So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written “Death is swallowed up in victory.”  (55) “O Death, where is your sting?  O Hades, where is your victory?”  (56) The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.  (57 But thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul. In chapter 15 Paul is responding to questions from the faithful at Corinth – asking about the resurrection of man. In our early verses Paul shows that there will indeed be a resurrection of the body.  The nature/body of man is corruptible and mortal and in its present form is not admissible to heaven but when the time of our completed salvation comes God has promised He will save His people and death will be swallowed up in that last day. The faithful will be raised up incorruptible – the same body but different – we will be invested in glory and admissible to heaven.

Death proceeds from the anger of God at our sin – but in Christ sin is taken away and death is disarmed. The faithful still carry the remains of sin but it no longer reigns in us. We are transformed spiritually. Death is planting the seed of our bodily transformation. Paul writes the Corinthians that their labor – and his – is not in vain.  They have a firm foundation in the gospel to enable them to remain steadfast – they are sustained so they do not stop short in their race. Without the promise of our resurrection the whole structure of the gospel crumbles – there is no hope of a reward and the race to finish will grow cold.  But all the fear of death is cancelled in hope of our resurrection where death and decay are undone and our bodies – not renewed but changed – live again.

The sting of death is sin but for the faithful in Christ, there is no condemnation. This doesn’t mean we don’t sin but it does mean our sins are covered in Christ.