The dissecting of passages

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

~1 Corinthians 15:56-57

(v. 56) Or as my pastor put it, death is the paycheck of sin or result of sin, the aftermath. Sin is everything we do wrong, every bad thought, deed, and we are fully and completely helpless when it comes to sin. We can do nothing to stop ourselves or each other from sinning, it overpowers us because of our fallen nature that has been here since the beginning of the world. But in the second part of the verse it says: BUT (which means there is another chance!) thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the victory? That is the victory over sin and death, and this is NOT by something we have done, its not about going to church a certain number of times, or praying a certain number of times or even consistent quiet times, it's about what Christ did for us, on the cross. He lived an absolutely perfect life, doing miracles and showing His glory, then when His time came, He was to die on a cross of wood, an extremely painful and intense way of dying, but He didn't come into the world just to do miracles and die, He came to take the full blow, God's entire wrath was unleashed on Him, He became sin who knew no sin. He died in agony, and mockers continued to mock Him, before he was taken he begged that this cup (death) be taken from him, if there was any other way let it be, but this was God's plan for Jesus, after hours and hours of agony, Jesus died, hanging their on those wooden boards a bloody, soaked mess. He lived a perfect life, died in our place and was buried in a tomb, where, on the third day of Him being dead, He rose. HE ROSE! Mission Complete, death is defeated. He took on the full an horrible penalty for our sin, and died in a mess, rose again to heaven where he now lives, what a love, what a cost.

Now here is our part of the deal, Christ took on our penalty, that we may live with Christ instead of dying in this world. We cannot automatically get into heaven, cause our God is a just God, we must believe in Jesus in order to be in eternal glory with our Savior. It may sound to good to be true, but thats the way it is! Jesus paid our price, we no longer live in sin, we live for God! Glorious Day! What news!

It is very important that you realize that I left out a lot of crucial characters in the story and I fast forwarded through it, but you can read the rest of the story in the Bible. Corinthians talks about the sting of death and how that was taken away, and the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John talk about Jesus' life. I encourage you to dig deeper, if you'd like to, ask me! :)

17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

~1 Corinthians 15:17-22

What hope we have! That Christ really has been raised and now we can join in eternal glory with Him.

I hope this has benefited you today, take care! ~Anna

And I thought this song was rather appropriate for this occasion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXp6xcY5IqU