Christ’s Victory is Our Victory
Truth Taught- Jesus has won the victory over sin and death so that by faith we too can share in all His benefits.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
The biblical Gospel of saving grace tells us that the things God requires for salvation are the very things we cannot do. We cannot believe the way God requires us to believe to be saved. So, God works to give to us saving faith. We cannot obey the Law like God requires, so He sent His perfect Son to obey the Law for us. We cannot pray the way God requires, so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us in God honoring prayer.
There was a clear difference between Saint Augustine and Jacob Arminius. Augustine taught that man cannot achieve the things God requires and it is God who gives to fallen man the very things needed to please Him. Arminius taught that man can in his own power please God. The Church listened to these two theologians and sided with Augustine, who prayed God grant me the things needed to please You.
Augustine and the Church understood that the Gospel of Grace was the only way people could be saved and the only way God receives the glory for our salvation. Arminius’ view was rightly judged to be unbiblical and therefore heresy.
Our text today is another requirement of God that we cannot achieve. You see, we are not ready to enter into the fulness of God’s Kingdom. We are not ready to see the Lord face to face. We are not ready to see God. Something is needed and the very thing we absolutely need to enter the Kingdom of God is beyond our grasp. We need new bodies. We need imperishable and immortal bodies in which to see God and to live in His Kingdom.
Paul gives us his conclusion to the question…
1 Corinthians 15:35 (ESV)
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
Here he will highlight God’s wonderful and amazing work on our behalf. He will show us the result of God’s work and then finally, he will show us our response to this truth when we believe appropriately.
1 Corinthians 15:50–58 (ESV)
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 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 imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power 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 brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
1. God’s Clear Statement of Fact/Bad News (15:50)
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Here is Paul’s statement of incompatibility. The mortal body, the human body is incompatible to live in God’s final Kingdom.
There it is. There’s the inescapable truth. We are not equipped to live in God’s presence. There is no amount of human effort or good works that can equip you with a body that can live with God.
The key in every example of human merit in order to gain salvation is found in this verse…
flesh and blood cannot…
Just so we understand that this is the description of us, pinch your arm…do you feel pain. When you cut yourself, do you bleed? Kids, when you take a hard fall, do you skin your knees and do they bleed? We are all equipped with mortal and perishable bodies…the kind that cannot inherit God’s Kingdom. Our bodies are fit for this world and this age but not the age to come.
All Christians long for the return of Christ. However, if we see Christ’s return in our current body it will not be a good thing at all. Our earthly bodies cannot endure the Kingdom of God. We cannot live in an imperishable Kingdom with perishable bodies. God must do something. Here is what He does for His people…
2. The Mystery of Our New Bodies Revealed (15:51-53)
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 imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
Paul is going to tell us exactly what God will do when the time comes. Notice, this is God’s work not ours.
We love mysteries. We love thrillers and plot twists. We love being surprised when all the story is read.
In the Bible, a mystery is something formerly and purposely hidden in the past but now because of the work of Christ, it is revealed. In other words, because of the death and resurrection of Christ, what we had no understanding of, we are made participants. The mystery of the resurrection of the dead is something God gives to us in order to believe.
Whether a Christian has already died or whether a Christian is alive, when our Lord returns there is a blast of the trumpet. This is the final trumpet that announces our Lord’s return. It’s not the trumpet that raises the dead and changes those who are alive but it is Christ whose return is announced by the trumpet.
When a King enters His Kingdom, there the trumpet is blown and all the kingdom’s people would go out to Him and escort their King into His city. What a picture of the Church. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye in a split second all of God’s people for all time will be raised to meet their Savior and welcome Him into His dwelling.
Before that can happen, God must change us and give us bodies that can meet the King and welcome Him and live with Him forever.
Do you remember when we saw that God is very capable of creating specific bodies for specific environments?
1 Corinthians 15:37–39 (ESV)
37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
To mark this great eschatological event, Paul tells us that there will be the blasting of the last trumpet. This trumpet is blown to announce the time of the Lord’s return and the Lord’s victory.
It’s the trumpet that is found in Joel to announce the great Day of the Lord…
Joel 2:1 (ESV)
2 Blow a trumpet in Zion;
sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
It’s the trumpet in Zechariah that is sounded to announce the coming of the Lord…
Zechariah 9:14 (ESV)
14 Then the Lord will appear over them,
and his arrow will go forth like lightning;
the Lord God will sound the trumpet
and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.
