Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Sometimes a good book ends with a final chapter called an ‘epilogue’. It’s not only the end of the story, it seems to give us a summary of the significance of the story and perhaps a chance to sit back and reflect on what life will be like after the plot of the story concludes.
Over the past several days you and I have been looking closely at one of the most powerful chapters ever written in any book. The 15th chapter of the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Christians in the great city of Corinth in the middle of the first century. The reason this chapter is so significant 2000 years later is that every word applies to our time just as much as it did 20 centuries ago.
So today, let’s look at what we might call the ‘epilogue’ of this great chapter, 1 Corinthians 15:54: “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory! Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!! Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm! Let nothing move you.” (1 Cor. 15:54-58)
Paul, the author, strikes right to the core of the matter. Death has always been a frightening mystery to all people in all places, all societies, through all time. This week we’ve learned from Paul that we need not fear death because the power of death is defeated in the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ! As God defeated death by raising Jesus back to life again and giving Jesus an immortal, healed body, so EVERY human being will one day experience this very same type of resurrection!
What we know as ‘death’ is NOT the end of life! We, each and all of us humans who have ever lived on this planet, will one day be resurrected from our death by God and given an immortal, healed body as Jesus received! Does this stir deeply in your spirit my friends, that our victory over death, and our entrance into life immortal, in our glorified, heavenly bodies, is ONLY possible through Jesus Christ and what He accomplished in His atonement death and His victorious resurrection?
For the Jewish people who heard or read Paul’s 15th chapter of 1st Corinthian, they were familiar with their prophets of old, as Paul was, and they recognized here that Paul was quoting from one of the most famous prophets, Isaiah, and one of the obscure, Hosea! 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Jewish prophet Isaiah was led of the Holy Spirit to paint a verbal picture of the death and resurrection of Jesus when Isaiah wrote: “On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up their death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove His people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 25:6-8)
The “He“ who Isaiah speaks of is Jesus Christ, God incarnate. The “mountain” Isaiah speaks of is Golgotha where Jesus was crucified, outside the wall of Jerusalem. (Matt. 27) The ‘shroud‘ Isaiah spoke of is inescapable death which has awaited every person since the days of Adam and Eve.
Now my friends, isn’t it true that the words of Paul in 1st Corinthians 15, about the certainty of resurrection and eternal life in heaven with God, available to all peoples through Jesus Christ, absolutely wipes away the tears of death? For with the resurrection of Jesus we see death as a transition from this brief earthly life filled with the challenges and pain of the human journey to a glorious, pain free eternal life with Jesus!
That, my friends, is why a few years later Paul wrote these words to his Christian friends in Philippi: “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ Jesus will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in this body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two; I desire to depart this life and be WITH Jesus Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith…” (Phil.1:20-25)
Oh, how Paul longed for heaven, yet he also wanted to make every day on earth count by helping more people learn about the present and eternal hope found in Jesus. May I ask my friends, do these words describe you and me? Is it beneficial to everyone who knows you, that you are alive on planet earth and as their friend you are bringing the hope and help of Jesus into their life? Yet do you find yourself sometimes longing for heaven and the eternity which awaits you there with Jesus?
In closing, may I show you the other Old Testament prophet Paul quoted in what I am calling the ‘epilogue’ of 1st Corinthians 15? While Isaiah had been speaking God’s message of warning and hope to the people of Jerusalem, a voice was also shouting God’s warning and hope to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel, and his name was Hosea. In the 13th chapter of Hosea’s messages, he gave this word from the LORD God Almighty again pointing forward to the time of Jesus: “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O Death, is your power? Where O Death is your destruction?” (Hosea 13:14)
If death is the end of all things, then yes, death is to be feared, but death is not the end, it is a transition. That’s why Paul, as he neared the end of his life, wrote this final, great message of confidence to his dear friend Timothy: “The time for my ‘departure’ is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the LORD, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day – and not only to me but to all who long for His appearing!“ (2 Tim. 4:7,8)
Do you hear Paul’s confidence that death is not final, it is a transition to immortality? Do you hear Paul’s confidence that for him, and ALL those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, death transitions us into the very Presence of Holy God, where a crown of holiness will be awarded to us by the resurrected and reigning Jesus Christ Himself!!
Are you living this Friday with the confidence that if this is your last day on earth, the moment you breathe your last here, you will be immediately transported by God Himself, into God’s presence in heaven?
Do you understand and agree that this confidence is found ONLY in Jesus Christ, the only person to have ever been resurrected from the dead, defeating death, and raised to eternal life in God’s Presence?
This my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends all over the world, is why Paul’s final words of 1 Corinthians 15 are so powerful for all people of all time: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory! Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!! Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm! Let nothing move you.” (1 Cor. 15:53-58) Oh my, such great words of victory and hope available in our victorious, redeemed, relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. That’s why I’ve selected this great song to conclude these powerful several days we’ve lingered in 1 Corinthians 15.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Cor. 15:53-58.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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