Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:54
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
54. Death is swallowed up in victory ] The English version translates Isa 25:8, the passage here quoted, by ‘He will swallow up death in victory.’ But the literal meaning of the word so translated is ‘for ever,’ and the Vulgate here renders ‘in sempiternum,’ though the Septuagint frequently, but not here, renders it by victory, following the analogy of the Syriac and Chaldee, where a kindred word signifies victory. The verb also is in the perfect tense in the Hebrew, as speaking of the fixed purpose of God, and is here rendered by the aorist, and thus referred to the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in which, by ‘the determinate purpose and foreknowledge of God,’ death ‘was swallowed up unto victory.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
So when … – In that future glorious world, when all this shall have been accomplished.
Then shall be brought to pass – Then shall be fully accomplished; these words shall then receive their entire fulfillment; or this event shall meet all that is implied in these words.
The saying that is written – What is written, or the record which is made. These words are quoted from Isa 25:8; and the fact that Paul thus quotes them, and the connection in which they stand, prove that they had reference to the times of the gospel, and to the resurrection of the dead. Paul does not quote directly from the Hebrew, or from the Septuagint, but gives the substance of the passage.
Death – Referring here, undoubtedly, to death in the proper sense; death as prostrating the living, and consigning them to the grave.
Is swallowed up – Katepothe (from katapino, to drink down, to swallow down) means to absorb Rev 12:16; to overwhelm, to drown Heb 11:29; and then to destroy or remove. The idea may be taken from a whirlpool, or maelstrom, that absorbs all that comes near it; and the sense is, that he will abolish or remove death; that is, cause it to cease from its ravages and triumphs.
In victory – ( eis nikos. Unto victory; so as to obtain a complete victory. The Hebrew Isa 25:8 is laanetsach, The Septuagint often renders the word drow netsach which properly means splendor, purity, trust, perpetuity, eternity, perfection, by nikos, victory; Job 36:7; Lam 3:18; Lam 5:20; Amo 1:1-15; Amos 2; Amo 8:7. The Hebrew word here may be rendered either unto the end, that is, to completeness or perfection, or unto victory, with triumph. It matters little which is the meaning, for they both come to the same thing. The idea is, that the power and dominion of death shall be entirely destroyed, or brought to an end.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 54. Death is swallowed up in victory.] . These words are a quotation from Isa 25:8, where the Hebrew is billa hammaveth lanetsach: He (God) hath swallowed up death in victory; or, for ever. These words in the Septuagint are thus translated: Death having prevailed, or conquered, hath swallowed up. But in the version of Theodotion, the words are the same with those of the apostle. The Hebrew lanetsach the Septuagint sometimes translate , in victory, but most commonly , for ever; both, as Bishop Pearce observes, in such kind of phrases, signifying the same thing, because eternity conquers all things; and accordingly, in 2Sa 2:26, where the Septuagint have , our English version has, Shall the sword devour FOR EVER? And the same may be seen in Job 36:7; La 5:20; Amo 1:11; Amo 8:7; from which authority the bishop translates the clause here, Death is swallowed up FOR EVER.
Death is here personified and represented as a devouring being, swallowing up all the generations of men; and by the resurrection of the body and the destruction of the empire of death, God is represented as swallowing him up; or that eternity gulps him down; so that he is endlessly lost and absorbed in its illimitable waste. How glorious a time to the righteous, when the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick; when God shall have wiped away all tears from off all faces, and when there shall be no more death. This time must come. Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, in an eternal and continuing victory; the saints shall die no more. The quotation which the apostle bringeth, is out of those two texts, Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14; which two texts, the apostle saith, at that day will have a more full, perfect, and eminent accomplishment, than ever they before had.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
54. thennot before. Death hasas yet a sting even to the believer, in that his bodyis to be under its power till the resurrection. But then the stingand power of death shall cease for ever.
Death is swallowed up invictoryIn Hebrew of Isa25:8, from which it is quoted, “He (Jehovah) willswallow up death in victory”; that is, for ever: as”in victory” often means in Hebrew idiom (Jer 3:5;Lam 5:20). Christ will swallow itup so altogether victoriously that it shall never more regainits power (compare Hos 6:2;Hos 13:14; 2Co 5:4;Heb 2:14; Heb 2:15;Rev 20:14; Rev 21:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,…. As at the coming of Christ, both the bodies of living saints, and of dead ones being raised, will: and this
mortal shall have put on immortality; which will be the case, in the resurrection morn:
then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written; then that passage will have its full accomplishment, which stands in Isa 25:8 where it is read,
he will swallow up death in victory, or “for ever”. That is, the Messiah shall by his death, and resurrection from the dead, obtain such an entire victory over death, not only for himself, but for all his people, that in the resurrection morn, when they will be all raised from the dead, death will be so swallowed up, that it will be no more: the Jews acknowledge that this prophecy belongs to the times of the Messiah; so they say p, that
“the Messiah shall descend from Pharez, and in his day the holy blessed God will cause death to be swallowed up, as it is said, Isa 25:8 “he shall swallow up death in victory”:”
and again q,
“when the King Messiah comes, the holy blessed God will raise up those that sleep in the dust, as it is written, he shall swallow up death in victory:”
they also say r, that this passage refers to future time, and to the world to come. The prophet expresses it actively, it being a prediction of what was to be done by the Messiah; the apostle cites it passively, as being accomplished by him after the resurrection, and considered as a part of the song sung by the risen saints; to which is added,
p Shemot Rabba, sect. 20. fol. 131. 4. q Zohar in Gen. fol. 73. 1. r Zohar in, Exod. fol. 108. 1, 2, 4. Misn. Moed Katon. c. 3. sect. 9. Zohar iu Lev. fol. 46. 3. Yade Mose in Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 20. 1. Echa Rabbati, fol. 48. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Shall have put on (). First aorist middle subjunctive with whenever, merely indefinite future, no futurum exactum, merely meaning, “whenever shall put on,” not “shall have put on.”
Is swallowed up (). First aorist passive indicative of , old verb to drink down, swallow down. Perfective use of – where we say “up,” “swallow up.” Timeless use of the aorist tense. Paul changes the active voice in Isa 25:8 to the passive. Death is no longer victory. Theodotion reads the Hebrew verb (bulla, for billa,) as passive like Paul. It is the “final overthrow of the king of Terrors” (Findlay) as shown in Heb 2:15.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Is swallowed up [] . From Isa 25:8. The quotation agrees with the Hebrew : He shall swallow up death forever, rather than with the Septuagint, Death has prevailed and swallowed men up, which reverses the meaning of the Hebrew. Compare 2Co 5:4.
In victory [ ] . Lit., unto victory, so that victory is to be established.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
THE FINAL CONQUEST OVER DEATH
1) “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,” (hotan de to phtharton endusetai aphtarsian) “And whenever this (body that) is corruptible shall dress up in (or put on) a body of immortality.”
2) “And this mortal shall have put on immortality,” (kai to thneton touto endusetai athanasian) “And this mortal shall dress up in or put on immortality, an undying body.” This marks the consummation of the last enemy for one — death is conquered.
3) “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,” (tote genesetai ho logos ho gegrammenos) “Then will come to be realized the word which has been written.” Death is not the victor, but the resurrection of the body through Jesus Christ, is victory, Isa 25:8.
4) “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (katepothe ho thanatos eis nikos) “The death (of the old man) was swallowed up into victory,” by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who holds the keys (power or control of administration over death and hell), Rev 1:18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
54. Then shall be brought to pass the saying This is not merely an amplification, ( ἐπεξεργασία ,) (137) but a confirmation, too, of the preceding statement. For what was foretold by the Prophets must be fulfilled. Now this prediction will not be fulfilled, until our bodies, laying aside corruption, will put on incorruption Hence this last result, also, is necessary. To come to pass, is used here in the sense of being fully accomplished, for what Paul quotes is now begun in us, and is daily, too, receiving further accomplishment; but it will not have its complete fulfillment until the last day.
