"Listen,
I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—"
{1 Corinthians 15:51} (NIV)
What a mystery! Paul has been encouraging
us with the truth of the hope of the resurrection of those who are in Christ.
He then turns to the glorious truth of the resurrection MOMENT. There is a
MOMENT, an instant, when a heavenly trumpet sounds. At that MOMENT those who
died in faith will come up out of the grave; imperishable, glorious, powerful
and spiritual. Those who are still alive in faith, will be changed from who we
are into people who are imperishable, glorious, powerful and spiritual. This
teaching gives all Christians who are alive a reason to hope that we will not
go down into the grave.
Friend, we watch loved ones die, we stand at the edge
of the grave and try to say, “Death
has been swallowed up in victory.” But truly what is happening
is that people are being swallowed up by death. Paul says that only then – only in
that MOMENT will that saying be true. Only when the mysterious change happens
will death have been defeated.
Death is a terrible enemy; the last of our
enemies to be destroyed by our Lord. Chuck Swindol says, “Christians aren’t
scared of death, we just don’t want to be there when it happens.” I hope that
is true of me when I face death, because I am not sure that I won’t be afraid.
Oh to be in that last generation of Christians who are changed in that glorious
MOMENT. Come Lord Jesus come!
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