Victory Through Our Lord Jesus Christ

Occasionally my youngest daughter talks about going to visit Sister Gammon, a widow who was in our ward and passed away recently. One time when she was talking about that we explained again that Sister Gammon had died and so we couldn’t go see her, and—undeterred—she asked, “When she is alive again can we go visit her?” She of course doesn’t really understand what death is, but her question was a profound one and at the heart of Christianity: will we see our loved ones again after they die? Paul’s declaration to the Corinthians was that we will indeed rise again after we die: “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?... But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:53-57). The grave will not have the victory because we will enter it only temporarily; the Lord Jesus Christ will have the victory because He will raise up each of us from our graves. I believe that indeed my daughter will be able to visit Sister Gammon again someday, for as Joseph Smith taught, “That same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:2). But we may need to wait a while for that visit.      

                In this epistle, Paul sought to help the Corinthians understand that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the heart of the entire gospel message. He wrote, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” He then proceeded to cite many of the witnesses of that resurrection: “He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” The Risen Lord was seen by Peter, James, the other apostles, a group of five hundred men, and by Paul himself (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). That is only a partial list; others in the New Testament such as Mary Magdalene, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and Stephen all saw Him. And we would add that the evidence of the reality of His resurrection does not stop there; He was seen by 2500 Nephites and He ministered to all of them, healing their sick and showing them the prints of the nails in His hands (3 Nephi 17:25). In our dispensation we have this additional declaration that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead: “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22-24). Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon saw Him and bore witness with Paul and so many others that the Savior rose from the grave and lives today. And why are there so many witnesses? Because everything in the gospel depends on the truthfulness of this fact: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain…. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 19). We give thanks that Paul’s preaching was not in vain and that it is not just in this life that we have hope in Christ. We can “with surety hope for a better world” because Jesus Christ rose from the grave (Ether 4:4).