1 Corinthians 15:56

15:51-58 All the saints should not die, but all would be changed. In the gospel, many truths, before hidden in mystery, are made known. Death never shall appear in the regions to which our Lord will bear his risen saints. Therefore let us seek the full assurance of faith and hope, that in the midst of pain, and in the prospect of death, we may think calmly on the horrors of the tomb; assured that our bodies will there sleep, and in the mean time our souls will be present with the Redeemer. Sin gives death all its hurtful power. The sting of death is sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting; he has made atonement for sin, he has obtained remission of it. The strength of sin is the law. None can answer its demands, endure its curse, or do away his own transgressions. Hence terror and anguish. And hence death is terrible to the unbelieving and the impenitent. Death may seize a believer, but it cannot hold him in its power. How many springs of joy to the saints, and of thanksgiving to God, are opened by the death and resurrection, the sufferings and conquests of the Redeemer! In verse 58, we have an exhortation, that believers should be stedfast, firm in the faith of that gospel which the apostle preached, and they received. Also, to be unmovable in their hope and expectation of this great privilege, of being raised incorruptible and immortal. And to abound in the work of the Lord, always doing the Lord's service, and obeying the Lord's commands.

1 Corinthians 15:56-58 . The sting of death is sin — Which arms it with its greatest terrors, and is attended with a foreboding of future misery, as the effect of the divine displeasure. And the strength of sin — Which constitutes its malignity, and gives it those killing weapons; is the law — As is largely declared Romans 7:7 , &c.; or, that it is a transgression of the divine law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us — Who believe on the Lord Jesus with our hearts unto righteousness; the victory — Over sin, death, and hades; through our Lord Jesus Christ — Through his sacrifice and intercession, and the supplies of his grace; through his dying to atone for sin; his rising again to show us that his atonement was accepted, and that he had obtained justification for believers, the Holy Spirit to raise them to newness of life, and a state of immortal glory. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast — In faith, hope, and love, and in an uninterrupted course of well-doing; Colossians 1:23 ; Romans 2:7 ; Galatians 6:9 ; unmoveable — By any temptations from within or without; from persons or things; from visible or invisible enemies; always abounding in the work of the Lord — In every service you are capable of performing for the glory of God, the good of your fellow-creatures, or your own salvation; the work of faith, or the labour of love to God and man.

Forasmuch as ye know — On the surest evidence; that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord — But that you shall receive a full reward in that day of final recompense for whatever ye do for his sake. Let us endeavour, therefore, by cultivating holiness in all its branches, to maintain a lively hope of this felicity in all its spirit and energy, longing for that glorious day when, in the utmost extent of the expression, death shall be swallowed up for ever: and millions of voices, after the long silence of the grave, shall burst out at once into that triumphant song, O death, where is thy sting? O hades, where is thy victory? And when we shall join in everlasting thanksgivings to God for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

56 . the strength of sin is the law ] That the sting of death should be sin is very easy to understand. It is not so easy at first sight to account for the introduction here of St Paul’s favourite doctrine (see Romans 7) that ‘the strength of sin is the law.’ Yet the sequence of thought may be discovered. What gives sin its power at that supreme moment is the fact that it is the transgression of the righteous Law of an all-wise and all-holy being. ( Romans 7:12 ; Romans 7:14 ; 1 Timothy 1:8 .)

(56) The sting of death is sin. —Death is pictured as a monster, and it is armed with a sting. Its sting is sin. If there were no sin, death would not be capable of inflicting pain, and the strength of sin springs from the fact that it is the violation of God’s law. (See this thought fully brought out, Romans 5:12 ; Romans 7:7 .)

1 Corinthians 15:56 . Ἡ ἁμαρτία , sin ) If there were no sin, there could be no death; comp. Hosea 13:12 . Against this prick no one could have kicked by his own strength; no one could have sung that song of triumph, where , etc. The particle but indicates this fact.— ὁ νόμος , the law ) threatening death for sin; without the law sin is not perceived; under the law sin has dominion; Romans 6:14 .

56. If there were no sin, there would be no death. Man's transgression of the law gives death its lawful power. strength of sin is the law—Without the law sin is not perceived or imputed (Ro 3:20; 4:15; 5:13). The law makes sin the more grievous by making God's will the clearer (Ro 7:8-10). Christ's people are no longer "under the law" (Ro 6:14).

Verse 56. - The sting of death is sin. Because death is the wages of sin ( Romans 6:23 ). Death is represented as a venomous serpent. The strength of sin is the Law. The best comment on this expression is to be found in the Epistle to the Romans; see especially Romans 4:15 ; Romans 7:10-12 . It must be admitted that this passing allusion to a distinct doctrine does not seem, at first sight, to harmonize with the glorious unity of the subject. No one can read it without a slight sense of jar , because it seems to introduce the element of dogmatic controversy. But this sense of incongruity is removed when we remember how intensely St. Paul felt that man is confronted with the horror of a broken Law, which at once reminds him of a Being infinitely holy, and of his own self condemnation ( Romans 7 ; 2 Corinthians 3 .). It is the sense that the Law in its deathful aspect is annulled, and the sinful soul delivered, which prompts the outburst of the next verse. 1 Corinthians 15:56

The sting of death is sin; if it were not for sin, death could have no power over man; sin is that which giveth death a power to hurt the children of men: The wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23 . And the strength of sin is the law; and without the law there could be no transgression. The law is so far from taking away the guilt of sin, that, through the corruption of our natures, strongly inclining us to what is forbidden, it addeth strength to sin; sin (as the apostle saith, Romans 7:8 ) taking occasion by the commandment, and working in us all manner of concupiscence.

1 Corinthians 15:56 is set aside by Sm[2585], and Clemen ( Die Einheitlichkeit d. paul. Br., ad loc [2586]), after Straatmann and Völter, as a “marginal note” of some early Paulinist, on the ground that it is out of keeping with the lyrical strain of the passage, and with the absence of the anti-legal polemic from this Ep. But the ideas of this ver. fill the contemporary Rom. and Gal. Epp., and are uppermost there in Paul’s highest moods (see Romans 8:31 ff., 2 Corinthians 5:13-21 ); they are expressed with an originality and pregnant force unmistakably Pauline, and in a rhythmical, imaginative turn of expression harmonising with the context. In this Ep., which “knows nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” the Ap. was bound to link his theology of the Resurrection to the doctrine of salvation by the Cross: see 1 Corinthians 15:17 f., in proof that the λόγος τῆς ἀναστάσεως is one, in Paul’s mind, with the λόγος τοῦ σταυροῦ . [2585] P. Schmiedel, in Handcommentar zum N.T. (1893). [2586] ad locum , on this passage.