And Death Shall Have No Dominion

By Matt Watson

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet’” 1 Cor 15:20-27a.

“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him” Rom 6:9.

There are two very important truths from these passages that we need to know about regarding the resurrection of Jesus: 1) The last enemy to be destroyed by Jesus is death, and 2) death has no dominion over Jesus.

Jesus' resurrection is the instrument that secures our justification by taking the death penalty of sin upon himself. If he is our substitute in death, then he is our substitute in life as well (“so also in Christ shall all be made alive,” 1 Cor 15:22). Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth, and as such, every other authority, ruler, and power has been subjugated by him and delivered to God the Father. Death is one of those powers. But Jesus’ defiance of death in the resurrection is a victory cry over a future battle; the empty tomb is the death knell for death itself.

Since Jesus has dominion over all things, death has no dominion over Jesus. It is powerful, yes. It is unavoidable, painful, and full of grief. But it is not permanent. It cannot and will not rule forever, because Jesus defeated it at the resurrection, and will complete its defeat at the end of all things.

While we must wait for the last toll of the bell before death no longer has dominion and is subjugated under Jesus’ feet, we must also remember that it will be defeated. All those who have died before us and will die after us, if they have Jesus, then death will have no dominion over them too. All who belong to the King can say, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:54b-55).

These two truths were incredibly helpful for me when my uncle died in 2013 from sudden pancreatic cancer. He was only 51. In a lot of ways I am more similar to my uncle than my cousins, and I owe a lot of my personality, interests, and growing up to him. So when he began to wither away and then die after being a man so full of life, it was obviously hard on me. I was numb and confused, unsure of how to feel in the moment, and scared to feel too much.

God’s providence brought me to 1 Corinthians 15, and there I saw that death was not just a thing I had to accept as a part of life, but also an enemy. This allowed me to have permission to grieve and go to God with my pain. However, death is not just an enemy, but one that cannot exist with Jesus’ kingdom (Rev 21:5), and would be destroyed, so I knew I didn’t need to stay in my grief and there would be an end to it.

Satan would have us believe that death is permanent, and it is to a certain extent, that once a person dies they can never repent to God or take action in any way. But while it is final, it is not eternal. Only God is everlasting. Death is not a dirt nap or a state of becoming worm food. It is a big transitional step for our souls to the next phase of life. Though our bodies may be dead, we are not just material bodies. We are bodies with souls. But it doesn’t stop there, for Jesus was resurrected and we too will share a bodily resurrection with him, a real, physical, material resurrection (1 Cor 15:42-49).

Let this comfort you, Christian, for none of us will escape the pain of death, whether of someone we love, or ourselves. Death is rarely timely for us. When a fellow believer dies, the pain and grief we feel are for ourselves because we do not get to spend time with that person any longer. However, it is not pain or grief for them, but glory and joy, for they are with our Lord. Our hope in seeing them again is not therapeutic wishful thinking, it's a faith in the power and victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over death.

Grief seems intolerably long-lived, but death shall have no dominion. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s wound by the Black Rider’s blade still aches even after Sauron is overthrown, reminding us that some wounds are not healed on this side of heaven. The pain of loss might never fade away completely, but no matter what hell this life tries to bring upon us, as Christ’s people sharing in his resurrection, death shall have no dominion.

He is with us in the fire and the flames, as well as the twisting waves of the flood (Isa 43:2). If we, as poet Dylan Thomas says, sink “under the windings of the sea”, buried with Jesus in baptism, then we are raised with him in the new life, and so death shall have no dominion.

The resurrection is both how death will be defeated and how it will no longer rule as it does. We must remember this and rejoice in this Resurrection Sunday. If Christmas declares, “For unto us a King is born!” then Easter declares, “For unto us the King is victorious!” The resurrection of Jesus is a victory over sin, death, and Satan. The King’s executioner is dead. And death shall have no dominion.