How to Conquer Death

By J.R. Waller, MBA

Introduction

37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. -Romans 8:37 (KJV)

Romans 8 is one of the most powerful chapters in the Bible. It’s filled with a rich tapestry of theology, and verse 37 is no exception.
 
This verse boldly claims that Christians are more than conquerors over death and suffering through Jesus Christ who loves us.
 
It’s a bold claim. However, we have every reason to believe that through Christ we can in fact conquer death (and anything that comes our way for that matter).
 
In this article, we’re going to explore what it means to be more than a conqueror in Christ, and look specifically at how to conquer death.

Man Has No Way to Overcome Death on His Own

One of the beautiful things about Christianity is that it answers all of life’s biggest questions in reasonable ways. It just makes sense.
 
One of man’s biggest questions is “how can I overcome death?” or put another way, “what do I do with death?”
 
People have been trying to explain and come to terms with death since death first entered the universe (Gen. 3). In the ancient world the Egyptians, Stoics, Epicureans, and a host of other thinkers and civilizations from east to west each struggled to explain the problem of death.

Today, people still cannot develop valid and meaningful ways to deal with the grave.
 
Some search for the proverbial fountain of youth—they seek immortality.
 
You can see this in the transhumanist worldview where people believe that man and machine can become one. They seek to usher in a new form of life that can live forever.

“When you ask people how they will overcome death and make it to the other side, they often claim that they will do so by their own works. They’ll be ‘good enough’ to make it. However, no two people can ever agree on what exactly constitutes being good enough.”

Some just wish death away. They throw up their hands and say, “this is all there is, so who cares.” This mindset is at the heart of atheism (a rejection of or disbelief in God coupled with a lack of moral accountability to God), cynicism (feeling disillusionment, bitterness and contempt toward the world, and being skeptical of human sincerity) and nihilism (a philosophy focused on the futility of existence and that is pre-occupied with despair and in which morality is considered arbitrary).

And then there are those who just live for today through hedonism. They revel in endless pleasure to dull the harsher realities of life. They find solace in distraction, or in the case of our contemporary society, in their personally curated digital worlds.
 
We can see this in the “everywhere but not here” reality of the connected world we live in today. Smart devices, and constant streams of news and entertainment have essentially eradicated boredom and keep us easily distracted from thinking about the big questions of life – namely death. Conversely, this also makes many today ill-equipped to deal with death at any level.
 
Lastly, and perhaps most common, are people who acknowledge that there is an afterlife and that death is not all there is, but who cannot define what heaven really is let alone how to get there. People in this camp face death but with uncertainty due to a lack of sound answers about it. They are the captains of their own ships and “hope” for the best.

This is what I call the “good enough” worldview. When you ask people how they will overcome death and make it to the other side, they often claim that they will do so by their own works. They’ll be “good enough” to make it.
 
However, no two people can ever agree on what exactly constitutes being good enough. Am I good enough? Are you? How good do I have to be? Should I be more good than you? Who dictates what good even is?

There has to be an objective standard of good enough, and it only comes from God, man cannot create the terms to get into heaven, we’re incapable of doing so.

Our Quest Against Death Wears Us Out

The problem is, even if some of the above worldviews work for a season, none of them offer any sufficient answers about death. They don’t get at the heart of the problem at all, no matter how much we want to believe they do. Is that uncomfortable? Yes, and that’s why we often don’t want to address their glaring faults, but it’s better to be uncomfortable for a bit to get to real answers. These are weighty matters, death and eternity demand our attention—we have to address them, we owe it to ourselves.
 
Nevertheless, man’s solutions to mastering death fail to satisfy. After 10,000 years of human existence we’re no closer to answering the problem of death than we ever were. It is obvious that all of our best attempts to overcome death on our own not only do a disservice to us, they wear us out. On our own we’re left groaning at death (Rom. 8:22, 7:24).

“We can either try to confront it on our own and perish, or we can let another confront it for us, one who can and has overcome it once and for all eternity. That’s Jesus and death can only be overcome through him, not by ourselves.”

This is made all the worse because each of us must face death. Death is unavoidable and we’re all hard-wired to think about it. We can’t avoid it. In fact, humans are the only species that are aware of their own death.

Additionally, God says that eternity is “written on our hearts” (Ecc. 3:11). We have a natural inclination to think about eternity. C.S. Lewis always taught how we’re disappointed on earth, we thirst for eternity, and we desire things beyond what we can have here because we were not originally made for this world, and he was right! Death and sin are the result of the fall of man by Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:19, Rom. 5:12).

Still, even though God has placed a knowledge of the eternal inside us…that still doesn’t, on its own, solve our dilemma. It would seem then, that we are left helpless. Is death just an unavoidable reality that we have no answer for? What are we supposed to do? The answer might surprise you. We must…give up!

