Our Final Victory

Our Final Victory

“Our Final Victory”
(1 Corinthians 15:50-58)
Series: Chaos & Correction (1 Corinthians)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

•Take your Bibles and join me in 1 Corinthians 15 (page 776; YouVersion).

We thank God for our volunteers who are praying for us in the morning worship services. Every Sunday morning we have volunteers praying through these doors over here in the prayer room. If you’d like to be part of that ministry, just let me know and we’ll put you on the rotation.

We’ve been preaching our way, verse-by-verse, through the Book of 1 Corinthians and have camped out here in chapter 15 for a few weeks. This morning we will finish the chapter as we read Paul’s concluding remarks about the Christian’s resurrection body, sometimes referred to as the Christian’s glorified body. This doctrine of the resurrection body is Paul’s chief concern here in chapter 15.

Some in the Corinthian church believed that while Christ rose from the dead, the bodies of Christians would not rise from the dead. This is the meaning behind Paul’s statement in verse 12, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”—that is, that there is no resurrection for the Christian.

We know that the Bible teaches that, for the Christian, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). At death, the Christian’s soul goes immediately to be with the Lord and the Christian’s body is buried. So there were some in the church at Corinth who believed that this was the end of the Christian’s body. Only the Christian’s spirit or soul went to heaven and the body was buried into the earth and done away with forever.

We may wonder why some of these Corinthians felt this way. Perhaps they were influenced by secular Greek philosophy and just didn’t believe a bodily resurrection made any sense. Perhaps they believed only the Christian’s spirit or soul was fit for heaven and there was no place for the physical in the realm of the spiritual. If so, then they were on to something here, because the body in its present form is unfit for heaven. And this is precisely what Paul is teaching in chapter 15.

Paul teaches that Jesus Christ’s resurrection demonstrates that Christ is the “firstfruits,” or the first of a great harvest of all who have died. Christ’s resurrection is prototypical of the Christian’s future resurrection. Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when He returns.

Paul teaches about the Christian’s new body using the analogy of a seed planted in the garden. He says, “When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first.” And he adds, “What you put in the ground is not the plant in its final form, but merely a seed that changes into something glorious. God gives it the new body He wants it to have, and the same is true for the Christian. When a Christian is buried, his body is placed in the ground and God one day changes that body into something glorious. God gives it a new body that He wants the Christian to have.

So the Christian’s human body is buried in brokenness, but raised in glory; a body buried in weakness, but raised in strength; sown a natural body; raised a spiritual body; buried in dishonor, raised in honor; buried a perishable body (remember: our bodies are perishable—we have a shelf life; an expiration date) buried perishable, raised as imperishable.

Paul continues this train of thought in the concluding verses of chapter 15, our text this morning, teaching that the Christian’s resurrected body fits him for heaven and clothes him with an everlasting visible testimony of Christ’s defeat over sin, death, and the grave. And Christ’s victory over sin and death is motivation for the Christian to stand true as he serves the Lord. Listen for that teaching as you hear the Word of God this morning.

•Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength 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 brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

•Pray.

Introduction:

I’m holding a funeral book for ministers. I recall buying this as a marked-down sales item in a bookstore in Louisville. The bookstore was going out of business and so it had a number of books marked-down and this was one of them. It’s called Standard Funeral Manual. I figured I would be needing something like this so I was glad to buy it and found myself using it before very long.

So I was at a graveside in Louisville, reading from the manual this very passage of Scripture we read a moment ago: “The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality,” and so forth. It’s printed here in the manual. The problem is, this printed text here in the manual contains a few typos—probably one reason I got it so cheap!—but there are typos in the words “mortal” and “immortality.” Specifically, the typo is that the letter “T” is missing. This changes the meaning drastically, if not dreadfully. Reading it as it appears in the manual, the passage goes this way:

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immorality (in other words we’ll be raised as those who are immoral!). When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the moral with immorality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Fortunately, I recall noting those typos while reading the passage at the funeral and was able to supply the correct words without embarrassing myself! I’ve actually gone back through the verses and added the letter “T” to the words, changing “immorality” to “immortality” and “moral” to “mortal.”

So every time I read this passage, I think of my little standard funeral manual and how even this funeral manual illustrates imperfection; that we live in an imperfect world, a post-Genesis 3 world where there are mistakes and blunders, typos and errors, sin and death. We live in a fallen world and yearn for the world to come, the final state of perfection, the kingdom of God in the final state of glorification.

In my study this week as I read this passage, I wrote down in my notes a few reasons why Christians can praise God. And you might consider this as something of a major heading atop of our outline this morning as we study verses 50-58. As I studied this passage, three words came to mind: transformation, domination, and motivation. So, Christians can Praise God for…and first:

I. Transformation of Self (50-54)

God will transform the Christian’s physical body into a spiritual body, a body fit for entrance into the kingdom of God. We touched on this last time when we looked at verse 50. Look at that again, verse 50:

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood (that is, a mere physical human body; flesh and blood) cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

Our human bodies in their present form cannot dwell in heaven. We noted last time that something has to change in us in order to “fit us” for heaven. God changes us internally though the power of the Gospel and fits us externally for the kingdom of God. We can’t enter into the kingdom of God as “flesh and blood,” as mere mortals. We have to be changed first internally, we’ve got to be born again, and then God changes us externally, giving us a glorified body to enter into the kingdom of God in the final state. It makes sense because we will be living ultimately in a place of utter perfection where our bodies will no longer be subject to disease, decay, destruction, or death. Total transformation of the self.

