Lessons #547 and 548
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
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Resurrection Related Matters (1 Cor 15:20-28)
…24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Recall the message of this section of 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 that we have been considering for some time is that Christ’s resurrection ensures orderly future resurrection and successful conclusion of God’s plan in relationship to creation. Our last study concerned two actions Christ will take prior to the conclusion of human history that we considered in verse 24. The first action is Christ’s delivering sovereignty to God the Father. It is this that is stated in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:24 when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father. We interpreted this to mean that what Christ delivered or handed over to God the Father is that authority related to redemption which would be fully completed when all forces of darkness have been rendered inactive. The second action is to cause the created supernatural beings that are hostile to God to become powerless and to be consigned to eternal suffering. Before Christ hands over authority to God the Father that is related to redemption, His activity of ruling as the One that brought about our redemption will continue. It is with this that we begin our study this morning.
Apostle Paul left no doubt that he was continuing his discourse on the events leading to the conclusion of human history that he focused on beginning in verse 24. We are sure the apostle continued with his discourse of the events leading to the conclusion of human history because of the word for that begins verse 25. The word “for” is translated from a Greek conjunction (gar) that has several usages. For example, it can be used as a marker of inference with the meaning “so, then, by all means” or it can be used as a marker of cause or reason for something in which case it may be translated “for, because.” It can be used as a marker of clarification or explanation so that it may be translated “for” or “you see.” In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:25, it is used as a marker to continue in an explanatory sense the apostle’s discourse on events that would take place before God concludes human history as we know it today. The continued discourse is indeed an explanation of why Christ continues to rule.
The apostle continued his discourse by stating the activity of Christ that must continue as he wrote in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:25 he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Literally, the Greek reads it is necessary for him to rule until he puts all the enemies under his feet. This sentence is concerned with something that is necessary as reflected with the word “must” in the NIV.
The word “must” is translated from a Greek word (dei) that may mean “to be something that should happen because of being fitting” so it is used with the meaning “it is necessary” or “it is a must” in Apostle’s Paul instruction to Titus of ensuring that false teachers, especially Jews, in Crete, should be silenced as we read in Titus 1:11:
They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
The word may mean “to be something which should be done as the result of compulsion” so has the sense of “one ought as a matter of necessity” or “should” as it is used in Apostle Paul’s prayer request to the Ephesians regarding his proclaiming the gospel message as he ought or should, as we read in Ephesians 6:20:
for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
The word may mean “ought” as Apostle Paul used it to encourage the Thessalonians to follow his and his apostolic team’s example in working hard as stated in 2 Thessalonians 3:7:
For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you,
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:25, it is used in the sense of “to be necessary,” that is, “to be unavoidably determined by prior circumstances.” Thus, the word is used to indicate that what the apostle states to be necessary is God’s plan that must be accomplished.
The thing that is necessary or unavoidable as part of God’s plan is Christ’s rule as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:25 he must reign. The word “reign” is translated from a Greek word (basileuō) that may mean to exercise authority at a royal level hence “to rule or reign, be king” as it is used of the ruler in Judea when Jesus’ parents returned to Israel from Egypt in Matthew 2:22:
But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,
The word may mean “to be in control” as that is the sense of the word in the instruction of Apostle Paul to believers regarding sin in Romans 6:12:
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
To say that believers should not allow sin to reign in their bodies, is to say that believers should not allow sin to control them inwardly. The Greek word we are considering is used of Christ’s eternal rule in Revelation 11:15:
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
The word may mean to obtain a royal power hence means “to become a king” as this is the sense of the word although translated “reigns” in Revelation 19:6:
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:25, the sense of the word is “to reign as a king.” Hence, an activity of Christ is that of reigning as a king.
The duration of Christ’s reign is introduced with the word until in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:25 until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The word “until” is translated from a Greek word (achri) with several meanings related to time. The word may mean “until”, that is, a marker of continuous extent of time up to a point as Apostle Paul used it to express his confidence in God regarding His ability to complete His work that He had begun with believers until the coming of Christ, as stated in Philippians 1:6:
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
The word may mean “later, until after, within”, that is, as a marker of a point of time which is subsequent to a duration and simultaneous with another point of time as the word is used by Luke to narrate the time that Paul and some of his team stayed in Philippi before joining the others in Troas recorded in Acts 20:6:
But we sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.
