The Last Enemy

Paul addresses a concern in the Corinthian church regarding some who taught that there is no resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12). If these people were right, then Christ must still be dead. If that is the case, Christian preaching is false and foolish; Christian faith is nonsense; Christian doctrine misrepresents God; and, worst of all, there is no salvation—no hope of eternal life (I Corinthians 15:13–19).

The deniers were the ones in error as Paul proved in the first eleven verses of chapter fifteen. Christ did indeed rise from the dead as confirmed by irrefutable testimony. On that fact Paul drills down on the hope that this truth brings to those in Christ. Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits, the beginning of the greater harvest to follow. In other words, because Christ was raised from the dead, having borne the penalty of His people’s sin, they too, must be raised from the dead because they are no longer under the curse of sin (Romans 6:23).

All for whom Christ died will be raised just as He was raised. That is Paul’s argument in verses 21 and 22. The first man, Adam, was the representative head of the human race. Because he sinned, all his posterity sinned in him. Like Adam, all in him incur sin’s penalty, death. In the same way, all in Christ will benefit from Christ’s obedience and will pass from death to life. They will, like Christ, be raised from the dead to eternal life.

So, when will this resurrection take place? In the following verses (23–28), Paul lays out a simple and profound map of the end of time. Christ, as firstfruits, was raised in the first century of the “last days” with the promise that He would return to earth again (John 14:3). Paul confirms this by showing that all who belong to Him will be raised at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:23). In four words (v. 24), Paul literally destroys most of the popular and sensational teachings about end times: “Then comes the end” (v. 24). The end is when Christ delivers the kingdom to God.

Christ defeated the devil at the cross and took back the kingdom Satan usurped from Adam. Christ rose from dead and ascended to the right hand of God where He is to reign until all God’s enemies are conquered (Psalm 110:1, 2). Paul clearly references these verses from Psalm 110 as his proof of argument (vv. 24, 25). When all the enemies are subdued, the King gives the kingdom back to God.

 Finally, the nail in the coffin is verse 26, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Jesus will raise all the dead for judgment (John 5:28, 29; note also Daniel 12:1–4). This means that Christ’s ruling and the conquering of all his enemies must take place before His return and the resurrection of His own. This simple teaching eliminates any future “millennial” kingdom on earth in which people will die, if death has been destroyed. Neither can this kingdom end with the battle of Armageddon if the last enemy is no more.