It does not, however, appear quite manifest, from what passage he has taken this quotation, for many statements occur in the Prophets to this effect. Only the probability is, that the first clause is taken either from Isa 25:8, where it is said that death will be for ever destroyed by the Lord, (138) or, (as almost all are rather inclined to think,) from Hos 13:14, where the Prophet, bewailing the obstinate wickedness of Israel, complains that he was like an untimely child, that struggles against the efforts of his mother in travail, that he may not come forth from the womb, and from this he concludes, that it was owing entirely to himself, that he was not delivered from death. I will ransom them, says he, from the power of the grave: I will rescue them from death. It matters not, whether you read these words in the future of the indicative, or in the subjunctive (139) for in either way the meaning amounts to this — that God was prepared to confer upon them salvation, if they would have allowed the favor to be conferred upon them, and that, therefore, if they perished, it was their own fault.
He afterwards adds, I will be thy destruction, O death! thy ruin, O grave! In these words God intimates, that he accomplishes the salvation of his people (140) only when death and the grave are reduced to nothing. For no one will deny, that in that passage there is a description of completed salvation. As, therefore, we do not see such a destruction of death, it follows, that we do not yet enjoy that complete salvation, which God promises to his people, and that, consequently, it is delayed until that day. Then, accordingly, will death be swallowed up, that is, it will be reduced to nothing, (141) that we may have manifestly, in every particular, and in every respect, (as they say,) a complete victory over it. (142)
(137) “ Vne declaration ou amplification;” — “A declaration or amplification.”
(138) “The words, as alleged by Paul,” (from Isa 25:8,) “are found in the version of Theodotion, with which the Targum and Syriac agree, in reading the verb as a passive, כלע in Piel, as here, commonly signifies to destroy, destroy utterly; in Kal, the more usual signification is that of swallowing, which most of the versions have unhappily adopted, לנצח the Greek translators render by; ἰσχύσας, εἰς τέλος, εἰς νῖκος; attaching to the term the idea of what is overpowering, durable, complete. The significations of the Hebrew root נצח, used only in Niphal and Piel, are — to shine, lead, lead on, be complete; in Chald. to surpass; excel, vanquish; hence the idea of victory, eternity, etc., attaching to נצח, and of completely, entirely, for ever, etc., to לנצח נצח. The words are therefore equivalent to ὁ θάνατος ὀυκ ἐσται ἐτι — (Death shall be no longer,) Rev 21:4, where there seems to be an evident allusion to our text; and where the subject is, as here, not the millennial state of the Church, but the state of glory after the resurrection of the body. It will be then only, that a period shall be put to the reproachful persecutions of the righteous, which Isaiah likewise predicts.” — Henderson on Isaiah. — Ed.
(139) “ Ie les eusse rachetez — ie les eusse deliurez;” — “I could have ransomed them — I could have rescued them.”
(140) “ Lors vrayement et a bon escient il sauue les fideles;” — “He then truly and effectually saves believers.”
(141) “This victory will not be gradual only, but total and entire. Every thing of mortality, that was hanging about these glorious victors, shall be swallowed up in perfect and endless life. Death is unstung first — disarmed — and then easily overcome. Its sting is said to be sin — the deadliest thing in death. A plain farther proof, by the way, the Apostle intended death also in the moral sense. And the insulting inquiry, ‘where is it?’ implies ‘tis not any where to be found; and signifies a total abolition of it, and, by consequence, must infer that every thing of death besides must, as to them, for ever cease and be no more. Which also the phrase of swallowing up doth with great emphasis express.” — Howe’s Works, (Lond. 1834,) page 1035. — Ed.
(142) “ En sorte que nons aurons plene et parfaite victoire a Pencontre d’elle; ” — “ So that we shall have a full and complete victory over it.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption.The Apostle now transports himself in thought to the time when there shall be the actual accomplishment of that for which there then is this absolute and moral necessity. These words bring before us with vivid power the intensity of the Apostles own belief in what he is teaching.
Death is swallowed up in victory.These words, originally referring to the Jewish people (Isa. 25:8), are naturally applied here to the human race, of which they were the chosen type.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
54. Brought to pass In a more specific fact, yet justly to be included in the general saying of Isa 25:8. The words are the same as the Hebrew, with the active verb made passive. Yet Stanley maintains that the apostle probably still used some Greek translation; other, however, than the Septuagint.
Death victory The prophet is depicting a blessed future to be brought about by the Messiah; but his pencil does not distinguish in its strokes the hues that belong to the periods before, at, and after, the resurrection. Touches belonging to each separately are blended in the then blessed Messianic future. Isaiah says, that in the great coming time, death shall be swallowed up in victory; Paul says it will be completely done by the resurrection at the parousia. Isaiah says, in the same verse, that “God will wipe away tears from off all faces;” John (Rev 21:4) says, this shall be beyond the judgment and the casting the wicked into hell, even in the new heavens and earth of eternity.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 15:54-55. So when this corruptible, &c. Or, And when, &c. “When this glorious and long expected event shall be accomplished,when this corruptible part of our frame shall have put on incorruption, &c. thenshall be fulfilled what is written, Isa 25:8. Death is swallowed up in victory; perfectly subdued and destroyed; and so happy a state introduced, that it would hardly be known that death had ever had any place or power among Christ’s subjects; in the assured view whereof, the Christian may even now, in faith and hope, with the greatest pleasure, take up his song of triumph, Where is thy sting, O death?” The original has a kind of poetical turn, which seems in some measure to suit the sublimity of the sentiment; for the first of the clauses, 1Co 15:55, is an Ionic, and the second a Trochaic verse; and Mr. Pope has only transposed them, to make them, as they stand in our verses, the conclusion of one of his stanzas,O grave! where is thy victory?O death! where is thy sting? It is generally thought that these words are quoted from Hos 10:14 where see the note.
Inferences.The death and resurrection of Christ constitute the grand foundation of our holy faith. It may well be the daily joy of our hearts to think how firm that foundation stands, and what various and convincing evidence we have, that as Christ became incarnate, visited this wretched world, and died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; that as he condescended to go down into the caverns of the grave, and lie there in the cold and silent tomb, humbled in the dust of death; so also, according to the same Scriptures, he was raised again on the third day. How thankful ought we to be, that such convincing proofs were given of his resurrection, demonstrated by such infallible tokens and repeated appearances to all the Apostles, who had every opportunity which the most scrupulous temper could demand of examining at leisure into its certainty! More than five hundred persons were witnesses to it at one time; witnesses, who for many years survived to attest this important fact, and corroborate our faith and hope in God, who quickeneth the dead. As therefore we have thus received, so let us stand fast in this doctrine; remembering that our salvation dependeth on our steadfastly and practically retaining it; and that if ever, on any considerations, we make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, we have believed in vain, and worse than in vain.
It is matter of thankful joy, that St. Paul was added to this cloud of witnesses who attested the resurrection of Jesus;that great Apostle, in whom the grace of God was so richly magnified; magnified peculiarly in that humility which he here expresses in so amiable a manner; calling himself the least of the Apostles, declaring that he was unworthy the name of an Apostle; and amidst all the labours and glories of this eminent station in the church, still keeping in his eye that madness, with which, in the days of his infidelity he had so grievously offended. And shall not we also learn of him to say, By the grace of God I am what I am?Let us be solicitous that his grace bestowed on us be not in vain; and, ever bearing in mind them any sins of our unconverted state, and our great unworthiness since we have known God and been known of him let us labour in our Lord’s service with proportionable zeal; and when we have laboured to the utmost, and exerted ourselves with the greatest fidelity and resolution, let us ascribe it to that divine agency which strengthened us for all; and say again, though some should esteem it a disagreeable tautology, Not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
Let us meditate with unutterable joy on the exaltation of our glorified Head,of our gracious Sovereign, who has conquered death himself, and will make all his faithful saints partakers of his victory. He has received from his Father glory, honour, and dominion; and he shall reign till his conquest be universal and complete; shall reign till death be not only stripped of its trophies, but rendered subservient to his triumphs;till all his purposes for his Father’s glory and his own be fully accomplished.