It’s like those fancy restaurants where a man cannot enter unless he is wearing a coat and tie. There’s a host at the door and he says to you, “Sir, you can’t come in here dressed like that.” You know, something needs to change. The guy is like, “Look, don’t you have a tie?” And you say, “No,” and he says, “Well here, take one of ours, now you are fitted to enter into this place.”

And there is a transformation that needs to take place in the Christian. We can’t enter into the final state of the kingdom of God looking like this. Something needs to change. We need a new body.

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed

Paul is talking about transformation. We shall not all “sleep.” We have noted that sleep is a metaphor for death. We shall not all “die,” but “we shall all be changed.”

So this is not a reference to those churches that have this sentence hanging in their nurseries. I appreciate the humor, actually. Use your imagination as you picture this line hanging above baby beds: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed!”

Transformation; the changing of the Christian’s body from a mortal body to an immortal body—not moral to immoral!—but mortal, to immortal; physical to spiritual; imperishable to perishable; this natural body will one day be a glorified body like Christ’s. Remember His body is prototypical of the Christian’s body.

And Paul describes this transformation in verse 51 as a “mystery.” That’s the word he uses there in verse 51: “Behold, I tell you a mystery.” When we hear the word mystery we tend to think of the unknown and things that puzzle us.

When Paul uses the term mystery, the word means a truth that once was hidden but is now out in the open. New Testament mystery is a fact that has always been, but is only now revealed. It’s like a thing in a box that is hidden until the top is removed so you can see it.

And Paul says the Christian’s transformation—the changing of the body from the current form to the final glorified form—is this kind of a mystery. It’s a truth that was formerly hidden, something no human being could discover until now, now that God through Paul has revealed the truth in the New Testament.

We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed. It’s an amazing statement. First, “We shall not all die.” That’s true. Some will not die. Those who are alive when Christ returns will not die. Those who are alive when Christ returns will receive a new, glorified body at the moment Christ returns. Paul teaches that truth in a parallel passage, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4. Listen as I read it:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

We will not all die. Some of us are hoping to be alive when Christ returns. Woody Allen is known for saying, “I don’t fear death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” And even the Christian may naturally fear the unknown. We know that at death, the Christian’s soul goes to be with the Lord, but wouldn’t it be even more marvelous never to experience death at all! Paul says that will be true for some: “We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.”

How quickly will that change occur? How quickly will that bodily transformation happen? Verse 52:

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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

The word “moment” there is the word from which we get our English word “atom,” the tiny particle once thought to be indivisible. This word used in the context of time or duration, as Paul is using it here in verse 52, refers to a moment occurring so quickly as to be indivisible from any other possible moment.

It’s like taking a half and then halving that and then cutting that moment in half and then cutting the next moment in half—and continuing on like that—until there are no more moments to cut in half so that what remains is precisely the very last indivisible “moment” when our bodies are changed.

So there is like this infinitesimal moment that happens so quickly, and in this moment the Christian’s body is changed from the mortal to the immortal, from the perishable to the imperishable. Total transformation. An approximation is “the twinkling of an eye,” when the light bounces off one’s eye, the twinkle. The body changes that quickly. So if we’re alive when Christ returns, we’ll see our bodies change instantaneously to a glorified body.

Paul says this moment will occur, verse 52, “at the last trumpet.” He adds, “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” The “last trumpet” signifies the coming of Christ. It’s the same trumpet mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

Did you think of this when you sang that chorus earlier?

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

When the trumpet sounds, will you “in Him be found?” Will you be found “in Christ?”
Will you be “dressed in His righteousness” or dressed in your own righteousness?
Only by having Christ’s righteousness imputed to you will you be “faultless to stand before the throne.”

Paul continues teaching about the Christian’s transformation in verses 53 and following:

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

And that phrase, “Death is swallowed up in victory,” comes from the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 25. The Christian’s death is swallowed up in victory, or consumed, or defeated of it’s power. Through the resurrection, Christ defeats the enemy of death. It looked as though death won—and in one sense it did; Christ died—but on the third day, Christ arose and “Death was swallowed up in victory” and so, Paul continues in verse 55:

55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

In the New King James, that second line that has “O Hades” is probably better taken as “Death” again. This is how the oldest Greek manuscripts have it: “O death, where is your sting? O death, where is your victory?
These questions are allusions to the Prophet Hosea in Hosea 13. Paul uses these questions as the Christian’s taunting of death. Because of Christ’s resurrection and the Christian’s future resurrection, the Christian may scoff at death, jeer at death, and taunt it. It’s as if the Christian can say, “Hey, death! You’re not so strong, after all! Where is your sting?! Where is your victory?!”

