1 Corinthians 15:53-57 O Death, Where is Your Sting?

1Corinthians 15:53-57  “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.  O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?  O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (NASB)

Many of you know that the friend I’ve been asking you to pray for over the past week died yesterday afternoon.  Multiple organ failures left the doctors with no more hope to offer the family and they made the decision to end life support.  She died at 2:36PM.

While Cathy was sick and death was a real possibility for her my mind went straight to things that matter for eternity.  Would my friend be found in heaven?  I searched my memory of Cathy’s life from a spiritual perspective and I didn’t have much to go on but I did recall as a teenager a “Revival” at the First Baptist church in Wasco.  I didn’t attend that church but a friend of mine did and he invited me.  I don’t remember much about that service but there was an alter call and I clearly remember Cathy Bozarth going forward.  Other than that, her parting catch phrase of “Go with God” is about all I could point to for assurance.

During my visits to the hospital I prayed I would have a chance to talk with her about eternity, about things that matter, about Jesus but each time I visited she was unconscious.  I prayed over her with friends and family.  Some were convinced she could hear us and I hope that's true but I don’t know.  I was there yesterday when she took her last breath, when her spirit left her body, when she died.  And in those moments that followed amidst the tears and the hugs a remarkable thing happened.  I learned that Cathy had been baptized there at the First Baptist church so many years earlier. 

Now I can tell you one thing about Baptists.  They take baptism seriously.  Baptism is a testimony of faith, so if Cathy was baptized there it was not simply an opportunity to take a dip and it was not simply a church ritual.  She was baptized as a symbol of her acceptance of Jesus Christ as her Savior.

So her perishable body has put on the imperishable and her mortality has put on the immortal.  “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 

"DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.  O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O  DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"  AMEN!