Death Has No Sting

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

DEATH HAS NO STING

1 Cor 15:50-58

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 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."   55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"  56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

NIV

We just had to deal with these verses one more time, because we wanted to focus on the question, although rhetorical in some sense. “death has been swallowed up in victory,” “Where, O Death is your sting?” Paul is quoting from the prophet Hosea when he speaks for the Lord, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? Surely, as it happened, God told the people through the prophet that He would redeem His people, which, of course, at the time meant Israel, but now because of Jesus, all the Gentiles, or us are included in this redemption. Therefore, the sting of the grave has no meaning for us, because the grave cannot hold us, its sting is no more. It is interesting that we hear those who do not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but simply say they believe in God and therefore they will go to heaven when they die. We hear others who don’t even say they put their trust in God or in Jesus but believe because they are a good person they will go to heaven. It would seem to us they are just trying to avoid thinking about the sting of death, the grave. It is true that all of us who live in this flesh and blood body will see the end of this life. We will all see death in one respect. However, there is a difference as to our temporary spiritual home for to be absent from the body is to be present somewhere else. For us who believe and put our trust in Jesus as our Savior, we will be in his presence. For those who have never trusted Jesus, or refused to accept Him as their Lord and Savior, their temporary spiritual residence is sheol, or hades, the subterranean retreat including all its accessories and inmates. At least this is the Hebrew would that Hosea used for the grave. We see this played out in the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. Yet, we also know that all flesh will be resurrected to stand before God for the final judgment. Those of us who believe will be judged righteous as we are in Christ and will hear those words. “Come and enter into my rest, good and faithful servant”, while those that Hades has given up, will be judged and condemned to the lake of burning sulfur. Thus, the grave has a horrible sting for them, but it holds no sting for us, for death has been swallowed up in victory by Jesus, whom we know as our Lord and our Savior. We know this is harsh and that we have loved ones who at least at present, do not see Jesus as Lord and Savior, but everything is up to God, we cannot judge them or condemn them, for that is only up to God and we know that He loves them as He does us, and He will do whatever He does to bring them to himself, we simply are required to love them. Therefore, we rejoice in this life because of Jesus, and we will rejoice in the life to come, because of Jesus, and we will rejoice as we take our last breath in this flesh and blood body, for we will be changed forever into a spiritual body unable to ever see death again. So, death has no sting!