THE MYSTERY OF THE RESURRECTION.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:51. When Paul speaks of a “mystery” he is not speaking of some secret to be kept, but rather of a hitherto hidden secret now being revealed (cf. Romans 16:25-27; Ephesians 3:3-5; Colossians 1:26).
The Bible uses ‘sleep’ as a euphemism for death. But Paul is saying here that “we SHALL NOT ALL sleep.” In other words, when Jesus returns for His own, some of us will still be living.
“But” he goes on “we shall all be changed.” We are told in the previous verse that ‘flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:50) – but whether we are physically dead when he comes or not, we shall “all” be (literally) “transformed.”
1 CORINTHIANS 15:52. We have two indicators for a short space of time. First. “in a moment” speaks in the Greek of an indivisible point of time, an instant. Second, “in the twinkling of an eye” is as quick as a blink of an eye!
The point of time in question is also indicated: “at the last trump.” This trumpet heralds the moment when believers, both dead and living, will be resurrected and transformed.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:53. At this point, each Christian “puts on” an ‘imperishable’ body, and clothes their mortality with “immortality” (the Greek word here suggests ‘without death’).
1 CORINTHIANS 15:54. “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Death is the last enemy (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:26), and it is the Lord GOD who ‘swallows up death forever, and wipes away tears from off all faces’ (cf. Isaiah 25:8).
1 CORINTHIANS 15:55. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” So certain is this triumph that Paul takes up the Lord’s taunt, ‘O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave I will be thy destruction’ (cf. Hosea 13:14).
1 CORINTHIANS 15:56. “The sting of death is sin.” Death only exists because of the entrance of sin (cf. Romans 5:12).
“The strength of sin is the law” (cf. Romans 7:5), but the law was meant rather to be our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ (cf. Galatians 3:24).
1 CORINTHIANS 15:57. “But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The victory is ongoing, a present possession. It is a gift of the grace of God.
Jesus was delivered (to death) on account of our sins, and was raised again on account of our justification (cf. Romans 4:25). Our old man is crucified with Him (cf. Romans 6:6); our new man is raised with Him (cf. Romans 6:11).
1 CORINTHIANS 15:58. What lies before the Christian is ‘the hope of glory’ (cf. Colossians 1:27). So Paul encourages us, as “beloved brethren,” to be “steadfast” (unswerving) and “immovable” (rooted) in our Christian walk, life and service: “always abounding in the work of the Lord.”
Because of the resurrection of Jesus, our ‘faith’ is not in vain; neither is our ‘preaching’ in vain (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:14). Because we are “in the Lord,” we are partakers of His resurrection, and therefore “our labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
