Death, Where is Your Sting?

I was listening to a preacher on YouTube ask the question about where people could look to find hope in the face of death and the dreadful things going on around the world, particularly in his country. So many people he met were hopeless and he was sitting with the only source of hope. The only way to get through these days is to look to Jesus and what He’s done, until there is victory.

He felt inspired by watching a movie about Winston Churchill and quoted some of his rousing speech to parliament on June 4 in 1940, when there was a real threat of invasion. ‘We shall never surrender. And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.’

The preacher said the truth of those words brought hope to him as a Christian believer. We know what the future holds because of what Christ has done. We live in a world racked by sin, but we can stand straight and hold fast because of what Jesus has done for us and for this world.

The gospel is clear about why Jesus died on the cross. ‘For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The darkest moments can change, but even if they don’t, all will be well, because we stand with Jesus. We will be resurrected into a new world, a physical world, where we’ll live forever. The apostle Paul talks of the defeat of death and the hope of glory. ‘For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death’ (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). Western culture now is afraid of death because they don’t know where they’re going. But Christian believers know where they are going.

Paul says: ‘But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

He explains: ‘Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed’ (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

In the meantime, we are to be brave, and not just realistic. We must be strong to act whenever we see suffering. We must move forward. ‘But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain’ (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).