Cancer Blog #79
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #79– The Last Enemy
April 3, 2023
[1Co 15:23-26] 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then [comes] the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
What a joyful and hopeful passage! Jesus our Lord was the first fruit of the harvest from the dead. He came to life as He was the beginning, the first portion from the harvest to life as He began it all. He was a portion from the harvest time as we see prefigured in the festival of harvest in the OT. We are the remaining harvest that Jesus has begun to bring in and that He will fully gather in when He returns. We are His portion that He will offer up to God as His sacrifice. For at that time, all will be completed. All will be finished, unlike now when the harvest has only begun. For now there are enemies that are still alive and actively sowing weeds in that growing and incomplete harvest crop. Jesus’ kingdom has begun: He was born and died, but with His resurrection, the harvest has commenced and the completion of that harvest is certain.
He will destroy all those enemies that we now face among and around us, and yet, unfortunately, in our country we often fail to acknowledge the devil, the demons, and the spiritual forces of darkness that battle against us without stop. We must put on the full armor of God in this spiritual warfare. We must not lose heart or feel that the battle is hopeless. The Kingdom of God is here, the battle goes on, but we know that Jesus will one day crush all these enemies of ours beneath His – and our – feet.
The wonderful end of this passage is what Paul names is both Jesus’ and our final enemy: death. We may receive the terminal diagnosis in this age, but we need not be afraid. That terminal diagnosis, that pronouncement of death – is not the final pronouncement. Jesus will return and reverse what appears to be your final defeat, just as the Holy Spirit did for Jesus when He died. But, as with Jesus in His return from the dead, you, too, will one day be raised, to be gathered to Him in His great harvest of life. So, when you receive that diagnosis of death, recall that the harvest of life is on its way. Do not be full of fear or doubt. He is risen indeed! Rejoice then in hope!
NEXT: Tomorrow We Die