[RESURRECTION REALITIES SERIES]
I CORINTHIANS 15: 20-28
THE RISE AND FALL OF DEATH
[Revelations 20: 6-14/ Ps 110, 8]
This passage begins with the triumphant ringing out of the great fact which changes all the darkness of an earthly life without a heavenly hope into a blaze of light. Christ is risen from the dead! Because He is risen, the Christian also will rise from the dead. The Christian lives between two resurrections. The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of themselves, of the redeemed.
The destiny of Christians is bound together with the destiny of Christ. The Resurrection of Jesus is a prophecy foretelling that death is not the end of man, but that life persists through death and emerges from it, like a buried river flashing forth again into the light of day. But not only does it foretell our resurrection, it is the source or cause of the Christian’s resurrection as well.
Many aircraft display a screen for passengers. This map traces the point of lift off, where the flight presently is, and destination of the flight. Verses 20–28 display where history has come from, where it is going, and who is in control. This history, however, is not about the rise and fall of the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, British or other empires. Rather, it is a short history about the Rise and Fall of Death.
I. THE FIRST BORNS, 20-23.
II. THE LAST ENEMY, 24-26.
III. THE ETERNAL SOVEREIGN, 27-29.
Paul had been conveying the dismal consequence of life with out the resurrection of Christ. With a swift revulsion of feeling, he turns away from that dreary thought of the preceding verses, and he breaks into a burst of triumph in verse 20. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
But now turns us around from suppositions to things as they actually are. Speculation gives way to confirmation. Christ indeed has been raised from the dead! Christ being raised from the dead made Him the first fruits of all who will be raised. [first fruits: initial yield or produce, inaugural result, original production; return, outcome, effect, archetype, pattern, prototype, forerunner, model]
Before Israelites harvested their crops they were to bring the first of the crop, called the first fruits, to the priests as an offering to the Lord. [When the priest waved the sheaf of the first fruits before the Lord it was a sign that the harvest was God’s (Lev. 23:9-14).] The full crop could not be harvested until the first fruits were offered. [That is the point of Paul’s figure here. Christ’s own resurrection was the first fruits of the resurrection "harvest" of the believing dead. In His death and resurrection Christ made an offering of Himself to the Father on our behalf.] [When the priest waved the sheaf of the first fruits before the Lord it was a sign that the harvest was God’s (Lev. 23:9-14).]
The first fruits not only preceded the harvest, they were a first installment of the harvest. The fact that Christ was the first fruits indicates that the rest of the harvest is to follow. Christ’s resurrection is the first part of the larger resurrection of God’s redeemed.
[The rest of the harvest of the resurrection of the dead has been put on temporary hold to allow opportunity for more and more people to be ‘reaped’ for the Kingdom.]
In this passage, and in this whole chapter, Paul is not addressing the question of the judgment of all people at the general resurrection (2 Cor. 4:14; 5:10). Paul is ignoring the future of the unbeliever and concentrating on those who are ‘in Christ’. [Scripture speaks of that resurrection of the righteous (Rev. 20:6; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; 2 Cor. 5:1–5; Luke 14:14; John 5:29), calling it the first resurrection. The second is the resurrection of the unrighteous (John 5:29).]
Since Christ’s Resurrection assures us of the future waking, it changes death into ‘sleep’ and that sleep does not mean unconsciousness any more than natural sleep does, but only rest from toil, and cessation of interaction with this world. Here it refers to the righteous dead, whose spirits have gone to be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8; cf. Phil. 1:23) but whose remains are in the grave, awaiting recomposition and resurrection. [MacArthur, 417 Our spirit and soul are alive, only our body is asleep (2 Cor. 5: 8).]
In these verses (20–22) Paul contrasts Christ with Adam. Verse 21 continues to explain how the resurrection of Christ affects believers. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
Through Adam, the first man, Death entered history. The ‘seed’ of every man and woman to be born in history was present in Adam, so that all people owe their life and their physical descent to that man. Because of his sin, Adam’s ‘seed’ was infected with the fatal virus called ‘Death’ so that all people must die.
