1 Corinthians 15:24–26

1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 15

Of the Resurrection of the Dead. 1 Corinthians 15, 1–58.

A victorious line of argument: V. 24. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. V. 25. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. V. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

When Christ thus comes, then is the end; His return for the final judgment means the conclusion of the world's history, when He delivers up the kingdom to His God and Father, when He has put down and abolished every rule and every authority and every power. Christ is now the King in the Kingdom of Power and in the Kingdom of Grace. And He is performing the duties of this office continually; He is adding further souls to His Kingdom of Grace, He is making intercession for those that have been admitted under His rule by faith.

This work of mercy continues to the last day, when the history of this present world will come to an end, when the last elect will be added to the number fixed by the Lord. By that time also He will abolish all the forces of evil that oppose His work of grace, no matter how firmly fixed their rule, no matter how extensive their authority, no matter how great their power seems to be at the present time.

And then Christ will lay at His Father's feet the kingdom; that will be the end of the Kingdom of Grace, since the Church Militant on that day will be changed to the Church Triumphant, and the Kingdom of Glory will have its beginning. This is no ceasing of Christ's rule, but the inauguration of God's eternal kingdom; as the victorious Prince of Life He lays the spoils, the power and reign of all His enemies, at the feet of the Father, and then proceeds with the Father, in perfect unity of essence, to reign to all eternity.

So far as the present world, the present period of time, is concerned, Christ must needs reign until He has placed all His enemies underneath His feet, Ps. 110, 1. Satan, the arch-enemy of Christ, and all the powers allied with him in opposition to God, must be brought to the most perfect subjection, to the deepest humiliation.

The last enemy that shall be rendered absolutely powerless, whose rule shall be taken from him, is death: death is the last enemy to meet his doom. When the resurrection is complete on the last day, the power of death will be forever annulled, there will no longer be such a thing as dying or as being dead; Satan's last bulwark will be destroyed after he has given up his arms. It is a shout of victory which the apostle here utters as he reaches the climax of this passage.