Death is Only Conquered by and through Jesus

8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. -Ephesians 2:8 (KJV)

At one point or another we all have to confront death. However, we can either try to confront it on our own and perish, or we can let another confront it for us, one who can and has overcome it once and for all eternity. That’s Jesus, and death can only be overcome through him, not by ourselves.
 
This is what it means to give up trying to vanquish death. We give up and give it to God. We place our faith in him and what he has done for us on the cross. This means acknowledging that he is God and you are not. It means surrendering to Jesus your way of living and finding true life through him (Lk. 17:33).

We overcome death by trusting in the one who already has (Rev. 20:14, 1 Cor. 15:55). To trust Jesus means to trust in what he has done for you to solve death’s dilemma: trusting in his death on the cross as the satisfactory payment for your sins.

“We overcome death by trusting in the one who already has.”

Adam and Eve’s sin brought death into the world, and left us with no way out on our own to deal with it. However, if the story ended there we’d be without hope. Thankfully Jesus came to solve our sin problem and overcome death. That’s why the Christian message is called the “gospel,” which means “good news.”
 
Jesus came to save you from death, and to bring you back into a loving relationship with him for all eternity because you cannot make it on your own. That’s salvation. It’s a gift from God (Eph. 2:8-9). We can’t do anything to earn it, we can only accept it. That means admitting our sin, asking God to forgive us, trusting in his sacrifice on the cross for our sins and accepting his free offer of salvation (Rom. 10:9-10).

That’s the only way to conquer death, and Jesus wants everyone to take him up on the offer. In fact, he has given us every reason to do so!

We Have Every Reason to Believe that Jesus Saves Us from Death

Jesus took death seriously, he preached on hell more than heaven. He always ensured to do the will of his Father, that is to save sinners. It was his mission and nothing would stop it.

Remember death was not part of God’s original plan. He wishes that none will perish and be without him for eternity. As such, God his given us a plethora of reasons to trust him with our lives in the face of death. We have every reason to believe that putting our faith in Jesus will allow us to overcome death. Consider…

Jesus doesn’t want anyone to perish; he wants everyone to repent and be saved from death (2 Pet. 3:9, Jn. 3:16). He came to seek and save the lost (Lk. 19:10) and beckons us to come to him (Matt. 4:17, 7:7, 11:28). Those are the very desires of the creator of the universe, those are his heart’s desire for you!
 
Death and sin were not part of God’s original design for humanity, that’s why death feels so wrong to us (1 Jn. 2:16). Moreover, though sin entered the universe through man’s disobedience in Eden, Jesus’ obedience to God’s redemptive plan makes many righteous (Rom. 5:19). Jesus did what no man could do or ever can do, he was the perfect sacrifice, he made a way for us to conquer death and be cleansed from our sins. He lived a life of perfect obedience to God.
 
God the Father delivered up his only son to death for us all as our substitute, so that he could deliver us all from death (Rom. 8:32, Gal. 1:4). Since God sacrificed his son for us, it follows that we can trust that God will save us.
 
We are conquerors of death through him that loved us (Rom. 8:37). Jesus didn’t have to die for us; he wanted to. Jesus followed God the Father’s great redemptive plan to the end (Lk. 2:49, Jn. 6:38). His plan for all eternity was to seek and save the lost, bring them back to him and restore us to a right relationship with him for all eternity. He did it because he loves you! He knew you before you were born. If you’re a Christian he planned and fashioned your salvation in eternity past (Eph. 1:3-4).
 
Moreover, Jesus died for us willingly. In his humanity he was afraid and he suffered, however in his divinity he knew he had to accomplish his father’s will for us and nothing would change that—he wanted to save you (Lk. 22:42, Jn. 10:17-18).

“Death and sin were not part of God’s original design for humanity, that’s why death feels so wrong to us.”

Because Jesus died for our sins, he knows what death is like. In fact, he understands you – your fears of death but also what he saved you from – your sins. He felt the sting and scourge of your death so you won’t ever have to if you accept him as your savior (2 Cor. 5:21, Gal. 3:13, Matt. 27:46). He took the penalty for your specific sins (Is. 53:5). It is by his wounds that we are healed (1 Pet. 2:22-24). This also means you have a savior who empathizes with your fear of death, who has forgiven all of your sins and who can be approached for help (Heb. 4:14-16). God is personal and he wants a relationship with you, that’s how it was always meant to be.
 
Jesus overcame death through his resurrection, and he is alive today and he intercedes for us (Heb. 1:3, Rom. 8:34, Col. 3:1, 1 Cor. 15:14). No one else has ever done that and we have every reason to believe that it happened (2 Pet. 1:16, 1 Cor. 15:6). By his resurrection we can say that death has no more power over us because we are victorious in him, Jesus put death to death! (1 Cor. 15:55-57)
 
Jesus died so we don’t have to, he went first and paved the way for us. Jesus is the first-born among many (Rom. 8:29). When we accept him as our savior we are adopted into his family as God’s children. Jesus then, by dying for us and going before us, is our older brother (Heb. 2:11). We share in his death and resurrection as well (Rom. 6:5, Phil. 3:10-11).