In the words of one David Garland: “[The sting] enables death to exercise its dominion over the entire world, but its venom has been absorbed by Christ and drained of its potency so that the victory over death now belongs to God and to God’s people, who benefit from it.”

So this takes us to the second reason we can praise God. Christians can praise God for Transformation of Self. Secondly, Christians can praise God for:

II. Domination over Sin (55-57)

Christ’s resurrection from the dead illustrates His domination over sin. Sin had a sting to it and that sting is death itself. Sin had a power to it and that power was the law. This is what Paul reviews in verse 56:

56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

Because Christ dominates over sin, He conquers the weighty demands of both death and the law.

Christ died for our sin, absorbing sin’s sting. And Christ fulfilled the legal requirements of the moral law, the law that pointed up man’s sin and made sin’s punishment just and binding. Christ fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law and died for our sin. His resurrection on the third day demonstrates that Christ has absorbed the venom of sin, the sting of death.

So Christ’s resurrection is a demonstration of Christ’s dominance over sin. That’s why Paul says what he says in verse 57:

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ’s resurrection demonstrates that the penalty of sin has been paid and the power of sin has been broken. Christ has taken away, then, the very power of death itself.

Because Christ dominates over sin, He obtains for us not just forgiveness of sin, and not just the salvation of our soul, but also the promise of a resurrection body. Christ did all this by absorbing the sting of death.

Galatians 3:13, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).”

1 Peter 2:24, “[Christ] Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.”

Christ pays the penalty for our sins by dying, and thus satisfying the curse of the law by dying for our sin, and through the resurrection, absorbing the sting of death.

This is why the Christian can taunt death. This is why the Christian can say with Paul, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This is why Christian’s grieve differently than non-Christians at the funeral of a loved one who died in the Lord. The sting of death has been absorbed by Christ Jesus. There is no fear or uncertainty about where that Christian loved one is. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8) and one day Christ will return and raise even this Christian’s body that we are now burying. Through death, burial, and resurrection, Christ has absorbed the sting of death.

Picture a father playing outside with his young daughter. The two of them are in the sandbox playing in the sand. Here comes an annoying honey bee buzzing all over the place. The little girl is frightened by the buzzing of the bee. And picture that father waving his hand and then the bee lands on his hand and stings his hand, sticking that stinger deep into his flesh. As the honey bee pulls away, it buzzes off more slowly now, harmless to that little girl and powerless to harm anyone ever again. All it can do is buzz and eventually it is no more. The sting was absorbed by the father.

So Christ has come to absorb the annoying buzzing prospect of death. He places Himself upon the cross and exposes His flesh to death’s stinger. Christ absorbs the sting of death and death buzzes away more slowly now, harmless to the Christian, ultimately powerless over the Christian’s body and soul. All it can do is buzz and eventually it is no more. The sting has been absorbed by Christ.

Christians can praise God for Transformation of Self; Domination over Sin and, thirdly, Christians can praise God for:

III. Motivation to Serve (58)

The resurrection is the Christian’s motivation to keep going, to keep moving, to keep working, to keep serving. That’s verse 58, one of those great “Therefore-s” in the Bible. Remember: When you see a “therefore” ask what it is “there” for.

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

So again, Paul teaches that theology matters. Paul shows that it is wrong for us to divorce theology from practical living. Verse 58 is there because of all that precedes it. The theology of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is the supreme motivation for daily living.

Here’s how to live between today and death. Want to know how to live between now and death? Verse 58. Be steadfast, stand true! Be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Don’t stop sharing the Gospel. Always abound in the work of the Lord. Don’t stop being missional. Always abound in the work of the Lord. People need the same saving Gospel message you have heard and received.

Other people need to hear about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They need to hear this more than anything else we have to say or do. Our most important prayers are not for people’s physical health, but for their spiritual health.

Daniel Henderson of Strategic Renewal Ministry asks, “Isn’t it odd in our prayers that we spend most of time praying to keep people out of heaven who are headed there, than we do praying lost people into heaven who aren’t headed there?”

Wow, hear that again: “Isn’t it odd in our prayers that we spend most of time praying to keep people out of heaven who are headed there, than we do praying lost people into heaven who aren’t headed there?”

Pray for the lost. Share the Gospel. Spread the good news from this community to the continents.

Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

This is why as Paul says in Philippians 3:20-21, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

Are you “eagerly waiting for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ?”

Do you long for the return of this Savior? Not a political Savior. We often chide the Jews in the New Testament for missing the Messiah because they were looking for a political Messiah.

What about you? Do you think we can fix all of America’s problems by electing the right person a week from Tuesday? We should vote. I will and I hope you will, too. But we live in a fallen world and God’s plan for this world trumps whatever may happen even in our own country. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, from sin and death and the grave.

Ultimately we yearn not merely for a better country, but for a better kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the final state of utter perfection where all of God’s children of every nationality will live one with another in perfect peace, harmony, and unity.

Until then, “Eagerly wait for the Savior.” Until then, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

•Stand for prayer.

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