What does Romans 8:36 say about believers being killed and counted as sheep for the slaughter?
Romans 8:36 states that for the sake of Christ, believers are killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter. Paul draws this as an analogy of the believer, who may someday go like sheep to the slaughter, not screaming and squealing like pigs, because that is not the way God works.
Les explains that Romans 8:36 is written “for thy sake, for the sake of the Christ of the cross”: believers are killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter. He illustrates it with an account from Chicago’s meat-packing days, where hogs squealed loudly but sheep went to slaughter in utter silence, led by a goat that slips out a side door. Les says this is the analogy Paul draws of the believer; we may someday go like sheep to the slaughter, not screaming and squealing like pigs, because that is not the way God works. Even the Lamb of God Himself, as Isaiah said, answered not a word.
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
More Questions
In Romans 8:36, what does it mean that we are counted as sheep for the slaughter?
Paul's analogy of the believer as a 'sheep for the slaughter' means sheep go to their death in utter silence, and that is the picture of the believer.
What does Paul's analogy of sheep for the slaughter refer to?
The sheep going silently to slaughter is the analogy Paul draws of the believer; believers are the sheep.