A Larger Hope?, Volume 2: Universal Salvation from the Reformation to the Nineteenth Century

by Ilaria Ramelli

The second death, Chauncy argues, is as much an enemy to humanity as the first—both result from sin and both thwart the human hope of eternal life with God. Indeed, the second death is a better candidate for “the last enemy” that needs defeating (15:26), for the first death is over and done with by judgment day, while the second death only begins at that point. The Pauline logic that makes death an enemy requiring defeat, arguably makes the second death even more of an enemy that must be vanquished. Furthermore, in a similar theological extension of Paul’s logic, Chauncy argues that the kind of resurrection life Paul speaks of in the chapter is not a bare return to life, but an immortal, imperishable, glorious, spiritual life that comes through union with Christ. It is this life that constitutes the swallowing up of death in victory and until all share in it, death has not been fully vanquished. This, thinks Chauncy, is where Paul’s ideas inexorably lead. Even if Paul did not think through the implications of his teachings here, and Chauncy’s comments “go beyond” what Paul says, perhaps we may still think his insights valid.