“All Things in Subjection to God”1 Cor. 15.27-34
For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
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Christ is the first-fruits of the dead. He was the first to rise from the dead, but is not the last who will rise. Eventually all the dead will be raised, both the righteous believer and the wicked unbeliever (See Jn. 5.28-29). Paul’s focus is on the hope of believers and the glory of the resurrection body. When Jesus comes again death itself will die and then the dead will rise, never to die again. Until the time of the End Jesus is reigning in heaven with the Father and waiting for the consummation of His kingdom.
But there were some in Corinth who did not believe in the resurrection. Paul is anticipating their objections and questions. A possible objection/question might have been something like, “if Christ has been raised then why not the rest of the dead?” Paul’s answer: “At the end death will be destroyed and the rest of the dead will be raised.” Another possible question/objection: “But how could death be destroyed?” Paul’s answer: “All things have been made subject to Christ and He will destroy death.”
At this point in his argument, Paul inserts a kind of parenthetical explanation or clarification: all things put under Christ does not mean God is subject to Christ. Actually, Christ is subject to the Father. Everything that is put under the Son will therefore be under the Father because the Son is under the Father. Jesus is not in competition with God but is working in total unity and harmony with God and His purpose.
But why is this clarification needed here? This text is an example of the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity. Clearly the Holy Spirit, who was inspiring Paul to write, thought this was an important clarification to make between God the Father and God the Son. There needs to be a distinction made between the members of the Godhead.
Each member is a distinct personality and should be recognized and distinguished as they are revealed in Scripture. The members of the Godhead have different roles in our redemption, yet they remain perfectly united in purpose. The three are one.
We are being drawn into this same unity, love, and purpose. This is what Jesus prayed concerning the unity of the Church (See John 17.21-23). As we are being drawn into this Divine Fellowship we will suddenly find that we also have fellowship with one another. All other institutional, man-made attempts at Church unity must fail. At the center of all things is a loving relationship between the Godhead and we are being drawn into that Divine fellowship, like the joining of hands in a great, cosmic, eternal dance (C.S. Lewis). This is eternal life (John 17.3).
All of Creation, including mankind, was originally in perfect unity and harmony with God. (This is the idea behind the Hebrew word shalom or peace. Peace is being in harmony with God.) But sin was like a discordant note in a symphony. Now the world is like a cacophony of competing notes and voices. In fact, there is a note of rebellion and hostility in the world toward God. The world can see the symptoms of this disunity and they sometimes try to fix it, always unsuccessfully. The Tower of Babel is a memorial to all of man’s attempts at unity apart from God (Gen. 11). God will always curse such efforts, including all the modern attempts to rebuild the Tower of Babel.
But God has His own plan to restore unity and harmony to all things. This plan is not being kept a secret but has been revealed by God in the Gospel of Christ. The Plan of God is not finished yet and we must get on board before the end comes. Otherwise we will be excluded from God’s purpose for all things.
God’s Purpose for All Things
A Crucial Concept
The key word that is oft-repeated in the text is “subjection.” That’s not a strange concept to us. To be in subjection means to be under authority, to be in submission, and to serve someone else’s agenda. Actually, everyone is in subjection to something. At our jobs we have a supervisor. As members of a society we must submit to its laws. Subjection can be brought about either by a voluntary surrender or by an act of brute force. Those who choose to rebel may find themselves forcibly put down in submission.
For this reason the idea of being in subjection is usually viewed negatively by our anti-authoritarian culture. Most people in Western culture look with suspicion at authority and exalt the freedom and rights of the individual, at least to a certain point. Only radicals would envision a true anarchy in which everyone gets to do anything they want.
A voluntary submission to a benevolent authority is a positive thing. Scripture teaches this kind of submission. The Church is in submission to Christ, as her Head, as the wife is to be to her husband (Eph. 5.22-24). The one who is in authority does not have to be cruel and oppressive but can be loving, kind, and benevolent. Parents are in authority over their children but also should care for them, even when discipline is being applied. An employer must have authority over employees, but should also provide for their well-being. Of course, this is the ideal. In our fallen world authority is often abused because men and women are naturally selfish and greedy. But Earthly authorities do not rule with impunity.
