For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.  

I Corinthians 15:25-26 

Death is the last enemy Christ will destroy. Our text declares it and the rest of Scripture shows how He does. When sin entered the world by Adam, the first man, death came with it. Thus, ‘the soul that sins, it shall die.’ Christ came to bring life.  He said, ‘I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.’ In the context of John 10, He is speaking of His sheep. Later in that same passage, He says, ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.’ In a de facto way, He is signifying the destruction of death. Revelation speaks of the Last Judgment and says, ‘Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.’ Christ destroys death, the last enemy. We rejoice in His coming victory. This enables us to lift our eyes above the current situation to take the long view. This encourages us so we are less liable to the depression and anxiety that comes from fixating on the current state of our world. Christ is victorious and His victory shall become more clearly manifested as time goes by. He shall defeat all His enemies. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 

Our Glorious King and our coming Lord, 
we rejoice that the future is all Yours. 
We praise You that in due course of time, 
You shall destroy all Your enemies. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

The Last Enemy

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

I Corinthians 15:26

To continue our meditation upon the Kingship of Christ as it respects His subduing of His enemies, we arrive at our text for today. ‘The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.’ Christ is even now going forth, ‘conquering and to conquer.’ His Kingdom has been advancing, is now advancing, and shall continue to advance until ‘every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.’ The Apostle Paul, as he wrote ‘The Resurrection Chapter,’ from which our text for today derives, made a bold statement regarding Christ’s Victory over death. He calls it ‘the last enemy that will be destroyed.’ How is this so? Within the context of the passage, Paul is speaking regarding the fact of the resurrection of the dead. He ultimately arrives at the climax of the passage where he declares, ‘So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Here is the place where the Kingship of Christ comes into play. Christ is steadily advancing toward the ultimate goal of subduing all of His and our enemies. He is the King Who will finally succeed in all that He attempts. This guarantees His complete victory over death. We are the direct beneficiaries of His Victory. This brings home the power of His statement in John 11, ‘Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die….”’ The specter of death has plagued us since the fall of man. Christ is the Only One Who can and does have the final victory over death. He defeats this last enemy, and we are victorious by His victory.

Our Great and Conquering King,
we rejoice that You will defeat all of Your enemies.
We look forward unto the day,
when with Your Victory, death finally dies.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Hope in Christ

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

I Corinthians 15:19

We find ourselves in the middle of ‘The Resurrection Chapter.’ Here, the Apostle Paul expounds for us most thoroughly, the important things that we, who are in Christ, must know regarding this most important subject. Having argued forcibly for the truth that Christ has, in fact, risen from the dead, Paul makes a captivating statement in the verse which serves as our text today. He says, ‘If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.’ Let us take a few moments please, to contemplate just one portion of the text, ‘we have hope in Christ.’ Although in the broader discussion, Paul is speaking of the resurrection, the fact remains that we have hope in Christ now. We have hope in Christ that He has rendered perfect obedience to the Law of God, and has satisfied it in precept on our behalf. We have hope in Christ that He has died as the substitutionary Sacrifice and satisfied the Law of God in penalty. We have hope that He has appeased the wrath of God against us for our sin. We have hope in Christ that He has purchased our redemption. We have hope in Christ that He is by the process of sanctification making us more like Himself. Before we take this subject a step farther, let us contemplate these things as a reflection of the hope we have in Christ already. What is lovely is that there is more to come.

‘Great God of Wonders,
all Your ways are Matchless, God-like, and Divine.’
We rejoice, that in this life, we have hope in Christ,
and that there are greater things to come,
which give us even greater hope.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning