Not the least of the advantages which Bible-readers have over other people is their understanding that the world is soon to come to an end. It is true that many unanswered questions remain concerning the end of the world even for the Bible-reader. He does not, and in this life cannot, know the date when the end shall come. He may be a profound student of prophecy and have an expert knowledge of the Books of Daniel and Revelation. But he will never be able to pin-point the time of the end. What God has not revealed man by study cannot know. There are wise reasons why we should not know.

However, the Bible-reader does know that the end of all things is at hand. The Bible tells him this repeatedly, ‘The time is short’ (1 Cor. 7:29). ‘Behold, I come quickly’ (Rev. 22:7). ‘The night is far spent, the day is at hand’ (Rom. 13:12). ‘The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night’ (1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10). ‘Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come’ (Heb. 10:37). The period from Christ’s first to his second coming may at times seem long. But in reality, measured by God’s standards, it is but a ‘little while’ (John 16:16). There is shortly to be an end to all things. Every believing reader of God’s Word knows this, and it is a very great blessing to have this knowledge.

In a key passage on this theme of ‘the end’ the Apostle Paul writes: ‘Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ (1 Cor. 15:24f.). The entire passage is intensely interesting and informative.

The Apostle has been speaking of the absolute necessity for us to believe in the resurrection of Christ as a matter of fact and of reality. He is shortly to go on to speak of the resurrection of all believers to eternal glory. But at this point in his argument he speaks briefly of ‘the end’. It is easy to pass over these verses 24-28 too hurriedly and to fail to notice their importance.

By the expression ‘the end’ Paul refers not to the end of the resurrection but to the end of the world. There is no room in biblical thinking for a period of a thousand years between the resurrection of believers and unbelievers. Both will rise from the dead at the same time. This is made clear by Christ’s words, ‘The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation’ (John 5:28-29). The righteous and unrighteous shall both rise and come forth from their graves in one and the self-same ‘hour’. To the same effect the Apostle Paul speaks: ‘There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust’ (Acts 24:15).

The notion of two resurrections has arisen from an unfortunate interpretation of Revelation 20:5 (‘This is the first resurrection’). However, by this expression John refers to the ‘resurrection’ of the soul. The context is that of ‘souls’ of believers martyred for Christ (v.4). In the Bible there is only one resurrection day of the bodies of men and that day will come at ‘the end’.

The great resurrection day will be one of the ‘four last things’, the other three being the Last Judgment, heaven and hell.

No subjects could be more profitably meditated on by us all in this confused and sleepy age than these ‘four last things’. They are all related to ‘the end’ and we profoundly need to be reminded frequently that these are the events to which all mankind, ourselves and all others, are hastening with every breath we draw.

The doctrine of ‘the end’ is needed by both the righteous and the wicked. How else can the Christian church alert mankind to the folly of their pleasures or the vanity of their trivial pursuits except by pointing them to these fearful events which lie ahead for all graceless men: resurrection from the grave, judgment to come and the risk which graceless men run of eternal punishment?

Similarly, the modern Christian, like his predecessors, needs to be told often of the crown of glory which awaits him when ‘the end’ comes. How else can the serious Christian keep his sanity or hold on his way except by frequent reminders that this crazy, pleasure-loving world is dangerously out of its orbit and is careering wildly towards irremediable catastrophe and loss? Only as we keep ‘the end’ in sight shall we hold our course or abound in the way of righteousness. Only as we remember ‘the end’ shall we understand the old saying: ‘He who rides to be crowned will not mind a rainy day’.

‘But why’, asks the burdened believer, ‘is Christ so long in coming’? The answer which the Apostle Paul gives in our passage is very clear: ‘Because he has work now to do and to finish’. What work? Christ’s present ministry is not only one of comfort and intercession for his people. It also includes what we may call an aggressive element also. And this is what Paul refers to repeatedly in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

The repetition of the same expression is remarkable, Christ is ‘putting down’ all opposition (v.24). He is putting all his enemies ‘under his feet’ (v.25). In ‘the end’, ‘all things shall be subdued unto him’ (v.28). No words could be clearer. Christ’s present ministry in heaven involves the progressive subjugation to himself and to God of all powers of every kind that are hostile to him and to his people. In this aspect of his ministry, as in all others, he will be in ‘the end’ completely and entirely successful. When ‘the end’ eventually comes not one enemy of Christ and his church will be left standing. He will put his foot on the neck of every foe.

The Apostle is here not merely stating the obvious. When he speaks of Christ as progressively subduing his enemies he is not to be understood as saying that Christ as God is crushing all resistance. Paul’s reference is to Christ as Mediator and in his human nature.

Christ as Mediator exercises a two-fold Kingly office. He is King of the church and rules there by his Word and Spirit. But also (and this is here Paul’s point) Christ is King over all the world, and indeed over all worlds. He exercises as the God-Man a universal sovereignty over the entire creation. This Christ does by a power temporarily delegated to him till ‘the end’ comes. In the Name of God our Saviour exerts his power, intelligence and authority so that little by little in the course of history his gospel prevails against all opposition. This delegated authority was given him as a reward of his obedience on earth. He will exercise it till ‘the end’ comes. At that time, when all enemies of every kind are finally crushed and all the redeemed fully saved and brought to glory, Christ will ‘deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father’ (v.24).

From that point on and so through all eternity our exalted Lord Jesus will subject himself to God the Father so that ‘God may be all in all’ (v.28).

Our Saviour’s eventual accomplishment, when ‘the end’ comes, will be a superlatively noble and triumphant one. He will have saved all his people, vanquished all his foes and glorified God by presenting to him a world in which God will be eternally glorified, honoured and loved. It will be a consummately exalted achievement on Christ’s part and one through which God the Father will be uniquely glorified. Till ‘the end’ comes therefore, our exalted Redeemer continues in his ministry of ruling over all things.

The Apostle states in this remarkable passage that ‘the last enemy … is death’ (v.26). Death is by no means the only enemy but it is the last. Other enemies will be behind us in the intermediate state of glory. There, in the paradise of God between death and the resurrection day, the believer will be entirely free from all other enemies. Sin will be behind him and he will know it only as a memory. Satan will bother him no longer once he has left this present scene of conflict and temptation. Earthly enemies too will vex the believer no more. There will be no more the fire, the whip or the branding-iron to sear his flesh with pain. There will be no more any concentration camp to bend his mind to conform to the iron regimes of men. In the interval between ‘falling asleep in Jesus’, and ‘waking at last with his likeness’ the Christian will be in a place of rest. However he will still be disembodied. Death’s power will remain over his earthly body even until ‘the end’ comes.

This last enemy however will be destroyed at the moment of our Lord’s return in glory when the trumpet sounds. The power which now retains so many bodies of men in their graves will in that instant be overmastered by the superior power of Christ acting as our Deliverer.

Death, Paul tells us, will then be ‘destroyed’ (v.26). The vast empire of death, like some grim cage, will be opened, its doors thrown apart and its innumerable prisoners summoned before Jesus Christ to give their last account. So will ‘the end’ come of all that men have known in this present world of time. After that there awaits each man an endless life in eternity – in heaven, or else in hell. The righteous and the wicked will each go forever to his own place.

When the last enemy, death, is defeated Jesus Christ our Mediator will, says Paul, ‘deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father’ (v.24). The power of world-government presently exercised by Christ is a means to an end. It is ultimately for God’s sake. It will vindicate God and show all the attributes of God to be what they are, lustrous and magnificent in every way.

The sin of Adam and the lie of Satan were an assault on the glory of God himself. But a Second Adam came into the conflict to subdue all things again to God and to repair all damage done to his excellent majesty. This most perfect Man, when ‘the end’ comes, will have repaired the whole universe and subdued all things to God in such an effective manner that God will be ‘all in all’ (v.28).

The completion of Christ’s magnificent mission is a thing devoutly to be prayed for. Soon all opportunity to pray or to work for the completion of Christ’s cosmic mission will be over forever. Every wise man therefore must do what he can now to promote Christ’s work. It will soon be too late to do so because ‘the end’ will have arrived.