VICTORY OVER DEATH

He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8 NKJV)

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55 NKJV)

for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17 NKJV)

In this marvelous chapter, Isaiah sings a song of hope, as he sees the return of the Hebrew people from captivity, and the overthrow of their foes. The Apostle Paul takes up this thought in 1 Corinthians 15. He shows that death is the penalty of sin, and it is by the demands of the law that sin is stirred to activity. But Christ has satisfied and met the claims of the law, and gives power by which we are enabled to obey it; therefore the strength of sin is broken, and the sting of death is gone.

The Christian need not dread to die. For him there is no uncertainty about the future. There is no fear of what may come after death, for the condemnation of the law has been met and borne. We may look at death this metaphorical way. The viper has been deprived of its fangs! The prison cannot hold its inmates! Bunyan describes Satan as exhorting Captain Sepulchre to be sure to hold Christ, but the injunction was useless. No bars or bolts, no seal or sentry would suffice.

Notice that we are to "put on" incorruption and immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). It is as though the new body will be put on over the old, and as this takes place, all the elements of the old body will be swallowed up and absorbed. When the Holy Spirit completes his work in our souls, there will be no trace of the old rags left in the shining robes in which we shall be arrayed as we go forth to meet the welcome of our Lord. Death to those who believe in Christ is now only a homecoming; the falling asleep to open the eyes in the City of God; the loosening of the anchor, to float down stream in the full tide. "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain."

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, when Your ways in nature or in the soul are hard to be understood, then may our quiet confidence, our patient trust, our loving faith in You be great, and as children knowing that they are loved, cared for, guarded, kept, may we with a quiet mind at all times put our trust in You, the unseen God. So may we face life without fear, and death without fainting. I pray in Jesus' name, AMEN.