The verse belongs to Paul's teaching on the resurrection of the dead, a chapter that teaches a literal resurrection and places great importance on it. The raised immortal person need not be made from the same particles of matter as the mortal body, since identity rests in organization rather than identical matter. Without the resurrection, preaching it would be pointless, and the belief that the righteous receive their full reward at death obscures this Christian hope. The resurrection was urged as a reason for diligence, obedience, and cheerfulness.
Death is an enemy, the last to be destroyed, and its destruction is the final victory and full conquest accomplished at the resurrection when Christ comes again. At the coming and kingdom of Christ, sickness and death will no longer have power over the saints.
The destroying of death as the last enemy belongs to the final resurrection to judgment, which completes on the one hand the triumph of Christ and His church and on the other the destruction of Satan and his followers, with time alone surely revealing God's plan in it. Believers therefore look beyond death to their own resurrection, waiting and longing and praying for Christ's return, when the conquest of death and the work of redemption will be complete.
The verse belongs to Paul's teaching on the resurrection of the dead, a chapter that teaches a literal resurrection and places great importance on it. The raised immortal person need not be made from the same particles of matter as the mortal body, since identity rests in organization rather than identical matter. Without the resurrection, preaching it would be pointless, and the belief that the righteous receive their full reward at death obscures this Christian hope. The resurrection was urged as a reason for diligence, obedience, and cheerfulness.
Death is an enemy, the last to be destroyed, and its destruction is the final victory and full conquest accomplished at the resurrection when Christ comes again. At the coming and kingdom of Christ, sickness and death will no longer have power over the saints.
The destroying of death as the last enemy belongs to the final resurrection to judgment, which completes on the one hand the triumph of Christ and His church and on the other the destruction of Satan and his followers, with time alone surely revealing God's plan in it. Believers therefore look beyond death to their own resurrection, waiting and longing and praying for Christ's return, when the conquest of death and the work of redemption will be complete.