“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)
Camille was riding in the car with her daddy. Since it was a beautiful summer day, the windows were partially down. All of a sudden a big bee came in through an open window. Camille immediately began to panic because she was very allergic to bee stings – she could die if the bee stung her!
Camille’s father knew what he needed to do. He watched the bee carefully. As the bee flew up near the windshield it landed on the dashboard for a brief second. With reflexes like lightning, Camille’s father cupped his hand right on top of that bee! And then he kept his hand there. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Until…ZING! “Ouch!” the father shouted as he lifted up his hand and let the bee go.
“Daddy, daddy!” screamed Camille. “The bee will sting me! Help!”
“No, honey,” replied her father. “He can’t sting you any longer. The bee only had one sting – and guess where it is?”
“Where?” asked Camille.
With that, her father reached out his hand with his palm up and allowed his daughter to inspect it. There, in the middle of his hand was a small stinger. Although the bee was still buzzing around, it could no longer sting Camille because that kind of bee had only one sting to give. Camille’s father took away the sting of the bee and rescued his little girl.
Camille was both happy and sad all at once. Can you guess why? She was happy because she realized that the bee was now powerless to hurt her. She was sad because she realized that her father had taken the painful sting for her.
“Do you know what the bee has done?” Camille’s dad asked.
“What?” asked Camille.
“The bee has stung himself to death!” Camille looked confused. Her father carefully explained to her that that kind of bee will die soon after it uses its stinger.
Just like the bee stung itself to death, so death itself has “stung itself to death” at the cross. That’s hard to understand, but it simply means we do not have to fear what happens after we die. We do not have to fear that death has power over us. Jesus has power over sin and death, and He proved it on the cross!
Jesus has taken away the sting of death by taking sin and death upon Himself, and then single-handedly beating them both. He proved His victory over them by rising from the grave! Christ is more powerful than sin and death. Because of Christ’s victory over death, we can be assured that if we have faith in Christ, we will also rise from the grave someday and share in eternal life with Him.
Because of Christ, death has no lasting power over the Christian.
My Response:
» How is what Camille’s father did for her much like what Christ did for us?
» How did Camille respond to her father’s sacrifice? How have I responded to Christ’s sacrifice for me?