What does 1 Corinthians 15:57 mean?

After taunting death for its coming defeat in verse 55, Paul declared the "sting" or source of death to be sin and the power of sin to be the law. The law does not create sin, but it does reveal that every human being is sinful. Each of us disobeys the commands of God. The result of sin is always death, and not just physical death. Sin is responsible for the death that separates us from God forever.

Paul jumps in, much as he does in the book of Romans (Romans 7:24–25) to say this is not the end of the story. He declares his thanks to God, who gives human beings victory over death through Jesus. That is, God forgives the sin of all who trust in Christ's death, offered in their place on the cross, those who believe in His resurrection from the dead as the first defeat of death (John 3:16–18; Romans 10:9–10).

Our inescapable sin-debt meant unavoidable death and eternal separation from God. Christ's sinless life and substitutionary death made our sin escapable through faith in Him and by God's grace (2 Corinthians 5:21). That changes the meaning of physical death in this life for the born-again Christian. Instead of death being the beginning of an eternity apart from the Father (John 3:36; Revelation 20:15), it is just another step before our resurrection as glorified beings who will spend eternity with the Father (1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:51–55). Thanks be to God, indeed!