Overcoming Death 723
us to die, we must not passively permit death to oppress us. Rather,
we must actively cooperate with God’s will to resist it.
Why should we adopt such an attitude as this? The Bible treats
death as our enemy (1 Cor. 15.26). Consequently, we must resolve to
oppose it and subdue it. Since the Lord Jesus has faced and overcome
death on earth for us, He wants us personally to conquer it in this
life. We should not petition God to grant us strength to put up with
the power of death; we should petition instead for might to overthrow
its power.
As death has come from sin, so our victory over death has come
from the work of the Lord Jesus Who died for us and saved us from
sin. His redemptive work is closely related to death—“Since
therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise
partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him
who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those
who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Heb.
2.14-15). The cross is the basis for victory over its power.
Satan has this power, which power he derives from sin: “as sin
came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men because all men sinned” (Rom. 5.12). But the
Lord Jesus invaded the domain of death and through His redemptive
act removed its sting which is sin, thus disarming Satan of his power.
By Christ’s death, sin lost its potency, and so death was deprived of
its power too. Through the crucifixion of Christ we henceforth shall
overthrow the power of death and lift its siege around us by claiming
the victory of Calvary.
Three different ways are open for Christians to overcome death:
(1) by trusting we will not die until our work is finished; (2) by
having no fear of death even should it come because we know its
sting has been removed; and (3) by believing we will be delivered