The Rapture: Victory Over Death
First Corinthians 15:50-58, and First Thessalonians 4:15-18
The rapture: victory over death DIG: What is the rapture? Why is it so important for believers to understand? Why is the shofar so important to this message? What does the word “rapture” mean? How does this motivate you to witness to those you know who might be “left behind” if they don’t make a commitment to follow Messiah as their Lord and Savior? How would Paul’s words have comforted the Thessalonians or the Corinthians? Why do people ignore the reality of the Rapture today?
REFLECT: Does the reality of Messiah’s return encourage you or threaten you? Who do you long to see again that has passed away? How would you feel if they weren’t there? How can you be better prepared for that time? What is the most comforting thing here for you as you consider your own death? Or the death of a dear friend or loved one? What here is the hardest for you to understand? What has been the toughest death for you to experience? Do you get discouraged when your service is unnoticed or taken for granted?
Death is defeated, the King is alive.
The longest chapter in the book comes to a magnificent climax. Paul makes it clear that those who are raptured will not have bodies of flesh and blood. However, our spirits/souls will be with the Lord because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (Second Corinthians 5:8). In a poetic passage the apostle rejoices in the triumph that Messiah has won over death itself. This calls for thanksgiving, praise and glory to ADONAI, the source of victory.
Our rapture (15:50-54): Let me say this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God. It is not this body that will enter the life of the world to come. And I’m glad that God is not going to send our bodies to a repair shop because I would like to trade mine in for a new model. Something that decays cannot share in what does not decay (15:50). This is what caused the Corinthian confusion in the first place. They asked, “How can people possibly rise when their bodies have completely rotted away?” They didn’t understand that our bodies must be different in order to inherit heaven (to see link click Dv – Our Resurrection Bodies). However, like the seed that is planted (15:42-44), it continues its identity, but in a radically and wonderfully different form.508
People could never have worked out for themselves what will happen at the Rapture, but ADONAI has revealed it. Look, I will tell you a mystery (Greek: mysterion), which is a truth which God formerly concealed but has now revealed (Romans 11:25b) – not all of us will die! But we will all be changed, from the natural to the supernatural (15:51)! For the believer, death is a doorway and not an empty pit. When we die, it’s as if we will fall asleep here on earth and wake up in heaven (Philippians 1:21 and 23). And for those believers who are alive at the time Yeshua returns, they will not have the experience of dying at all.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise Your immeasurable greatness of power that conquered death, raising Messiah and seating Him at Your right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20). How glorious the thought that though life is full of problems, illnesses, trials, and misunderstandings; those who love Yeshua as our Lord, know for sure that when the trumpet is blown we will leave this earth to be with You forever! How gracious You are to not only forgive us, but to also take us to live with You in heaven for all eternity (John 14:1-3)!
Your steadfast love is amazing! As You are united to and dwell within each of us who love You (John 14:20,23), Your presence in us enables us to also conquer death. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His (Romans 6:5). How incredibly great is Your steadfast love! David went thru many hard trials but he was an overcomer because he had learned the secret to overcoming in trials is to S-T-O-P: Look up to You and remember your Steadfast love (Psalms 59:9-10), Trust in God and not be afraid (Psalms 56:3-4 and 11) and Offer Praise (Psalm 56:3-10).
Praise You for the glorious thought of living for all eternity with You in complete peace and joy in heaven. Eternity is such a long time. I desire to serve You with all my heart and soul now on earth, not complaining about trials, but rather letting You use them to purify and mold me to be more like Messiah. You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Yeshua Messiah (First Peter 1:6c-7). In the name of Yeshua and the power of His resurrection. Amen
For the raptured, the change will be in a moment, the blink of an eye. It will not be a process, like a supernatural metamorphosis. It will be an instantaneous recreation from one form to another, from the earthy to the heavenly. And the dead will be raised to live forever, and we too will be changed. That change will occur at the final shofar (15:52), or the ram’s horn which is sounded one hundred times on Rosh ha’Shanah, the Jewish New Year (see the commentary on Leviticus Ee – Rosh Ha’Shanah). Within Judaism the shofar has multiple symbolism, including God’s creation and kingship, His revelation at Mount Sinai, prophetic warning, repentance, alertness, battle, Abraham’s offering of Isaac (and its connection with God’s mercy), the ingathering of God’s people in exile, final judgment and resurrection (Matthew 24:31).509
When we say this, we base it on the Lord’s own word. While the common experience for most will be having to die in order to participate in rapture, there will be some people living at that time who will also participate. We who remain alive when the Lord comes will certainly not take precedence over those who have died. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise; then we who are left still alive will be caught up (the Latin word for caught up is rapturo, from which comes the term rapture) with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord (First Thessalonians 4:15-17).
