By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo
1 Corinthians 15:50, 53-54 "I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable… For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Paul explains here one of the reasons for physical death. Through it, we move from mortality to immortality, from the perishable to the imperishable. The bodies we now have are temporary, perishable and mortal and cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This was the effect of the fall and man was not allowed to eat fruit from the tree of life otherwise he would live forever in sin, broken and corrupted forever. That would be horrible!
People die or are transformed at Christ’s coming to have imperishable bodies, free from sin and its effects as it was before the fall. This is how we shall enter an eternity in perfect peace and joy in God’s presence. Physical death will be the last enemy to be defeated before eternity sets in.
Whereas we receive eternal life immediately one accepts Christ as Savior and Lord, we still live in an environment of a corrupted world. We also still suffer some of the effects of the fall in many ways in the journey of faith. All these will be shed off as we cross from the temporary to permanent, from mortal to immortal and from the perishable to imperishable. Death of the believer is therefore to be celebrated and looked forward to at its proper time.
2 Corinthians 5:4 "For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life."