Death to Victory

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.

—I Corinthians 15:54 [NLT] — Scripture Reading I Corinthians 15:50-58

Satan seemed to be victorious in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) and at the cross of Jesus. But God turned Satan’s apparent victory into defeat when Jesus Christ rose from the dead (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14-15). Thus, death is no longer a source of dread or fear. Christ overcame it, and one day we will also. The law will no longer make sinners out of us just because we cannot keep it. Death has been defeated, and we have hope beyond the grave.

Knowing that Christ has won the ultimate victory should affect the way we live right now. Don’t let discouragement over an apparent lack of results keep you from doing the work of the Lord enthusiastically as you have opportunity, knowing that your work will have eternal results.

Jesus gives us a key to a victorious life in Matt.16:24-25 “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice and lose your lives for my glory, you will continually discover true life. The Hebrew is “offer yourself up to death and He will give you the victory of everlasting life.”

Understand and accept that discipleship means forsaking all selfish personal ambition. To lose your life is to find it; to die is to live. Know that every true disciple must take up his cross with a surrendered and humble heart. Such sacrifice results in eternal life and the fullest experience of kingdom life now. Selah!

Pastor Greg & Victoria Volich