O Death!

Is death your enemy or your friend? Have no question that the Bible describes death as an enemy. In 1 Corinthians, Paul affirms that Christ will reign until He has put all enemies under His feet, and the last of those enemies will be death (15:25–26). It should be a great comfort to us to know that the One in whom we place our trust, is victorious over all of His enemies. At present, He is already at the right hand of the Father and reigns over all creation. However, Christ still has rebellious subjects, as the whole of creation is not yet living in willing obedience to Him. Even his arch enemy Satan, is still in rebellion, even though in His death on the cross Christ wrenched away the power over death delegated to Satan (Heb 2:14-15). So even though Christ dealt a mortal blow to Satan and death in His own death, there still remains a final victory to be realized. But something decisive did take place on the cross with respect to death; the sting of death was removed. For believers, death can be a considered our friend only insofar as it ushers us into presence of Christ in sure anticipation of final resurrected body. While we know that on the other side of death lies glory, and that death is the portal to that glory, at the same time, we all have to do battle with the process of death and its associated suffering, degeneration, and grief. As such, dying remains an enemy still to be destroyed.