As there is a cause effect relationship between Adam and those who are his seed, his descendants, so is there a cause-effect relationship between Christ and those who are of His seed. Christ also is the first of a new nature of people. Since Christ is the first man of a new righteous nature, He has been raised from the dead, making possible the resurrection from the dead for others. [Eye-witnesses testimony could attest His rising, but the knowledge of the worldwide significance of it comes, not from testimony, but from revelation. Romans 5:12-21 explains why Adams sin brought sin and death to all people and the parallel between Adams death and Christ’s death.]
Verse 22 is a convincing analogy of how these two lives affects believers. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Paul refers to the extremities of the history of Death, its beginning and its end. Adam introduced Death, but the Christ will abolish Death. And the reason? It is because Christ has been raised from the dead on Easter that all will be raised alive on the last day.
Just as Adam was the predecessor of everyone who dies, so Christ is the predecessor of everyone who will be raised to life. In each case, one man doing one act caused the consequences of that act to be applied to every other person identified with him. Those who are identified with Adam—every person who has been born—is subject to death because of Adam’s sinful act. Likewise, those who are identified with Christ—every person who has been born again in Him—is subject to resurrection to eternal life because of Christ’s righteous act. In Adam all have inherited a sin nature and therefore will die. In Christ all who believe in Him have inherited eternal life, and shall be made alive, in body as well as in spirit. "For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). [MacArthur, 417]
Michael Faraday, an English CHEMIST and physicist who was a devout Christian, was born in 1791 and died in 1867. Faraday discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction which is the basis for the electric generator and the electric motor.
One day a workman who was helping Faraday knocked a little silver cup into a jar of strong acid. The cup was quickly destroyed. But Faraday put some chemicals into the jar and in a moment the silver which had disintegrated settled to the bottom. Faraday quickly retrieved the silver.
The shapeless mass of silver was then sent to a silversmith and the cup was restored as shining, beautiful, and bright as ever.
If Faraday and the silversmith could do that to the dissolved silver cup, cannot God give us a new body on the resurrection morning?
The occurrences of the resurrections are indicated in verse 23. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
Christ is the first fruits and those who are Christ’s at His coming are the full harvest. Christ’s resurrection is an accomplished fact of history. But still in the future is another historical event, Christ’s ‘coming.’ We do not know—in fact, are told we cannot know (Mt. 24:36, 42, 44, 50; 25:13)—when the Lord will come to raise and rapture His people and set up His kingdom. We do not know the time, the specific generation or moment, just the order.
This word coming or parousia is regularly used of Christ’s return (1 Thess. 4:13-18). It was often used for the grand appearing of an emperor or other high dignitary. At His ‘coming’ those who belong to the Christ, that is, those who are ‘asleep in Him’, will, as He was, be raised from the dead (see v 20).
II. THE LAST ENEMY, 24-26.
Following the resurrection of the church, it seems another period intervenes until end as verse 24 indicates. then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
Then (eita, "after this") may imply an interval of time between the resurrection at His coming and the establishment of His kingdom. That would coincide with the teaching of our Lord in Mt. 24 & 25. (See Mt. 24: 30-31). At the close of the millennium reign on earth there will be one final rebellion against God (Rev. 20:7-10). After Christ puts down this last rebellion of man against God, then follows ‘The End’ (telos), a word for ‘goal’ or ‘end–point,’ [but also has the idea of ‘perfected, completed, consummated, or fulfilled.’] The lost will then be resurrected, judged and cast into the Lake of Fire.
The End is when Christ delivers His kingdom to God the Father (Mt. 13:41-43). As in the preceding verse, no time frame was specified and the chronological sequences set forth may indeed be almost momentary (1 Cor. 15:5) but then again they may be prolonged (v. 23). If about 2,000 years can elapse between the first and second phases of the resurrection events, a lapse of a millennium, between the second and third phases should cause no consternation. [Walvoord, John; Zuck, Roy; The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 544.]
