01.04. The Order Of The Resurrection
Chapter 4 - The Order Of The Resurrection "But every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming.
"Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father" (1 Corinthians 15:23-24). The word translated "order" in verse twenty-three (1 Corinthians 15:23) suggests a military figure, and might be rendered by "cohort " or "rank."
You have some time stood by the side of a broad boulevard watching a procession pass. A battalion has gone by, and there has followed an interval or space. Then a second battalion has come into view and another interval or space; and then a third, and so on to the end. This is the picture set before us in this verse. The first division of the resurrection host has already appeared. It consisted of the Person of Jesus Christ who has "passed into the heavens." There has been an interval of 2,000 years, and how much longer it may be no one can prophesy. But at its close the second division will appear. It will consist of them that are His, i. e., who are united unto Him by faith, and it will come into view when He Himself shall "appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28).
"Then cometh the end." That is, after another interval, and, as some believe, after the period covered by the millennial reign, the third and last division shall appear. It will consist of "the rest of the dead" (Revelation 20:5), i. e., all, except those who will have been raised and glorified with Christ.
"The end" is not specially considered in this chapter, which confines its attention chiefly to the resurrection of the saints at the coming of Christ and the glory that shall follow. And yet it tells us that at "the end" Christ "shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father." All through His millennial reign when His Church is reigning with Him, He will be putting " down all rule, and all authority and power," i. e., all such rule, authority and power as is opposed to Him and to His God and Father, Whom, as Mediatorial King, He represents. The last enemy thus to be put down is death, which, as "the wages of sin" (Romans 6:23), must exist as long as sin exists. It is only when sin is ended that what we know as death, the separation of soul and body, the dissolution of the complex nature of man into its constituent elements, shall henceforth cease to be.
"The restoration of God’s Kingdom over the moral and spiritual part of man was the object of Christ’s mission on earth; for this He is called ’the door,’ and ’the way,’ because by Him are we brought nigh to God. Thus in the end each believer will have immediate and individual relations not only with the Man Christ Jesus, but with the Whole of the Blessed Trinity."
{1} Cambridge Bible,