01.07. Our Ground Of Victory
Chapter 7 - Our Ground Of Victory "O, death, where is thy victory? O, death, where is thy sting?
"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’’ (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). The apostle concluded the previous verse by saying, "Death is swallowed up in victory." A remarkable expression this, taken from the Old Testament, "denoting the swallowing up of the all-swallower," as Vitringa said. And now he follows it by a triumphal song, in which he seems "transported to the moment of the grand consummation."
Death is likened by the apostle to a venomous beast armed with a deadly poison (the serpent of the garden of Eden comes into mind), and by the Holy Spirit he taunts him with his defeat. On the morning of July 4, 1898, a boy of five was awakened by the rejoicings of his elders over the destruction of the Spanish fleet by Admiral Sampson, in Santiago Harbour. He listened intently to the thrilling tale while standing in his little crib. Afterwards he was urged to dress and begin his sport with the torpedoes and firecrackers given him for Independence day, but he spurned them with the remark, "Who could set off torpedoes and firecrackers on a day like this! This is a victory worth while!" And so when death is emptied of its conquests on the resurrection morning, there will be "a victory worth while," in whose contemplation the fleeting vanities of the world may well be set aside. That the "sting of death is sin" is very easy to understand.
"Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all".
It is not so easy, however, to understand the saying that "the strength of sin is the law." Yet it evidently means that what gives sin its power is that it is the transgression of the righteous law of an all-wise, all-loving and all-holy God before "Whom, in all our spiritual nakedness, we shall soon stand."
"But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." How the victory?
One summer day the writer went to console a farmer who had been seriously stung by a bee. "Well," said the farmer, "one thing gives me satisfaction; that bee ’ill never sting another man."
"Oh," it was replied, "you killed it, did you?"
"No," said he, with some disdain. "Don’t you know that a bee has only one sting, and that when he stings a man he leaves his sting in him? He may alight upon another man but he has no sting for him."
Oh, blessed and holy truth! Death alighted upon Jesus Christ, and left its sting in Him. He tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9). "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). Death may alight on us who believe on Him, but it has no fatal power. In other words, the mortal part of us may pass through the experience of death, but our spiritual part is safe. Christ has fulfilled the demands of the law on our behalf. He has satisfied divine justice. He is our righteousness, our sanctification and our redemption. He new creates our souls. He rescues our bodies from the grave. He gives us the victory in the fullest and completest sense, for "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:4). This is a gift. God "giveth us the victory." He gives it to us through "our Lord Jesus Christ." They who take Christ take this gift. "He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 6:12).