Bible Studies
Hi people, I write again. This time I write about something which was revealed by God through the Apostle Paul. Let me quote to you what the Apostle Paul writes to the early Church of Corinth.
1Corinthians 15:53-58
53 For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die. 54 So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: “Death is destroyed; victory is complete!”
55 “Where, Death, is your victory?
Where, Death, is your power to hurt?”
56 Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. 57 But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
58 So then, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.
In the above passage the Apostle Paul is describing how people are saved (verse 57) & also he is describing what happens when people are saved. From 1 Corinthians 15:54 you can see that Apostle Paul is quoting Old Testament scripture about the Messiah (HE who saves people from sin - Jesus). Let me quote the same to you from Isaiah 25:8-9.
Isaiah 25:8-9
8 The Sovereign Lord will destroy death for ever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord himself has spoken!
9 When it happens, everyone will say, “He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is the Lord! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us.”
From Isaiah 25:8, you can see that it is the “Sovereign Lord who destroys death”, this same victory over death is what the Apostle Paul talks about in 1Corrinthians 15:54. For those of you who would like to have an explanation into the meaning of “Sovereign Lord”, it refers to the Almighty God who is in complete control of everything that exist, whether the situation is good or bad or in His favour or not in His favour. From 1 Corinthians 15:57, you can see that the Sovereign Lord who gives His people victory over death is none other that God the Father working through God the Son. Do not mistake this to be 2 different Sovereign Lords. Almighty God exist as One in the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Let me quote to you what Jesus said in John 10:30.
John 10:30
The Father and I are one.
Even when the Jesus instructed his disciples to Baptize the believers in the name of Almighty God, this is what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19
Matthew 28:19
Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Even the creation of all things that exist, were all done by God the Father through His Son Jesus. Here is some scriptural support.
Hebrews 1:2
but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. He is the one through whom God created the universe, the one whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end.
Coming back to 1Corrinthains 15:55-56, You may ask me, how can death gets its power to hurt from sin & sin get it power from the Law. Well it is something like this, consider a parent and child. The parent first instruct the child as to what is right and wrong (law) & when the child does something wrong even after being warned against it, then he is punished (death). This is something like in Genesis 1-3, where when God created Adam & Eve, they were to live for ever in the same flesh. God warned them against eating the forbidden fruit (similar to the Law), but the disobedience of Adam and Eve brought about their punishment (death) and they were thrown out Garden of Eden and their lives were cut short from eternity to countable years. Man dies only because he is a descendant of Adam & man lives for eternity in paradise only because of his faith in Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:22
22 For just as all people die because of their union with Adam, in the same way all will be raised to life because of their union with Christ.
Coming back, just as a child is not punished unless he is warned. In the same way God does not punish with out teaching us right from wrong. Here is some support from scripture.
Romans 3:20
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Romans 5:13
for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
Romans 7:7
The Law and Sin
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Also you can see the death looses it power over those who trust in Jesus. Let me quote to you Hebrews 2:14
Hebrews 2:14
Since the children, as he calls them, are people of flesh and blood, Jesus himself became like them and shared their human nature. He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death,
From the above scripture and also for 1 Corinthians 15:57, you can see that it is through Jesus’ death that we are saved. Jesus did not die because world was deserving (Romans 5:8) but because God so loved the world as in John 3:16.
Romans 5:8
But God has shown us how much he loves us — it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!
John 3:16
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.
So you see that we are saved by God’s grace only through Christ. There exist (never has, never is & never will) no being that deserves salvation. All who are saved are saved by grace. Grace makes the Law obsolete & so sin has no power over us. Thus it is by grace that we have been rescued from the power of death through Christ. Here is some scriptural support.
Romans 3:23-24
23 everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence. 24 But by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.
Romans 6:14
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 5:20
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Ephesians 2:5
5 that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved.
The prophet Isaiah prophesized in Isaiah 25:9, that when Jesus destroyed death, those who are saved will then know who he is and acknowledge him as Lord. Later in the same book of Isaiah in my Old Testament in Isaiah 26:3, prophet Isaiah says something is which is so much similar to what Apostle Paul says in 1Corinthians 15:58 (above) in the New Testament. It makes you feel as though the Old and New Testament were meant to be put together.
Isaiah 26:3-4
3 You, Lord, give perfect peace
to those who keep their purpose firm
and put their trust in you.
4 Trust in the Lord for ever;
he will always protect us.
In the light of Isaiah 25:8-9 & Isaiah 26:3, which shows God revealing His Son as also the same God, if you are saved you will surely know this but if you know this then Isaiah 26:4 tells you how you are saved, by giving & trusting your self to Jesus. This has been confirmed by Jesus himself in Matthew 19:29. As I said earlier, the Old and New Testament were destined to be together.
Matthew 19:29 (Jesus says)
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life.
Coming back to the victory over death, you may tell me, well if Jesus destroyed death then how come people including Christians are still dying. My answer purely from scripture is in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53 (Apostle Paul to the Church of Corinth)
51-52 Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. 53 For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die.
The above says that when the last day (trumpet) comes, those believers that are still alive then will change in a twinkling of eye from their mortal bodies into their immortal bodies and those believers who have died, they will be raised to life again their new spiritual bodies & then death will cease to exist (1Corrinthians 15:26).
1Corinthians 15:26
26 The last enemy to be defeated will be death.
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