The Keys of Hades and of Death

 •  7 min. read  •  grade level: 8
 
IN
HIS HANDS WHO HATH ABOLISHED DEATH
AND
BROUGHT LIFE AND INCORRUPTIBILITY TO LIGHT BY THE GOSPEL.
CHRIST THE RESURRECTION.
"IF the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now IS Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by MAN came DEATH, by MAN came also the RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. For as in ADAM all DIE, even so in CHRIST shall all be MADE ALIVE.
“But every man in his own order:
(An elliptical sentence, meaning, that they at His coming shall be displayed in resurrection; according to Rev. 20:55But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:5): "This is the first resurrection;" which refers, not to the fact of the saints being raised, but to their subsequent state as the companions of Christ in His glory.)
THE END, OR ETERNAL STATE.
"THEN COMETH THE END, [the thousand years of His reign being fulfilled,] when HE [Christ] shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father [i.e. He that put all things under Him]; when HE [Christ] shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.”
DIGRESSION.
DEATH EMPLOYED NOW AS CHRIST’S SERVANT, BUT DESTROYED AT THE END.
“For HE [Christ] must reign, till HE [by means of death; see Rev. 19:11-2111And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; 18That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. 19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:11‑21); Zech. 14:16-19; Rev. 20:7-9] hath put all enemies under his feet. THE LAST ENEMY THAT SHALL BE DESTROYED BEING DEATH [HIMSELF].
For HE [Christ] hath put all things [for a season] under HIS [namely Death's] feet. But when he saith [ειπε—i.e., either the Holy Ghost is here shown as speaking through the apostle himself in this passage, or this expression may be taken as equivalent to "But when it is said,"] all things are put under him [Death], it is manifest that HE [Christ] is excepted, which [having the keys of hades and of death, see Rev. 1:18,] did put all things under him.”
THE END, OR EVERLASTING STATE, RESUMED.
"And when all things shall be subdued unto HIM [Christ], then shall the Son also himself [having delivered up the kingdom] be subject unto him [the Father] that put all things under him, THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL.”
N.B.—"CHRIST THE FIRSTFRUITS" is surely the antecedent to the pronoun HE, wherever we here find it printed in capitals. If this passage be carefully examined, we venture to say that it will be found that by no rule of construction can THE FATHER (according to the ordinary thought) be taken as the antecedent to the FIFTH HE, where it is said, "For he hath put all things under his feet." That this latter passage refers to the Son, not to the Father-being no quotation, as is commonly thought, from Psa. 8:66Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalm 8:6)— we seek to show in the following note.
** When Christ rose again from the dead, He having through death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:1414Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14)), THE KEYS OF HADES AND OF DEATH WERE WRESTED FROM THE ENEMY'S HANDS, AND GIVEN TO HIM. (Rev. 1:1818I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18).) Death therefore is now the servant of Christ; who, as here stated, "HATH PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET." That He has done so is clear: because, if He, having life in Himself, can abolish death at any moment He pleases, and yet for the present refuses to do so; thereby leaving death to desolate all things on earth; He is to be viewed virtually, though negatively it is true, as having put all under the enemy's feet. And what, we ask, is His object in this? It is that He may prove Himself in the end to be the mighty Destroyer of death; and that, as shown in the above passage, in two different ways, and DI two different periods: FIRST, when He raises and changes His saints (1 Cor. 15:5151Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (1 Corinthians 15:51); 1 Thess. 4:16,1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17));
SECONDLY, when, after having, by means of death, avenged Himself on His enemies (Rev. 20:7-97And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (Revelation 20:7‑9)), He raises the wicked (Rev. 20:1313And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. (Revelation 20:13)), that is, in the first place, at the resurrection of life, and next at the resurrection of judgment; a thousand years intervening between them (John 5:2525Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25)): one being an act of grace, the other of power, on His part. As to the latter, observe, this is the precursor to death in another and a more terrible form; namely "the second death," the doom of the wicked in the lake of fire forever. (Rev. 20:12-1512And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:12‑15).)
The reader, we believe, will allow the above statement to be abstractedly true: but whether it is the interpretation of the passage, is the question. All that we plead for is, a careful impartial examination of the latter, in order to ascertain what it really means. We, for our part, do not believe a verbal coincidence between two texts, as in the case of Psa. 8:66Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalm 8:6) and 1 Cor. 15:2727For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. (1 Corinthians 15:27), to be of itself alone a sufficient warrant for the interpretation of any passage whatever. We maintain that the whole scope thereof ought to be duly considered before we come to any conclusion upon it.
As to the expression "put all things under his feet," this surely is capable of being applied in two ways, and to different persons; to the Father and the Son, as in Psa. 8:66Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalm 8:6); and also to the Son and death, as above in 1 Cor. 15:2727For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. (1 Corinthians 15:27). In Rom. 5:2121That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21) we find an analogous case. There we read of sin reigning on the one hand; of grace, the direct contrast thereto, reigning on the other; the verb REIGN being used in altogether two different connections. The ordinary view of the passage, if we adopt it, we confess, leaves us under the painful impression that the following statement is merely a truism: "But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him." Who, we ask, needs to be told that the Father is not to take a lower place than the Son? Who expects that under any circumstances God will identify Himself with His own creation—with that which is to be put under Christ's feet—in the way in which the ordinary view of this passage supposes? Surely the fact of the Son of man receiving the kingdom at the hand of the Father, from whom all power emanates, is so utterly inconsistent with the idea of the latter becoming subordinate to the former, that we need not be reminded that such a thing never will be. Whereas, as a plea for our view of the passage, we maintain that Satan having in some cases taken advantage of the truth of Christ's perfect humanity in order to bring in false doctrine as to His person, we do need to be reminded that though He is the Son of man in the full sense of the term, He ever was and ever will be entirely free from all taint of mortality; that HE is not to be put under the feet of the last enemy, Death. The Lord died, it is true; but it was in grace, to make atonement for sin. He laid down His life of Himself; and in the same way He took it again (John 10:17,1817Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:17‑18)); each of these being an act of omnipotence, which He, the God-Man, alone could perform. And not only so; but, having risen again from the dead, never again to be made sin for His people; and having, as we have seen, the keys of hades and of death; He, the mighty conqueror of him who once had the power of death, never can die: He is "alive for evermore." (Rev. 1:1818I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18).)