The Death of Death

The return of Jesus in great glory will result in the resurrection of the righteous dead, and the end of Death itself - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

Paul responded to believers who denied the coming resurrection of the righteous by stressing the necessity of resurrection for our salvation and life in the new creation. He pointed to Christ’s past Death and Resurrection as the precedent for and guarantee of our own resurrection.  We will be raised bodily when Jesus arrives from the heavens.

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus constitute the bedrock of the biblical faith, the very heart of the message proclaimed by Paul and his fellow Apostles. To deny either is to repudiate the faith of Jesus Christ and render our salvation hope meaningless.

In First Corinthians, Paul reveals something new as part of his explanation of the resurrection. Believers who remain alive on the Last Day will be transformed and receive immortal bodies without experiencing death.

[Photo by James T on Unsplash]

The Apostle also describes key events that will precede or accompany the ‘Parousia’ or “arrival” of Jesus (παρουσια). He begins his explanation with a rhetorical question to remind us of what Jesus has done for us, and to establish the foundation on which our belief in the future resurrection is built:

• “If Christ is proclaimed that he has been raised from among the dead, how say some of you there is no resurrection of the dead?” – (1 Corinthians 15:12).

The issue is the necessity for resurrection. Paul’s several arguments support this proposition. The basis of our resurrection is the past resurrection of Jesus:

• “For I delivered to you first of all that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he has been raised on the third day, according to the scriptures” – (1 Corinthians 15:3-4. See, Isaiah 53:12, Hosea 6:2).

• “Because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” – (Isaiah 53:12).

• “I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell in safety. For you will not leave my soul to Sheol. Neither will you suffer your holy one to see corruption” – (Psalm 16:8-10. Compare Acts 2:25-28).

If we are not raised from the dead, Jesus likewise was never resurrected, and the entire message of Jesus and his Apostles is null and void. Our future resurrection is based on the historical resurrection of the Son of God, and this belief is essential to the faith of the Church.

• “Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how say some of you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain. Indeed, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins” – (1 Corinthians 15:12-17).

Paul argues that “all will be made alive, but each in his own order.” Jesus was the “first fruits” - He rose first – and the rest will follow “at his arrival,” which will constitute “the end when he delivers up the Kingdom to God and brings to nothing all rule, authority, and power” – (1 Corinthians 15:25-28).

The raising of the dead began with Jesus, “the firstborn of the dead,” and when Christ returns, his process will be brought to completion as he resurrects the saints. The description of Christ as the firstborn of the dead and our forerunner is common in the New Testament:

• “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order. Christ the first fruits; then they that are Christ's at his arrival [‘Parousia’]” - (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).

• “And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our body” – (Romans 8:23).

• “Christ is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might be preeminent” – (Colossians 1:18).

• “Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the Dead, and the Ruler of the Kings of the Earth. <…> I am the Living one, and I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” – (Revelation 1:5, 1:18).

GATHERING HIS ELECT

Paul applies the Greek noun ‘Parousia’ (παρουσια) to the “arrival” of Jesus in several of his letters. For example, in First Thessalonians, he links the resurrection of dead believers to the arrival of Jesus. We also find this Greek word on the lips of Jesus when describing his return to gather the saints:

• “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left unto the arrival of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep” - (1 Thessalonians 4:15).

• “Now, we implore you, brethren, concerning the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him” - (2 Thessalonians 2:1).

• “For as the lightning comes forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west, so will be the arrival of the Son of Man. <…> And he will send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” - (Matthew 24:27-31).

The ‘Parousia’ will mean the end of the present age, the subjugation of all Christ’s enemies, and the end of death as a reality and inevitable process. Death is the “Last Enemy” that must be destroyed. Only then will Jesus deliver the Kingdom to his God and Father, and then, “God will be all in all” - (1 Corinthians 15:24-28, Psalm 2:6-8).

Paul’s purpose in First Corinthians is not to describe in detail every event that will precede the return of Jesus. Specific subjects are introduced because they support his argument for the bodily resurrection of the righteous dead.

Jesus was raised as the “first fruits,” the forerunner and the guarantor of our own resurrection. We will participate in the same kind of resurrection that he did, but at the appointed time. The end of death will coincide with his return, and it will mark the final overthrow of God’s enemies.

After that day, there will be no more enemies to conquer. The curse of Adam’s sin will be invalidated forever, and therefore, Christ’s resurrected saints will shout in triumph:

• “Death is swallowed up by victory! Oh Death, where is your victory? Oh Death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” – (1 Corinthians 15:54-56).

• “I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death. O death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction?” – (Hosea 13:14).

Bodily resurrection does not mean the resuscitation of corpses. Our mortal bodies will be transformed into another kind of body, one that is equipped for life in the Spirit. Our resurrection body will not be subject to disease, decay, or death. The evidence for this is the glorified body of Jesus, our forerunner. We, likewise, will receive glorified bodies.

The “mystery” revealed by Paul is that believers who are still alive when Jesus arrives will be physically transformed and receive immortal bodies without dying. Both living and dead saints will receive immortality.

• “Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed” - (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

• “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words” - (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

Our hope of salvation is based on belief in our future resurrection when Jesus returns, which, in turn, is founded on the Death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Foundation of the Church - (Christ’s Death and Resurrection are foundational and indispensable to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles)

• To the Ends of the Earth - (The Gospel of the Kingdom of God announced by Jesus is a message of life for men and women of every nation and people)

• Raised from the Dead - (Paul anchors what God has done for us in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which also inaugurated the time of fulfillment - Galatians 1:1-5)

• El Fin de la Muerte - (El regreso de Jesús en gran gloria resultará en la resurrección de los muertos justos y el fin de la Muerte misma - 1 Corintios 15:1-57)