True Victory in Jesus

 

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

—1 Corinthians 15:57

Every time I read the verse highlighted in today’s blog post, I remember a gospel song that we often sang at Wednesday night prayer meetings when I was growing up. Written by Eugene Bartlett with a delightful melody, this song expresses the essence of this verse of Scripture found in 1 Corinthians 15:57:

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here’s that song: ¹

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood’s atoning,
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory.

Chorus: O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about His healing,
Of His cleansing pow’r revealing.
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus,
Come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and bro’t
To me the victory.

Chorus: O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about a mansion
He has built for me in glory.
And I heard about the streets of gold
Beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing,
And the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there
The song of victory.

Chorus: O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

May our hearts resound in a song of victory this day and every day.

 

______________________

1 Bartlett, Eugene M. “Victory in Jesus.” Powewll, MO: Brumley Music Publishers (Albert E. Brumley & Sons, Inc.), 1939, renewed 1967. This Hymn is also included in various Hymnals that are copyrighted by the publisher of the Hymnal. Citation of Copyrighted material is made on this blog post strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

No More Sting

 

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

—1 Corinthians 15:55

Honeybees have a well-earned reputation for having only one shot at inflicting pain. That’s because God created them with a barbed stinger that stays in the stung person or animal. Once they honeybees lose their stinger, they no longer pose a threat. In fact, in certain cases, the tearing off of that stinger results in the honeybee’s death.

Because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, death can only intrude into the lives of humans who belong to God just one time. When we pass from this earth to eternal life, that one-and-only sting is felt by all those we have left behind. But, for our own sakes, we are moving from this life to the next. We leave behind our sin-stained bodies and receive the final culmination of new life in Christ.

The power of the resurrection is expressed by the Apostle Paul this way in 1 Corinthians 15:55:

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

For believers, Christ has defeated death. He has overruled its power. He has turned darkness to light. And, we who belong to Him through faith receive a great benefit. So, at the beginning of this new day, let’s rejoice that death no longer has an eternal hold on us. Rather, because our Savior overcame death, sin, and Satan, we will find that death’s sting is gone forever.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Victorious

 

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

—1 Corinthians 15:54

How do we know when we’ve won? When the buzzer sounds at the end of the last period in basketball? When the last out is made at the bottom of the final inning in baseball? When the last hole is played in golf by the golfer with the fewest number of strokes? When the fastest runner crosses the finish line? When the king is captured in chess? When the shot is put the farthest at the Olympic games?

In most every contest in life, an endpoint arrives and a winner emerges. That’s true in our spiritual lives, too. Notice what the Apostle Paul writes, as found in 1 Corinthians 15:54:

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

At the end of the age, when the reality of Christ’s resurrection is fully realized, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

The Protestant Reformed theology described in The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way:

32.1: After death the bodies of human beings decompose and return to dust, but their souls, which do not die or sleep, have an immortal existence and immediately return to God who created them. The souls of the righteous are then perfected in holiness and are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory and wait for the full redemption of their bodies. The souls of the wicked are thrown into hell, where they remain in torment and complete darkness, set apart for the great day of judgment. Scripture recognizes only these two places, and no other, for souls separated from their bodies.

32.2: Those who are alive at the last day will not die but will be changed. At that time all the dead will be raised with the very same bodies and no other than the same bodies they had before, although with different characteristics, which will be united again to their souls forever.

32.3: By the power of Christ the bodies of the unjust shall be raised to dishonor, but by his Spirit the bodies of the just will be raised to honor and be made according to the pattern of his own glorious body.

As we begin a new day, let us rejoice that, as the old gospel song by Albert E. Brumley states: ¹

“This world is not my home. I’m just a-passin’ through.”

Amen and Amen.

 

______________________

1 Brumley, Albert E. “ I Can’t Feel At Home Any More.” Public Domain. This Hymn is included in various Hymnals that are copyrighted by the publisher of the Hymnal. Though this citation is noted to be in the Public Domain, in the case of anyone claiming Copyright protection of this material, citation of any Copyrighted material is made on this blog post strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

We Will All Be Changed

 

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

—1 Corinthians 15:51-53

You’ve likely heard of the mom who, with tongue in cheek and a smile on her face, painted the wall of the church’s nursery that faced the entrance door with these words from 1 Corinthians 15:51:

We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed …

Her wonderful sense of humor made many a parent smile, as they brought their little one to the nursery on Sunday morning.

But, the thrust of this passage of Scripture has far greater implications in our Christian lives than a mere wink at the ambiguities of the English language. In fact, part of the greatest expression of our faith in the life-transforming power of the living Lord Jesus Christ is contained in these words of the Apostle Paul found, more completely, in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53:

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

For now, we live on this earth as Christ’s ambassadors. God has chosen us to belong to Himself. He has redeemed us from the penalty of our sin through the shedding of the precious blood of His one and only Son, Jesus. God has claimed victory for us over sin, death, and Satan, through the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Once our sojourn on this earth is done, we will pass into glory and spend eternity with God. We cannot imagine what heaven will be like. Some believe that the Book of Revelation indicates we will actually spend eternity on this earth. But, it will be a new heaven and a new earth. All sin will be gone. Only light and life will remain.

