Death Has Lost Its Sting
Christ's victory over death removes its terror, transforming it from enemy to gateway.
Paul triumphantly declares, 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Death's power derived from sin's condemnation; Christ absorbed that condemnation and broke death's hold. Death remains an enemy but a defeated one. Christians can face death without terror, knowing it is not the end but a passage. This victory motivates faithful living: 'Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.'
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?
John Donne's famous 'Death, be not proud' sermon reflects this confidence: 'One short sleep past, we wake eternally, and death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.'
First Epistle to the Corinthians
Written about in
- What Christianity says about grief
Paul taunts death and still classes it as an enemy — a defeated one, not an absent one. The tradition never says death is natural or fine. It says the terror has been removed while the loss has not.