But in due time they shall assuredly triumph over it—
[It is the body only that death can reach : it cannot affect the believer's soul : and it is for a time only that it can affect the body. When once the last day shall arrive, there will be an end of that empire which death has so widely extended. The bodies of the saints, of whom alone the Apostle here speaks, shall then be raised up, and with varied degrees of splendour shine forth anew^. They were sown in corruption, weakness, and dishonour, and they shall be raised in incor- ruption, power, and glory : from natural bodies, they shall bt transformed to spiritual^, each one shining forth, as our Saviour himself at his transfiguration, like the sun in the firmament for ever and ever^. Thenceforth shall " death have no more domi- nion over them," any more than it has over our Lord himself*: on the conti'ary, it shall itself " be swallowed up in victory," as the prophet has said', and, as the Apostle elsewhere speaks, " Mortality shall be swallowed up of life''."
By those also who shall be living at the time of our Lord's advent, shall the same triumph be enjoyed. " In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye shall they be changed, as soon as ever the last trump shall sound :" as, in the case of those who have died, " corruptible shall put on incorruption," so, in those who shall be found alive, " their mortal shall put on immor- tality'," and " their vile body shall in an instant be made like unto Christ's glorious body'"," even to that very body in which he now sits enthroned in glory, the blessed object of adoration to all the hosts of heaven.]
That the Christian may be encouraged the more confidently to look forward to that victory, we pro- ceed to shew, II. How it is, that he is assured of it —
It is sin that gives death its power — [If sin had never entered into the world, death would never have existed, or would have been only a translation from earth to heaven. This is plainly told us by St. Paul ; " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, even upon those who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression"." The law which passed the sentence of death on Adam", still says to every
e ver. 41. ^ ver. 42 — 44.
s Compare Matt. xiii. 4,'J. with xvii. 2.
'• Rom. vi. 9. with Rev. xxi. 4. ' Isai. xxv. 8.
k 2 Cor. V. 4. ' ver. r>2, 5?. '" Phil, iii, 21.
n Rom. V. 12, 14. with ver. 21, 22. " (Jen. ii. 17-