We’ll Be Clothed With Life, Swallowed Up By It

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul quotes Hosea 13: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" Paul continues: "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." Our greatest enemy is death, and Jesus defeated it for us. He didn't say "go and hopefully you can do it." Instead, by faith, by the Holy Spirit's power, by his grace, he gives us victory over death. We're always trying to figure out how to live longest and cheat death. What should we eat? What should we drink? Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. I am the source of living water." He is life itself, and that's our peace and hope. We're baptized into Christ's resurrection, into his victory, so death is no longer the victor. Death has no sting because Christ is our victory. Our goal as Christians isn't to die so we can get rid of this flesh stuff so then we’ll be really right with God. No, Jesus came in the flesh to save our flesh. Yes, we see death in this world until Christ returns, but it's only temporary. When Christ returns and the trumpet sounds, we'll be raised in our bodies. While we may thank God when someone’s suffering ends, knowing they're with Christ and their body will be raised in the new creation, we don't celebrate death. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5: "We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, eternal in the heavens... not that we would be unclothed, but further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." Death doesn't have a chance. Jesus defeated it, and we'll see the fullness of that on the last day. Contributor Merritt Demski is the Pastor at St. John’s in Alta, Iowa. #higherthings #lcms #lutheran #jesus If you have questions or topics that you'd like discussed on Higher Things, email them to content@higherthings.org Subscribe to our channel to get notifications when we go live: http://youtube.com/@HTgospel4all To support the work of Higher Things®, visit https://higherthings.org/morehi/giving/ For more information about Higher Things, go to http://higherthings.org ------ Join the conversation on Social Media: http://facebook.com/higherthings http://instagram.com/higherthings https://www.tiktok.com/@higherthings