When Jesus was on earth, he raised four people from the dead. He raised the widow’s son in the village of Nain (Luke 7:15). He raised the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus, a prince of the synagogue (Mark 5:42). He raised Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha at Bethany after he had died four days (John 11:44). And he raised himself from the dead after being crucified.
It is true that the New Testament teaches that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 6:4; Acts 2:32). But it is also true that Jesus himself was acting to bring about his own resurrection. We know this because he said in John 10:18: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it of my own free will. I have authority to put it and I have the authority to take it back. I have received this charge from my Father.” God the Father gave Jesus the authority to take his life back from the grave where his body lay dead.
Here it is again in John 5:21–22: “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wishes. For the Father. . . he has given all judgment to the Son.” So the Son has authority to raise from the dead whoever he wants, including himself. That is why Jesus says in John 2:19: “Destroy this temple, and in three days i’ll pick it up”. And John adds: “He spoke of the temple of his body” (John 2:21). Destroy this body, and in three days I will resurrect it. And he did.
Only Jesus removes the sting
Why is it important to remember that Jesus raised not only the widow’s son, and the ruler’s daughter, and Lazarus from the dead, but also himself with the authority of God the Father? It is important because the scorpion sting of death was not removed by the raising of Lazarus, or the ruler’s daughter, or the widow’s son. The scorpion sting of death was removed by the resurrection of Jesus. None of the other resurrections, none of the other healing miracles or exorcisms or multiplied loaves and fishes, or calm waves and wind, none of them us It would do no good if Jesus hadn’t risen Likewise from the dead by the authority of his Father. The fact that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after four days would not have done John Levy any good, if Jesus had not raised Jesus from the dead.
“Jesus came, sovereign and sinless, to take our place under God’s judgment.”
Why is that? Why is Jesus’ resurrection from the dead the only resurrection that does John Levy any good?
It’s not just because this resurrection was one of a kind, which it was: the eternal, divine Son of God, with the authority of God the Father raising himself from the dead, that’s one of a kind. That has never happened before, has never happened since, and will never happen again in the history of the world. He did everything he had to do! But simply being unique is not the way this resurrection makes all the difference in the world for John Levy, whose body lies before us.
Death Swallowed Up
The reason this unique resurrection makes a difference to John Levy is because followed Y claimed a death unique in its kind.
“Death is swallowed in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54–57)
Death was not swallowed up in victory when Lazarus came out of the tomb. Death was not swallowed up in victory when the widow’s son or ruler’s daughter was resurrected. Death, the death of John Levy, was swallowed up in victory when Jesus raised Jesus to life. Jesus from the dead as the God-man with all authority in the universe never to die again. How did that happen? What does that mean?
Sin condemns us all
The apostle Paul explains it to us to understand. “O death, where is your sting?” In other words, the poisonous, destructive, condemning scorpion effect of death is missing. Where is it? Where is the sting? He’s gone. The scorpion sting of John Levy’s death is gone. How can that be?
Sin is the sting
The word continues: “The sting of death is sin.” The scorpion sting of death is sin. What makes death eternally destructive and damning? It is our sin. The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death,” eternal death, as opposed to eternal life (Romans 6:23). And he says that we are all guilty, “because everybody have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
That’s why death scares everyone. Because deep down we all know that we are sinners who are guilty before a good and just and holy God. We may not even know those words, or even use them. But even without words, we know that we will tell him when we die. When we’re not numbing ourselves with work, play, food, or drugs, our hearts tell us the truth. Death has a sting. And it’s not a little bee sting. It’s a scorpion sting. A deadly, damning, never-ending sting. And the sting is our sin.
The power of sin is the law
The word continues: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”. The law of God, the will of God for his creatures, gives the authority of power and justice to the destructive effect of sin. In other words, the destructive effect of sin on our eternity is not like some random mutation of sin that just turns bad and makes us miserable forever. No. The destructive effect of sin in our eternity is due to the law of god. The eternal effect of sin is not random or arbitrary. It is God’s punishment. And it’s fair. The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the holy and just law of God.
Now all of that, all of that terrifying reality (at least it should be scary) leads to the discovery that Jesus’ death was one of a kind and turns his Resurrection at an event that makes a difference to John Levy and, I hope, to you. Paul goes on like this: “O death, where is your sting?” Missing. How? “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us (gives John Levy) the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Victory through Jesus
When the Bible says: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ“, the words “through our Lord Jesus Christ” sum up the great saving miracle of the unique death of Jesus. He had existed from all eternity in perfect unity with God the Father and God the Spirit. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). He lived here as God and man, one Person with two natures, divine and human, for about 33 years, and never sinned. “Which of you convinces me of sin?” he asked. No answer (John 8:46). Why? For he is “who in every respect was tempted as we are, but without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
“There has been one human being, and only one. — That he didn’t deserve to die. Because he never sinned.”
There has been one human being, and only one, who did not deserve to die. Because he never sinned. Why then did he die? Because for that God sent him into the world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). But how could that be? What did he do?
The response is impressive. It is the best news in the world. It is the heart of true Christianity. It is the hope of John Levy and those who love him. He says like this:
When we were still weak, in time Christ died for the wicked. Because hardly anyone will die for a righteous person, although perhaps one would dare to die for a good person, but God shows his love for us when we were still sinners. , Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6–8)
The apostle Peter puts it this way:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24)
The prophet Isaiah predicted it like this 700 years before it happened:
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
  ;He was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
We all go astray like sheep;
we separate each one in his way;
and the Lord loaded into him
the sin of us all. (Isaiah 53:5–6)
Jesus came, sovereign and sinless, to take our place under God’s judgment. It was the most amazing and precious exchange ever made. Paul put it this way:
He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
There is no condemnation now that we fear
But what about the law? Does not the word of God say that the sting of death, the scorpion, the effect of sin that ruins eternity, obtains the power and authority of its justice from the law of God? We cannot sweep God’s law under the rug of the universe. We cannot pretend that John Levy did not break God’s law over and over again, the law that says love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. What about the law? Listen to Romans 8:3:
God did what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and because of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.
God executed the just sentence of the law in the flesh. Whose meat? The sinless flesh of Jesus. Whose sin? John Levy’s. And since the sentence of the law against John Levy’s sin was carried out with the death of the sinless Son of God, what does Romans 8:1 say about John Levy?
Now then, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And when the sovereign Jesus raised Jesus from the dead, he wrote in the sky of eternity: That unique death that I just died does what I designed it to do. My people will never be condemned.
“Death is swallowed in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:54–56)
But Jesus says, “I paid your debt of death, and satisfied the justice of God’s law.” No condemnation, ever, for those who are in Christ Jesus. No conviction for John Levy. What happened last Tuesday when John Levy’s heart stopped was not a conviction. God was not settling scores. Those were established two thousand years ago. For reasons we don’t know, Jesus said: I want John Levy with me. This will be painful. Very painful. But I love him. And I love you. And I know what I’m…