He Took the Sting
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 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 (KJV)
Picture a family in their kitchen when a bee flies in. Everyone panics. Then the dad catches it, gets stung, and holds up his hand to show the stinger stuck in his palm. Now it can’t hurt anyone else.
Paul uses a picture like that for death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” What makes death so terrible isn’t just that it ends life. It is the sin behind it, and the judgment that sin deserves.
But Jesus took the sting. On the cross he took our sin into himself, so that death has nothing left to stab us with. “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Death is still real. We still grieve. But for those in Christ, it is a bee with no sting. You can face it, and every lesser fear, knowing someone already took the hit for you.
Read it yourself
Read 1 Corinthians 15:50–58. What does Paul say will happen to us at the last trump?
What fear might lose its power if you remembered that Jesus took the sting?
Lord Jesus, you took the sting of death for me. Thank you for the victory. Amen.