There are situations in the world where people must be made to submit. When evil men, such as criminals or corrupt States, are forced into subjection we look at this as the restoration of peace and order. It is a GOOD thing! But obviously, might does not make right. An authority is good when it rules for the good of those under its care and it is evil when it exploits for its own selfish ends.
Now the authority of God is always good and benevolent. But it is necessary for us to submit to God’s authority. We can’t rebel against God and expect anything good to result. That is the enduring lesson of Eden and the Fall of Man. God cannot tolerate rebellion in His world because there can be no challenge to His authority as God. If a rebellion against God could succeed then God would not be God. We already know of a rebellion in Heaven itself that was unsuccessful. Satan and his angels fell and await final judgment without any opportunity for redemption. And these Powers have infected the world with their rebellion.
We should never assume that just because a rebellion against God is not immediately crushed that this means it is successful or that God is tolerant of evil. In a poem called “Retribution” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:
“Though the mills of God grind slowly;
Yet they grind exceedingly small;
Though with patience He stands waiting,
With exactness grinds He all.”
The delay in God’s retribution is God’s patience in which He may be offering mercy and reconciliation. In our case “He wants none to perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3.9). For this reason we should not despise His kindness and mercy, which brings us to repentance, nor should we presume upon His patience (Rom. 2.4).
God’s Authority is Absolute
There has never been a time when God’s sovereignty has ever been in question or under a serious threat. God has always ruled and always will. Certain men in Scripture have seen visions of God in heaven and in these visions God is always seen on His throne (See Isa. 6.1; Ez. 1.26; Dan. 7.9; Rev. 4.2). The throne of God has never been vacant! Nothing is out of control.
This is a great source of comfort for believers. Heaven is the control room for the earth. It is like the cockpit of an airliner or the bridge of a ship. God is steering the course of human history for His own purpose. If God were not on His throne, not only would everything spin out of control and revert back into the primordial chaos and darkness, but God would not be God. The throne of God is therefore the central fact of all Biblical revelation and we build our lives upon this reality. To not do so is to live a life filled with uncertainty and anxiety.
At the center of all reality is the throne of God. God is the unchanging foundation upon which everything else is built. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17.28). When we lose sight of this reality, or choose to ignore God, everything else becomes unclear and uncertain. The world has often chosen to ignore the knowledge of God and has always paid the consequences for this deliberate act of defiance (See Rom. 1.18-32). We are beginning to see these consequences in our own society.
The Kingdom of God has come and is coming
So when the Bible says the Kingdom of God has “come” this does not imply there was ever a time when God did not rule. Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God had come near (Matt. 3.2; 4.17). Jesus taught His disciples to pray for the Kingdom to come (Matt. 6.10).
But if God has always ruled, what does it mean for the Kingdom to “come?”
•No one should think that he/she is AUTOMATICALLY a part of God’s Kingdom by virtue of nationality, racial heritage, religion, or moral accomplishment. We must all ENTER the Kingdom, which implies we were not in it already. This is meant to undercut human pride and all forms of self-righteousness.
•The Kingdom coming implies that there are personalities who are in rebellion against God. God is publicly serving notice to these personalities that their rebellion will not be tolerated. This is a warning to sinners. We must repent!
•On the other hand, there is also a gracious offer from God. The preaching of the Kingdom is Gospel (See Matt. 4.23). God’s intention toward us is to bless, not to curse or condemn.
•The announcement of the Kingdom coming means that there is a Divine initiative. God is doing something in our midst right now and we need to pay attention to it!
•The fact that the Kingdom is coming means that there is more to come than what we have seen to this point, which gives us hope for the future.
God’s purpose does not depend on man’s timing and we are not going to know when these things will be fulfilled (Acts 1.7). Jesus told a whole series of parables about the nature of the Kingdom of God, mostly to people who were not really interested in it but wanted to have their own kingdom. For this reason, the truth was hidden from them in parables, but the meaning was revealed to the disciples.
So Jesus taught the following principles about the coming of the Kingdom:
Mostly due to competing interests, not everyone who hears the message of the Kingdom coming will actually enter it (Matt. 13.1-8; 18-23).
The Kingdom will be a mixture of good and evil until the end when there will be a permanent separation. It is too early to make this separation ourselves because the harvest is not yet ripe (Matt. 13.24-30; 36-43; 47-50).
The Kingdom starts out small and seems insignificant but it will actually be large in the end and will have a powerful and growing influence in the world (Matt. 13.31-33).
