"THE LAST"

“THE LAST”

1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 1 Corinthians 15:45-58

The thought that I desire to engage our minds and hearts with stands related to the fourfold expression in this chapter of what is “last”. This thought is one of the most solemn considerations that we can take account of, for “last” means that there is nothing to follow. First is the opposite; what is first implies that other persons or things may follow, perhaps almost limitless in number. But what is last involves finality, and is a solemn, though, in some respects, a most blessed consideration. Scripture speaks of the “last days”; it says, “God... hath in these last days spoken”, Hebrews 1: 1, 2, meaning that this is the closing period of the divine testimony. Scripture also speaks of “the last day”, which means the final day when time ceases. There will be a day that will be the last day, when days terminate; for a day implies time. What a consideration that is! The last day! The apostle John refers to “the last hour”, “Little children,” he says, “it is the last hour”; the present period has run out so far that the last hour has come.

Some of us look back with solemnity to the last of those we have loved. The last day, the last hour, of those we loved live in our minds all our days, and rightly so. The last words that are uttered are often treasured, as with David, “Now these be the last words of David”, 2 Samuel 23: 1.

Coming to these scriptures, I would speak of “last” in the four connections in which it is found. First, the apostle makes clear that he was the last to see Christ, as he says, “Last of all he was seen of me”. He is the last witness to see Christ risen. I would say a word, too, as to the “last enemy”. What a thought that is! The last enemy is to be destroyed or annulled, so that what is in view is that there is never to be another enemy; what a joy that is! Then I would say a word about “the last Adam”, and I hope to show that there could not be another. Finally a word about “the last trumpet”, following which there will never be another trumpet for us, never another call or rallying again. There will come a moment when the last trumpet will sound.

I trust that these four thoughts are clear to all of us. First the apostle Paul makes clear that he was the last to see Christ, and I want to show why. It says of Christ in resurrection that He appeared first to Cephas. What abundant testimony there is of His resurrection; the first to see Him in this scripture is Cephas. What Peter could tell us if we could get alongside of him; what impressions he must have had from that appearing. What grace that Christ should appear first to Peter. Then He appeared to the twelve. Each would thus get an impression of Christ, fitting them for their part in the administration of what is of God.

Later, He appeared to “above five hundred brethren at once.” What spiritual wealth lay in these five hundred brethren that had seen Christ risen from the dead. The apostle Paul valued that five hundred, for he noted when any of them died, for he said, “Of whom the most remain until now”. I have no doubt that the apostle Paul delighted to talk to each one of them as he had opportunity. “Then he appeared to James”, one who was going to suffer for his testimony, who was beheaded. I doubt if we can suffer for Christ without a personal impression of Christ. Then He appeared to all the apostles, not the twelve here, but all the apostles, so that they might speak with authority. Then Paul says, “Last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” I have no doubt the reference is to Paul actually seeing the Lord in some way, not only in faith; we all see Him in faith as it says, “But we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2: 9.

We see Him thus in the faith of our souls, but Paul saw the Lord differently from this, I think. When did he see Him? Not on the earth, but as the Centre of a world of glory. A light above the brightness of the sun at midday blinded him to everything here. He saw Him, as the Centre of an eternal world, outside this scene altogether, and that is final. There could not be another witness to follow Paul. The last testimony as to Christ is that He is “On the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens”, Hebrews 8: 1, the great Centre of another world. We would love to speak with the apostles and hear what they had to say about the Lord Jesus here; “that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled”, 1 John 1: 1. Who would not listen to John speaking of the blessed sojourn of Jesus here in flesh and blood? who would not listen to Cephas and James as they spoke of Jesus here in resurrection for forty days? But finality is when as glorified in heaven He is the Centre of another world, and Paul is the witness as to this, “Last of all he was seen of me”.

