Ain't so tuff!

On the basketball court it's called trash-talk. Baseball players call it chatter.  Back in the day we used to have all kinds of cut-downs.  Brilliant witticisms like, "If you put your brain on the edge of a razor-blade it would look like a B-B on a four lane highway."  

The end of 1 Corinthians 15 sounds a bit like trash talk. 

 

"DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. 

"O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? 

O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" 

When Paul looked death in the eye and issued his challenge, it wasn't that he doubted death's power.  The Bible speaks of death as an incredibly powerful enemy.  Jesus wept in the presence of death, John 11:35.  Hebrews speaks of the binding strength of the fear of death, 2:15.  Here in 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle refers to death as the "The last enemy that will be abolished." (26)

 

Rather than a lack of respect for Death's power, Paul's challenge came from his confidence in God's greater power.  For those in Christ, death has robbed of its power.  (Hebrews 2:14-18)

Not so tuff!

  

It's STTA