Entering the Kingdom will require some kind of personal cost in this world and only those willing to pay the price will have it (Matt. 13.44-45).
When the end comes we will lose our opportunity to enter the Kingdom (Matt. 24-25). But the end will seem long in coming and we don’t know when it will be. So we must be ready!
Everything Brought Together under God’s Rule
The ultimate goal or purpose of God is to bring everything together under His rule. This purpose of God is a mystery that has been made known to us in the Gospel. In another epistle Paul states this purpose as “the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:9-10). It is a mystery made known only through revelation not through human wisdom (1 Cor. 1.21; 2.7). This is so no one can boast. Instead we have to submit to the Gospel.
The mystery of God’s purpose has been made known so that we can be a part of it and get ready for the end when the fullness of His Kingdom comes. If we are not ready for it we will be excluded from it.
Everything will be summed up with God being “all in all.” There is no possibility that this will not happen. But what does it mean for God to be “all in all?” There is nothing currently missing in God Himself. God does not change and there is nothing that can be added to His essential character or person. This phrase “all in all” has to do with God’s supremacy and authority being publically revealed and acknowledged by other personalities.
This will happen on the Day of Judgment when everything will be revealed and God will be justified, or shown to be right, in all things that He has ever said or done. Everyone will have to acknowledge that God is God. And this does not mean that every personality will be blessed by this revelation of God’s glory. For many this will be the ultimate horror. Imagine having to face the very God whom you have fought against and ignored your entire life! But every person is on a collision course with this God.
All those who have submitted themselves to God and who have been seeking His glory will be rewarded and shown to be in the right. When God is glorified the saints are also glorified because His glory is what they were seeking all along (Rom. 2.6-7). Everything is for His glory. He is the central theme of life and the reason for all things. Eventually this will be made known in a way that will either bring inexpressible joy or unimaginable shame to every person who has ever lived.
How God is Accomplishing His Purpose
The Son is Subject to the Father
Remember that the idea Paul wants to clarify in the text is that the Son is working in complete harmony with the Father. There is a single objective which the Father and the Son are working together to achieve. But to be even more precise, the Son is working for the Father in a submissive role. Jesus is God’s Executive. An organization needs someone to make things happen and carry out the objectives of the organization. So there is usually a leader appointed to make sure things get done. In government this may be a president or prime minister. In business it is the chief executive officer. In the Kingdom of God Jesus has been appointed by God the Father as the Executive officer. This is actually the meaning behind the title “Christ.” This literally means “anointed one” and refers to someone who is chosen for a special purpose, usually that of a king.
In modern vernacular we would say that Jesus is the chosen agent of God. God has given Christ authority, actually all authority in heaven and on earth, in order to accomplish a certain agenda or objective that has already been determined by God. So Jesus does not just work on His own doing His own thing like some kind of maverick. Jesus is completely devoted to God’s agenda and to accomplishing His Father’s will.
The idea that God has an objective and is actually working to accomplish something may be a new thought to many people today. People tend to think of God as an inactive watcher of men’s affairs as if God has nothing else to do but exist. The very idea of God SITTING on a throne up in heaven seems to encourage this idea of an inactive Deity. But this is far from the truth. God has always been active since the creation of the world. Jesus is also working, doing what He sees His Father doing (See John 5.17, 19-20). When Jesus came into the world as a man He humbled Himself and came as a servant (See Phil. 2.5-8). But Jesus was not our servant, He was the servant of God. Jesus came to demonstrate that submission to the will of God is absolutely essential. God exalted Jesus because of His submission. When we humble ourselves before God He will exalt us too.
Even when the end comes Christ will still be subject to the Father. This is a permanent arrangement so that He can be our Redeemer. Jesus will never cease to be a glorified man or return to His former, pre-incarnate state. There is a beautiful hymn called “Ivory Palaces” written by Henry Barraclough that attempts to capture the great distance Christ had to come to be our Savior:
“Out of the ivory palaces,
Into a world of woe,
Only His great eternal love
Made my Savior go.”