But O! who can express the joy and glory of that day! when Christ shall give up the kingdom to the Father, and present unto him all his faithful subjects, transformed into his own image; a beautiful and splendid church indeed, for ever to be the object of the divine complacence; for ever to dwell in the divine presence, in a state of the greatest nearness to the tri-une God, who shall then be all in all!Well may the expectation of this illustrious period cheer the Christian under his greater extremities, and make him of all men the most happy; when otherwise, on account of his sufferings in the flesh, he might seem of all men the most miserable. Well may this his rejoicing in Christ Jesus,that sacred oath which this persecuted and distressed Apostle with so sublime a spirit here uses, encourage him to go on, though he be daily dying; though he were to encounter the most savage of mankind, and death itself in its most dreadful forms. Well may this knowledge of God, and of his exalted Son, and of his infinite love towards his faithful people, awaken us to righteousness, and deliver us from the bondage of sin.
God Almighty enable us to retain these noble principles of doctrine and action, and to guard against those evil communications, those sceptical and licentious notions, which would corrupt our spirits, which would enervate every generous spark kindled and animated by the Gospel; and, by bounding our views within the narrow circle of mortal life, degrade us from the anticipations of angelic felicity, to the pursuits of brutal gratifications.
We may learn from this incomparable discourse of the Apostle to curb that vain curiosity, which is so ready in matters of divine revelations to break out into an unbecoming petulance; and where we are sure that God declares the thing, let us leave it to him to overcome every difficulty that may seem to attend the manner in which it shall be effected. Nothing may be more useful for the conquering of this weakness, than to observe the operations of God in the works of nature, where he giveth to every seed, whether animal or vegetable, such a body as shall please him. Each is proper for its sphere, and beautiful in its connection and order, though the degree of their glory be different; yea, and thus all the diversity of glory, which shall at last be apparent among the children of God,even the children of the resurrection, shall serve to illustrate the divine wisdom, and goodness, and faithfulness.
The alterations and process made in every instance will indeed be wonderful, when this mortal puts on immortality, and this corruptible puts on incorruption! O, let us for ever adore the divine goodness, that, when by our relation to the first Adam, we were under a sentence of condemnation and death, he was pleased, in his infinite mercy, to appoint that we should stand related to Christ, as the second Adam, in so happy a bond, that by him we may, if faithful unto death, recover what we have lost in the former; yea, and far more; so that, as we have borne the image of the earthly, we may also bear the image of the heavenly. May we all earnestly aspire after his blessedness, and remember that our bearing the image of his holiness is inseparably connected with the hope of so glorious a privilege!
Let us therefore endeavour, by cultivating holiness in all its branches, to maintain this hope in all its spirit and energy; longing for that glorious day, when, in the utmost strength of the prophetic expression, Death shall be swallowed up in victory; and millions of voices, after the long silence of the grave, shall burst out at once into that triumphant song, O death! where is thy sting?O grave! where is thy victory? And when we see death disarmed, and the terrors of the law silenced, let us bless God for Jesus Christ, by whom the precepts of the law were perfectly fulfilled, and its penalty endured, that so we might not only be delivered from the curse, but called to inherit the blessing. Let it be considered as an engagement to universal obedience; and, in the assurance that whatever other labours may be frustrated, those in the Lord shall never be vain, let gratitude and interest concur to render us steadfast, immovable, and continually active in his service.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The resurrection of the dead being a chief article of the Christian faith, the Apostle, in this chapter, asserts and establishes the doctrine, in opposition to some false teachers who had attempted to undermine and overturn this glorious truth, 2Ti 2:17-18.
1. He reminds the Corinthians of that gospel which he had formerly preached unto them, which they had received from his lips, and in the faith of which they had hitherto in general persevered. By which also, he adds, ye are saved, if ye keep in memory, or hold fast, what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, or among the most capital points of the Christian faith, and as the foundation on which all our hopes in time and eternity are built, that which I also received by immediate revelation, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, which had foretold his substitution and sufferings in the sinner’s stead; and that he was buried; having truly tasted of death, he was laid in the grave; and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; being delivered for our offences, he was raised again for our justification; and in his resurrection we have an earnest of our own. And of the fact of his being risen we have the most authentic evidence, as I have told you that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, which name they bore, though their original number, by the apostacy of Judas and the absence of Thomas, was not complete. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep in Jesus. After that he was seen of James, the brother or near kinsman of the Lord; then of all the Apostles; all of whom were ready to seal their testimony with their blood; men, who could not be deceived themselves, nor could be under the least temptation of deceiving others, when they expected nothing but suffering and death in every tremendous shape for their fidelity. And last of all, he was seen of me also, that I might be an eye-witness of his resurrection, when called in so miraculous a way to the office and honour of an Apostle. Hereupon,
2. He makes a beautiful digression, with the deepest humility acknowledging his own unworthiness, and Christ’s rich grace in calling and qualifying him for the work of the apostleship. He was seen of me, as of one born out of due time; despicable as an abortive foetus, and brought forth with violent pangs: for I am the least of the Apostles, utterly unworthy of the high honour, and last called to it; that am not meet to be called an Apostle, but deserved to have an eternal brand of infamy stamped upon me, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, his amazingly rich and unmerited grace, a happy alteration is wrought in me, and I am what I am, have obtained mercy, and have been called not only to the faith of the Gospel, but to the dignity of an Apostle; and his grace which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but wrought effectually; so that under the influence of it I laboured more abundantly than they all, undergoing greater hardships, exposed to greater dangers, and with the most unwearied diligence spreading the Gospel through the world. Yet not I, though constrained to vindicate my character, I impute nothing to myself, but to the grace of God which was with me, enabling me for his work, and crowning it with success. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed: all of us bore the same testimony to a crucified and risen Redeemer, and you professed to make him your whole dependance for pardon, grace, life, and salvation. Note; (1.) A gracious man remembers with deep humility those sad days when he lived in rebellion against God. (2.) Whatever we are or do, to the grace of God alone we are indebted for it, and he must have the glory. (3.) All true ministers of Jesus bring one message, determined to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified.
2nd, Having proved the certainty of Christ’s resurrection, he proceeds to shew the certainty of ours; refuting the opinion of those heretical teachers, who suggested that it was impossible, or that Christ did not rise in a public capacity, as the head and first-fruits of his faithful saints. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? From which, if it were true, the following absurdities would necessarily follow:
1. If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, notwithstanding all the prophesies, and the undoubted testimony of so many unexceptionable witnesses.
2. If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, useless, and unprofitable, the resurrection of Jesus being the grand truth on which the whole Gospel depends; and your faith is also vain; the doctrine on which it is built would have no solid foundation, and the hopes which you thence derive must disappoint and deceive you. Yea, and, on this supposition, we are found false witnesses of God, and must have made use of his sacred name to support a most impious falsehood; because we have testified of God, professing to act by his authority, and under his commission, that he raised up Christ to a glorious and immortal life, in token of the acceptance of his undertaking as the reward of his sufferings, and as he is the head of his faithful saints, who should follow him into his kingdom: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not: for it is evident, if the dead rise not, then it not Christ, who was once numbered among the dead, raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, and all the hopes arising from him are delusive: ye are yet in your sins, under the guilt and condemnation of them: for as there is no atonement for sin, but that which he offered, and on his resurrection the acceptance of his sacrifice depended, if he had continued in the grave, and seen corruption, we must have sunk into despair, and concluded his oblation unsatisfactory; nor could we have expected, that he who remained himself the prisoner of death, should ever be able to deliver us from the power of it.
3. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished, this being the necessary consequence of the above horrid supposition; for if Christ be not risen, their hope in him is vain; and then, though they died martyrs for his cause, they have departed with a lie in their right hand, and are lost for ever; than which thought nothing can be more shocking or discouraging to surviving Christians.
4. If this were the case, that in this life only we have hope in Christ, and after death have nothing to look for, we, who are Christians by profession, and especially the ministers of Christ, who stand most exposed to persecution and all kinds of suffering for his sake, are of all men most miserable; foregoing all the comforts and advantages of this life, and wading through a sea of difficulties and trials: and how absurd would this be, if after death we had no respect to the recompence of reward, and expected not a joyful resurrection! and who would ever seek to be crucified unto the world, and the world unto him, if he looked no farther than the grave, and hoped for nothing in eternity.
3rdly, The certainty of Christ’s resurrection being proved, and the glaring absurdities demonstrated which must follow from a contrary supposition, the Apostle passes on to the effects of Christ’s resurrection, as ensuring the resurrection of all the descendants of Adam, and especially the resurrection to glory of all the faithful saints of God.
1. Because Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept and shall sleep in him. He is the first-begotten from the dead, and the first-born of many brethren,all the persevering saints, whom he will bring unto glory; and his resurrection is the pledge and earnest that all his faithful people shall live with him for ever. God, in raising him up, has given his saints, who persevere in the love of him, the assurance, that they shall be blessed and gathered in with him in their season: for since, or because, by man came death, which followed on the first sin, by man came also the resurrection of the dead, by the second man, the Lord from heaven. For as in Adam, our common parent, all die, involved in his guilt, and exposed to death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal; so in Christ shall all mankind be made alive; and especially all his faithful saints, who, by virtue of their union with him, shall be raised to a life of eternal glory. But every man in his own order, ( ) Christ first, and then his saints, shall each in their time, rank, and order, rise into gloryChrist, the first-fruits, who consecrates the harvest, and is the pledge of our resurrection; afterward they that are Christ’s, at his coming, even all his faithful people.
2. The Apostle proves that we must rise, because death is among those enemies which the exalted Mediator shall destroy. Then cometh the end of the world, and of all the sorrows of the faithful, when, having gathered in all his persevering saints, he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that mediatorial kingdom, the peculiar administration of which has been entrusted to him as the Son of man: when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power; abolishing every form of civil and ecclestiastical government, and subduing every enemy, human or diabolical, that tyrannized over his people; for he must reign, as Mediator, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed, is death, when the dead bodies of his faithful people shall be raised to immortal life, no more to see corruption. For he, even God the Father, hath put all things under his feet, and appointed him to be Head over all things to his church. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that this refers only to all created beings, and that he is excepted which did put all things under him; for God himself can be subject to none. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, and the ends of his Mediatorial kingdom answered in the complete salvation of all his faithful saints, both in body and soul, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him; he will then resign the peculiar government committed to him, surrendering himself as the Head of his church, and the members of his body mystical, into his Father’s hands, to receive those eternal rewards which are due to him in virtue of his great atonement; that God may be all in all; and henceforth the delegated power and authority of Jesus, as Mediator, shall cease, and the one glorious God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, shall be the immediate fountain of dominion and blessedness to the church triumphant for ever.
3. He argues the certainty of the resurrection from the very baptism of Christians. Else what shall they do which are baptized? If there be no resurrection, how absurd and strange would it be to take up the Christian profession, when, if they had nothing in prospect after death, and here stood exposed to every misery, and the danger of daily martyrdom, they would seem merely baptized for the dead, and be of all men most miserable if the dead rise not at all. Why are they then baptized for the dead? Who with such a prospect would ever be prevailed on to embrace Christianity? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour, and ready to seal our testimony with our blood, if we had not the glorious hope of a better resurrection? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus, by all the comforts of Christianity, and as surely as that Spirit lives who is the author of them, I die daily, living continually in the nearest views and expectations of martyrdom. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, encountering men brutish and savage in their tempers, and have exposed myself to conflicts as dangerous as those which the condemned criminals sustain when obliged to encounter wild beasts in the public amphitheatres, what advantageth it me, what benefit could I reap from such perilous adventures, or what could ever induce me thus to hazard my life, if the dead rise not? Surely if this were the case, that nothing was to be hoped for after the grave, it would be our wisdom rather to adopt the principles of Epicurus, than of Christianity, and to say, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, and rather enjoy present pleasure, than suffer needless pain, if there were no hereafter, and death put an end to us for ever. Note; (1.) Nothing but the prospects of eternity can possibly engage any to the practice of Christianity. Till we have realizing views by faith of the things not seen, it is impossible that we should take up the cross of Christ. (2.) One great support in suffering is a respect to the recompence of the reward.
4. The Apostle closes this part of his discourse with a solemn caution. Be not deceived by those false teachers who endeavour to sap the foundation of your hopes: Evil communications corrupt good manners; the bad principles of these seducers could not but produce immoral practice; and to be connected and intimate with such men was dangerously infectious. Note; Bad company should be shunned as the plague. Awake then to righteousness; be on your guard, and see that ye walk as becomes your holy profession: for I perceive by these dangerous doctrines which have been introduced among you, that some of you have not the knowledge of God, and of his mind and will, as revealed in his Gospel. I speak this to your shame, that men of such bad principles and corrupt conversation should be among you, permitted as teachers, or suffered to communicate with the church as members. Note; We are blameable not only for the evils that we commit ourselves, but those which we connive at in others.
4thly, Two plausible objections against the resurrection are here suggested. (1.) How are the dead raised up? what power is sufficient for such a work, to recover the scattered atoms? and (2.) With what body do they come? with the same identical particles, or in some other shape and form? In answer to the objector, the Apostle replies, Thou fool. Probably the persons who opposed the doctrine of the resurrection pretended to high attainments in science, and to reason as philosophers; but they proved their ignorance, rather than their wisdom, and erred, not knowing the scriptures, or the power of God.
1. That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. The same Power, therefore, that every year raises, from under the clod where the seed was sown and corrupted, a plenteous harvest, can raise from the grave the body which has returned to its dust again; and it would be as absurd to object against the possibility of the one as the other.
