"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (
1 Cor. 15:57)
While I find this passage tremendously encouraging, I also find that it is easy to forget, especially when it seems that life is against me, when things clearly aren't going my way. At those times it becomes a challenge, even a provocation. Being mindful of this fact helps me to stay in front of whatever circumstances I may be facing, not defiantly, but humbly, knowing I rely on the One whose victory over sin and death is my victory. This is something of what it means to live in a new way, a sure sign of having been born again.
Earlier in the magnificent
fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul writes,
"I die daily" (
v. 31). But he dies daily knowing, as the Lord taught, that, paradoxically, it is the only way to have eternal life. For Paul, dying daily is the hallmark of living eternal life now
