Life and Life Eternal

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I read lately how most of us have read or heard the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 that directly challenges death and hell with the fact of the resurrected Christ and the promise of our own resurrection when He returns. There is no “sting” left in death and there is no law that overrides our salvation because our Lord Jesus has gained the victory.

Long ago, the great man Job faced his detractors with the confidence that “in my flesh shall I see God”. The prophet Hosea, in the middle of difficult life demands and during a time of awful apostasy, heard the Lord promise those who were faithful, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction”.

2 Timothy 1:8-10 “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

The article pointed out that the good news of the implementation of God’s eternal plan brought “life and immortality to light.” All during the millennia of the Old Testament, fulfillment of God’s actions were hinted at, through the sacrifices of the altar, and promised oftentimes in the utterances of the prophets. But when the Messiah became incarnate and dwelt among us, “we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father”. Jesus Christ Emmanuel – God with us.

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

The apostle John, whose gospel and letters consummate in the great Revelation disclosure, could say in 1 John 1:2, “the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us”. Jesus, who is life promised, “He that hears my word, and believes on Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. 

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”