When

TO READ: 1 Corinthians 15:51-58

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.”

1 Corinthians 15:54

Have you ever sat by the side of someone you love who is being slowly swallowed up by death? If you have, you will know how hard it is to believe this verse. How you long for someone to come along and stop it all! If only a great big giant could walk into the room and swallow up death, who is busy swallowing up your dear one! It is all like a dreadful nightmare, except it is many times worse than a bad dream because it’s real. On the one hand, you can’t seem to wake up and have the shadows disappear, and on the other, you can’t go to sleep without having a cloud of despondency follow and surround you so tightly that you can’t get your breath.

It was at such a bitter, despairing time as this that I found 1 Corinthians 15:54: “When our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” Oh, blessed “when.” Oh, gentle promise of God. And who shall there be who is strong enough to digest death? Why, the Lord God —it is he! The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces and ransom our people from final destruction.

“O death, bring on your terrors! O grave, bring on your plagues! For I will not take pity on them” he promised (Hosea 13:14). Take courage, dear friend, there is a time —a moment —a “when.”