1 Corinthians 15:50-58--Death Is Swallowed Up In Victory

1 Corinthians 15:50-58
English Standard Version

Mystery and Victory
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

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Paul is so overcome by the certainty of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the coming Resurrection of the Church that he will break out in praise here--maybe this is just poetry, but I have a feeling this is maybe a song that they would have been familiar with.

Verse 50 summarizes what we've just said last time about the seed and the plant that comes from it and how there needs to be a new type of body that is fit for heaven--one made in the image of the Second Adam, the Last Adam, the Better Adam--in the image of the Son of God as we will be called sons of God by adoption in the kingdom of God.  We will need to be able to receive the inheritance of an imperishable kingdom that is eternity in communion with God.  This body that is stained by sin is not fit for that because it is perishable and it cannot stand in the presence of a holy God.  Therefore we are going to have to "change clothes" so to speak before going into the presence of the Lord so that we will be clothed in the righteousness of Christ (and who wouldn't want to change clothes before going to meet the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?).

Only then will we be able to say/sing with Paul that death has been defeated as the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Death and Hell will die the Second Death in the Lake of Fire along with the devil and his angels (the demons) and all those who found to be in sin and in the first Adam who fell when the day of judgment comes--on those who are in Christ will enter the kingdom.

We are no longer under the curse of sin or the Law--see the book of Galatians and all the blogs about this if you want to read more about sin and the Law.  We'll also go back and study the book of Romans soon and that will be and even deeper dive into the arguments from the book of Galatians that we studied.

So then we should live as those who have a certain and sure victory--a victory that has already been won.  There are still battles that we fight from day to day, but they are just the remnants of an enemy who has already been defeated that doesn't want to admit that the war is over.  Have you ever met anyone like that?  They were soldiers in a war and in their mind the war will never be over until every last one of their enemies is dead.  That is the promise of that glorious day.  One day all of His enemies will be defeated and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  Until then, we do the work that we are called and equipped to do by the power of the Holy Spirit knowing that our labor (the work of the Holy Spirit within us and through us) is not in vain.