The Last Enemy Had Already Lost

On April 9, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood in the gray dawn at Flossenburg concentration camp. The Nazi regime had sentenced him to death for his role in the resistance. The camp doctor who witnessed the execution later wrote that he had never seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God. Bonhoeffer's last recorded words, spoken to a fellow prisoner, were simply: "This is the end — for me, the beginning of life."

Just days later, Allied forces liberated the camp. The regime that killed him crumbled within weeks. Death had claimed Bonhoeffer's body, but it could not touch his hope.

Paul writes to the Corinthians that Christ has been raised as "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." In the ancient world, the firstfruits were the initial sheaf of the harvest — the guarantee that the rest was coming. Christ's resurrection was not an isolated miracle. It was a down payment. Because He walked out of the grave, every believer who follows Him into death will also follow Him out of it.

Bonhoeffer grasped this with both hands. The executioner's rope was not the final word. Paul declares that the last enemy to be destroyed is death itself — and in Christ, that enemy has already been served its eviction notice. The full harvest is coming.