2. As to the manner of the resurrection, and with what body we shall come from the grave, to continue the similitude, I answer, That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, without any of that rich clothing which afterwards it produces, the blade, the ear, and then the full corn in the ear; it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain, which dies and revives again: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body; so ordering it, in infinite wisdom, that every seed produces its own species. In quality, indeed, the resurrection body will differ from the present, though in identity of person the same. Nor is this strange, when we see out of the same materials, that bodies of very different qualities are formed. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds; the substance is originally the same, though, by divine power, wonderfully diversified in quality. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but, though all formed of the first created matter, they greatly differ in excellence; the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another: such difference will there be between the present and the resurrection body, as between a clod and a star. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory, is of greater magnitude, and shines with greater splendor; so also is the resurrection of the dead. Such will be the difference between the saints in glory, according to their excellencies. We are raised by the same divine power which makes the corn vegetate; and that almighty hand which modifies the same matter in the different bodies around us, can make the like glorious difference between our present and our resurrection body, though the manner how, may be to us inconceivable. It is sown in corruption, from the day of its generation till it is putrified in the dust; it is raised in incorruption, incapable of putrefaction or dissolution. It is sown in dishonour; in life full of defilement, covered with shame; in death loathsome and most contemptible; it is raised in glory, like unto Christ’s glorious body, shining as the stars for ever and ever. It is sown in weakness, is at present liable to a thousand infirmities, pain, weariness, sickness, accidents, and death; and in the grave must be a prey for worms; it is raised in power, vigorous and active, fit to join the immortal soul, and, without weariness, and without ceasing, to serve God in his temple for ever. It is sown a natural body, which needs the constant support of meat and drink, and sleep, like the beasts that perish: it is raised a spiritual body, requiring none of these animal refreshments. There is a natural body, such as we now possess; and there is a spiritual body, suited to the celestial world which is the inheritance of the saints. And so it is written, The first man Adam, from whom we derive our present body, was made a living soul, was endued with animal life, and required all those supports which we do: the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, was made a quickening Spirit, possessing life in himself, and the fountain of it to believers, having, since his resurrection, a spiritual body: and by virtue of his power, and the union of his faithful saints to him, he shall fashion their bodies like his own.
Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual: Adam’s animal body was first, Christ’s spiritual body afterwards; and such is the order also established for the faithful, first to bear the natural, then to receive the spiritual body. The first man was of the earth, formed from the clay; and by his sin he became earthy, returning to the dust whence he came. The second man is the Lord from heaven, coming thence to take our nature upon him; and is now returned thither with his human nature glorified; and his faithful people may expect him to come from thence to make them like himself. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; as Adam’s body was, so must our’s be, who sprung from him, mortal and corruptible; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly; as many as are born from above, and made partakers of a divine nature, and are faithful unto death, shall be conformed in their bodies to their Lord, and shall shortly be glorified together. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, by nature the children of corruption, sprung from a fallen parent, and like him must return to dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly; as many as are by faith perseveringly united to Jesus, and renewed in the spirit of their minds, shall bear shortly his bright image in their bodies, as well as souls, for ever.
5thly, The Apostle,
1. Gives the reason of the change which he had described. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood, such as our bodies are at present, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; they are unable to bear the eternal weight of glory, and incapable of tasting the delights, or being employed in the services, of that blest world to which the faithful are going. Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. The body must be refined from its corruptible dross before it can enter upon or enjoy the incorruptible inheritance.
2. He informs them of a secret unknown to them. Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep in the dust, but we shall all be changed; on as many of the saints as shall be found alive at Christ’s appearing, a change will pass equivalent to death and resurrection, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, when the voice of Jesus shall awaken the dead. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, the bodies of the faithful undergoing a happy alteration in their qualities, though preserving their identity; for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, that they may be capable of enjoying that celestial happiness which Jesus has purchased and provided for all those who shall have followed him faithfully through the regeneration.
3. When this awful season comes, then shall death be for ever abolished. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Isa 25:8. Death is swallowed up in victory. And that king of terrors shall be so utterly destroyed, that he shall never more be able to lift his arm against one of the glorified saints; and, in the prospect of this happy day, the faithful soul can even now, in faith and hope, antedate her eternal triumphs, and, exulting, cry, O death, where is thy sting? I defy it. O grave, where is thy victory? I rise immortal, and tread thee beneath my feet for ever.
4. The ground of the believer’s triumph is here declared. The sting of death is sin; this arms the monster with all his terrors; and the strength of sin is the law, binding over the transgressor to a future judgment; and not merely denouncing bodily death as the wages of sin, but passing sentence of eternal death, and consigning body and soul to hell. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In his adored name we lift up our banners; in his righteousness we make our boast, since he has died in our stead, he has led captivity captive; though the faithful see corruption in the grave, death cannot hold dominion over them; they shall rise glorious and immortal; and, through their great Redeemer’s power and grace, come and reign with him in glory everlasting. Note; (1.) Death is no longer dreadful, when the sting of sin, through the atoning Blood, is taken out of the conscience. The faithful shall find, by the way of the grave, the golden gates of life and immortality, which open into the paradise of God. (2.) That which will be the subject of the everlasting praises of the righteous, should now be the matter of their songs.
5. He closes the whole with a warm exhortation, arising from the foregoing discourse. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, firm, and unwavering in the faith and hope of the gospel, especially in the great doctrines of the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus, with the blessed effects thence flowing, of the immortal life and glory of all the faithful; unmoveable by any of the artifices of Satan, or the craft of seducers; founded on the rock which storms assail in vain; always abounding in the work of the Lord, zealously and abidingly engaged in his service, cheerful, and willing to undergo any sufferings, in spite of every opposition, increasing with the increase of God; knowing, as the most assured truth, that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord, but that, perseveringly cleaving to him in faith, he will strengthen, uphold, and own you in life and in death, and, after death, raise up your bodies to immortal life, and bestow the never-fading crown of righteousness and glory upon you, the reward, not, indeed, of debt, but of grace. Note; (1.) Our practice will keep pace always with the strength of our faith; and the more realizing our views of eternal things are, the more vigorously shall we press towards the mark for the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus. (2.) It is the strongest encouragement to labour for the Lord, that the faithful soul is sure to succeed in his service. (3.) Whatever we do or suffer for Christ, we shall never regret in the day of the resurrection, and shall only then be ashamed that we have loved him no more, and served him no better.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 15:54 . Then, however, when this our change has taken place, shall the dominion of death cease; no one shall die any mor.
.] an, as it were, triumphant repetition of the same weighty words. Comp. Bornemann, Schol. in Luc . p. xxxix. Theodoret calls the passage a song of victory . All the less is the first clause to be rejected, with Hofmann, on critical grounds. The first corrector of has rightly restored i.
] shall come to pass (in respect of its contents) the word, i.e. it shall become actual, the written word shall become fact. Hofmann wrongly takes it: Men shall then say so, as it stands written. Where a or goes forth, i.e. is spoken, there stands along with it the preposition of direction (as Joh 10:35 , Luk 3:2 , and frequently; comp. Gen 15:1 , al.), or whence the word comes (as Jer 26:1 ), or through whom it goes forth (from God; as Hag 1:3 ). It may be added, that they are not things simultaneous which are announced in the protasis and apodosis (as Hofmann objects); but when that which is spoken of in the protasis shall have taken place, then, because from this time forward no one shall fall any more under the power of death, shall that be realized, etc. This is the happy consequence of that, the complete victory of the life, which will link itself to that change which shall thus take place in the twinkling of an eye, as to its signal and prelud.
] effatum, oraculum, 1Ma 7:16 ; Plato, Phaedr. p. 275 B; Pindar, Pyth. iv. 105. Comp. Rom 9:9 ; Joh 12:38 ; Joh 15:25 .
. . .] Isa 25:8 , not according to the LXX., [98] but according to the original text; in quoting which, however, is rendered as passive, and is expressed in the way in which it is often rendered in other passages, e.g. 2Sa 2:26 , Job 36:7 , Jer 3:5 (but not here), by the LXX.: . The meaning is: Death has been completely done away . Comp. 2Co 5:4 . This being brought to nought is represented under the image of being swallowed up (namely, by God; see the original text). As regards the event itself, comp. Rev 21:4 .
] unto victory , i.e. so that thereby victory namely, of the opposing power of eternal life in the future Aeon is established ; , in the sense of the result. [99] Comp. Mat 12:20 . is a later form, in place of the old . See Hermann, Diss. de Orph. p. 821.
Since the personified is, according to the context, bodily death and nothing more, this passage also (comp. 1Co 15:26 ) is of no avail for the establishment of the doctrine of restoration (in opposition to Olshausen). Comp. on 1Co 15:22 ; 1Co 15:28 . The passages from the Rabbins, who likewise, upon the ground of Isa. l.c. , teach: “ in diebus ejus (Messiae) Deus S. B. deglutiet mortem ,” may be seen in Wetstein.
