“Where, Death, Is Your Sting?”

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Does death scare you?

Sometimes, we enter phases of life where death feels especially overwhelming. Maybe we lose a close family member or a series of friends. When this happens, we feel the noose of death tightening around us—reminding us of our mortality and those we hold dear. If we’re not careful, death can paralyze us. When this happens, one of the best things we can do is turn to the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:

¹ Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. ³ For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

Paul wrote this chapter to address and refute doubts among the Corinthian believers regarding the resurrection of the dead. Because many in Corinth denied the resurrection of the human body, “Paul feels a need to establish as apostolic the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus.”^[1] By establishing Christ’s resurrection, he establishes that all who know Christ will never die. The resurrection of Christ is the Christian’s reason for hope. As Timothy Keller writes, the resurrection is “the hinge upon which the story of the world pivots.”[2]

There are several compelling reasons to believe in the resurrection. First, the initial eyewitnesses were women—a notable point since women's testimonies were not highly valued in that culture. This adds credibility to the accounts. Additionally, documentary evidence supports the event, providing historical backing. The disciples had no motive to fabricate such a claim; it brought them no financial gain or social advantage but rather persecution and hardship.