1 Corinthians 15:57 - Victory in Jesus!

1Co.15:57; Victory in Jesus!

1 Cor 15:57 (KJV)  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

1 Cor 15:57 (Gibbs)  There is victory in a relationship with 
Jesus. 

Paul insists that, as we are, we are not fit to inherit the 
Kingdom of God. We may be well enough equipped to get on with the life 
of this world, but for the life of the world to come we will not 
do. A man may be able to run enough to catch his morning train and 
yet need to be very different to be able to run enough for the 
Olympic games. A man may write well enough to amuse his friends and yet 
need to be very different to write something which men will not 
willingly let die. A man may talk well enough in the circle of his club 
and yet need to be very different to hold his own in a circle of 
real experts. A man always needs to be changed to enter into a higher 
grade of life; and Paul insists that before we can enter the Kingdom 
of God we must be changed. [Barclay Commentary] 

This verse presents the theme, or objective, of all the books of 
the Bible, namely, to show that the restoration of man to favor with 
God and to his original condition of perfection and freedom from all 
the effects of sin, is brought about by the mighty power of God 
working through our Lord Jesus Christ. [SDA Commentary] 

If we indulge anger, lust, covetousness, hatred, selfishness, or 
any other sin, we become servants of sin. "No man can serve two 
masters." If we serve sin, we cannot serve Christ. The Christian will feel 
the promptings of sin, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; but 
the Spirit striveth against the flesh, keeping up a constant 
warfare. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes 
united to divine strength, and faith exclaims, "Thanks be to God, which 
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" .....Daily prayer 
is as essential to growth in grace, and even to spiritual life 
itself, as is temporal food to physical well-being. We should accustom 
ourselves to often lift the thoughts to God in prayer. If the mind 
wanders, we must bring it back; by persevering effort, habit will finally 
make it easy. We cannot for one moment separate ourselves from Christ 
with safety. We may have His presence to attend us at every step, but 
only by observing the conditions which He has Himself laid down. 
MYP114-5  

Now on whom dost thou trust?" (2Ki.18:20).  Such was the 
challenge which the blatant Assyrian field-marshal, Rab-shakeh, flung at 
the beleaguered king Hezekiah, more than two-and-a-half millenniums 
ago.  Little did he guess that before many more sunrises 185,000 of 
his proud army would be corpses, cut down by an invisible scythe of 
the Almighty!  Hezekiah did not reply to Rab-shakeh, but despite the 
hopeless-looking circumstances his heart was fixed, trusting in 
Jehovah (18:5).  
 This was his secret of victory. 
Even so today, the first mark of the true Christian is reliance 
on Jehovah-Jesus.  We rely on Him exclusively as the vicarious 
Sinbearer through whom we have the salvation of our souls. 
But we are to rely on Him continually as our victorious Champion 
through whom we have victory in our daily life ... So long as we rely on 
Him we have victory.  Temper, fear, lust, pride, envy, grudging, 
moodiness, impatience, despondency, worry ; over all such we gain victory 
as we really rely on Jesus. 
Again, we are to rely on Him as our vigilant Provider, who 
"supplies all our need" (Phi.4:19; Psa.34:22).  He does not always employ 
ravens to feed His Elijahs, but by one means or another He sustains 
them if they really rely on Him. J. Sydlow Baxter; [Time with God 
SB] 

This victory is our present experience, day by day. [Jamieson, 
Fausset, And Brown Commentary] 

There can be no sting in death when a person is a Christian, for 
Christ has taken out that sting. There can be no victory in the grave, 
for Christ will one day empty the graves and bring forth His own in 
resurrection power.... Christians can be steadfast and immovable, because they 
know that if their worst enemy (death) has been overcome, they need 
fear no other enemy. They can abound in Christian service, for that 
work will count for eternity. Their labor is not in vain. [Wiersbe 
Expository Outlines] 

Dad didn't want to go with my sister and me to meet with the 
doctor. We all knew what the verdict would be. Cancer. 
Later Eunice and I told Dad what the doctor had said. The cancer 
was all through his body. It was just a matter of months. 
I moved into my childhood home to take care of Dad those last 
weeks. At first he sat out in the living room with me and talked or 
watched TV. As a fighter, Dad overcame many a physical adversary during 
his 86 years. Now he felt frustrated. This was something he couldn't 
fight. 
Soon he was unable to sit up, and he stayed in bed. As the pain 
got worse, I gave him regular shots of morphine. I listened as he 
ranged over his life in his delirium. And I watched his body shrink. 
When the men from the funeral home took his body away, he seemed 
no larger than a small child, curled up on his side. This wasn't 
the father I'd known in my childhood, so big and so strong. It 
wasn't my fishing companion of our later years. It couldn't be. And yet 
it was. As Paul says, the body is sown perishable. Sown in 
dishonor. Sown in weakness. 
But the glorious message of the Gospel is that the shriveled 
body that returns to the earth is nothing like the body that will be 
raised! I'll see my father again. I'll share with him in the coming 
resurrection. And when I do, the body in which he dwells will be imperishable, 
glorious, bearing no mark of man's weakness, but only the mark of God's 
power. 
That's the vision I have of my dad today. Not the withered frame 
that lay dead on the bed in my boyhood home. But the vibrant form of 
the man I knew, vitalized by God's transforming power. [The 365-Day 
Devotional Commentary]