The Resurrection of the Dead (1 Cor. 15)

The Death of Death

1 Cor. 15.20-34

Death entered the world through the very first man and spread to every other member of the Race (See also Rom. 5.12-21). Adam spread death to the human race, but in the resurrection of Christ the entire race will be raised from the dead. This general resurrection of the dead will happen at the end of time when Jesus returns. Jesus was the first to be raised from the dead. But everyone who has died will be raised, both believers in Christ and unbelievers. (Paul’s focus is on the resurrection of believers.) All will be raised, but not all will inherit the Kingdom of God (See Jn. 5.28-29).

Christ has been raised, but death is still ruling the human race. Everyone still dies. So in what sense has Jesus defeated death? What good does the resurrection of Christ do if we still die? In his letter to the Corinthians Paul writes about the death of Death. Jesus is reigning, having already defeated death. At the end of time Jesus will destroy death and put it away completely. Christ is reigning in heaven, but there are still hostile powers on earth, including death.

The final destruction of these hostile Powers is still to come. But it will happen. When Jesus comes the End will come and the Kingdom of God will come in all its glorious fullness. There are aspects of the Kingdom of God for which we are still waiting in hope (See Rom. 8.18-25). And as long as the Church is still in the world she will continue to pray “Thy Kingdom come!” Now the world is like a field in which there are growing both Wheat and Weeds (See Matt. 13.24-30; 36-43). But the Harvest is coming!

This means that believers must patiently endure the trials and suffering of this Age. We belong to another world. But we are still in this world. Our mortal bodies are a constant reminder that we are not yet fully redeemed. The Kingdom of God has come. But it should be obvious that the Kingdom has not come in fullness. There is more to come.

He Must Reign Until the End

 

The Now and the Not Yet

Even though the Kingdom of God has come, and we can enter it now, we see all the evidence of the old order hanging around. This can be confusing. In what sense has the Kingdom of God come if there is still evil and death? If Jesus is reigning then why do all of these things seem to contradict His reign? Are Christians out of touch with reality? Some think that is the case. Here we are preaching that Jesus is King, yet there is little in this world that seems to be under His control. Furthermore, Christians themselves are still subject to these evil Powers. For example, Christians still get sick and die. And there are still millions of people who have not acknowledged the reign of Christ. Sometimes the world even rises up against Christians and kills them. How are we to believe that the Kingdom of God has come to a world that would even kill those who claim to serve that very Kingdom? It doesn’t look like the Kingdom has really come.

But there is much more to come. That is Paul’s message to the Corinthians, especially those who did not believe in a resurrection. Christians have hope. Jesus is reigning and He will come again to consummate His Kingdom, bringing all inimical Powers to their knees in final and permanent destruction.

Believers in Christ must live with the End in mind. We are foolish not to. It is foolish to live only for this present Age as if this life is the only thing we will experience. Christians have to live with this hope in mind and not get caught up in the futility of this present, evil Age. In fact, we are to live as if the Kingdom of God HAS come, which is what makes us strangers and aliens in the world. We are citizens of another Kingdom even as we go about our lives in the world. We must think about how we will fit in with the coming Age. Many will not be prepared for it because they are not preparing for it now.

We are not to worry about the future, but we are to prepare for the future. When the Lord tells us not to worry about the future He was talking about our lives in this world (See Matt. 6.25-34). We are not to have anxiety about those things. Instead we are to seek the Kingdom of God.

If we lose sight of this future hope we will be caught up in the corruption of this present Age and will be excluded from the Kingdom of God. So we must not become caught up in an Age that will not last.

 

The End will come

This present Age will come to an end. The singular event that will bring about the End is the coming of Christ. The dead will be raised when He comes. Everything important that is coming in the future hinges on Christ’s coming, or His appearing. It is important to notice that for Paul the key event that we are waiting for is the coming of Christ. Everything else that will happen at the End will happen when He comes. (This is not the emphasis of modern Eschatological teaching. Most people are waiting for some kind of event, like the rise of the Anti-Christ, instead of the coming of Christ Himself!) But the End of this present Age will come when Christ comes. His coming is the blessed hope of the Church. So we are waiting for a Person, not just an eschatological event or series of events. Our hope is in Christ.

God is governing time and human history. It has been said that history is really HIS STORY. God is working out His purpose in the world and that is the only reason for the world. The Bible has a linear view of human history: God began the world and God will end the world when His purposes are complete. This is different from a pagan view of history, which has always been cyclical. A pagan view of history is that everything is just going around and around again in pointless circles. The pagan view of history is one of futility and despair. The Biblical view of history is one of hope. We believe there is meaning and purpose in human life because God has a purpose. Our own society is filled with despair because people have rejected God and therefore life has lost its meaning.

Most people today believe that the world will end but only in some meaningless cataclysm. The Hollywood movies depict some kind of natural disaster, usually caused by mankind, which will bring the human race to an end. Scripture is clear about the fact that the present world order will come to an end. But it will not end because of natural calamities or a man-made ecological disaster. God will bring this present world to an end.

