Friday, July 20, 2018

1Corinthians 15:51-58 comments: we shall all be changed


15:51 ¶  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. 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.

Here is a passage that has perplexed many a ‘pretribulation rapture’ Christian like myself. Not everyone will die but everyone will be changed, transformed with the spiritual, heavenly body promised. The issue is that when this takes place, from a literal perspective, is at the last trump, a word denoting the sound of a trumpet. When is that specifically? When is the last and seventh trumpet sounded? The Bible says;

Revelation 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

I’ll just leave it at that as I am not sure that the literal placement of the last trump in this passage exactly corresponds with the last angel sounding in Revelation 11. In any event the purpose of much prophecy is not to give us exacting knowledge beforehand but so that when something happens we will know that God told us it would.

John 14:29  And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

John 16:4  But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

 Here is another confirmation of what Paul mentions in this passage.

1Thessalonians 4:13 ¶  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16  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 shall rise first: 17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

We have the victory over sin and death through Christ alone, who is also the way we are to follow, the truth we are to believe and the life we will have eternally. I’ve already pointed out how the Bible defines words in context sometimes by cross-referencing and word-substitution. This is what God intended, for truth and victory to be synonymous.

Isaiah 42:3  A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

Matthew 12:20  A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.

Then, there is this all-important verse.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Christ not only came to conquer sin and vanquish Satan’s work but to deliver us from death.

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

    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.

Paul closes this part of his letter pleading with the Corinthians to not waiver in their faith and to understand that the things they do for Christ are not done in vain.

No comments: