The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:26
In an attempt to make peace with this cruel foe, death is widely celebrated in our dark world. But death is never something that the Christian should receive as an honoured guest. It is a vile enemy, as the devil is the author of both sin and death.
So great an enemy is death, that our Lord’s greatest triumph was overcoming it. Jesus obtained the keys of death’s dread embrace. And by virtue of His victory and resurrection, we see light pouring through the portals of the tomb. Thus, the believer can look forward to his own resurrection, when being snatched as prey from the teeth of a predator, he will deride: ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ (1 Corinthians 15:55).
As for the lost, death will slacken its grip over them, but only momentarily. To allow them to stand before great judgement, death delivers up the wicked:
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Revelation 20:13
Having rejected the great salvation offered them, the wicked now receive the wages of sin:
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15
This blazing lake ‘destroy[s] both soul and body’ (Matthew 10:28) of the unrepentant, blotting them entirely from existence. But what is most remarkable about this event is that death and the grave also take the fiery plunge:
And death and hell [the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Revelation 20:14
Death suffered a major defeat when the righteous were released from its grasp. But death’s final overthrow will come when the last remaining wicked soul is consumed in the lake of fire. Once the wicked are punished with ‘everlasting destruction’, they do not return to the grave. And without anyone in the grave, who could death possibly reign over? Like a parasite that perishes with its host, so ‘death and hell [the grave]’ will be ‘cast into the lake of fire’ and blotted from existence along with the wicked.
In the glorious new earth, we may rejoice in that death itself will have passed away along with the sorrow, crying, and pain that came with it.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4
Christopher Sparks