Those who reject the Bible also refuse to believe that there was a time when God brought the world to an end in a great flood (2 Peter 3:3-7). God promised never to destroy the world with water. But when Christ comes God will destroy this present world with fire as He once destroyed the world with water.

Everything in this world is going to pass away. It is important for us to remember this simple truth. This is why Jesus told us not to store up our treasures on earth (Matt. 6.19). This is why we are not to love the world (1 Jn. 2.15).

In case we forget the temporal nature of this world, God has given us a built-in reminder: death. Death reminds us that the things of this world, including our own bodies, are not going to last forever. There is something that will last forever and we are to seek and invest in that Order rather than in what is temporal.

 

Christ is Reigning Now

But the End has not come yet. What is happening in the meantime? Christ has risen and has ascended into heaven. Now what? Nothing seems to have changed in the world. We must understand the significance of Christ’s ascension. This truth has been neglected by the Church. In fact, some people don’t even teach that Jesus is reigning NOW but that He WILL reign only in the future when He comes again. But this is not what the New Testament teaches.

Christ IS reigning now, but His current reign is from heaven not upon the earth. But modern people miss the significance of Christ’s current reign in heaven. The Bible teaches that heaven, not earth, is the main place. The whole book of Daniel emphasizes the fact that Heaven rules the earth. Heaven is the Throne of God. Heaven is like the control room for the earth. So when Jesus ascended into heaven and sat at the Father’s right hand, that is another way of saying that Jesus is ruling the world from heaven.

The Apostle John saw the heavenly Throne Room and Christ reigning there (See Revelation 4-5). The book of Revelation is really the revelation of Christ’s current reign in heaven. What happens on earth is the result of Christ’s reign in heaven. This truth is pictured in apocalyptic symbolism as the Lamb taking a sealed scroll from the hand of the One seated on the Throne and then breaking and opening its seals (See Revelation 5.1-8.5).

In heaven there is no disputing Christ’s reign. But the view down here on the earth looks different. How can Christ be reigning when the whole world seems to be in direct opposition to His reign? All the nations are raging in opposition to the Lord and His Anointed One (See Psalm 2).

At the present time Christ is reigning IN THE MIDST OF HIS ENEMIES. This is exactly what the Scriptures predicted:

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies (Psalm 110:1-2)!

Paul is commenting on this prophetic/messianic Psalm in our text. We are waiting for all of Christ’s enemies to be made His footstool. Down here on earth we see that the enemies of Christ are still running loose! We are reminded of this truth constantly as we see the world raging against Christ. This perfectly describes the times in which we live, although this is nothing new but has been the state of the world since Christ ascended back into heaven and even before that.

So the New Testament teaches that Christ is already reigning, but He is in heaven not on earth. When Christ comes again He is not coming to BEGIN to reign, He is coming to CONSUMMATE His reign. That is what Paul is teaching in our text. The coming of Christ will only REVEAL His reign publicly for every eye to see, even those who have opposed His reign. Every eye will see Him reigning because all the dead will be raised. At that time all of the enemies of Christ, including death itself, will be completely and permanently destroyed. The Devil Himself will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, along with all of his allies (See Rev. 20). When all of the remaining enemies of Christ are put away that will be the end of the world that we know and the beginning of the New Creation.

As I am writing this, it is the day before we remember D-Day, which was June 6^th, 1944. That was the day during the Second World War that the Allies invaded Nazi-controlled Europe by hitting the beaches at Normandy, France. The objective of this invasion was to establish a beachhead from which the Allies could eventually invade Germany itself. Historians all agree that when the Normandy invasion began it was the beginning of the end of the War and of Hitler’s Nazi party in Germany. There was a tremendous amount of fighting after the Allies took the beaches at Normandy, but it all began with that initial invasion on D-Day. When Jesus came into the world this is what He did for the Kingdom of God on earth. The Kingdom of God had invaded and established a beachhead! That is why Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God had come. That was the beginning of the end for Satan’s Kingdom of darkness. Jesus defeated Satan and even came back from the dead, defeating death. Jesus has already won the decisive victory. The War still rages all around us. But the outcome of this War is certain and we know what the future holds. All the enemies will be finished when He comes, including Death.

The Last Enemy to be Defeated is Death

 

Death is Still Reigning over Humanity

The Gospel proclaims that death has been defeated in a world that is still dominated by death. Not only that, but the Gospel also proclaims that Jesus is reigning when there seems to be little evidence in this world that this is true. Obviously, we are still waiting in hope for something that has not come yet.

What is obvious is that death is still having its way with the human race. In spite of all the changes that have taken place in our modern world, this one reality has remained constant: death comes to all men everywhere. Death is a universal constant.

Death makes no distinction between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the oppressed, the wise and the foolish, the young and the old. Death is the Grim Reaper going through the world with his ghastly sickle, cutting down the people and taking them away. Some of those who die are the very young. Even infants are taken away by Death.

