now thanks be unto God Who always leads us forth to triumph with the Anointed One, and Who diffuses by us the fragrance of the knowledge of Him in every place".
2Co 2:14  Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.  ​(Streams in the Desert)