Where O Death Is Your Sting

There recently was a death in the family (the reason why I have been away from blog posts).  Seeing death actually happen right in front of my eyes was a very....(still trying to find the right word).  God, in His great mercy, allowed my family 4 or 5 days with my grandmother before He took her home.  Those last days and moments with her showed me what is important in life and, ultimately, death.  The reality of death, filled with all of its finality and power and authority, was something I have never experienced before.  And because of this, certain passages of Scripture could not resonate with me like they do now.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians,

"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 in the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."   (1 Cor 15:54-57)

God told Adam and Eve if they disobeyed Him, the penalty was death.  The penalty for our sin is death.  Having now seen the "sting of death", I can truly worship Christ for overcoming it.  To think that death could not contain Christ, that He has defeated death, is indescribable.  We worship a God who was pleased to crush His Son in death to atone for the sins of you and I.  My sin was paid for when Christ was put to death....those are no longer simply words on a page, that is a reality that has skin on it.  It is a tangible image that I can feel the weight of.  And the weight of death is the heaviest of all.  How wonderful it is that the sting of death is not for those who profess and walk in the ways of Christ.

My prayer is that this worship leads to action...that my faith leads to deed.  So many still live in fear of the sting of death.  It should not be.