O death, where is your sting?

I Corinthians 15:51-57 (NIV)

Listen, I tell you a mystery:  We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 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.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 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. 

Everyone loves a mystery, right?  Even 2,000 years ago or so, Paul used language to grab the attention of his readers-----‘shhhhhh…….I tell you a mystery……….’ and now he has everyone’s attention!  The Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary’s first definition of a mystery is “a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand”.  Biblical mysteries are truths previously unknown, but revealed by God through His Word.  Mysteries in the Bible include

·  What the Kingdom of Heaven is like (Matthew 13:11)

·  Why Israel has a hardening of the heart toward the gospel (Romans 11:25)

·  Why is God’s wisdom different than our (I Corinthians 2:7)

·  What is God’s will (Ephesians 1:9)

·  Marriage (Ephesians 5:32) (most men would agree about this….women too!!)

·  Who Jesus is (Colossians 2:2, 4:3)

·  Why so much lawlessness in the world (II Thessalonians 2:7)

·  Explain faith (I Timothy 3:9)

·  Explain godliness (I Timothy 3:16)

·  Explain prophetic images such as Revelation 1:20, 10:7, 17:5,7

Albert Einstein is quoted as stating: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

The mystery Paul is referring to in this passage is the Rapture, the snatching out of this world those Christians who are still alive to be united with Christians who have previously died.  Both groups of people will be changed.  The “perishable” refer to previously dead Christians whose bodies have been returned to the dust.  The “mortal” are those who were raptured alive.  Both groups are given imperishable and immortal bodies.  All this will happen within 1/50,000 of a second, the speed of the twinkling of the eye. 

I play the trumpet and sometimes when I blow a really loud note, I think of this passage as well as the Revelation passages (Revelation 6-8) where the trumpet is sounded.  Trumpet is mentioned over 100 times in the Bible and its sound is useful for several purposes including gathering of people, the start or stop of a battle, the crowning of a king, and a warning signal for the coming of the Lord.  The seven trumpets are the second of three series of seven judgments found in Revelation 8-11.  

The end of this passage is most often used by faithful believers as the promise from God that death is not to be feared, that faith in God enables all believers to be victorious over death just as Jesus defeated death via His resurrection.  Thus, the sting or terror of death is removed for the believer.  “There is only one belief that can rob death of its sting and the grave of its victory.  For without that you cannot be born again.” -- George Bernard Shaw

 

Be sure daily to God through Jesus who has given His children this power, this victory over the stronghold of the fear and reality of death.  What a wonderful blessing, be glad in it!