1Cor 15:56-58 - Where Law and Grace Kiss

1Cor 15:56-58 - Where Law and Grace Kiss

56-58 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.


By "the sting of death," Paul implies the means by which death comes to us. Sin is what brings us under judgment and judgment is unto death, according to God’s Own decree in the garden.

By "the power of sin is the law," Paul probably harks back to a number of his earlier thoughts in other epistles. He said that he would not have known sin if it had not been for the law {Rom 7:7}. In the same verse he takes the most universal root of all sin, covetousness, and explains that he would not have been aware that there even was such a thing unless the law had forbidden it. The whole passage {Rom 7:7-12} is very instructive in this matter. The law brings us to a consciousness of our willful and rebellious natures. When we know the law and we transgress it anyway (as we all do) then we see the power of sin by the law. It is, in a curious way, light for our condition because it tells us what we truly are.

The law is powerless to make us into anything. It cannot bring about obedience. Its usefulness is ultimately only to convict us of our need for a Way other than ourselves by which we may be justified with God. Paul called the law "a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" {Ga 3:24} This does not mean just a teacher, but a guardian - a pedagogue - to discipline and to point us in the right direction.

It is important to understand the difference here between law and grace, which Paul introduces in Christ in the next verse - though he does not actually use the word. Law is not a bad thing, but it is an inanimate thing. The law is good, but it is not living. On the other hand, grace comes through Jesus Christ, Who is life itself. And Paul is once more ringing the bells at the gracious provision that God has made for we law breakers; this He did by giving His Son to His wrath in our stead, so that we may be raised on account of His grace in keeping the law perfectly on our behalf. This is a very lopsided exchange. We provide the lack and God supplies the sufficiency. We provide our sin, and God provides regeneration, sanctification and glorification.

Our victory is through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not apart from Him. It is in Him. His finished work provides all that we need - regeneration, faith, repentance, adoption - so that we may walk in our salvation and persevere until the end. Do you see the "therefore" in verse 58? It is on account of what He has done (finished, completed) that we can be steadfast, immovable and abounding in the work of the Lord. It is by faith that we walk in these things, all the while acknowledging and believing that these deeds were appointed for us to walk in, {Eph 2:10} and they were given to us in Christ by His work. He wrought them for us - for us to walk in.

And, in the resurrection context, the Corinthians can now see that the grace of Jesus Christ which is extended to all who believe is the end of the law (as a means of justification) for them because their life is in Jesus Christ - the resurrected Christ - who we shall be like when we see Him face to face.