The phrase five days later may alternatively be translated within five days. The word may mean “as far as, up to, to” as a marker of extension up to a certain point, as Apostle Paul used it in describing the extent of his boasting in 2 Corinthians 10:13:
We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you.
The verbal phrase reaches even to you of the NIV may alternatively be translated reaches even as far as you. It is in the sense of marker of continuous extent of time up to a point, that is, “until” that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:25.
The termination of the reign of Christ will take place after Christ has accomplished a task described as subduing all his enemies as it is given in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:25 he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The word “put” is translated from a Greek word (tithēmi) that may mean “to lay, put”, that is, to put or place in a particular location. Thus, it was used for burial in the sense of the laying away or putting away the body of Lazarus in the grave after his death as per the question of the Lord Jesus to his sisters recorded in John 11:34:
“Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
It is in the sense of laying that the word is used in the quotation from the OT Scripture regarding the stumbling stone laid in Zion that Apostle Paul cited in Romans 9:33:
As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
The word is used for Jesus Christ giving up His life for us in 1 John 3:16:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
The word may mean “to appoint, assign” to some a task or function, as Apostle Paul used it to describe his appointment or assignment regarding the gospel message in 2 Timothy 1:11:
And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.
The word may mean “to put aside, store up, deposit” as it is used in the instruction of Apostle Paul to the Corinthians regarding how to get ready for the contribution of money or gift that is to be delivered to believers in Judea by weekly putting aside an amount a person has determined, as we read in 1 Corinthians 16:2:
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
The word may mean “to make” in the sense of making someone something, as in the instruction of Apostle Paul in his farewell address to the elders of the church of Ephesus who have been put to their position of overseers of believers in Ephesus by the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Acts 20:28:
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
The word may mean “to fix, set, establish” as it is used in the response of the Lord Jesus to His disciples after His resurrection regarding the time God has set to restore the kingdom to Israel, as stated in Acts 1:7:
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:25, the word is used in the sense of “to put/place,” that is, “to set into a certain place.” Those Christ will set into a certain place, most certainly the lake of fire, not specifically defined here, are described in the phrase all his enemies.
The word “all” translated from a Greek word (pas) that has different meanings. For example, the word as an adjective may mean “whole” as it pertains to a high degree of completeness or wholeness so that Apostle Paul used it to describe a purpose of God creating nations of people from one man as recorded in Acts 17:26:
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
The word may mean “each, every” as it pertains to totality with focus on its individual components as it is used by Apostle Paul to focus on what faces all those that do evil with focus on each individual as we read in Romans 2:9:
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:25, the word is used with the meaning “each” or “every” to indicate there is a focus on each member of the class described as Christ’s enemies in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:25 all his enemies.
Who are the enemies of Christ? The enemies of Christ consist of those who are hostile to God. This being the case, there are two categories of rational creatures considered God’s enemies. Unbelievers are God’s enemy. This we deduce from the fact that the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul conveyed that Christ died for us while we were His enemies as we read in Romans 5:10:
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
The clause when we were God’s enemies implies that all unbelievers hated God or are in rebellion against Him since prior to salvation we were unbelievers. Thus, it is correct to assert that all unbelievers are God’s enemy. Another category of rational creatures that are God’s enemies are the created supernatural beings that rebelled against God. Satan typifies these enemies of God since he is at the head of those supernatural beings that would suffer in the lake of fire according to Matthew 25:41:
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
The phrase his angels as it relates to Satan should be understood not as the good messengers of God more popularly known as “elect angels” but to evil spirits or the created beings that sinned against God as they are part of the ones described in 2 Peter 2:4:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment.
