1 Corinthians 15:25 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 15:25

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Christ must reign. The ‘must’ is very emphatic in the original Greek. God has determined it. God, in the eternal counsel before the world was created – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – determined every step, that Christ would come and represent them and represent the human race; that God, his way of salvation would be carried out and fulfilled.He is reigning now, and then in that day when he returns, all his enemies will be no more. As a Christian you have enemies: the devil, his demons, people who persecute you or dislike you, for Christ's sake. They will be no more. Then also, there are enemies of the truth. They too will be put under Christ’s feet: theological liberals, people who teach works religion instead of grace, cynics, doubters, opponents of the inspired Bible, all the enemies of the church. ‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’, and that is the greatest enemy because of sin. Death is personified in this passage. It is fanciful to credit it with a mind, but as soon as it is personified you can grasp so much more what it is and what it does. Death is the judgment of God and it is an implement in his hand. Yes, it is a separating implement and nothing negative will exist in heaven, so God will remove it, for it will have served its purpose. Why is it called the last enemy? Is this chronological language? That is difficult to establish, but it is the most obdurate, the harshest, and the most implacable enemy. We all die in the body; death is irresistible; we cannot stop it; you cannot appeal to it or negotiate with it. In the Book of Job it is called the king of terrors. It is without pity, without mercy. It takes young as well as old, prematurely ending young lives, full of promise. It separates those who love each other deeply, and who have spent a lifetime growing to depend on each other. It leaves widows without support when they are at their most vulnerable. Medical help can delay it but not remove it. It brings about the decay of the body, so that the body which was loved becomes an object of disgust. It offers no hint of future reuniting, and seems to leave us without hope. The grave is silent and tells us nothing about where those who have died are now. No one has ever heard any message back from the dead, yet some try so hard to convince themselves that they have. It is the subject of fascination and dread of the poets because it reduces life to absurdity. But death itself will die. That last enemy will also be destroyed: no more parting, no more sickness leading to death, no more decay, no more tokens of death.

Application

All the victories that Christ gains will be given to his people. They too will trample Satan under their feet, and to his eternal shame the weak will prevail over the strong (Romans 16:20). The saints will receive immortality and like Christ will rise to die no more, for death will no longer have power over them (Romans 6:9-11). They will put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53-54; 2 Timothy 1:10).

The resurrection displays in a unique way Christ's absolute irresistible power to keep his promises, and particularly his great promise to resurrect every one of his people at the last day. ‘He must reign until finally he has put all enemies under his feet.’ Christ was dead and buried, and by the exertion of his mighty power, he has broken the bands of death, and done the greatest possible thing from the human standpoint, and defeated death itself death. When you consider that you realize that he must reign. What can stop him reigning? It would be wrong to say that at some point in the future he will begin to reign. That would suggest that there is some influence more powerful than he is, until some future time comes. No, says the apostle, the one who could be truly dead and buried, and could break the bands of death – how could such a person ever be ruled by anything? That is the ultimate demonstration of power and authority. If he has done that, nothing can possibly be ruling over him. And so while at the present time it may not always appear as though he is reigning, in reality he must be. In warfare, how often it happens that there is a mighty conflict and then there is some pivotal key battle towards the end of the war, which really seals everything. After that the enemy has no spirit. His lines of communication are broken; his central organization has lost the majority of his forces. And yet the war may drag on for maybe another six months or so. Yes, but from that pivotal battle it was all a foregone conclusion. It was really, as they say, just the mopping up operation, just dealing with the last pockets of resistance. That is what the apostle is saying. Calvary and the resurrection: those are the great pivotal battles – the bearing away of sin, the breaking of the bands of death. After those he is reigning. It doesn't matter what may appear.

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1 Corinthians 15:25 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:25 explained