“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor.- 15:26).
One of the thoughts that gripped me that day in 1940, and held me almost spellbound in the half-opened door, was this: According to the Bible the first death would be all past for the church at the time of the second coming of Christ, and later it would be all past for the wicked and lost. The only death left will be the second death. Will the second death be destroyed, also? Or will it be the means through which death itself will be abolished (Heb.2:14,15)?
Many people do very careless thinking about death and its conquest. The writer used to believe, as many folks do, that death would be destroyed as soon as the act of dying stopped. How partial a viewpoint that is.
This entire present earthly scene is under the condemnation of death. Even our scientific definition of life confesses it: “Life is the sum total of the forces that oppose death,” it says. And everyone knows that life here and now can oppose death for only a brief time at best. “The path of glory leads but to the grave.”
One bad apple
In one of his books, Glenn Clark discusses the problem of why a rotten apple in a barrel of good ones will spoil the whole lot, but a good apple in a barrel of rotten ones is powerless to make the rotten ones sound. He says that the good apple has the stroke of death in it. When the stem was severed from the tree its source of life and health and growth was removed. Even a good apple is a dying thing.
He should have added that death was hovering near the apple while its stem was still fast to the tree. Just let the wind swing the apple against a limb near at hand and break the skin, immediately rot sets in. Let a bird pick a hole in it, or a worm enter its body, at once the forces of decay and death have gained an entrance, and the end is putrefaction. “In the midst of life we are in death.”
The first warning against disobedience, according to the Bible, is “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The words “thou shalt surely die,” are often translated “dying thou shalt die,” or “thou art dying to die.” That is, “dying” is a process, and “to die” is the final act or event in the process. When Adam sinned, it was life and vitality that he lost; it was death and dissolution that he received. The word “death” means vastly more than the act or event of dying; it means not only the state into which one passes in the act of dying but also the condition which makes such an event and such a state possible.
Death
For death is not only a condition or state which affects the physical body; it is primarily the state or condition of the spiritual life in which unregenerate men now live. Until men are made alive in Christ they are “dead in trespasses and sins,” here and now. It will be the condition or state of the lost “in the ages to come,” “having no hope, and without God in the world.” Anyone apart from God in Christ is “dead,” whether in this life, or in any other. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). Physical (i.e., literal) death is only one of the results of a previous spiritual “death.” When Adam sinned, fellowship was broken between himself and God, “in Whom we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). It was not merely his physical demise after 930 years that constituted his death, but his separation from God on the very day he sinned was the inner reality of his death. That separation with its fear, its alienation from God’s love and care and intimate fellowship, is the real death that is to be destroyed (Luke 15:24,32; Rom.-8:6,7; Eph.2:15; Col.2:13).
How Silly
How silly it is to teach, then, as the writer used to do, that when the act of dying is ended, death would be destroyed! He locked up the vast majority of mankind in eternal torment, blind to the fact that he was just holding them in death forever. In the economic realm, we use the term “freezing” to signify static continuance in financial immobility. So did the writer “freeze” the great majority of men in the death of eternal fire!
And when he changed his thinking, in order to get rid of such an awful God as eternal torment pictures, and accepted extermination, he did no better–so far as destroying death is concerned. If death is the absence of life–and that must be true of anything that ever had life and later on lost it–then extermination is only another method of decreeing eternal death on the vast majority of mankind. In the case of either “eternal torment” or “extermination,” death would reign forever!
Death Will Be Destroyed
Death will be destroyed by putting life in its place. That nullifies the objection made by many that the teaching of Reconciliation destroys the hope of everlasting life. They say that Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:46 make punishment and future life the same length: “And these [the wicked] shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” If the punishment of the wicked is only age-lasting, not everlasting, then the reward of the righteous is also age-lasting, and not everlasting. This is their argument, and so far as the above quotation is concerned they are correct. Now the promise of “eonian life” is a marvelous provision. It is the proclamation to all who believe, of the privilege of living in Christ in this present life, and living with Christ, reigning with Christ, and being like Christ, “in the ages to come” (Eph.2:7). During those eons when He is bringing the entire universe into harmony with God, the church will share with Christ in all that glorious activity. But the assurance of unending life is not in this offer, wonderful as it is. For the eons will end! Rather, the assurance of unending life lies in the promise that we shall be made immortal when Christ calls us into that fellowship of service with Himself. Our alienation and separation from God are already ended in this life, through Christ. But it is not until His second coming that immortality is conferred, through change for living saints, and through resurrection for dead saints. Immortality is life over which death has no power. So it embodies unlimited life.
Death Replaced With Life
The only way that death will ever be destroyed is to replace it with life. The only way to get rid of darkness is to obliterate it with light. The only way to get rid of error is to supplant it with truth. The only way to get rid of sorrow is to submerge it in joy. So, some glad day, “Death will be swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor.15:54)! And God will do this by destroying, for every being in the universe, all alienation and separation from God. But that can take place only when the Lord of life has proven Himself Lord over death! Not till then will the Son “deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father.” When that joyous day comes, men will answer their own questions, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor.15:55) by the triumphant shout, “Thanks be to God Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.15:57). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive” (1 Cor.15:22).
By Dr. Loyal Hurley