It is remarkable how quickly Paul “Preached Jesus that he is the Son of God”, Acts 9: 20, which preaching involves another world. I think everyone must see that the Son of God involves another world. As the Son of God He is the Beginning and Centre of another world, and Paul preached Him thus in Damascus. Those that kept with Paul in the shipwreck were saved: he would bring them into the light of another world. What we need in the present shipwreck of this world is a glimpse of Christ as the Centre of another world. That position is final, there is nothing to follow, “Last of all he was seen of me”.

I pass on to the second thought, “The last enemy that is annulled is death”. I think that is a magnificent statement. The Lord is going to deal with the last enemy.

There are many other enemies in the way of the people of God. One great enemy is Egypt and its power. The world is not the last enemy, it is probably the first that Christian has to meet. As soon as a person is converted this world confronts him as an enemy, and the Lord deals with that enemy; it says, “Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore”. But it is not long before another enemy comes along, namely Amalek, the flesh in us. How often he appears, how we have combated him, at times almost to despair; the flesh operating in us and Satan using it until we say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?”, Romans 7: 24. Sihon is another enemy, and Og is another. Sihon representing man’s bigness, and Og representing man’s slothfulness. What enemies they are! But they are dealt with. I refer now to “the last enemy”. The suggestion is, I think, to the final power in the way of the people of God reaching God’s thoughts. Egypt is dealt with, and Amalek is dealt with; Sihon and Og are slain and the Midianites fought with, but there is the Jordan, the great final barrier to the entrance into God’s land, and the Lord disposes of that enemy, the last enemy. What a wonderful thing it is to know that death is going to be destroyed, that which separates our souls, and indeed our bodies even, from reaching the great eternal thoughts of God, is going to be annulled; Christ will introduce the people of God into a realm where there is no enemy. In the new heaven and the new earth there will never be an enemy, for the last enemy is destroyed. What a wonderful thing to know that to the ages of ages there will not be an enemy of God, or of God’s people, in heaven or on earth, every enemy having been disposed of including death. The Lord dealt with death personally. He says, “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be the destruction”, Hosea 13: 14. How the Lord would endear Himself to our hearts as the destroyer of the last enemy, so that we may have part in the eternal realm where everything is according to God.

I move on to the thought of “the last Adam”. All these final thoughts are in this resurrection chapter, for resurrection is the doorway to finality. The thought of the last Adam, of course, links itself with the first Adam by way of contrast. The first Adam was made a living soul. I do not think any of us take in how great a man Adam was; he was probably the greatest man that ever lived on the earth in the way of intelligence, for he was truly God’s image and made in His likeness. Adam was formed by God and endowed with qualities that fitted him to be God’s representative on the earth, and in addition to that he was like God; not physically like Him, but like Him in character, the likeness is moral. God is a Spirit, hence no human mind could compass the form of God. Scripture does speak of the form of God, but it is outside the range of the creature to understand it — God being a Spirit. Nevertheless, Adam was made in God’s likeness for he was like God in that he was marked by wisdom, intelligence, affections, and feelings, that stand in contrast to the lower creation; all this he had by the work of God, for he was made a living soul by God’s breathing into him, one of the most intimate transactions of which we can take account. God breathed into his nostrils, as it were God put Himself alongside man in a personal sense and communicated life to him, making him a living soul. But when we think of the first Adam, what thoughts come into our minds as to unfaithfulness to his trust. It says, “By one man sin entered into the world”. Adam brought in lawlessness, and through lawlessness, death. The first Adam, the first head of the human race, brought in lawlessness as departing from God, and with lawlessness came death, and it is not long in the Scripture record until we read of Adam, “and he died”; he lived nine hundred and thirty years and he died. That head died never to reappear as head again. “The last Adam” means that there will never be another. Why? Because there will never be need of another head, the last Adam will hold the position for God as Head for all eternity, never failing, and never weakening in it; Scripture says, “Who is the image of the invisible God.” Christ is that, He is last Adam, and He is God’s representative in the universe, the exact expression of His substance. Nowhere does it say that He is like God. That would not be in keeping with the truth, because He is God. In manhood, He “is the image of the invisible God, first-born of all creation”, Colossians 1: 15, the great Leader of creation, and He will never, never fail in His headship, blessed be His name. So that He is the last Adam, there never will be another head. Think of people going out of this world in disregard of the last Adam!

