1Co 15:57-58 “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
It is important to always know who to thank for our blessings. Ultimately, whatever our situation and whatever help we may have along the way, the thanks belongs to God. The victorious life we live is lived because of God’s great grace and love. He is worthy of our thanksgiving every day of our lives.
Notice that Paul did not we should be thankful that God allows us to be victorious. He did not say we should be thankful that we were able to help God make us victorious. He did not indicate in any fashion that we were in involved in this victory at all, other than to be recipients. We are victorious in life because it has please God to give us the victory!
This wonderful victory that is already ours (notice the tense) includes being victorious over death and the grave. We might argue that we have not died yet, much less been buried. However, if we know that Christ died for us and rose on the third day as he said her would, then we also know that we shall never truly die. Though we may lay aside this house of clay for a time, our life is hid with Christ in God (Col 3:3). We do not fear death and the grace because we have been given the victory over both through our Lord Jesus Christ!
We are tempted to think with all the focus on the resurrection that our attention should be drawn to what is coming after we are liberated from being mortal and corruptible. Instead, Paul has used this teaching to point us and ground us in how we should be living our lives here and now. He brings us to a conclusion about our victorious life that has nothing to do with what we will be doing hereafter.
We are told that, seeing we have this great victory that is assured us by God through Jesus Christ, we should be committed (steadfast) to abounding in the work of the Lord. Notice that Paul did not say we should abound in working for the Lord, but that we should abound in the work of the Lord. The Spirit has taught us that, being immovable in His work, our labor is not in vain. We walk in the labor that God has prepared in advance for us (Eph 2:10).
May God grant us His grace to live victoriously here, now following the vanity of our own works, but always resting and abounding in the work of the Lord!
