Accounted As Sheep

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Romans 8:35-36

The history of the faith is bloody. Followers of Christ have suffered martyrdom in every age. We should make a clear distinction between what true believers have endured and what organized religion has perpetrated. Often it has been organized religion which has persecuted true believers. The Spanish Inquisition was one example of such persecution. Christ Himself remarked that the Jews had killed the prophets whom He had sent to them. It was the religious elite in Israel that engineered His murder. Paul himself had cut his teeth on the persecution of Christ’s followers. Therefore, he and the rest of the early believers understood that to follow Christ would be costly in terms of suffering. All the disciples, with the exception of John, would die as martyrs. Hosts of believers would die under persecutions by Roman Caesars like Nero and Diocletian. Christianity would continue as a practically proscribed religion until the 300’s. Thus, when Paul wrote our text, he was articulating what was the expected result of following Christ. This was not mere histrionics. He accepted, as did the other believers, that to follow Christ meant they would very likely die for Him. Even with such a death ahead of them, they knew that nothing could separate them from the love of Christ.

God of Grace and Glory,
we rejoice at the privilege You have given us to follow Christ.
We praise You that You will preserve us through
everything we endure.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning