The Last Enemy To Be Destroyed is Death

Many people do not realize that there were two trees in the middle of the garden; namely the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9). And these trees were put there by God well before Eve was made. With this knowledge we can dismiss the erroneous view espoused by some that the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a sexual act between the serpent and Eve. The tree was there before she was created. Adam was forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but we do not see any prohibition for eating the fruit of the tree of life. Now, I am sure that many have also imagined what would have happened after the fall, had Adam and Eve reached out to eat the fruit of the tree of life. I suppose they would have lived perpetually in sin. And because they had rebelled against their Maker, they had a great sense of guilt and shame and the downward spiral into sin began. They could not seek for life yet it was right before them. Humans had now taken a downward spiral into sin and it did not take long before we read about division, distrust, jealousy, anger, hatred, murder and a strange account of the sons of God taking the daughters of man. 

All this is given in the first six chapters of Genesis and before long there is corruption which culminates in God destroying the whole earth in the deluge. He had had enough with sin; "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years”.  (Genesis 6:3, KJV). He strove with man, not willing that any should perish but man had become sinful and needed deliverance. We can see that He strove with man starting with Adam and Eve, then He showed them the way of salvation was only through the shedding of blood (Genesis 3:21). This was a pointer to Christ's coming. Yet we continue to see God striving with man when he warned Cain about the sin that wanted to rule over him (Genesis 4:7). And sin did rule. God continued however to strive with man as he continued to offer protection to and talk to Cain though he was a sinner. Many a sinner do not see that though they may enjoy the blessings of the Lord, those blessings are not an approval of their lifestyle, unbelief and disobedience (Matthew 5:45). Those blessings are pointers for them to do some introspection and see that they do not deserve any good thing from God save death and destruction. 

Fast forward to the New Testament. Christ came and was made a sacrifice for sin so that anyone who believes in him should not face the wrath of God (Romans 5:9). All people who do not believe and repent will experience death and destruction. But we do not have to go through that because we have a deliverer in Christ. We do not have to work in order for us to be saved. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were supposed to do good works. They were supposed to keep the garden and not eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. That’s all. There was no sin in the world and no sacrifice was needed yet.  But we know how it went. They were not able to please God by their works. They failed due to their disobedience. And after the fall, they tried to cover their sin by their own works but that too didn't work. They could not please God. The only cover they needed was from God himself and that cover is Jesus.

In Christ sin was dealt a heavy blow and it no longer masters believers. We do not have the insatiable desire to sin anymore. We loath sin and we desire to please God through faith in him alone (Ephesians 2: 4-10). But one thing remains: Death. Imagine how it would be if believers never died. We all know that we still struggle against sin. A short browse of Paul’s letters testifies to this struggle. He calls for believers not to “… lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices (Colossians 3:9), and “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires “(Ephesians 4:22). There is remaining sin in us and if the Lord were to reveal the ugliness of it, I guess we would not be able to stand. But then the glorious thing is that he has forgiven all our past, future and present sins. Christ took them all upon himself (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

If death was to be removed now, wouldn’t that mean believers would live forever in a state of continual conflict and struggle with sin? And isn’t this the reason Paul writes “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26)? In the meantime, we have other enemies to fight and the faith to keep. For now, we know that all our enemies will be destroyed and we have been given victory over them. For now, we fight the good fight of faith. And for now, Christ “… must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). This is a promise. Life has come and life is coming.

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About The Author:

Pastor Sam Machacka is co-founder of Brink Ministries Southern Africa. A wonderful colleague and good friend. Equipping Pastors and Church leaders in Southern Africa. He grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe with his beautiful wife Mildred and they are blessed with three lovely children namely Samantha, Munashe and Joshua but they are now serving as missionaries in Malawi since August 2018

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