Today during our church service we will be taking a closer look at 1 Corinthians 15.
This is quite timely. Last week we considered the Anzac Day service, when the trumpet sound of the reveille sounds after the minute's silence, reminding us that a new day has started, that freedom and life has been won for us by the shedding of blood.
The reveille reminds us of the new day of our salvation bought by Christ, by his death on the cross. It also points forward to that day in the future when Christ will return. On that day, the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised, and we will all enter the new day of God's kingdom, the promise of heaven.
1 Corinthians 15, verses 51-57 states:
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whenever we commemorate the sacrifices made by others, on Anzac Day or Remembrance Day, we are celebrating a shadow – a picture, a reminder – of the sacrifice of Christ, and the ultimate victory that has been won for us by his blood. That is what we should always be commemorating. Lest we forget.
Image credit: Anzac Day, Jerusalem, April 25, 1940. The last post sounded by trumpeter at early dawn from War Graves Cemetery. G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection. Wikimedia Commons: Public Domain.
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