Through salvation, Jesus declares us righteous. This is called justification; it’s a legal term. When we come to Jesus in faith and accept him as our savior and trust in what he did for us on the cross, Jesus then counts (legal term imputes) his righteousness to us (Rom. 4:6). Our faith is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). This isn’t our own righteousness, we can never measure up, its God’s righteousness found in us by faith (Phil. 3:9, 2 Cor. 5:21). As Paul says, we are found in him (Phil. 3:9).

This side of heaven after we are saved God sees us as righteous because He sees Jesus’ righteousness within us (Gal. 2:16, Rom. 5:1-2). This means that God sees us clearly as unblameable and unreproveable in His sight (Col. 1:22). When we get to heaven and God asks us why we should enter his kingdom, we don’t have to say a word, because we will be seen as his son is seen, holy and unblameable, fit to enter the kingdom prepared for us by and because of Jesus (Matt. 25:34).

Ultimately, what God thinks of us, says of us, and how he sees us far outweighs what we may think of ourselves. If we are saved we need not condemn ourselves or let the enemy do so. If we falter and sin, which we will in this life because though we are declared righteous we’re not made righteous until heaven, we can repent and keep going, knowing all the while that God continues to see us as righteous and that our standing is secure (1 Jn. 1:9). Jesus’ death on the cross for you and your acceptance of that is a once and for all event. Once you are saved, you always will be. Cast your doubts on him, he can handle them, for Jesus will preserve you until you are called home and nothing will ever change that (Jn. 10:28-29).

“Jesus has given us every reason to believe that through him we can conqueror death. Through his word he has shown us the intentions of his heart toward us, described the fine details of his plan to save us, and presented us with compelling reasons for why we can trust him.”

Through death God glorifies us. In death, what is for the lost the beginning of an eternity separated from God in hell, is for us the beginning of our glorified life with Jesus for all eternity in heaven (Rom. 8:30). In fact, we are already glorified in this life though we await the redemption and perfected state of our souls and bodies (Heb. 11:1). Not only did Jesus conquer death, but he gave it a purpose. For the believer it is the doorway we must pass through to spend eternity in paradise at God’s side.
 
When the Bible refers to Jesus as a conqueror it means total victory and to prevail completely. We take part in God’s victory over death (Rom. 8:17, 1 Cor. 15:57). It’s a victory that nothing can stand against, not even death or suffering. We don’t have to worry about today or tomorrow, or let the past bother us (in fact the past isn’t even mentioned as something that can keep us from God’s love or hold back our victory in Jesus!) (Rom. 8:37-39). If you’re a Christian, you are victorious over death and the grave (1 Cor. 15:55, Acts 2:27).

God is for you. Because he is for us, nothing can stand against us, not even death (Rom. 8:31). We are always triumphant (2 Cor. 2:14), we are always winning the war. God goes before us (Deut. 31:8). Yes we will have troubles but God has overcome the world (Jn. 16:33). Isn’t it amazing that we have a savior who knows us, is for us, who thinks of us, and who has blessed us with ultimate victory over death? (Ps. 144:3)

Conclusion

Death is the most difficult reality we face. We have to confront it one way or another.
 
We can try to confront it by ourselves, or conquer it through Jesus. There are only two options. Man has no reasonable way on his own to answer death let alone overcome it. In fact, our attempts at overcoming death only wear us out.
 
Jesus came to save you from death, and to bring you back into a loving relationship with him for all eternity because you cannot make it on your own. That’s salvation, and it’s a gift from God (Eph. 2:8-9).
 
You can’t do anything to earn it, you can only accept it. That means admitting your sin, asking God to forgive you, trusting in his sacrifice on the cross for your sins and accepting his free offer of salvation (Rom. 10:9-10).

Jesus has given us every reason to believe that through him we can conqueror death. Through his word he has shown us the intentions of his heart toward us, described the fine details of his plan to save us, and presented us with compelling reasons for why we can trust him.
 
In a world that is desperately trying to overcome death on its own terms, what a blessing it is to be able to lay down our futile attempts and take Jesus at his word. Truly, the simplicity and beauty of God’s plans confuses the false wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 1:27).

Christians do not have to fear death, or pain in this life. We have confidence in a caring, personal God who is alive, is for us and who we can and must rely on to get us through the ups and downs of life, and ultimately death itself.

We conquer death because Jesus already has. Hallelujah what a savior!

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Image Credit: Lion on the Watch, c. 1885. Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904). The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.25.