We continue to extend our life expectancy through science and medical research, but there is no cure for death. There is simply no guarantee that anyone will live to a ripe, old age. (According to the World Health Organization the life expectancy of an American male is 76 and a female 81. But in the nation of Kenya the life expectancy for a man is only 59 and a woman 62.)

Considering death does not have to make us morbid and despairing. It is supposed to make us consider certain realities. We should think about our accountability to God and the fact that we are not ultimately in control of our lives but live at the pleasure of the Almighty. Death is how God has imposed a limit on the pride and wickedness of the human race.

As I sat writing these words I was looking out the window of a coffee shop across a busy street into a graveyard. As people come and go about their business there is right under their noses a reminder of their destiny, though they drive and walk by it without much thought. No matter where we go or what we do in life, we will all end up in the same place. Death is the terrifying reality lurking underneath the surface of human life, waiting to rise up and claim us at any moment, like a poisonous snake hiding in the grass by our feet. We have many ways of ignoring the reality and presence of death. We stay busy. We entertain ourselves. We simply refuse to talk about death, even when it is staring us in the face.

Human wickedness is either directly or indirectly responsible for the untimely demise of most of the members of the human race. But even if we were left alone the normal course of nature would eventually result in our physical bodies simply failing. Sometimes we read about someone who was quite elderly dying of “natural causes.” Sometimes we say that someone just died “of old age.” But most people die of something other than natural causes or old age. Human folly is a leading cause of death. And men will have to give an account for wasting their lives or taking the lives of others.

Whatever the cause of our death, we must all come to accept the reality of death. First we must accept our own mortality. Then we must also accept the fact that all of our loved ones will die. This realization will actually make us wise. One of the foolish qualities of youth is their stubborn belief in their invincibility. The sooner we come to terms with our weakness and our mortality the better off we will be. Christians are not people who detach from reality. It is the business of Christians to prepare for death and for what comes after death. And we want to be influential in preparing others for their death as well.

The Church today is much more interested in this world and this life. Churches say they want to be “relevant.” But what is more relevant than preparing for death? We all have to take that final voyage and it is better to be ready than to not be ready.

Christians should make it their goal to die well and to also face the death of our beloved brethren with hope rather than despair. If our faith is relevant at a particular moment it is when we are staring directly into the face of death.

 

Death is an Enemy

It is popular even in Christian circles to speak of death as a merciful release. When someone is suffering we may secretly long for death to take them so that they do not have to continue suffering and we don’t have to suffer with them as we watch their pain. If we are able to live a long time the body eventually reaches a point where it becomes almost impossible to enjoy life. When the so-called quality of life is gone, we may prefer death to life.

So from one perspective death might be called our friend. I often hear Christians speak as if they prefer to die so they can be with the Lord. Even Paul spoke that way (See Phil. 1.23). It is better to be with the Lord and death is the thing that will usher us into His presence. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” So death is our friend who brings to an end our pilgrimage through this veil of tears and transports us into our heavenly home.

I do not want to take any comfort away from the saints. But I also feel that in order to provide comfort for ourselves and for others we might ignore what Scripture says. Sometimes the greatest comfort is found, not in ignoring the painful reality, but embracing it fully and then applying the Gospel. Paul does not call death a friend in our text.

Death is an enemy. God did not create man to die but to live. Death was not an original inhabitant of the world God created. Death is an invader. God imposed the sentence of death on creation because of sin (See Rom. 5.12; 8.20). Apart from God we die. Death is alienation from God. That is why death is an enemy.

And it is not just our enemy it is the enemy of Christ. That is the point in our text. Christ is going to defeat all of His enemies, including Death. Death is the enemy of Christ because it is in opposition to the salvation that He came to bring. He came to bring us eternal life and that means He had to defeat death. To defeat death Christ Himself had to taste death (Heb. 2.9). Until Death is put away for good the Saved cannot enter fully into eternal life. The Gospel declares that death is a temporary condition and will not always have the dominion. We know this is true because we see Jesus raised and exalted (Heb. 2.5-9).

 

Death is Subject to Christ

There is no Power in heaven or on earth that is not subject to Christ, including Death itself. Death is not yet subject to the saints. We still die. But we have hope through the resurrection of Christ. When Jesus comes again He will make death irrelevant and we will be raised, never to die again. We will enter into eternal life in the presence of God and reign with Christ in His Kingdom. This glorious destiny is why we have been saved. We are being prepared for this world to come.

Hope is the child of faith. We put our faith in the One who has already been raised so that when that One speaks about the future we can have hope. Our hope for the future is based on what Christ has already done in the past. The glorified Christ is holding the keys of Death and of Hades (Rev. 1.18).

This is why we must be constantly looking at Christ as we continue our pilgrimage through this world of sin and death. Fix your eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12.2)! If we look around at the world we can become discouraged. But Christ is reigning over this world and has overcome it!

Our most natural feeling about death is fear. The fear of death is the mother of all fears. This is why the first words spoken by the resurrected Christ was “do not be afraid!” That is the Gospel! He has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light (2 Tim. 1.10). And if death is subject to Him then we have nothing more to fear. So do not be afraid. Death cannot hurt you if you are in Christ.