By the way, Satan or the devil is described as God’s enemy in the Parable of Weeds according to Matthew 13:39:
and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
That aside, we mentioned two categories of rational creatures that are Christ’s enemy but there is the personification of death as an enemy of God since death is described as last enemy in a passage we will get to shortly, that is, 1 Corinthians 15:26:
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
In any case, the reign of Christ as it pertains to His redemptive work terminates when all His enemies have been subdued as implied in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:25 until he has put all his enemies under his feet. There is a problem with this clause because of the pronoun “he” but we will defer its treatment after we have considered an important phrase in the clause. The phrase under his feet is one that conveys the concept of subduing of Christ’s enemies as we may gather from examining the word “feet.”
The word “feet” is translated from a Greek word (podos) that literally refers to “foot,” that is, the part of the body that is used for movement as it is used to describe the body part of Lazarus that was bound at his burial, as we read in John 11:44:
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
However, the Greek word that is translated “foot” is used figuratively in different senses. The word may refer to control or authority, as the word is used in Acts 4:35:
and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
To say that the money from sale of property was put under the apostle’s feet does not literally mean to place the money under their feet. Instead, it means to leave the money under the authority or control of the apostles to distribute as needed. The word can be used for the whole person, as it is used in Acts 5:9:
Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
The phrase the feet of the men is used for the persons who buried Ananias that is why some English versions such as the CEV or the REB omitted it and so gave the translation the men who buried or those who buried. Related to this use of the word “feet” to refer to a person, is its use to refer to a person who is ready or active in an activity as it is used to describe those who preach the gospel as stated in Romans 10:15:
And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
The praise lauded here does not refer to the feet of those who bring good news but the preachers who do so although, in course of their preaching, there is movement that implies the use of the feet. The word may also mean “power” as it is used in the description given about Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:27:
For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.
To put everything under Christ’s feet means that everything is subjected to Him or that He has power or is in control of everything. So, it should be clear that the word “foot” although refers to part of the human body for movement has other usages in the Scripture. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:25, it is used in the imagery of victory where the one vanquished lie beneath the feet of the conqueror. This imagery is evident in that there are pictures of ancient kings with their feet on necks of defeated enemies.
Be that as it may, we stated that Christ’s reign will continue until He puts His enemies in a place not directly stated. However, the Scripture helps us to identify the place where Christ would place His enemies as part of His victory over them. Thus, it is when Christ confines His enemies to eternal suffering or the Lake of fire that His reign related to His redemption work would be completed. He will judge all unbelievers so as to send them to the lake of fire as implied in Revelation 20:11–12, 15:
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
There is the question of who it is that sits on the white throne that judges unbelievers. It is God as He is described several times in the book of Revelation as sitting on the throne. Take for example, the description given in Revelation 19:4:
The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: “Amen, Hallelujah!”
The One who sits at the throne is also described as God in Revelation 7:10:
And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
However, Christ as the Lamb is stated as being at the center of the throne. He is stated as standing in the center of the throne of God in Revelation 5:6:
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
He is described as simply being at the center of throne of God in Revelation 7:17:
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
The word “center” is translated from a Greek word (mesos) that means “middle.” Thus, the description of the Lamb at the center of the throne suggests that He is seated in the middle of the throne. Severally, Christ is said to be seated at the right hand of God. Stephen before his death declared seeing Christ as the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God as we read in Acts 7:56:
“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Apostle Paul stated the same truth with Christ being seated in Colossians 3:1:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
However, the Lord Jesus declared to the church of Laodicea that He sat down with His Father in His throne according to Revelation 3:21:
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
This statement of the Lord Jesus along with Him standing or being at the center of the throne of God creates the impression that the throne of God is the throne of the three members of the Godhead or the unique divine being called God but that Jesus Christ is at the center so that He is at the right hand of the Father presumably followed by the Holy Spirit although not mentioned in the passage we are considering. This observation we have made is important in interpreting the One on the Throne that does the judging mentioned in the last sentence of Revelation 20:12 The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The One that does the judging is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are certain of this interpretation because the Lord Jesus had indicated that the Father had assigned Him the responsibility of judging as stated in John 5:22:
Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.
That Jesus Christ is one that has responsibility of judging the living and the dead is echoed by Apostle Peter through the Holy Spirit as we read in Acts 10:42:
He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
The same truth was conveyed by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul according to 2 Timothy 4:1:
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
Those that appear before the Great White throne for judgment are described as “the dead.” Therefore, it makes sense that it is Christ that judges them as part of completing His reign regarding humans whether dead or alive.
The Lord Jesus Christ not only will judge humans, but He will also sentence Satan and certainly all the created supernatural beings that rebelled against God to the lake of fire. We say this because of what is stated in Revelation 20:10:
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
It is also the Lord Jesus Christ that would be involved in throwing “death” and “hades” into the lake of fire so that both are deprived of their power as implied in Revelation 20:14–15:
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Consequently, we contend that the reign of Christ would not end until He has carried out the function of judging that we have described. In effect, when the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, we are to understand the termination of Christ’s reign as it pertains to His work of redemption would occur after He has finished all judging functions of the dead and satanic forces in the sense of rendering them powerless in the lake of fire.
We indicated that there is a problem with the pronoun he in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Some take the pronoun as a reference to Christ and others as a reference to God. Those who take it as a reference to Christ based it on the grammar of the verse and the context of what the apostle had written in verse 24. Those who take the pronoun as a reference to God justify their position by asserting that the apostle loosely quoted from Psalm 110. Nonetheless, it seems to me that in the final analysis both are correct with, of course, focus on God as the subject of the action of the verse we are considering. The problem that led to the two interpretations is that there seems, on a surface reading, to be a conflict between what Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet and what is stated about who subjects Christ’s enemies under His feet because of Psalm 110:1:
The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
In this passage in Psalm 110:1, it is Yahweh who addressed the One described with the phrase my Lord. Therefore, some perceive a conflict between what the psalmist wrote and that of the apostle since in Psalm 110 it is Yahweh that subdues the enemies but in 1 Corinthians 15:25 the context demands that it is Christ that subdues the enemies. There is no conflict if we recognize that in both cases God does the subduing of the enemies. Yahweh (LORD) in Psalm 110:1 is the God of Israel and the One addressed is also God. This we can recognize from the word “Lord” used in Psalm 110:1. The word “Lord” is translated from a Hebrew word (ʾāḏôn) that may mean “lord, master.” In some contexts, it is used with reference to humans as Joseph used it to describe his position in Egypt in Genesis 45:8:
“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
But in some other contexts, it is used for Yahweh, the God of Israel, as in the instruction given to Israel regarding three occasions when the men were to appear before their God in Exodus 34:23:
Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel.
The phrase the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel of the NIV is more literally from the Hebrew the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel. That the Hebrew word translated “Lord” refers to God or Yahweh is also evident in the interaction of Yahweh and Gideon when He commissioned him to carry out the task of leading Israel into battle as we read in Judges 6:14–15:
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15 “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
The One that spoke to Gideon is Yahweh, but Gideon addressed him with the Hebrew word (ʾāḏôn) translated “Lord.” Thus, the Hebrew word translated “Lord” in Psalm 110:1 refers to the God of Israel. So, God was speaking to God in Psalm 110:1. That God was speaking to God is not unique to Psalm 110:1 since we have God speaking to God in Psalm 45:6–7:
6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. 7You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
In the OT Scripture, the idea of plurality of persons in the Godhead was not as clearly stated as it is in the NT. Thus, the Holy Spirit through the human author of Hebrews tells us that the sentence of Psalm 45:6 refers to the Son of God, that is, Christ, since he quoted the passage of Psalm 45:6 and interprets God in that verse as reference to Christ as we read in Hebrews 1:8:
But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
The human author of Hebrews implies that Yahweh (LORD) used in Psalm 110:1 is God because of what he wrote in Hebrews 1:13:
To which of the angels did God ever say, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
The word “God” does not appear in the Greek of Hebrews 1:13 since the first part of the question To which of the angels did God ever say is literally to which of the angels has he ever said. The pronoun “he” certainly refers to God who is the speaker as we may gather from Hebrews 1:6:
And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Only God deserves to be worshipped. Thus, for God to command the angels to worship the Son must mean that the Son is God. This being the case, the One, according to 1 Corinthians 15:25 that puts the enemy under His feet is Christ and He is God. Of course, we have in our previous study of 1 Corinthians 15:23 demonstrated Christ is the Yahweh in the OT. Yahweh is the God of Israel. Therefore, there is no conflict between what Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:25 and what is stated in Psalm 110:1. The only difference is that in 1 Corinthians we have identified the specific member of the Godhead that carries out what is stated in Psalm 110:1. Consequently, whether one takes the pronoun “he” in 1 Corinthians 15:25 as God or as Christ in the final analysis there is no difference in meaning since Christ is God.