Christ’s final act will be to conquer permanently every enemy of God as verse 25 states. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
The resurrected Christ will eventually conquer all evil and all promoters of evil. All the enemies of God will forever be abolished, never to exist again, never again to oppose God or to deceive, mislead, or threaten His people or corrupt any of His creation.
The victory is expressed in the language of Psalm 110:1, the Old Testament text most quoted in the New Testament: He has put all His enemies under His feet. In ancient times of kings and emperors sat enthroned above their subjects, so that when the subjects bowed they were literally under, or lower, than the sovereign’s feet. With enemies, a king often would literally put his foot on the neck of the conquered king or general, symbolizing the enemy’s total subjection.
[Christ is presently exercising His kingly rule and abolishing these ‘powers’ through the preaching of the gospel of Himself crucified and risen. Through this gospel sins are forgiven and those formerly in bondage are set free from the powers of darkness and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, brought under the dominion of Christ (Col. 1:13–14).]
Winston Churchill had PLANNED HIS FUNERAL, which took place in Saint Paul’s Cathedral. He included many of the great hymns of the church and used the eloquent Anglican liturgy. At his direction, a bugler, positioned high in the dome of Saint Paul’s, intoned, after the benediction, the sound of "Taps," the universal signal that says the day is over.
But then came a dramatic turn: as Churchill instructed, after "Taps" was finished, another bugler, placed on the other side of the great dome, played the notes of "Reveille"-"It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up in the morning."
That was Churchill’s testimony that at the end of history, the last note will not be "Taps"; it will be "Reveille." The worst thing is no longer death for those who know Him who is life.
Death as a personification as Christ’s ultimate opponent in verse 26. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
The last evil both of God and of man to be abolished forever will be death. Rev 20:14 tells of death being destroyed. Death itself shall be cast into hell and the last enemy shall be destroyed. All things will truly be under Christ feet. [Death ‘is being abolished’ (present tense) because the risen Christ is ‘reigning as king’ (present tense) as men and women who hear the gospel of his death and resurrection begin to ‘belong to’ him. But Death will be finally and effectually be removed at the last judgment.]
For those who are ‘in Christ’ His resurrection has already defeated Death, at least in principle. Christ broke the power of Satan, "him who had the power of death" (Heb. 2:14), at the cross, but Satan and death will not be permanently abolished until the end of the Millennium. The victory was won at Calvary, but the eternal peace and righteousness that Christ’s victory guarantees will not be consummated and completed until the enemies who were conquered are also banished and abolished.
It is not human bodies which will be destroyed, as some in Corinth were saying, but the destroyer of bodies, death itself. The last enemy, is death, which, with all the other enemies, will be abolished.
In past generations SMALLPOX was a much feared disease. It killed hundreds of millions of people and scarred and blinded many more. It was highly infectious, contracted by breathing the exhaled breath of an infected person.
At one time there was no cure for smallpox. During the Middle Ages, smallpox epidemics often raged across Asia, Africa, and Europe. In some wars more soldiers died from smallpox than from combat.
In 1796 an English physician named Edward Jenner developed the first smallpox vaccine, says writer Donald Henderson in the World Book Encyclopedia, and the vaccination soon spread around the world. Many countries required by law that citizens be inoculated.
The health effort was a great success. In the 1940s smallpox was completely eradicated in Europe and North America. In 1967 only thirty countries still suffered the ravages of smallpox. The World Health Organization began an aggressive program in Africa, Asia, and South America to completely eradicate smallpox from the earth. Vaccination teams traveled from village to village searching for smallpox cases. In 1970 only seventeen countries still suffered from the disease. In 1978 the World Health Organization announced that the world’s last known case of naturally occurring smallpox was in Somalia in October 1977. In 1980 they formally announced that smallpox had been eliminated.
