What is the sting of death?

The apostle Paul says, “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56). If there was no sin, there would be no death. A person’s disobedience is what isolates him from God the source of life, so that he succumbs to the dominion of death and its oppressive law. Without the law, we were incapable of discerning sin (Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 5:13). The law gave us the opportunity to reveal the disobedience to the will of God that we carry within us, and so sin lived in us. Sin is the mother of death, for through one person sin entered the world, and death through sin (Rom. 5:12).

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “The sting of death is drawn by Baptism. For you go down into the water, bearing your sins, but the invocation of grace, having sealed your soul, suffers you not afterwards to be swallowed up by the terrible dragon. Having gone down dead in sins, you come up alive in righteousness.”¹³⁴⁴

St. Augustine says, “for prohibition increases the desire of illicit action, if righteousness is not so loved that the desire of sin is conquered by that love. But unless divine grace aid us, we cannot love nor delight in true righteousness.”¹³⁴⁵

“For where the law forbids [something], we sin more seriously than if we were not forbidden by the law. However, when grace is added, we then fulfill without difficulty and most willingly that very thing which the law had oppressively commanded … [We are] no longer slaves of the law through fear, but friends through love and slaves of the righteousness which was the very source of the law’s promulgation.”¹³⁴⁶

1341 St. Augustine of Hippo, Letters, Volume IV (165–203) 196 To Asellicus (FOTC 30:336).

1342 St. Augustine of Hippo, Letters, Volume II (83–130) 130 To Proba (FOTC 18:382).

1343 St. Augustine of Hippo, Against Julian 6.20.65 (FOTC 35:377) amended.

1344 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures Lecture 3.11–12 (NPNF II/7:17) amended.

1345 St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God 13.5 (NPNF I/2:247).

1346 St. Augustine of Hippo, Eighty-Three Different Questions 66.1 (FOTC 70:140).

“‘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. Where, O death, is your contention?’ There rightly, ‘O death, where is your sting?’ (1 Cor. 15:54–55). You seek its place, and find it not. What is the ‘sting of death?’ What is, ‘O death, where is your sting?’ Where is sin? You seek, and it is nowhere. For ‘the sting of death is sin.’ They are the Apostle's words, not mine. Then shall it be said, ‘O death, where is your sting?’ Sin shall nowhere be, neither to surprise you, nor to assault you, nor to inflame your conscience.”¹³⁴⁷

And St. John Chrysostom says, “Because without the law sin was weak, being practiced indeed, but not able so entirely to condemn: since although the evil took place, it was not so clearly pointed out. So that it was no small change which the law brought in, first causing us to know sin better, and then enhancing the punishment … Yes, to show that it was not the law of itself which gives strength to sin, Christ Himself fulfilled it all and was without sin.”¹³⁴⁸