After Susannah was threatened with death she cried:
I am in dire straits for if I would do this now, it is death to me, yet if I would not, I will not escape your hands, but it is better for me, having not done this, to fall into your hands than to sin against the Lord.
In commenting on this Hippolytus firmly declares that it is better to die for God, than to deny Him and live in this world. From what we know of Hippolytus, he followed his own advice and died as a martyr and witness of Christ. I am reminded once more of the countless believers who have died and still do die for Christ, surely God Himself will be their blessing.
Behold the words of the temperate woman who heeded God . She says ‘I am in dire straits,’ for the church is persecuted and oppressed by the Jews, but also the Gentiles and by those who falsely call themselves Christians, who always behold the temperance and tranquility of the church and use force to destroy her. Susannah says “Therefore if I would do this, it is death to me.” For to disobey God and to obey men is death and makes for eternal chastisement. “Yet if I would not, I will not escape your hands.” And she has said this truth, for those who are brought forward for the sake of the Name of Christ, if they would do what is commanded by men, they die to God, but live to the world, if they do not do what is commanded, they do not escape the hands of the judges, but being condemned by the same judges, they die.
For it is better for you, having not done what is commanded by men, to fall into their hands, than to sin before the Lord. For this is more profitable: to die at the hands of unrighteous men, so that we live with God, than, consenting to them and after being ruined by them, to fall into the hands of God. “For on account of this our Lord Jesus Christ also lived and died and rose again, so that he might reign over the living and the dead”