Death Swallowed By Victory

I would like to share a partial preterist reading of First Corinthians chapter 15. To begin with, I am positing that this would be a way of looking at it with respect to national Israel and the Old Covenant. I want to point out that I am leaving the door open for future spiritual fulfillments.

1Co 15:23-26 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (24) Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. (25) For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. (26) The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

I believe that when he speaks of destroying every rule and authority and power he is speaking of the Jewish system, the Sanhedrin and the temple complex. The temple complex was the center of all rule, authority and power. Now then, within the context of this passage, the last enemy, death, is the ministry of death, the Old Covenant.

Paul is speaking here of the TORAH of sin and death. When the Jews rejected Jesus the Messiah, they in effect rejected the TORAH of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Certainly, in Jesus ministry, his only enemies were the ruling Jews. They are the ones who crucified the Lord of glory. The great symbol of the TORAH of sin and death was the temple.

Further, Peter declared; "The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers."

(1Pe 4:7) It was the expectation of all the apostles and disciples of Jesus, the expectation of the rabbis, the expectation of the Qumran community that in fact, the END OF ALL THINGS was at hand.

1Co 15:28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

We find in Colossians, that in the glorified Christ, all of the fullness of the God Head dwells bodily. Jesus was in the "Son capacity" during the incarnation only. In fact, the concept of the trinity is only applicable during the incarnation. Following the reasoning in Col 2:9 and John 17:21, God is in fact the all in all.

1Co 15:35-37 But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" (36) You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. (37) And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

1Co 15:50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

The two above passages demonstrate that it is a Spiritual existence that we are transformed into. In fact, the kingdom will NOT be operated by those of flesh and blood. It was a spiritual kingdom during the book of Acts prior to the judgment of the Jews and the end of the Old Covenant and it will be a spiritual kingdom after that also.

1Co 15:54-58 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is

written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." (55) "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (56) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (57) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (58) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

How was death swallowed up in victory in 70AD? Well, the TORAH of sin and death, that is the sacrificial system was done away with never to return. The only TORAH left was the TORAH OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE in Christ Jesus. Death was swallowed up in victory. It has no sting.

The strength of sin was the TORAH of sin and death.