Victory over death
I Corinthians 15:50-58
No magic wand will end your grief over the loss of someone you love. But these verses do promise victory over death through the Lord Jesus Christ. C.S. Lewis described this victory for the four children who had been kings and queens in Narnia. Death was “for them the beginning of the real story. . . . Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story . . . which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” “We shall be changed,” said Paul. “The dead shall be raised incorruptible.”
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Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. |