I Corinthians 15:50-57
I declare to you, brothers, --
This is important family Truth, so pay attention.
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, --
God's Kingdom is spiritual, that physical flesh cannot withstand, like looking into the Sun will burn out our eyes.
nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. --
What can be destroyed cannot withstand what cannot be destroyed.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: --
Listen up, guys, I'm telling you something no one has ever known before; a new revelation from God.
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--
We all won't have to die first, some of us will live to see the Day and bypass death entirely. But whether we live to that Day or die before it comes, all of our bodies will be changed to Resurrection bodies.
--In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, --
This will happen instantly, instantaneously.
at the last Trumpet. --
This is when it will happen. The only series of trumpet blasts is in Revelation: this is the 7th Trumpet (Revelation 11:15-19).
For the Trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. --
This is referred to as "The Rapture." It means, "catching away" in the sense that the "we" here are those of us who have not died and remain alive when Jesus comes, when He appears in the clouds, calls our names, we all rise to Him, and come down with Him as His feet touch the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4).
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. --
What can be harmed or destroyed and die must be changed into what cannot be harmed or destroyed or die, to be able to live forever.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, --
When all this is done, accomplished, and we are Resurrected.
then the saying that had been written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." (Isaiah 25:8)
Where, O Death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting? (Hosea 13:14)
This is when these prophesies will be fulfilled.
The sting of Death is sin, --
The pain, the shot that misses the mark, where we come up short: sin.
And the power of sin is the law. --
The civil and the natural, scientific laws, as well as God's moral law; all have the authority to punish every lawbreaker.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The victory over Death, and all the lesser enemies we have, like the world, our own flesh, and the devil. Victory!
Jesus's death on the Cross as our Sacrificial Lamb and His Resurrection, proving that God the Father accepted His payment in full for all our sins, guarantees our redemption; and the Holy Spirit given to live in us is the deposit on the full redemption of us; our bodies, our Earth and the whole Universe.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
