"O death, where is your victory?"

"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."
"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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 Corinthians 15:54-58

This nearly brought me to tears in my quiet time Wednesday morning. I was reminded of Phillippians 3:20-21, which reads: "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." How exciting!

Earlier in 1 Corinthians Paul makes this remark: "If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (1 Cor 15:19) He's saying that if we have hope of nothing beyond death, we were fools to have put our hope in Christ and should be pitied as such. But Paul's next breath is "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead[.]" (1 Cor 15-20a) We aren't fools because the gospel is true! And because of the gospel our citizenship has been transfered to our new home - heaven, and from there we eagerly await our savior. The sting of death is soothed. The power of sin is broken. And thanks be to God indeed - who gave us this victory through Jesus!

Are you discouraged? Are you weary from the constant battle with your flesh? Dwell on this passage, and when you've let the truth of the gospel rekindle your love for God, read the last sentence: "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." God is not a cruel task master. He will not send us task after task to labor at in vain. There is fruit growing because of this work, and there is a crown waiting in paradise, your home - the very kingdom which you have the priviledge to helping to build to God's glory!

The Psalmist expresses my heart: "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning." (Psalm 130:6) I no longer wait for the Lord in fearful anxiety, aware of my guilt and unable to save myself, knowing the wrath to come. I wait like a watchman for the morning, with excited anticipation and sheer joy, knowing that my long watch is nearly over, the constant struggle with sin in the dangerous night is nearly done, and my savior is coming to take me away from the land in which I'm an alien to the country of my citizenship! My heart could burst with joy at the thought. Oh death, where is your victory? In christ we no longer have to fear it - it is a vanquished foe, a defanged serpent, a spent wasp. Jesus, haste your return!