Saturday 7th December
Read 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
55 ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIVUK)
Paul links Isaiah 25 and Hosea 13 together to make the point that the resurrection of Jesus is the means through which death is defeated and all the promises of God to establish a people who love and worship Him on earth will be fulfilled.
The context for both passages speaks of feasts and families, the very marks we associate with joyful bodily existence. This is not something we can possibly achieve or deserve in our own strength. It is something done for us by Jesus for which we should give thanks each and every day.
For Paul, a true understanding of the resurrection and what it means can only result in thanksgiving. Those of us who don’t appreciate what has been won for us by Jesus are immeasurably impoverished in our faith.