It is also the trumpet that will summon all of the people of God from all eras of time to raise them in power of God to great King Jesus at His return…
Isaiah 27:13 (ESV)
13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Then, this trumpet is also found in 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians 4:15–18 (ESV)
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Here in 1 Thessalonians, as with all the other verses we read, we should notice something that is clear. At the Last Trumpet, the Lord, Himself will descend with the cry of command, the archangel and the trumpet blast.
This cry is the Word that defeats God’s enemies and raises all God’s people from the dead. This is the cry Lazarus heard while in his tomb. This is the shout or cry of command. It’s the language of the authoritative command…come forth all My people!
The souls of all the people of faith will reunite with their new bodies which will be equipped for eternity with Jesus.
Jesus does it all…in all these actions, we are the passive recipients of God’s power. All this happens in 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
Twinkling of an eye is a phrase for split second. In the time it takes to reflect light from the eye it happens. There is no time once the trumpet sounds to come to Jesus the events, once started are set and Christ returns for His own.
Listen Church, you have not worked enough to receive these blessings, you have not obeyed enough to receive these blessings. You are not Christlike enough, good enough or faithful enough to receive these blessings. The call is to believe in and trust in the One who has done all the obeying and working for us.
Watch what else Jesus has done for us…
3. Thanks Be to God, Who Gives Us the Victory Through Our Lord Jesus Christ (15:54-57)
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here, the Apostle Paul shows us the result of God’s work. When the Last Trumpet sounds, Jesus returns, the battle won, and our bodies experience the transformation at the resurrection what is one result? The result Paul mentions is that our great enemy, Death itself is put to death.
Here, Paul quotes from Isaiah 25 and then from Hosea 13…
Isaiah 25:8 (ESV)
8 He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
Hosea 13:14 (ESV)
14 I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I shall redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
Do you see how these amazing OT promises are what Paul quotes to show us that God will do all the things He has promised. God cannot lie. To use these OT promises is the right was to find assurance in the resurrection of the dead. It will happen exactly as God said it would. Death will die and the grave will lose all its power because when God raises His people they will live forever. No more death and if there is no more death there will be no more cemeteries.
Death will become a thing of the past. The grave will no longer serve as a seal for the dead. Christ has won the victory at the cross and the resurrection. He will do it.
Death’s victory has been overcome by Christ’s victory. He alone has the victory and He alone gives it to all His people. We are free from the fear of death and for the believer it is falling asleep until Christ returns.
4. Beloved, Remain Steadfast in the Lord (15:58)
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Beloved, we must remember that our belief in the Gospel and our labor in the Lord is not in vain.
We believe because God has made us new in Christ. We remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because we know all this is not in vain because Christ rose, we will also be raised.
1 Corinthians 15:1–2 (ESV)
15 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Conclusion…
I’d like to conclude by addressing our fallen nature in this text. There are I think many Christians who are plagued with a lack of assurance of salvation. Why do we struggle with assurance? It’s when we add works to salvation that we struggle with assurance because we are very much aware of our sin and lack of obedience.
When we remember that biblical salvation is not of works but of grace through faith, we can have biblical assurance because we now understand that our salvation is based completely and entirely on Jesus’ works and His obedience and not ours. I believe and have complete confidence in the work and faithfulness of our Perfect Sinless Savior. I believe and trust Him and have assurance.
In our text today the same sort of struggle takes place when we are afraid of death. Do we have assurance of our ultimate finished salvation? Remember, our ultimate end does not rest in our works or obedience either. We can face death with confidence when we understand the truths Paul taught us today.
The Last Trumpet will sound and God’s people will all be transformed into eternal beings ready and able to meet Jesus.
If you struggle with the fear of death, remember death has lost its sting and Christ’s victory has removed death’s victory and in God’s timing, we can die well in faith as we trust Christ in death. Faith in Christ will remove the fear of death.
Benediction…
To you who believe, the mystery has been revealed.
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 imperishable, and we shall be changed.
To you who believe death has lost its sting and the grave its power.
To you who believe, we do not need to fear death like the world does.
You have been given the victory over death through faith in Christ.
Therefore live in victory, yours is the Kingdom of God for all eternity.
AMEN!
Resources Used:
1 Corinthians by Gordon Fee
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