April 4, 2017 IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE
1 Corinthians 15:51-54: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, be 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 must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY.”
The truth of these verses are at the very heart of the Christian faith. One of the pillars of the Christian faith is the belief that there will come a day when all believers who have died will be raised form the dead, and along with those are alive at His return, will put on immortality! And this will all take place in the ‘twinkling of an eye’-what a day that will be! The belief that one day our perishable body will made imperishable, and that this mortal body will become immortal, should be for us a bedrock of hope, no matter what difficulties we face a the moment. As this scripture tells us, it is a ‘mystery’, and only by knowing God and having the faith that He gives, can one believe such a fantastic promise. Those who do not know God see death as the end. However, for those who know God, death is the doorway that leads us into an eternal presence with Him in heaven. For the believer, death is indeed swallowed up in victory. We are reminded in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that in our physical bodies, there is aging, and eventual death: “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though out outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” As those who belong to God, we are to be good stewards of our physical bodies, but the scriptures remind us that our primary focus is to be on the spiritual and the eternal. In 1 Corinthians 15 we discover the masterful plans and design that God has in all of creation, and at the heart of this is man being transformed into the image of God. There are two important principles reveled in this chapter; one is that the natural comes first, then the spiritual, and the other is that death precedes life. A seed must be buried before it becomes new life producing a harvest. Yes, our physical bodies are decaying, and unless the Lord returns first, we will die and be buried. But wait! That is not the end for we will be raised in incorruption and in glory and with a spiritual body and will live forever with the Lord! Let us focus on two truths; for the Christian, death has lost its’ sting, and two, we are destined to be transformed in to the image of God!
1 Corinthians 15:57-58: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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