Resurrection Reverberation: Jumping on the Bandwagon (1 Corinthians 15:50-58)
Resurrection Reverberation: Jumping on the Bandwagon
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
Would life be different for you today if you knew the future was assured? If you knew your retirement income were fixed, you could live a healthy life until late into your 80’s or 90’s, and had energy to spare, how would you spend your time? How would this change your perspective in what your worried about, what you worked toward, and what you stopped doing?
This is the essence of what we considered at the end of 1 Corinthians 15. We are given the answer to the cosmic mystery of the end, before it happens, concerning the winner of the celestial battle that’s been raging since the beginning between God and the mortal enemy called Death. The answer is simple: Jesus wins, and wins big. He dealt death a mortal blow while He hung on the cross and rose from the dead, freeing us from the penalty and power of sin. However, death still hangs on and acts like the tough underdog, still dominating each life today, since sin is still present in our world today. In fact, we all must yield to the sting of death at some point, succumbing to the fact that our bodies were not designed for eternity but for this world only.
The greatest victory party is planned and still to come. Because of the victory of Jesus over sin and death, we will be changed immediately when Christ calls us to Himself, and will be given bodies that are equipped for the glorious rigors of worshipping God forever. Jesus will crush death once and for all in judgment and let us participate in His one sided victory. Knowing this, we can taunt death along with the prophets of the OT with the rant:
Death is swallowed up in victory
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
Knowing this, we can be different and work differently. We can BE immovable and steadfast in our battle with the presence of sin and in the midst of our ever changing culture. We can WORK for the Lord with the strength He provides, and can do so to the point of exhaustion to our last breath, knowing that we are not foolish, but are actually on the winning team. We start now, never quit, and work by the grace God provides. So we want to jump on the bandwagon of Jesus clear victory over death, motivated by the fact that death in this life is not the end, but only the beginning of a new life in Him.