But stocks of the smallpox virus were stored in freezers at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. In September 1994 a committee of the World Health Organization unanimously voted to destroy the last stock of the smallpox virus on June 30, 1995. In public health’s greatest triumph, the smallpox virus would be completely. eradicated from the earth, never again to torment humankind.
It’s hard to imagine that such a deadly disease could be completely annihilated. It’s also hard to imagine a world cleansed of the plagues of sin and death and evil. But God will one day Judge the earth, and by the authority of Christ, sin and death and all that is evil will be thrown into the lake of fire. God will create a new heaven and a new earth where only righteousness dwells. There will be no more death or tears, for Christ will have won the final victory.
III. THE ETERNAL SOVEREIGN, 27-29.
Then, His final work having been accomplished, Christ delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father in verse 27. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.
Proof that all things have been restored is found in all things being in subjection to the will of Christ. Psalm 110 and Psalm 8 are quoted as the absolute universal dominion of the Messiah has returned creation to its proper place. The kingdom that Christ delivers up will be a redeemed environment indwelt by His redeemed people. Both nature and those who have become eternal subjects of the everlasting kingdom through faith in Jesus will live in perfect peace, contentment and fulfillment.
Verse 28 tell what will occur when all creation has been restored. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Once the ‘enemies’ of God. including Death, are finally vanquished by the Son, He will ‘hand over’ His kingship to the Father and be subject to Him. The humility and obedience of Christ shown in His incarnation and dreadful death (Phil. 2:5–8; cf. 2 Cor. 8:9; 10:1) is shown also in His voluntary subjection to the Father once His work of ridding and ruling is completed.
Although God the Father and God the Son are equal each has a special work to do and an area of sovereign control. Christ is not inferior to the Father, but His work is to defeat all evil on earth. God’s work is to be the Absolute Sovereign of all eternity. [Application Bible, 2086]
CONCLUSION
SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1552?-1618) was an English soldier, explorer, writer, and businessman. Raleigh is famous for his gallantry to Queen Elizabeth I. In 1581, Raleigh was visiting Queen Elizabeth at her court when, out walking one day, they came to a large mud puddle. As everybody knows, Raleigh removed his coat and placed it over the puddle for the queen to walk on.
More than likely, the story is not true. But it is true that he was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite and she gave him a 12,000-acre estate in Ireland. It was on that land that he first planted the potato in 1596.
Raleigh fell into the disfavor of the queen when he married one of her maids-of-honor. To redeem himself with the queen, he traveled to Guyana in South America to search for Eldorado, a legendary land of gold, but the expedition failed.
Possibly you have seen the Tower of London in which James I imprisoned Raleigh after the death of Elizabeth in 1603. There in the Tower of London Raleigh lived for twelve years. Released in 1616, he made another trip to South America to search for gold, being explicitly commanded by the king not to attack the Spaniards. But his men disobeyed and attacked the Spaniards, and when Raleigh returned to London he was sentenced to death for disobeying orders.
He met his fate calmly, even joking with his executioner. Raleigh laid his head upon the chopping block, and gave the signal for the ax to fall. After Raleigh was beheaded, they found his Bible in the Tower of London in which he had written his epitaph the night before his death:
Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust!
If you will let Him, Jesus will make you a partaker of & participate in His own immortal life. Our resurrection is a consequence of our union with Jesus. He has conquered for us all. He has entered the prison-house of the grave & come forth bearing its iron gates on His shoulders, & now it cannot hold us.
Have you united your life with His life? If not, do so now, & His life will give you life & you too will conquer death through His death.
[There are basically two resurrections yet to come. First, of Christ’s servants, and then the resurrection of all others. They are not the same as they are awfully different in outcome. ‘Some shall wake to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’]
I beseech you to make Jesus Christ the life of your dead soul, by humble, contrite trust in Him. And then, in due time, He will be the life of your transformed bodies, changing these into the likeness of the body of His glory, ‘according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’