[98] Who here translate the words of the prophet incorrectly: .
[99] According to Osiander, is local ; so that is presented under the image of a wild beast, which swallows up its prey. Against this view there is, first, the absence of the article; secondly, (we should have expected , comp. Polyb. ii. 41. 7); lastly, the which follows vv. 55, 57. Luther’s gloss puts it happily and graphically: “Death lies undermost, and has now no strength left; but life lies uppermost, and says, Victory!”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Ver. 54. Death is swallowed up ] As the fuel is swallowed up by the fire; as the sorcerers’ serpents were swallowed up by Moses’ serpent.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
54. ] , &c. is a repetition, in a triumphant spirit, of the description of the glorious change.
] shall come to pass really be .
The citation is from the Heb. with this difference, that the active, ‘ He (Jehovah) abolishes ,’ , is made passive, and , ‘ for ever ,’ is rendered (as elsewhere by the LXX, e.g. ref. 2 Kings, but not here) .
. ‘ so as to result in victory . Wetst. quotes from the Babbis, ‘In diebus ejus (Messi) Deus S. B. deglutiet mortem.’
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 15:54 . This clothing of the saints with immortality fulfils a notable O.T. word respecting the Day of the Lord: “Then will be brought to pass the word that is written, Death has been swallowed up ( , the vb [2571] adopted in 2Co 5:4 as above) unto victory !” , with its double clause, recalls the double of 1Co 15:24 and of 1Co 15:27 f. (see notes), which are parl [2572] to each other and to this, alike marking the great “when,” the epoch of the consummation. The destruction of the “last enemy” secures absolute “victory” for Christ and His own. Paul corrects the LXX txt. of Isa 25:8 , which makes Death the victor, ; he appears to have read the Heb. passively bulla ‘, for Massoretic billa ‘: Theodotion’s translation is identical with Paul’s. lanetsach ( for ever ) is often rendered (later Gr [2573] form of ) by the LXX, according to the Aramaic sense of the noun; its Heb. sense implies a final and unqualified overthrow of the King of Terrors, and therefore admits of P.’s application. “This is the farthest reaching of all O.T. prophecies; it bears allusion to Gen 3 ” (Dillmann; see also Delitzsch, on the Isaianic txt.), and reverses the doom there pronounced.
[2571] verb
[2572] parallel.
[2573] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
saying = word. App-121.
swallowed up. Greek. katapino. Elsewhere Mat 23:24. 2Co 2:7; 2Co 5:4. Heb 11:29. 1Pe 5:8. Rev 12:16.
in = unto. App-104.
victory. Greek. nikos. Only here, verses: 1Co 15:55, 1Co 15:57, and Mat 12:20. The quotation is from Isa 25:8, and the following verse from Hos 13:14. App-107.
54.] , &c. is a repetition, in a triumphant spirit, of the description of the glorious change.
] shall come to pass-really be.
The citation is from the Heb. with this difference, that the active, He (Jehovah) abolishes, , is made passive, and , for ever, is rendered (as elsewhere by the LXX, e.g. ref. 2 Kings, but not here) .
. so as to result in victory. Wetst. quotes from the Babbis, In diebus ejus (Messi) Deus S. B. deglutiet mortem.
1Co 15:54. -, but when-immortality) The frequent repetition of these words is very delightful.-, then) not before. The Scripture is sure, therefore the resurrection is sure.- , death is swallowed up in victory) Isa 25:8, LXX.- , it was swallowed up at one instantaneous draught: comp. Rev 21:4.- , Heb , which the LXX. not here but elsewhere often translate , unto or in victory.
1Co 15:54
1Co 15:54
But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, -When this is done death loses its power. [The striking parallelism of the two propositions marks the ascending movement of the thought as well as the growing exultation of feeling. Perhaps this applies to the resurrection of the bodies which have already passed through the dissolution of death.]
and this mortal shall have put on immortality,-The immortal will be no longer subject to death. Death will be swallowed up and destroyed. [This refers most likely to the transformation of bodies constantly threatened with death during their earthly life.]
then shall come to pass the saying that is written,-This is added to denote the certainty of the fulfillment. God cannot lie.
Death is swallowed up in victory.-[The state of perfect inward vigor which excludes all possibility of outward decay. Such a life is victory gained forever over death its enemy. The deathless change is called a swallowing up, an absorption, of the mortal by the principle of life in Christ.]
this mortal: Rom 2:7, Rom 6:12, Rom 8:11, 2Co 4:11, 2Th 1:10
Death: Isa 25:8, Luk 20:36, Heb 2:14, Heb 2:15, Rev 20:14, Rev 21:4
Reciprocal: 2Sa 17:16 – be swallowed 2Sa 20:19 – swallow Job 17:14 – corruption Job 40:10 – glory Psa 9:6 – destructions Psa 35:25 – We have Psa 56:1 – swallow Act 13:36 – and saw Rom 8:37 – Nay Rom 8:38 – that 1Co 1:30 – redemption 1Co 9:25 – but 2Co 2:7 – swallowed 2Co 5:2 – clothed 2Co 5:4 – that mortality Eph 4:30 – the day Col 3:10 – put 2Ti 1:10 – who Heb 9:28 – unto Heb 11:35 – that they Heb 12:23 – the spirits 1Pe 1:23 – not
VICTORY!
Death is swallowed up in victory.
1Co 15:54
There are very few who do not sometimes think about the life beyond that which they are living now. It is an instinct of the human race. Death forces itself on us as a universal fact. And in all ages and in every land men have been guessing (how could they do more?) about what came next. But who can tell us about it? Where is it? What is it? What are its conditions? What its hopes, its joys, or its fears and sorrows? No traveller but One has come back to describe to us this unknown country.
It is the language of two later prophets that St. Paul has woven together in the closing sentences of that great chapter which is enshrined in our Burial Service, and which tells us more vividly than any other of the coming and Kingdom of Christ. For it is He only Who has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. It is with Him that they who are absent from the body are at home. It is by Him that this body, so constantly humbled by its infirmities, shall be transformed into a body of glory such as His own. And we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
I. Apart from Christ the future has no gleam of hope.It is all dark. No sure word comes from anywhere else. The pretended intercourse with the departed which some have claimed is only one of those delusions which, we have been warned, will abound in the last days. The worlds greatest philosophers have nothing of their own to tell us. Science is silent. One of the best-known of modern thinkers, Herbert Spencer, writing to an intimate friend, said: My own feeling. respecting the ultimate mystery is such that of late years I cannot even try to think of ultimate space without some feeling of terror. What a contrast to that triumphant cry, Death is swallowed up in victory! Victory! Yes, for heaven is more than rest, more than relief, more than satisfaction, more than happiness; it is victory. Death itselfthe last enemywill be extinguished in the glory of the Coming King.
II. This is the hope, sure and certain, as our Church bids us call it, with which we lay to rest those loved and cherished here, who have died in the Lord, whether it be some little one whose eyes have hardly opened upon this troublesome world, or whether it be some honoured servant of God who has reached the ripeness of age, and spent many years in doing good. The promise is surethem also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him, and then shall all be changed; corruptible must put on incorruption, and mortal must put on immortality; then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. For them death has no sting, for sin in its strength has been conquered by Christ. The condemnation which the holy law adjudged He has borne. The power which sin exerted in us He has overcome, and the joyful chorus of the redeemed will rise, Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is with such thoughts we comfort one another when death comes near to us or ours; with such thoughts we brace our spirits afresh to labours which we know will not be in vain in the Lord.
III. The future for the Christian is all victory, but a victory which has had its anticipations here.The Christians first step to heaven starts with the passage from death to life. He is already in possession of the triumphant life that will last for ever. For him dying is not death. This fact more than any distinguishes his from all other forms of existence. He lives, he works, he hopes as one in sight of eternal victory. And this gives energy, stability, yea! perpetuity to all work that is done for God.
Rev. Prebendary Fox.
1Co 15:54. When the change just mentioned has occurred, a prediction in Isa 25:8 will be fulfilled, namely, death is swallowed up in victory.
1Co 15:54. And when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written (Isa 25:8), Death is swallowed up in victory.[1] Having closed his argument with these sublime words of one prophet, the apostles bosom seems to have so swelled with emotion as to vent itself in the exultant exclamation of another prophet.
[1] The apostle departs here from the incorrect rendering of the LXX., and keeps nearer to the Hebrew, which runs thus:He hath swallowed up death for ever, But since this idea of completeness is often rendered unto victory in the LXX. (as Job 36:7; Jer 3:5), he avails himself of the phrase here, and all the rather, as after describing death as the last enemy, he delights to view the eternal extinction of death as a glorious victory over that last enemy.
Here observe, 1. The happy condition of believers in the glorious morning of the resurrection, when their corruptible bodies shall be made by the power of Christ incorruptible and immortal: Then shall death be swallowed up in victory; that is, be overcome for ever, never to destroy or hurt any more, or to have the least power over the body for ever. The conqueror of all flesh is now fully conquered, and the spoiler of mankind finally spoiled.
O Death! thou wert once a victorious conqueror, an universal conqueror, slaying not thy thousands and ten thousands only, but beyond number; from the infant to the aged, from the dunghill to the throne, sparing neither age nor sex, neither great nor small, neither sacred nor profane.
But the Captain of our salvation having entered into the grave, the territories of death, the king of terrors, has there encountered, disarmed, and destroyed, this victorious conqueror: Death is swallowed up in victory.
Some read it, Death is swallowed down, death is drank up at a draught. Christ called his sufferings, by which he obtained victory over death, a cup; and as death is drank up, so mortality is swallowed up, 2Co 5:4. Blessed be God, beyond the grave there is neither death, nor any thing like death, neither death nor mortality. The one is abolished, the other swallowed up of life.
Observe, 2. How the apostle, in the name of all believers, triumphs and holily insults over death, the last conquered enemy. He laughs at it to the very face with a pious scorn and holy derision: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? As if a man having disarmed his enemy should say, Now, sir, where’s your sword? where’s your pistol? Thus the believer: O death, thou thoughtest to pierce, to pain, to poison us with thy sting; but where is now thy sting? Thou thoughtest thyself a conqueror, but behold thou art conquered. Where is now thy victory?
Blessed be God for these songs of victory and triumph, which the Captain of our salvation has put into the mouths of all those that fight under his exalted banner.
Vv. 54. The form of parallelism is continued. The word , then, expresses the grandeur of the time. The participle: that which is written, is added to denote the certainty of fulfilment: Scripture cannot lie. The saying quoted is Isa 25:8, the meaning of which is that the theocracy once restored, its members, dead and living, shall be all raised up together to the sphere of immortality. God, says the prophet (if God be understood as the subject), hath swallowed up death for ever. The LXX., probably following another reading, have translated altogether differently: Death hath swallowed up triumphantly (perhaps in the sense of: It formerly swallowed up…). Paul follows our Hebrew text, only changing the active into the passive: Death is swallowed up. The word which we translate victory, following Paul, is one of the most beautiful terms in the Hebrew language (ntsach). It denotes the state of perfect inward vigour which excludes all possibility of outward decay, and hence: eternal duration. The expression: in victory, seems to me to have the meaning: Death is absorbed in imperishable life. Such a life is victory gained for ever over death, its enemy. It is not the only time that the LXX. thus render the term lantsach.
The feeling of gratitude and adoration here reaches its culminating point in the apostle’s heart:
But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written [Isa 25:8], Death is swallowed up in victory. [When the natural body shall be transformed into the spiritual, then shall be fulfilled that prophecy which describes death–the one who has swallowed up the human race, as being himself swallowed up in victory.]
54. When this corruption may put on incorruption, and this mortal may put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word which has been written, Death swallowed up in victory, i. e., in the glorious ultimatum the victory of Christ is going to swallow up death, i. e., destroy him altogether, so that the grim monster will never again be heard of.
Verse 54
That is written. Expressions similar to those here used occur in Hosea 13:14.
SECTION 30 VICTORY! CH. 15:54-58
And when this corruptible thing shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal thing shall have put on immortality, then will take place the word that is written, Death has been swallowed up in victory. (Isa 25:8.) Where, Death is thy victory? where, Death, thy sting? The sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the Law. But to God be thanks who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, my beloved brothers, become firm, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord always, knowing that your labor is not vain in the Lord.
1Co 15:54. And when etc.: full and majestic reiteration of the change described in 1Co 15:53, as of something on which Paul loves to linger.
Then; gives definiteness to the hoped-for moment.
Will-take-place: what is now a written word will then become fact.
Swallowed-up: put completely out of sight.
Into victory: when the victory has come, death will have disappeared. This is a quotation, exact in senses. from Isa 25:8 : He has swallowed up death for ever. The word victory was suggested to Paul by an Aramaic word of that meaning similar to the Hebrew word rendered for ever. It also recalls 1Co 15:26. In this quotation lies an argument. For Isaiah’s words imply clearly a complete and eternal undoing of the work of death: and this can be only by resurrection of the dead. In the moment when the change from mortality to immortality is complete, and not till then, will Isaiah’s words be fulfilled. The latter part of the same prophecy is also quoted in Rev 7:17, with a similar reference.
1Co 15:55. A shout of victory evoked by the just quoted prophecy, which to Paul’s faith is already accomplished.
Where? as though looking round for something which has disappeared. So 1Co 1:20; Rom 3:27.
Death: vivid personification.
Thy victory: once apparently so complete and universal, and so universally acknowledged and dreaded.
Sting: of an animal, Rev 9:10; 4Ma 14:19 : also a human weapon, especially (Act 26:14) an ox- or horse-goad. The once deadly serpent has lost its sting; and is therefore harmless. These words were evidently suggested by Hos 13:14, which in LXX. reads From the hand of Hades I will rescue, and from death I will redeem them. Where is thy righteous claim, O Death? Where is thy sting, O Hades? This ancient prophecy foretells complete deliverance from death. Thus, in what seems to be merely a shout of victory, Paul adds another Scripture proof to the arguments of this chapter. The passage in Hosea accounts for the mistaken reading of the Authorized Version.
1Co 15:56-57. Thoughts suggested by the sting and the victory. Sin is the sting of death in that but for sin even death (the abstract power personified) could not have pierced us. For death is the punishment of sin. By committing sin we gave our enemy a weapon with which he slew us. But death cannot hurt those saved from sin. For to them death is gain. To them, therefore, death is a serpent which has lost its sting, retaining its outward form but powerless to injure.
Power of sin: interesting coincidence with Rom 7:7 ff. But for the Law sin would have been powerless to pierce us. For, had there been no law, the abstract power of sin could not have compelled us to break it and thus to incur its penalty. That the mention of death recalls sin and the Law, shows how deeply inwoven in the mind of Paul was the teaching of Romans 7. In the moment of victory he remembers that death’s terrible weapon came from man’s sin, and that but for the Law, in which many Jews trusted for salvation, the power of sin would have been unknown.
1Co 15:57. To God be thanks: sudden transition (cp. 2Co 2:14; 1Ti 1:17; Rom 9:5; Rom 16:25, etc.) from things around to God who is over all. As usual, the divine Name is placed first, to make the transition.
