But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to the pitied.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the renewal dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn, Christ, the firstfruits, then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
(1 Cor. 15.12-26, 54-58)
Through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of death. . . Jesus Christ is able to set free even those who all their lives have been ‘held in slavery by their fear of death'.
This because by his own death he has ‘destroyed' (deprived of power) ‘him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil'
(Heb. 2.14)
Jesus Christ has not only dethroned the devil, but dealt with sin. In fact, it is by dealing with sin that he has dealt with death. For sin is the ‘sting' of death, the main reason why death is painful and poisonous. It is sin which causes death, and which after death will bring the judgment. Hence our fear of it. But Christ has died for our sins and taken them away. With great disdain, therefore, Paul likens death to a scorpion who’s sting has been drawn, and to a military conqueror whose power has been broken. Now that we are forgiven, death can harm us no longer. So the apostle shouts defiantly, ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ There is of course no reply. So, he shouts again, this time in triumph, not disdain, ‘Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1Cor. 15.55-57).
What, then, should be the Christian's attitude to death? It is still an enemy, unnatural, unpleasant, undignified, in fact ‘the last enemy to be destroyed'. Yet, it is a defeated enemy. Because Christ has taken away our sins, death has lost its power to harm and therefore to terrify. Jesus summed it up in one of his greatest affirmations, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believe in me will never die' (1Cor. 15.26, Jn 11.25-26). That is, Jesus is the resurrection of believers who die, and the life of believers who live. His promise to the former is ‘you will live', meaning not just that you will survive, but that you will be resurrected. His promise to the latter is ‘you will never die', meaning not that you will escape death, but that death will prove to be a trivial episode, a transition to fullness of life.
This is the victory of Christ into which he allows us to enter.
John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p283-286
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