"The Last Enemy"

Sinclair B. Ferguson wrote in The Christian Life...

"...in Scripture, death is regarded as part of the curse of sin.  Death is not what we sometimes mistakenly suggest it is --- a blessing, a release, a peaceful end. All of these may be found by the Christian in and through death, but they are in fact contrary to the true nature of death.  For death is disintegration.  It is the breaking of a union which God created.  In and of itself it is an ugly, destructive thing --- it is 'the last enemy'. How is this so?  Because death severs us from those we love.  It breaks the cords that have joined us physically, mentally, spiritually to others. . . .

While all that we have said is true and biblical, it is not, at least for the Christian, the whole truth. For the Christian does not contemplate death in itself.  He now sees it, as he sees all things, 'in Christ'.  In itself it is an experience from which to turn completely.  But in Christ the necessity of death takes on a new perspective.  That is why in the New Testament when we read of death it is usually of its defeat.  It is this which explains the triumph of the martyrs in the face of death, and the equanimity with which Christians great and small have faced it."

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15:53-57)