Death: The Last Enemy and Its Terrible Properties

The Apostle Paul names death as "the last enemy that shall be destroyed" (1 Corinthians 15:26), and we must understand the nature of this formidable foe. Consider first the dissolution of the human frame—that wonderful machine bearing the mark of Divine wisdom and skill. If we regard the Goths and Vandals as enemies of society for destroying ancient monuments of art, how much more must we regard death, which destroys the body itself?

Death ends all terrestrial schemes and thoughts. The ambitious, the lovers of wealth or pleasure—what will these avail when summoned to meet this last enemy? Death dissolves the tenderest ties of nature and affection, tearing asunder husbands and wives, parents and children. One part of the mortal compound is left to mourn while the other mingles with corruption. Death so mars the features that even passionate admirers of beauty cry, "Bury my dead out of my sight."

Consider death's terrible properties. He is inexorable—unbribed by riches, unmoved by tears or mediators. He is impartial; every human being faces his enmity. His arrows level all in the dust. Like great monarchs, death has harbingers announcing his approach: pains, afflictions, diseases. His instruments of destruction are dreadful—famine, pestilence, war, lightning, earthquake. Yet in Christ's resurrection, Yahweh has conquered this final enemy, transforming death from victor to vanquished.