Because He Lives - Death Has Lost it's Sting

1 Corinthians 15:51-57

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. That phrase was spoken weekly, illustrated by video clips depicting victory and defeat, on ABC’s wide world of sports. We’ve seen it illustrated recently with two come-from-behind victories in the March madness finals. We saw it last Sunday as Rory McIlroy had a commanding lead, lost it, regained it again, only to miss his putt on 18 and have to go to a playoff. Then, finally, he make his putt on the first playoff hole completing his goal of winning the Masters and completing the grand slam of major tournaments. But, as thrilling as a victory in sports might feel on the day of victory, the thrill soon fades. Now you have to work just as hard, or even harder, to try to defend your title. Few ever do. And no one does forever.

Why is that? Paul makes it clear. It is because we are perishable. It is because we are mortal. Muhammad Ali used to proclaim that he was the greatest. Not many years later he had trouble walking and talking because he began to suffer from Parkinsons. He was no longer the greatest. If you were athletic in High School or College, you have probably experienced the results of your perishability if you decided that you were going to join your kids or grandkids in a game of basketball or take them on in a race. You quickly realized that what your brain said you could do, your body said, “no way baby. That’s not happening,” as those kids or grandkids let you experience the agony of defeat in more than one way. Not only did they win the victory, but your body hurt for days.

Why is that? Why do our bodies slow down, wear out. Why do our knees hurt? Why can’t we run and jump like we used to? Like it or not, the answer is sin. Before sin entered the world there was no perishability. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, their bodies would have remained just as strong and healthy as the moment God breathed life into them. If they had not sinned, they would have been able to run and jump just as well at 110 as the day they were created. They would never have experienced aching knees or torn muscles. Their bodies were not subject to aging. In fact, they were not subject to death. If they had not sinned, they would have lived forever with perfect bodies. But we know that’s not what happened.

What did happen was, despite God’s clear warning that if they ate of the forbidden fruit they would die, they ate. Unlike what you probably expected to hear when you were in Sunday School, they didn’t fall over dead the moment they ate that fruit in disobedience to God. But the moment they ate the forbidden fruit they did become perishable. The effects of sin infected their bodies. Now their joints would wear out. Now their hearing and eyesight would slowly begin to fail, and one day, even their heart would fail, and they would die.

The Bible says that the corruptibility and death that entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned has been passed on to each of us. It says, Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. And it says, In Adam all die.

Death is our foe. Pauls calls it the last enemy to be defeated. Ever since Adam and Eve, humans have been trying to win the victory over death. We have created all kinds of medications, come up with all kinds of surgeries. We can even do heart transplants, lung transplants, kidney transplants—amazing things! But none of them give us the thrill of victory over death. We still experience the agony of defeat when even the best Doctor says, their body is just worn out, there’s nothing else we can do.

But corruptibility and death aren’t the worst of it. The worst thing is that there is another kind of death. Revelation calls it the second death. We often call it eternal death, Hell. Adam and Eve were in danger of the second death as they tried to hide from God, and then blame each other, and even God, for what they had done. Their sin had separated them from God. But, in his grace, God sought them out. He called them to repentance and promised to send them and all their descendants a savior. By trusting God’s gracious promise, though they still faced physical death, they were rescued from eternal death.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to run and jump like you used to when you were young? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have knees that never hurt, muscles that never got sore, bones that never break, bodies that never got sick or worn out? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be victorious over corruptibility and even death itself? Paul says we have those things.

Paul reminds us that this victory is not something we can win by training, or following the best diet, or anything else that we do. This is a victory that someone else had to win for us.

Paul assures us that a time is coming when we will all have bodies like Adam and Eve had before they sinned. What is now corruptible will become incorruptible. What is now mortal will become immortal. We will have bodies that will no longer be subject to aging, pain or death. And he tells us when this will happen and why.

When? 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. When? When Jesus returns in glory in the clouds and all the angels with him. Of course, we don’t know exactly when that will be, and we are not to try to predict when it will be. But suddenly, at God’s perfect timing, like a thief in the night, Jesus will return. When he does, all the dead, everyone who has ever lived, from Adam and Eve, to all our closest relatives, to the last person to die moments before his return—everyone will be raised from the dead. And all those who are still living on the earth at that moment, together with the dead who have been raised, will receive imperishable, immortal bodies.

How is this possible? Because Jesus served as the Second Adam, as our substitute. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit so that he was born without sin. Scripture assures us that he lived his whole life without sinning even once. So, we might ask, why did he die if he was without sin? The answer? Because he chose to take on our sin. He allowed the Father to focus the just punishment we all deserve on himself instead of on us. This allowed the Father to be just and at the same time to justify those who have faith in Jesus.

Scripture says, Jesus was put to death because of our sins, but he was raised to life because we have been justified. Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

After Jesus became alive on Easter Sunday morning He went and proclaimed his victory over Satan and his demons, and then he began showing himself alive, to Mary, to the women, to Peter, to the eleven, to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, to over 500 different people. It is said that the physical resurrection of Jesus has more eyewitnesses than many other events we take for granted as being true.

Because Jesus lived and died in our place, and then rose in victory on the third day, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” The thing that threatens to devour us has been devoured by Jesus. We can say with confidence, “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. We can say it with confidence because God GIVES us the victory. We didn’t win the victory. It was impossible for us to do so. The victory has been won for us by Jesus and is given to us by grace through faith in Jesus.

The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat. Because there is sin in the world and because we sin, we do experience corruptibility, and we should experience the worst defeat of all, eternal death, eternal separation from God in Hell. But, because Jesus lives, we instead experience the thrill of victory. It’s not a temporary victory like winning a sporting event, or even a war. It’s a permanent victory. It’s a victory that’s ours right now through faith, and that we will experience fully when the last trumpet sounds and we will all be changed. Then this perishable will have put on imperishability, and this mortal will have put on immortality. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Because Jesus lives death has lost it’s sting!