John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 15:56

"The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law:" — 1 Corinthians 15:56 (ASV)

The sting of death is sin. In other words, “Death has no dart with which to wound us except sin, since death proceeds from the anger of God. Now it is only with our sins that God is angry. Take away sin, therefore, and death will no longer be able to harm us.” This agrees with what he said in Romans 6:23, that the wages of sin is death. Here, however, he makes use of another metaphor, for he compared sin to a sting, with which alone death is armed for inflicting upon us a deadly wound. Let that be taken away, and death is disarmed, so as to be no longer hurtful. Now, why Paul says this will be explained by him before long.

The strength of sin is the law. It is the law of God that imparts to that sting its deadly power, because it does not merely discover our guilt, but even increases it. A clearer exposition of this statement may be found in Romans 7:9, where Paul teaches us that we are alive, so long as we are without the law, because in our own opinion it is well with us, and we do not feel our own misery, until the law summons us to the judgment of God, and wounds our conscience with an apprehension of eternal death.

Furthermore, he teaches us that sin has been, in a way, lulled asleep, but is ignited by the law, so as to rage furiously. Meanwhile, however, he vindicates the law from false accusations, on the ground that it is holy, and good, and just, and is not of itself the parent of sin or the cause of death.

Therefore, he concludes that whatever evil exists is to be attributed to our own account, since it manifestly proceeds from the depravity of our nature. Therefore, the law is only the occasion of injury. The true cause of ruin is in ourselves. Therefore, he speaks of the law here as the strength or power of sin, because it carries out the judgment of God against us.

Meanwhile, he does not deny that sin inflicts death even upon those that do not know the law; but he speaks in this manner because it exercises its tyranny upon them with less violence. For the law came that sin might abound, (Romans 5:20), or that it might become beyond measure sinful. (Romans 7:13).