Whatever eternity turns out to be for us, we know that spending it with God will be more marvelous than we can ever possibly imagine. So, as we begin a new day, let’s follow the instruction of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, found in Hebrews 12:1-3:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Ineed! Let it be so! Amen.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Christ Conquered Eternal Death

 

“ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”

—1 Corinthians 15:25

We have not experienced the last chapter of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. A careful reading of the Book of Revelation exposes the narrative that, in the last days, the reign of Christ will bear fruit on this earth. The Apostle Paul describes those coming days using these words found in 1 Corinthians 15:25-26:

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

As believers, we recognize that Jesus has been victorious over sin, death, and Satan. But, I wonder if we fully comprehend that, in addition to death serving as the personal enemy of human beings, death is also an enemy of the Kingdom of God. Eternal death results from sin. When sin is conquered by our Savior, He also conquers eternal death. The conquering of eternal death opens the way to eternal life.

At the beginning of another day, we need to pause to understand that our life with Christ begins at the moment we acknowledge God’s gift to us of salvation. But, our life with Christ becomes fully realized in those last days when He is on His throne and reigns over all the earth. Then, and only then, will we see the miracle of His love and grace fully at work in our world.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

The Task Completed

 

“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.”

—1 Corinthians 15:24

Have you ever labored hard and long on a difficult assignment, finally completed the task, and then felt enormous relief that what you set out to accomplish you have finished? Please allow me to explain the point I am trying to make:

I once labored to develop a deeply detailed procedure for the protection of department stores against damage by fire and allied perils. It was an assignment that no one else wanted. There was nothing particularly intriguing about department stores. They were not as “cool” as oil refineries, or pulp and paper manufacturing, or automobile plants, or food processing, or just about any of the hundreds of other types of facilities that the insurance company for which I worked happened to insure.

But, my career had often been like that. I seemed to be assigned the facilities that no one else wanted to serve: department stores, hospitals, colleges and universities, radio and television broadcast facilities, tanneries, glue factories, paint manufacturing, museums, arenas, furniture manufacturing, computer data centers, electronics manufacturers, and so forth.

To further complicate my assignment regarding department stores, the Senior Vice President of Engineering, to whom I reported, had a technique where he would go to the company library and check out key resources that his staff might need to complete their tasks. He did this with the intension of trying to make us work harder and, in his mind, more thoroughly, so that we would have to struggle to complete our assignments. It was a stupid tactic. There’s no other way to describe it. As someone who later in my career became a manager of a relatively large number of people, I learned from this foolishness and devoted myself to making certain that I consistently provided my staff with all of the resources they might need to effectively complete their tasks.

It took me six drafts over the course of 18 months to finally gain approval for my detailed procedure. For reasons I never discovered, the Senior Vice President of Engineering rejected each draft. Ironically, the sixth draft was simply the very first draft resubmitted with a new date and a slightly differently worded introductory paragraph. Of course, I had ten or twelve other projects during this same time frame. But, this was an enormous learning experience for me. I lost all respect for this Senior Vice President. His techniques were roadblocks—and not just for me. When he retired, his replacement, who had also worked for him, changed things dramatically for the better.

Nevertheless, when that procedure for department stores rolled off the presses, I felt as if a great burden had lifted. I had been handed an assignment and I eventually handed it back to the one who had given it to me as a completed task.

While my meager accomplishment was absolutely nothing compared to the divine action of our Great King, the Apostle Paul described the torture, death, and resurrection of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as it will be seen at the end of history, in startlingly similar terms to the example I have outlined above. Please take note of Paul’s words—speaking of Jesus—as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:24:

Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.

God the Father sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to earth in order to walk in our shoes and become flesh, so that through Him we might become the children of God. Jesus conquered sin, death, and Satan through His birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus ushered in His Kingdom here on earth. We now inhabit that Kingdom because we belong to Him. As His ambassadors, we now testify about Him: who He is and what He has done.

At the end of this age, Jesus will return the Kingdom to the Father. All sin and darkness will be cast into the lake of fire. Only the perfection of Jesus’ holiness will remain. We who belong to Him will be fully transformed into His image. In that day, we will all rejoice.

As we launch out into this new day, let’s not forget that we are part of a pathway through history where Jesus has opened up a way to heaven, the Holy Spirit urges us and helps us along that way, and the Father waits to welcome us. May this reality make our hearts become filled with great joy and carry us through the task before us.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

A Firstfruits Resurrection

 

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

—1 Corinthians 15:20

As a member of a group, when faced with some new situation, are you the one who steps forward to have the first go at whatever task lies ahead? Or, like me, do you tend to hang back and observe how others tackle the issue, and then develop a strategy based on their success or failure?

There is something very special about those who will put themselves out there and go first. They have the joy of any initial success. And, they can comfort themselves, in any failure, because after all, they took a chance and did it first.

What if the situation was such that no one could ever have possibly tackled the assignment? No one else was worthy. No one else had the necessary power. No one else had the needed persistence. No one else had the grace and perseverance. In such a case, that one would always, and only, become the first, and the last, to take on the challenge. And, just possibly because that one had succeeded, others would be able to follow in those footsteps. That one blunted the roadblocks, created a pathway, opened up the possibilities, and helped guarantee the success of others.

We probably don’t think about the resurrection of our Lord and Savior that way. But, Jesus was, in fact, the only one who could have ever possibly taken on the penalty for the sins of the world. He alone had the strength, the power, the necessary holiness, the sinless perfection, the persistence, and the blessing of His Father. We cannot possibly imagine the pain He felt as the weight of the sins of all humankind fell upon Him.

In His glorious resurrection, Christ opened up a pathway for us to follow in His footsteps. Just as He conquered sin, death, and Satan, so we also will become conquerors. He became the firstfruits of the glorious vine of salvation. We become the fruit of salvation, too, because He led the way. As the Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:20:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

As a new day dawns upon the world once more, let us rejoice that our Savior is risen from the dead. Let us praise Him for the sacrifice He made in our behalf. And, let’s move forward along the pathway that He opened up for us, through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit—a pathway that leads us to eternal life with Him.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}