Be that as it may, we had already indicated that one of the enemies that Christ would put under His feet is death. This fact is clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
The word “last” is translated from a Greek word (eschatos) that may mean “farthest, last” as it pertains to being at the farthest boundary of an area, as the word is used in Jesus’ declaration of the mission of His disciples when they received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The word may mean “least, last” as it pertains to being the final item in a series, as the word is used to describe Christ as the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:45:
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
The word may mean “last, least, most insignificant,” as it pertains to furthest extremity in rank, value, or situation, as the word is used in Jesus’ teaching regarding humility in Luke 14:9:
If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:26, the word has the sense of “last,” that is, occurring at the end of a series of time or referring to a situation in which there is nothing to follow. So, when the word qualifies “death” then death is the last in the series of Christ’s enemy to be rendered inactive as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
The word “destroyed” is translated from a Greek word (katargeō) that we examined in detail in 1 Corinthians 15:24. In verse 26, as in verse 24, it has the sense of “to be inactive” or “to be inoperative.” In effect, death ceases to have the power it had since after it is rendered inactive no one would any longer die in a physical sense as implied in Revelation 21:4:
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
This, of course, implies that resurrection is a reality that renders death no longer possible. The apostle used a present tense for the Greek word translated “destroyed” in verse 26. This is because the apostle was certain of the final rendering of death inactive that he stated that as what was already true. Of course, he viewed the rendering of death inactive as a reality that has already occurred despite the fact that people are still dying physically. We say this because of what the Holy Spirit guided the apostle to state in 2 Timothy 1:10:
but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
In this passage of 2 Timothy, when the apostle wrote the clause who has destroyed death he meant that Jesus Christ has removed the power of death over believers in a spiritual sense. The separation between the believer and God has ended because death has been rendered ineffective. It is true that believers still die but their death could no longer be viewed as punishment for sin since those in Christ are no longer under condemnation. Nonetheless, the apostle in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death states the fact of death being rendered inactive in the sense that it could no longer cause any one to die in a physical sense.
The word “death” is translated from a Greek word (thanatos) that may mean death as a termination of physical life as in Romans 7:10:
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
The Greek word may refer to spiritual death as that which results from sin as the word is used to describe the state of every unbeliever before salvation in 1 John 3:14:
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
The word may mean “plague, pestilence, pandemic disease” associated with God’s punishment as it is used in Revelation 6:8:
I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
The phrase famine and plague is literally with hunger and with death. The word may refer to eternal death that means eternal separation from God and described as second death in Revelation 20:6:
Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:26, the word means “death” in the sense of termination of physical life although it is here personified.
In any case, death is the last enemy that Christ subdues. This takes place after all humans and created supernatural beings that are hostile to Christ have been sentenced to eternal suffering of the lake of fire. This fact is implied in the passage we have already referenced, that is, Revelation 20:14:
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
When death is finally rendered inactive the prophesy of Isaiah would be fulfilled. I am referring to what is stated in Isaiah 25:8:
he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.
Anyway, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul implies that it is after death has been rendered inactive or inoperative that Christ would hand over sovereignty to God the Father as it pertains to His redemptive work. There is more to consider but we are out of time but let me remind you of the message of this section of 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 which is that Christ’s resurrection ensures orderly future resurrection and successful conclusion of God’s plan in relationship to creation.
08/18/23