LECTURE XCII. VICTORY OVER DEATH THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. 1 COR. XV. 50-58. 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. 52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Those persons who disputed the doctrine of the resurrection, took their arguments from the nature of the human body. St. Paul shows that the body which shall be, will be very different from the body which dies; the body with which men are raised will not have the same properties as that with which the soul has been clothed on earth. Our mortal bodies and an everlasting state cannot agree together. Where there is flesh and blood, there must be imperfection and decay. H H This, therefore, is the mystery which has been revealed. The same voice, which at the beginning called order out of chaos, and said, "Let there be light, and there was light;" the same almighty power shall give the word, which "all that are in the graves shall hear, and shall come forth." "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ"1 "shall stand before the Son of man," in such a body as the Lord giveth; a body changed from mortality to immortality, from corruption to incorruption. And so the prophet's words shall be explained and fulfilled: Death is swallowed up in victory. 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56. The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The saying, Death is swallowed up in victory, does not come to pass, merely because Christ, being raised from the dead, has given a pledge and proof that we shall not all sleep in the grave. The sting of death is not in death itself, but in what will follow death; in the judgment which awaits the soul. And that which gives power to this the real sting of death, is sin: the fact of which we are conscious, that God, before whom we are to appear, has not been honoured as a Creator, served as a Master, loved as a Father, or obeyed as a King. 1 1 Thess. iv. 16. 2 Isa. xxv. 8. And yet he ought to have been so loved and served. To the Gentiles, God "left not himself without witness;" he had "shown unto them that which might be known of him, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.' To the Jews he had made himself most clearly manifest, though they had not "liked to retain him in their knowledge," and had made his commandment "of none effect through their tradi "3 tions." Therefore there was a law, "holy, just, and good," a law which ought to have been followed, and had been disobeyed: and because of this disobedience, mankind, "through fear of death, are all their lifetime subject to bondage." By this law the best of men could not abide a trial. "For what man is there who liveth and sinneth not?" And if the righteous, the comparatively righteous, could not be uncondemned, if God were to enter into judgment with them, "Where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?"5 So that the strength of sin is the law. The law gives sin a power to distress the conscience, and sharpens the sting of death: tends to make death terrible, not so much to the hardened and ignorant, whose conscience is "seared as it were with a hot iron;" as to the meek and contrite spirit, which trembles at God's word, and exclaims, "O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence, and am no more seen.' But "the Scripture has concluded all under sin," 3 Rom. i. 19. 4 Heb. ii. 15. 5 See 1 Pet. iv. 18. 6 Ps. xxxix. 13. not to destroy, but to save: not to point as it were afresh the sting of death, but to take its power away. The sting of death is sin. And Christ "has borne our sins in his own body." He is "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." The strength of sin is the law. And Christ has satisfied the law, so that by his "obedience," they that believe in him are accounted righteous.7 "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." They are indeed aware, that "by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before God." But they do not rest on it as the ground of their hope; they look for "eternal life, as the gift of God, through Jesus Christ" and in this hope, they have the victory over sin, and over the law, and over death: and are able to say, with humble confidence," Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."" 8 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Though eternal life is to the Christian, "not of debt, but of grace;" though his prayer is, rather that God should not "enter into judgment with him,” than that he should receive his due: still his labour is not in vain in the Lord. It would be in vain, if those notions concerning the resurrection, which Paul has been confuting, had been true; if the dead 7 Rom. v. 19. 9 Rom. vi. 23. 8 Rom. iii. 20. 1 Luke ii. 30. 66 2 rise not, there would be no encouragement to be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord if the slothful servant, and the faithful servant, were to come to a like end, none would be induced by patient continuance in well-doing to seek for glory, and honour, and immortality." But it is not so. "God is not unrighteous to forget the works and labours of love, which have been shown toward his name:" and whilst the unprofitable servant shall be cast into outer darkness, he that has been "faithful over a few things," in discharging his stewardship on earth, shall be made "ruler over many things," when he "enters into the joy of his Lord." For the same Spirit, which declares that "by grace we are saved, not of works, that any man should boast:" has also proclaimed, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."5 3 2 Heb. vi. 10. 3 Matt. xxv. 21-25. 5 Rev. xiv. 13. |