The Death of Death in the Resurrection of Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Devotional Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15

Week 4
 
The Death of Death in the Resurrection of Christ.  -  1 Corinthians 15:20-26

20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.  21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.  23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming,  24 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.  25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 

Paul’s argument continued, moving from the negative (if Christ has not been raised) to the positive (but now Christ has been raised from the dead!).  He had been raised from the dead as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  The first fruits are those that are harbingers – first evidence – that more fruit is to come.  The resurrection of Christ is the evidence that resurrection from the dead is not only possible, but it is the fulfilment of every promise made in both Testaments of the Bible that resurrection will happen!
Since Adam introduced death (both spiritual and physical) into the human race, it was appropriate that the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, would introduce resurrection into the human race.  It is in this sense that Paul uses this illustration.  He is not arguing here about the spiritual destiny of those who rise; he is arguing instead about the reality of all being raised, and the resurrections being in proper order.  
Christ was raised first.  Then those who are Christ’s at His coming will be raised at the time of His return to receive His Body, the Church.  Then, at the beginning of the Millennium, Jewish believers will be raised as described by Isaiah (26:19) and Ezekiel (37:12), and at the time of the Great White Throne Judgment, all of the dead will be raised to appear before Christ (Revelation 20:11 and following).  As Daniel wrote, “2 "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2).  As for Daniel, he was told “then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age."
At the very end, when judgment has been concluded, the Son will hand over the Kingdom to the God and Father.  He will have abolished all rule, authority and power.  This expression suggests that those who are in authority, whether human or demonic, will have been brought under submission to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  His reign will continue through the ages, but He will not be ready to offer the Kingdom of the New Heavens and New Earth to the Father until all His enemies have been defeated.
The startling concluding words of this section of our chapter describe a reality none of us has ever experienced.  Things and people die daily, and we find ourselves repeatedly mourning the loss of those we have loved.  But death is not normal.  Death should never have existed.  God put the “tree of lives” in front of Adam and Eve, but they forfeited access to that tree when their rebellious disobedience gave them knowledge and experience of something violently opposed to life in Paradise.  They experienced death, and death claimed the evil and the good from that day onward, except for a few, like Enoch and Elijah, who were taken alive into God’s presence.  Jesus raised the dead, but it was His resurrection, the victory of God over the grave, that opened the way for death to die.
Death is an enemy, an enemy that robs us of the presence of loved ones, but Christ made a new and living way into the presence of God, and His victory turns death – the enemy – into victory for everyone who receives Him.  Absent from the body, present with the Lord. The ancient Israelites spoke of the grave, Sheol, as a place where one could no longer serve nor worship the Lord.  Yet the reality is very different.  Jesus told those who attempted to trip Him up that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob “is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Mark 12:27).  
So, those who have feared death, or shuddered at its power; who have watched the slow, painful death of a loved one, or the rapid accidental death of a stranger, and have hated the ravages of this enemy, Paul wants to encourage you.  He does so with both the assurance of resurrection and the promise of the death of death.  He will return to this theme later, but for now it is sufficient to see that Christ’s resurrection was the assurance that we, too, will experience resurrection, and that His certain victory will bring about the death of death.  Our life and death in this world, with its manifold dangers, may cause you to fear the means of your death and to hate this abnormal enemy, but Jesus with a promise and a statement invites us to the new reality He brings:  “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (Jn. 11:25-26).