In the Twinkling of an Eye

The Story

Some people in the church at Corinth had started saying there was no resurrection of the dead. When you die, they thought, that’s the end of the body.

Paul wrote a whole chapter to answer them. If there is no resurrection, he said, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. And if Christ hasn’t been raised, our faith is useless, and we are still in our sins. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”

Jesus was the first of the harvest. And everyone who belongs to Him will follow.

Then Paul revealed what would happen at the end. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.”

Our bodies, which get sick and grow old and die, will be raised imperishable. “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

And then Paul taunted death itself. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Reflection