The victory: the last victory over death. But this implies all earlier victories. For, only those who conquer sin and the world now will attain to the resurrection from the dead, Php 3:11.
Gives the victory, over death, by giving us day by day victory over sin and the world. For the one victory implies the other.
Through our Lord etc.: Rom 1:5. In 1Co 15:56-57 we have an epitome of the Gospel: sin, the Law, death, the gift of salvation from God, through Christ. Similar shout of victory in Rom 8:37 ff, summoning up the result of the whole chapter.
1Co 15:58. Practical bearing of the results summed up in 1Co 15:57.
Firm: better, firmly-seated.
Immovable; suggests forces tending to carry them away. These words refer to unshaken belief of the Gospel, without which there can be no stable Christian character. A close parallel in Col 1:23.
Work of the Lord: 1Co 16:10 : the work given us by Christ to do.
Abound: Rom 15:13; 2Co 8:7. Christ’s servants must be always at work.
Knowing etc.: motive for Christian firmness and for abundant work. It thus expounds so then.
Labour; suggests the weariness frequently involved in work for Christ.
Vain: empty of results.
In the Lord; supports not in vain. For Christ is the element in which we toil: and nothing done in Him can be without result. This verse reminds us how often doubts about doctrine lessen the abundance and the constancy of gospel work. For such work appears useless to those who are not firmly convinced of the truth of the Gospel. All Christian activity flows from fully believed Christian doctrine. Of this, negative proof had probably been already given by the church at Corinth.
The ERRORS at Corinth about THE RESURRECTION, and Paul’s ARGUMENTS against them, we will now try to reproduce.
The opinions of the Pagan Greeks about the dead are known to us by various allusions in classic writers.
HOMER, (Odyssey bk. xi. 489,) in a graphic picture of the departed, which doubtless helped to perpetuate the opinions therein embodied, describes the dead as leading a worthless shadow life, which the greatest of the heroes, Achilles says he would change for the very meanest place on earth. PLATO teaches again and again the endless existence of all souls, in happiness or misery according to their action on earth. See, especially Apology p. 40, Phaedo p. 108, Georgias p. 523. But he says expressly, and the seriousness of his argument implies, that very many around him disbelieved in a future life, while others believed that although the soul might survive the body yet it would ultimately cease to be. So Phaedo p. 70a: Touching the soul men have much unbelief; fearing lest when it has left the body it is no longer anywhere, but in that day it corrupts and perishes whenever the man dies; and as soon as it is removed from the body it goes forth, scattered like breath or smoke, and goes away flying in different directions and is no longer anywhere. CICERO (Tusculan Disputations bk. i.) argues at length, but with less confidence than Plato, that the soul exists for ever; yet admits that many believed it to be extinguished at death, and that the Stoics taught its final extinction. Cicero, however, only faintly indicates, while Plato teaches most explicitly, that a man’s future happiness or misery depends upon his present conduct. Cp. also Josephus, Wars bk. ii. 8. 11. The arguments both of Plato and Cicero suggest that the common people believed that death was either an extinction of the soul or an entrance into a worthless shadow life. And these views were probably current at Corinth in Paul’s day.
The Greek and Roman writers seem to have had no conception whatever of a resurrection of the body. Plato taught that sometimes departed spirits return to earth to animate other human or animal bodies. See his Phaedo p. 81 etc., Timaeus p. 42 etc. But this he regarded as but a lengthening of their bondage, and taught that at death the purer spirits were free for ever from material clothing. Of a spiritual body, i.e. one over which the spirit will have complete control and which will be a perfect organ for self-manifestation of the spirit, he had no conception. So complete a victory of spirit over matter was utterly beyond his thought.
From Mar 12:18 we learn that the Sadducees, though followers of Moses, denied the resurrection of the dead. In reply to them Christ proves from Exo 3:6, as Paul proves here, that the dead servants of God still live. That a denial of this was implied in the Sadducean denial of the resurrection, we are told expressly in Act 23:8; in Josephus, Antiq. bk. xviii. 1. 4, The souls disappear with the bodies; and Wars bk. ii. 8. 14.
A very instructive parallel to 1 Corinthians 15 is 1Th 4:13-18. Paul’s earnest announcement that the dead believers, raised from the dead, will in company with the survivors meet Christ in the air, implies that his readers feared that their dead brethren had by their death lost their share in the kingdom Christ was coming to set up, and had fallen into non-existence or into a worthless shadow life. Yet of the piety of the Thessalonicans he speaks in highest terms. Their ignorance is just what we might expect in a church from which Paul was suddenly torn (Act 17:2; Act 17:9} after less than a month’s teaching; and is therefore a valuable mark of genuineness. In their case all that was needed was to supply the deficiencies of their faith, 1Th 3:10. The argument in 1Th 4:14 is practically the same as in 1Co 15:13; except that to the Thessalonicans Paul had no need to adduce proof that Christ had risen.
That in reply to men denying the resurrection Paul brings arguments proving for the more part only that there is a life beyond death, shows that this denial was meant to be a denial of future life. For against Plato’s teaching that all souls will exist in happiness or misery without bodies, the arguments of 1Co 15:19; 1Co 15:29-34 have no force. We must therefore suppose that these Corinthians denied, like the Sadducees, all future existence; or, like Homer, all existence worthy of the name.
Yet they were members of the church. Perhaps, like the Thessalonicans, they were looking (1Co 1:7) for the return of Christ, and thought that their share in the happiness to come depended on their surviving to His coming. At the same time, the warnings of 1Co 15:32 ff seem to imply that even their expectation of Christ’s return was losing its moral influence over them. For, even if death were extinction, the prospect of His early appearance was a motive sufficient to restrain men from sin. As such it is used in 1Th 5:4 ff; Mat 24:44. The men referred to here were, probably, (cp. 1Co 15:34,) Christians only in name, ignorant of God, and a disgrace to the church.
That Paul speaks of them as denying, not a future life, but resurrection of the dead, suggests that they assumed, as Paul did, that without resurrection there could be no future life worthy of the name; and that they denied a future life because to them resurrection was incredible. They seem to have had no conception of Plato’s doctrine of a bodiless but blessed life to come.
Again, that Paul meets their denial of the resurrection by proofs that Christ has risen and by saying that if He has risen so shall we, implies that their denial of the resurrection was so broad that it involved clearly a denial that Christ has risen. Paul’s long proof that He has risen suggests that these skeptics, though they had not expressly denied the resurrection of Christ, (else Paul would certainly have said so,) were not unprepared for this logical result of their own denial. This is another indication that they were Christians in little more than name.
The argument of 1Co 15:35 ff suggests that some denied that God’s people rise again because they supposed that, if so, they would rise in bodies exactly the same as those laid in the grave, and because the present body seemed to them utterly unfit for the life to come.
These denials and objections Paul meets, not by excommunication, but, for the sake of honest doubters, by careful argument. He adduces abundant proof that Christ has risen; leaving his readers to perceive that the presence in heaven of the now glorified bodies cannot pass into the life to come.
And he proves by various arguments that there is a life to come. He then cuts away one ground of the denial at Corinth by declaring that the Christian doctrine is, not that our present bodies pass unchanged into endless life, but that in every case, whether or not we survive the coming of Christ, our bodies must be completely changed before they can put on immortality. The completeness and the glory of this change, and the complete victory over death which it implies, force from the apostle a shout of victory. But this gives place at once to practical exhortation to do, unmoved by doubt or contradiction, the work of Christ.
This transformation will fulfill the prophecy in Isa 25:8. What Paul just revealed harmonizes with prophetic Scripture: God will overcome death (cf. 1Co 15:23-28).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)