the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? - 1 Corinthians 15:55.
THE apostle here combines these two enemies together, because it is hardly possible to treat them separately. We find this figure employed even in the Jewish Scriptures. There Isaiah says, “He shall swallow up death in victory.” And thus God says by Hosea, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues: O grave, I will be thy destruction, repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” Thus the apostle says, “He hath brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.” “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now, as to this victory over death, we may remark that he certainly conquers death who is not and cannot be injured by it, and to whom it is therefore expressly harmless. This is the case with every Christian. The apostle tells the believing Corinthians that death was stingless with regard to them; that it stung once, and a dreadful sting it was; that it stung our Surety, who took our place for us; but, though it stung him, it left its sting in him, so that there was none for the Christian. The sting of death Was sin; he bore our sin in his own body on the tree, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; and then, as Dr. Watts says,-
“If sin be pardon’d, I’m secure;
Death has no sting beside:
Thy law gives sin its damning power,
But Christ my ransom died.”
Yes, and that is not all: he who conquers death will be improved by it; he rises with a much better body than he lay down; the body will not be a burden-it will not be a clog-it will not require as now the greater part of our time in providing for its support-it will want no such provision-it will never want a surgeon’s knife, or a physician’s medicine, or the milliner’s ingenuity, or a machine to drag the dulness hither and thither. Oh, what a change! so that the spirit itself, our spiritual body, will be an advantage to the soul. It will be reunited with the immaterial universe-from which it was severed before for want of a suitable organization-reunited to the immortal universe. Oh, what a world will that be which it will enter!-what sounds will charm it!-what fruits will it taste!-what abundance will be there! The model of the Christian’s future body is that body which shone above the brightness of the sun at noonday, when it appeared on Mount Tabor-that body in which the Saviour will judge the world in righteousness-that body which he will wear forever, and through which we shall hold our communion with him. Once more. He has conquered death who rises above the apprehension of it, and realizes all this joy and all this blessedness even now.
The first Christian could say, with the apostle, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.” Verily, this looks like overcoming. “Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ;”-the victory over death and the grave.
And behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold! the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. - Genesis 28:12-13.
OBSERVE what he saw and what he heard in his dream. As to what he saw: “Behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” We think this was doubtless intended to be a representation of the Divine presence, observing everything and keeping up a constant communication between heaven and earth. Our Saviour said to Nathaniel, “Hereafter ye shall see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Here then we have found the mystery of Jacob’s ladder. It is a representation of the Son of God. The extent of the ladder, reaching from earth to heaven, shows his Deity and humanity. The angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man show that these glorious beings are peculiarly connected with his mediatorial work.
He was seen of angels-at his birth; he was relieved by them in the wilderness; they strengthened him in the garden, proclaimed his resurrection, and attended him back to heaven. He is the medium of all intercourse between heaven and earth. Every blessing comes to us through his mediation: so, as we here see, does this blessing of the ministration of angels. In consequence of what he has done and suffered, and from the relation in which we stand to him, they are “all ministering Spirits sent forth to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation.” The poorest Christian upon earth is more superbly attended than the mightiest monarch that ever swayed a sceptre.
He also saw the Lord standing above. Standing was in this case the posture of attention, and all the scheme of providence and of redemption is under his review.
This is what he saw. What did he hear? Why, the Lord repeated unto him the covenant made with his father, and ratified it with him. He then accommodates himself more immediately to Jacob’s present situation and circumstances. Jacob was alone; God promises to be with him: he was exposed; he promises to keep him: he was an exile; he promises to bring him home again. All this was true. All this was to be relied on. God assured him that he would not leave him until he had brought to pass all that of which he had spoken to him.
And his word is firmer than the earth or the heavens; for “heaven and earth may pass away, but his word shall not pass away.” What could Jacob desire more? What could God engage to do more?