Because earthly, natural bodies cannot occupy the eternal Kingdom, there has to be such a Day and such a moment, for this material which can decay must be clothed with imperishability, this which is mortal must be clothed with immortality. When what decays puts on imperishability and what is mortal puts on immortality, then this passage in the TaNaKh (Isaiah 25:8) will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (15:53-54). Death is not merely destroyed so that it cannot do further harm, while all of the harm which it has brought on God’s children remains. Death and all of its apparent victories are undone for God’s children. What looked like a victory for death and like a defeat for us when our bodies die and decay shall be utterly reversed so that death dies in absolute defeat and our bodies live again in absolute victory.510
So encourage each other with these words (First Thessalonians 4:18). The fact that believers who have died will be resurrected to join the living believers with the Lord Yeshua when He comes, that they will actually precede those who are alive in that day, that those who are alive will be united with them, and that they will all be with the Lord forever, give abundant reasons for being encouraged. Not only do believers not grieve like unbelievers, but followers of Messiah can actually look forward eagerly to that great day. This is the great hope of the Church, to see the Lord and be united with Him forever. It is that which every believer should anticipate with joy. It is the blessed fulfillment of our certain hope, which is the appearing of the Sh’khinah glory of our great God and the appearing of our Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah (Titus 2:13).511
Our victory song (15:55-58): There is a preacher of the old school, but he speaks as boldly as ever. He is not popular, though the world is his parish and he travels to every part of the globe and speaks in every language. He visits the poor, calls upon the rich, preaches to people of every religion and no religion, and the subject of his sermon is always the same. He is an eloquent preacher, often stirring feelings which no other preacher could, and bringing tears to eyes that never weep. No one is able to refute his arguments, nor is there any heart that has remained unmoved by the force of his appeals. He shatters lives with his message. Most people hate him; and deep down, everyone waits for him. Every gravestone is his pulpit, every website prints his text, and someday we all will be his sermon. His name? Death.
Therefore, quoting Hosea, Paul asks: Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting (First Corinthians 15:55; Hosea 13:14). To continue with the metaphor, Paul implies that death left its sting in Messiah, as a bee leaves its stinger in its victim. Yeshua bore the whole of death’s sting in order that we would have to bear none of it. However, right now death does have a sting. Right now it appears as though death does have the victory, for there is not a single person who will escape death if the Lord delays His Coming. But what appears to be a victory for the angel of the Abyss (Revelation 9:11), will ultimately end in his defeat, for death itself will be defeated along with its angel (Revelation 20:10, 14-15).512
To make his point, the apostle reminds us that the sting of death is sin; and sin draws its power from the Torah (15:56). This verse sums up what is taught at length in Romans 3:19-31, 5:12-21 and 7:1-25. The harm in death is caused by sin. Here is how it works: it was through one individual (Adam) that sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned (Romans 5:12). Only where there is sin, can death deal a fatal blow. Where sin has been removed, death can only interrupt the earthly and usher in the heavenly. That is what Messiah has done for those who have trusted in Him. Our sins have been forgiven for His sake (First John 2:12). Right now death is not gone, but the sign of death, sin, is gone. For if, because of the offense of one man (Adam), death ruled through that one man; how much more will those receiving the overflowing grace, that is, the gift of being considered righteous, rule in life through the one man Yeshua Messiah (Romans 5:17)!
It is not, of course, that believers no longer sin, but that the sins we commit are already covered by Messiah’s atoning blood, so that sin’s effect is not permanently fatal. The blood of God’s Son, Yeshua, purifies us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7b). However, for unbelievers, who have rejected Messiah’s sacrifice on their behalf; instead of accepting the Sacrifice, they become the sacrifice, and death’s sting remains in them for all eternity.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah (First Corinthians 15:57; Romans 7:24-25)! Messiah lived a sinless life on our behalf, completing the Torah (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Dg – The Completion of the Torah), removing our sin by Himself by paying the penalty for it, satisfying every claim of God’s holiness with a perfect sacrifice; and conquering death by being raised from the dead. All of that great victory He accomplished for us and gave to us. Messiah redeemed us from the curse pronounced in the Torah by becoming cursed on our behalf (Galatians 3:13a). He took our curse, our guilty verdict, and instead, gave us victory in its place.
For believers, death has no more power, because God has taken away our sin. Since God shares a common physical nature as human beings, He became like them and shared that same human nature; so that by His death he might render ineffective the one who had power over death (that is, the Adversary), and thus set free those who had been in bondage all their lives because of their fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). For believers, death is but the passing of our spirits from this life to the next, leaving the earth to be with the Lord. Paul had only one reason for wanting to remain on earth: to continue his ministry for Messiah on behalf of others. But for his own benefit and joy he had only one desire: to go off and be with Messiah – that is better by far (Philippians 1:23-24).
In Messiah’s victory over death, death’s sting has been removed; it is declawed, defanged, disarmed, and destroyed. Death and sh’ol were hurled into the lake of fire . . . and He will wipe away every tear from the eyes of believers. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain (Revelation 20:14 and 21:4).
So, as a result of everything that Messiah has done for us, we should stand firm and immovable, always doing the Lord’s work as vigorously as you can, knowing that united with the Lord your efforts are not in vain (15:58). In other words, we should strive to stay in the will of God, not being erratic, scatterbrained, or easily discouraged, but to use our spiritual gifts to the fullest in the knowledge that the Ruach Ha’Kodesh will make them effective. Because ADONAI has so abundantly gone beyond Himself for us who deserve nothing from Him, we should determine to work as vigorously as we can in service to Him, to whom we owe everything. How can we take it easy when so many around us are going to hell and so many believers around us need encouragement, and help of every sort?
No, until the Lord returns there are souls to reach and ministries of every sort to be completed. Every believer should work uncompromisingly as the Spirit has gifted and leads. Our money, time, energy, talents, gifts, bodies, minds and spirits should be invested in the Lord’s work. Our praise and thanksgiving must be given hands and feet. As James tells us: Indeed, just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too faith without actions is dead (James 2:26). Our work for the Lord, if it is truly for Him and done in His power, cannot fail to accomplish what He desires. Every good work that believers do in this life has eternal benefits that the Lord Himself guarantees: Yeshua says: Pay attention! I am coming soon, and My rewards are with Me to give to each person according to what he or she has done (Revelation 22:12). Thus, we have God’s own promise that our efforts are not in vain.513
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