The sermon presents death not as a neutral natural event but as an enemy whose sting is sin and whose power is intensified by God’s law. Because the law demands perfect righteousness and cannot simply overlook guilt, sinners cannot remove their condemnation through good works. Christ satisfies divine justice through His substitutionary suffering and perfect obedience, and faith receives His victory. Hearers are therefore urged to renounce sin, abandon self-righteousness, trust Christ alone, and prepare for the certainty of death and eternal judgment.
Theological center: Christ’s perfect obedience and substitutionary atonement satisfy the law and grant believers victory over sin, death, and judgment.
Applications: Examine your readiness for death · Renounce sinful practices · Trust only in Christ · Begin weighing eternal matters now
Primary texts: 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 · 1 Corinthians 15:52-54 · Revelation 22:11
“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 WHILE the Bible is one of the most poetical of books, though its language is unutterably sublime, yet we must remark how constantly it is true to nature. There is no straining of a fact, no glossing over a truth. However dark may be the subject, while it lights it up with brilliance, yet it does not deny the gloom connected with it. If you will read this chapter of Paul’s epistle, so justly celebrated as a masterpiece of language, you will find him speaking of that which is to come after death with such exaltation and glory that you feel, “If this be to die, then it were well to depart at once.” Who has not rejoiced and whose…