“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54b-55 ESV)
The Apostle Paul argued, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised” (1 Corinthians 16 ESV). If both are not raised, neither are nor will be raised.
You could be at two different funerals. At the graveside of one, you stare at the casket of an unbeliever and know dust is returning to dust. Their spirit has gone on to their abode into a Christ-less eternity. The other is a believer in Christ, whose mortal remains are also returning to dust, but we have that great hope that we will see them again because just as Jesus rose from his grave, so shall all true believers. 1 Corinthians 15:23 ESV Christ describes his resurrection as the “first fruits” of ours.
The commentator Matthew Henry describes putting the body of a Christian into a grave as planting a seed in the soil. Our body will remain in the ground and undergo natural changes, but then, on the Great Day of the Lord, it will sprout forth to a glorified body like a seed becomes a plant. Paul uses this analogy vs. 35-36 when he addresses the two objections’ people have to the resurrection of the dead: how can this happen, and what will the body be like? Paul says don’t be foolish; you see it around you all the time when a seed falls into the ground, dies, and comes back to life. The seed is changed in form, from a seed to a plant, just as God will change our bodies from the perishable to the imperishable. Is it too hard for a God who made something out of nothing, his creation, to take something old and make it new? In the natural, death follows life, and in the spiritual, life follows death.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, keep your eye on the prize. We will meet him in the air, all because of his victory over death on resurrection morning, as the songwriter wrote (Jim Hill 1955).
What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
And I look upon his face
The one who saved me by his grace
When he takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land
What a day, glorious day that will be.
Image used by permission from Microsoft.
Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing and Broken Vessels through Kindle Direct Publishing.
Ken’s Website— https://kenbarnes.us/
Ken blogs at https://kenbarnes.us/blog/
Email- [email protected]