I desire to show that the last Adam takes upon Himself all that the first Adam brought in, and bears its burden. The last Adam shoulders the whole burden of the actions of the first Adam, as this chapter shows: “Christ died for our sins... and... was buried”. Sins, judgment, death, burial, are the accumulated consequences of the fall of the first Adam. The last Adam takes the whole burden on Himself, at the cross, and in the grave, bearing it all, coming out of death in the power inherent in Himself and as in resurrection He imparts life to all who believe in Him. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit, is not that marvellous? The last Adam is such that He would take the whole of the consequences of the first Adam’s fall, and bear them away; then coming up out of death He communicates life to His own. He breathes into them. What God did in respect of Adam, Christ, the last Adam, does in respect of everyone who puts their trust in Him. He breathes into them. It is noteworthy that He never did this when in flesh and blood, I would say reverently that He could not do so until He had borne the burden of the guilt, the death, and the burial, that lay upon man, but one of His first acts in resurrection was that He breathed into His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, John 20: 22. He imparted thus His own life as the last Adam. Who would ever want another? There could not be another. Men who reject Christ will go into outer darkness under the judgment that sin has brought upon them through the first Adam because of their rejection of the last Adam. Let no one imagine that there will be another Adam available to man. Christ is the head of every man, and He is a life-giving spirit, a glorious title. Adam lived because God breathed into him, we live because Christ has breathed into us. He is great enough to impart life. Adam could never communicate life, but Christ is a life-giving spirit, having borne the judgment that the first Adam brought in on man through sin.

One more thought is “the last trump”. This implies that there have been other trumpets. The children of Israel were to make two silver trumpets which were used to call the people together. The first trumpet we hear today is the call to repentance in the Gospel. “God... now commandeth all men everywhere to repent”, Acts 17: 30.

The sound of the trumpet may be heard in many connections. Normally the believer hears the trumpet calling him to assemble weekly to remember the Lord. I trust everyone in this room listens to that appeal from the silver trumpet. Silver indicates the redemptive rights of the Lord over us. Other times the trumpet may blow an alarm because of something happening that endangers the people of God. The blast is then heard calling the people together to judge evil. How important that we should heed such a trumpet.

When they came together in relation to the burnt-offering and the peace-offering, they were to blow the trumpet. The calls to fellowship meetings are like trumpets rallying the people of God together. But I am speaking now of “the last trump”, the final trumpet, after which, for us, there will never be another. What a sound that will be! In the epistle to the Thessalonians it is called the trump of God; it says, “The Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 16. Not Moses now, not the priest, but God Himself will cause the blast to be heard, as the word here says, “We shall not all fall asleep — we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” There will go out a call from God through Christ and the sound will reach the dead in Christ. All that are Christ’s, that have died, will hear it; every living saint on the earth will hear it, for the apostle says, “We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed”. That trumpet will call the dead in Christ from the grave, and will call the living that remain, and all will be caught up together. There will never be another rally after that, for we will have passed beyond the sphere where we are rallied, to “be always with the Lord”. Surely the moment is imminent when that final blast from God will penetrate every Christian’s soul that lives, and be heard by every saint that has died.

These are final matters. Most in this country and throughout the earth are longing for the last day of this war. I remember well the last day of the last war, and what feelings filled the breast of every right-minded person when the last shot had been fired. These are small matters compared with what is final according to God. There God’s final testimony as to Christ glorified; there is last enemy to be annulled; there is the last Adam a life-giving spirit, and there is the last trumpet to be heard. After that trumpet we will never hear again a call to repentance, a call to the Lord’s supper, a call to an assembly meeting to judge evil; never again a call to a meeting for ministry, but to be always with the Lord. The Apostle adds these words. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord”. He urges us not to give up but to realise that we are in touch with finality, with what is last, and he urges the Corinthians to go on in the light and power of what is last. May we, too, continue steadfastly in the light of this.