Revelation Chapter Two, Unhurt By The Second Death

Revelation 2:11 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”’

This is the second overcomer passage in Revelation; the first being Revelation 2:7. First the overcomer was promised access to the tree of life, and now not being hurt by the second death. It would do well for us to remember what it means to be an overcomer.

If you peruse a dictionary definition of what an overcomer is, you might come across something like this: “A person who successfully deals with or triumphs over challenges, difficulties, or adversity.” Now are there challenges, difficulties or adversity in the Christian life? Read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, or just re-read the Bible. The people of God often intensely suffer for their faith. Hebrews chapter 11 details the triumphs of the faith, and the tragedies endured as one perseveres in the faith. But from God’s perspective, both triumphing over challenges and enduring them are victories in our faith. Whether we put to flight the enemy, or endure ten days of prison unto death, it is gain.

But this is not what the overcomer is here, because the promise of the overcomer is directly attached to our position in Christ. If Ephesus wasn’t clear enough, then Smyrna makes it clearer. Those who overcome (again, see 1 John 5:4, 5) do so on the merits of Christ. We have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. We surrender death, loneliness, spiritual torpor, sin and Hell and receive forgiveness, blessing, righteousness, grace and Heaven. The overcomer does not triumph because we endure; we triumph because of who we know and have chosen to associate ourselves with. It is Jesus our Lord who triumphs, and we vicariously triumph with Him and through Him.

The second death is a phrase used exclusively in Revelation, and it is employed four times, primarily at the end of the book. If believers receive the New Birth, or a Second Birth, then unbelievers receive a second death. The Bible says of Christians: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8:37-39. What an amazing passage in Scripture detailing the believer’s eternal security! Nothing in this created universe, including Satan or ourselves, can separate the believer from God if we have passed from death to life in Christ. Couple this passage with John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” If no created thing can remove a believer from Christ, and God Himself avowed that He would never do so, then the life we are born into as Christians truly is eternal, the Second Birth, John 3:3.

The second death is an all consuming prison, which will house unbelievers, demons, Satan, Hell, and Death itself. It is the absence of God, and therefore the absence of spiritual life. All that remains is sinful carnality. While the saints will enjoy (and do enjoy) eternal bliss and peace, serving the Lord, Revelation is clear what happens to the rest of humanity that rejects and resists the gospel. John refers to those who suffer the second death as being “outside.” “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie,” Revelation 22:15. Peter speaks of those considered dogs in Scripture, “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them,” 2 Peter 2:21. “A dog returns to his own vomit,” Peter tells us, verse 22. The vomit is the old life of unsaved carnality. The hearer rejects the gospel, and now more guilty than not having heard it, returns to spiritual rebellion. It is not surprising then to find them listed first among those who will be cast into outer darkness, Matthew 22:13, 25:30.

The second death is the Lake of Fire, Revelation 20:14. This is God’s maximum security prison created for Lucifer and his rebel angels (Matthew 25:41), inherited by man because of our choice to side with and serve the Devil and self over God. Those who overcome will not experience this because, “he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life,” John 5:24. “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thessalonians 5:9. All praise be to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ for this indescribable gift!