1 Corinthians 15:53-55 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Paul now compares the two types of human existence with perishable and imperishable. This continues the pattern he began back in v. 35 in answer to the question about what the resurrected body will be like. Everything in this life fights the affects of death in some degree or another. We cannot imagine our existence without this physical fight we are in. The resurrected body will be imperishable and immortal, not bound by the affects of this decaying world. What will this new body be like? We can only imagine the joy of this new existence.
At the point of our resurrection, something fundamental changes about our existence. We move from the mortal world dominated by the power of death, to the immortal world free from death and characterized by eternal life. Jesus’ resurrection ended the power of death for all time. However, while we await his second coming, we still suffer from death’s affects. This is the interim period of waiting. But we can be assured that death has been defeated. This gives us hope and should influence how we live. Paul’s rhetorical questions have the obvious answer that death has been defeated. The war has been won. Since Jesus conquered death through his resurrection, we can now have hope and should not fear our own final battle, though it may come through pain, or with sorrow and questions.
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