There is an important understanding that is necessary regarding overcoming. Overcoming in the Bible does not mean that you always get out of trials or conquer the trials by surviving them physically. For us today, especially as Americans, overcoming is equated with winning. You overcome the odds, and win the Super Bowl. You win the game by overcoming and making the game winning shot.
In the New Testament overcoming can be a reference to dying well. In 2 Timothy 4.6 Paul says he is being poured out as a drink offering and that the time of his departure from this earth is at hand. In verse 7 he states that he has fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith. Paul goes on to say, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18). There is no suggestion, and there never has been, that Paul was anticipating being raptured to heaven before he was killed. Thus being rescued “from every evil attack” is not a reference to Paul being raptured. “The Lord will rescue me” meant there was no evil deed that would happen to Paul which could make him deny his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Rather, Paul sees death as the means through which he is rescued from evil and brought safely into Christ’s heavenly kingdom.
Hebrews 11 holds up great people of faith; some accomplished great feats through the power of the Lord. However, the list starts with a person who was killed and ends with people of whom the world is not worthy, who wandered in caves and were sawn in two. By faith some people stopped the mouths of lions, and by the same faith some people died well.
In Revelation 2:10-11 the one who is faithful in the midst of tribulation until death is the one who overcomes. They are the ones who conquer and are given the crown of life.
Thus, a person who “overcomes” is one whose faith is not shattered to the point where they deny Christ in order to get out of the testing or trials. The “one who overcomes” prefers death over denying Christ as the means of finding release from the trials. For after all, Christ has overcome death and he will bring us safely into his kingdom (1 Corinthians 15).
Now we don’t live in Egypt or Pakistan or North Korea. Death for our faith is not likely to happen. For us it is more ridicule and the temptation to do ungodly actions and attitudes to get out of the midst of the trials that we are in. For us it is more the temptation to act like non-Christians to get ahead.
May we, with the power of the Holy Spirit, be overcomers in this life.