Hungry for God: Victorious!

“For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’
‘O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?’

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.”
—1 Corinthians 15:53-57

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was the single greatest event in history. In the incarnation we plumb the depths of His majesty, in His death on the cross we stand aghast at the world’s greatest tragedy, but it was the resurrection that triggered the universe’s greatest victory.

Jesus’ resurrection was by far and a way the greatest single act in human history. It is at the core of the Gospel message—when Judas was replaced as an apostle, one of the criteria for his replacement that he had to have been a witness to the risen Christ (cf. Acts 1:22). Peter and John got into a great deal of trouble in the early church because they continually testified to His resurrection (cf. Acts 4:2), and the rest of the apostles continually testified to it (cf. Acts 4:33). When Paul was before the Areopagus, it was his testimony concerning the resurrection that earned their rebuke as they said,

“’What does this babbler wish to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities’—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection”—Acts 17:18.

And Paul was on trial before Jewish leaders, he proclaimed that he was on trial because of his belief in the resurrection of the dead,

“Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial”—Acts 23:6.

It was the resurrection that enabled Him to put on immortality. Death was swallowed up in victory! The wages of our sin is death (cf. Romans 6:23), and sin comes through the knowledge of the law, and death through sin. But by Jesus becoming sin for us on the cross (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21), even though He had no sin of His own—His death enabled sin to be put away—as He experienced death for us.

We need not fear death any longer because death was put to death in Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection enabled us to have victory through Christ! Have you entered into His victory? Walk in the newness of life Jesus’ resurrection enabled you to have! Amen.