The End of Death, the End of Sin – 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

Esau, as the first born of his father and mother, Isaac and Rebekah, born ever so slightly before Jacob, did not deserve or qualify for his inheritance.  When he was hungry and Jacob offered to give him some food in exchange for his birthright, he agreed (Genesis 25:29-34).  In order to qualify for the inheritance of God’s glorious kingdom, where no sin or disobedience can rule, believers must be sinless and imperishable.  That is, they must be resurrected.

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 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. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

   “Death is swallowed up in victory.”  “O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 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 labor is not in vain.  (1 Corinthians 15:50-58 ESV)

Paul brings his defense of the necessity of the resurrection to a conclusion with the emphatic assertion that only those with resurrection bodies are suited to and capable of living in the imperishable kingdom.  But he reveals something previously unknown concerning the resurrection and that is that not everyone will die first before being resurrected.  If we are alive when Jesus comes at the last trumpet our bodies will not go through death but will be instantaneously transformed when the dead are raised.  This all is the final end of death that Scripture predicted.

Death has to be defeated.  It is sin’s consequence; sin produces in us disobedience; disobedience is inflamed by the law.  For death to be defeated means sin has been completely eradicated in our lives and thus the penalty of sin is no longer applicable.  Knowing this is coming is what makes us steadfast, immovable and abounding in God’s work, because we have the motive and the means to labor through the salvation that God is working in us.