He had to leave the “ivory palaces” of heaven and come to earth in order to save us, which was the will of His Father. The submission of the Son was necessary to execute the will of God on earth. By putting Himself under God, Christ was then able to bring everything else under God. This submission of the Son to the Father in no way implies inferiority, as if Christ is a created being like us, or a lesser deity. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form (Col. 1.19; 2.9). The Word was with God and was God, but He then became flesh in order to dwell with us (John 1.1, 14).
The submission of the Son to the Father had to be worked out in experience and demonstrated in the earth. The Son had to submit to the Father as a human being because it was man who had sinned and who was going to be redeemed (See Heb. 2.5-18). So a body was prepared for Him in which He could come into the world to do the will of God (See Psalm 40.6-8; Heb. 10.5-7).
He had to suffer being tempted while a man and actually pass that test. Unlike the first Adam, the second Adam actually did the will of God and this is what has qualified Him to be our Redeemer (See Heb. 5.7-10). We should not think that the Son’s submission to the Father had to be coerced. The Son’s submission to the Father was voluntary. While God can certainly make us submit to Him, a coerced humiliation does not lead to a blessing. Eventually every knee will have to bow and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord (Phil. 2.10-11), but that does not mean that all who bow on that day will be saved. We must voluntarily submit to the Lordship of Christ.
Christ’s voluntary submission to the Father was seen in His prayer in Gethsemane: “Not my will, but yours be done” (Matt. 26.39). This submission to the will of God involved Christ having to drink the bitter cup of God’s wrath while bearing our sins on the Cross. Christ’s submission to God involved suffering. In fact, this suffering had to be experienced by Jesus BEFORE He could be exalted. The Cross had to come before the Crown.
Having submitted to the death of the Cross, Christ has effectively reconciled all things to God the Father (2 Cor. 5.17-21; Col. 1.18-20). He has satisfied the righteousness of God and completely paid for sin. Obviously, this reconciliation must be applied or appropriated by us. We must be reconciled through Christ and be at peace with God. Otherwise we will still be enemies of God. But when we believe in Jesus we are in harmony with God and His purpose!
God has Made Everything Subject to His Son
Having done the will of God on earth, Jesus has been exalted and received into Heaven. In Heaven He now shares the Throne of God and is ruling the world, administering the Kingdom of God until the time of the end (Rev. 5.5-7; Dan. 7.13-14). God has put the Kingdom into the capable hands of His Son. Jesus will accomplish everything the Father gave Him to do. And if Christ is trusted by the Father, there should be nothing for which we cannot trust Christ!
Jesus has been made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2.36). He is Lord even though there are people who don’t know it, and He is Lord even over those who refuse to acknowledge Him. When He appears this fact will be seen by all, including His enemies. It is better to bow the knee to Him now! The enemies of Christ cannot prosper. God simply laughs at all the attempts of the world to fight against Him and His enthroned King (Psalm 2). God will eventually destroy everyone who does not submit to Christ (2 Thess. 1.7-9).
We should never envy the temporary prosperity and apparent success of the wicked because their feet are indeed set in slippery places (Psa. 73.18-19). Human history will end before the Throne of God and everyone will be gathered there for judgement (Rev. 20.11-15). We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give an account of our deeds in this world (2 Cor. 5.10). Will you be ready for that Day?
Before that final day there is a day of salvation (2 Cor. 6.2). God has given some time for us to repent and prepare for the end (2 Pet. 3.9). It is God’s desire that people repent and be saved (1 Tim. 2.4). God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18.23; 33.11). Neither should we. The Church is to announce the Gospel of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5.19-20). God has extended an offer of peace to a rebellious world. But this offer will not last forever. The wrath of God is coming on this present, evil world. The idea that God will not really judge the world and condemn those in rebellion against Him is an idol created by men (Acts 17.30-31).
As We Await the End of God’s Purpose
We Suffer for Christ in an Evil Age
Paul is using himself as an example here of what it means to live in this present, evil Age with the hope of the resurrection of the dead. This present Age is an evil Age because God has not yet put down all the enemies of Christ. Christ is reigning now, in Heaven, in the midst of His enemies, until the End comes when these enemies will be made His footstool and completely destroyed (See Psalm 110.1-2).
Until this happens Christians should expect the hatred of this present, evil Age, which also hates God and His Christ (See Psalm 2; Acts 4.23-31; Jn. 15.18-25). While He was in the world Jesus suffered being rejected by His own people and He left us an example. If we follow Him there are some sufferings reserved for us (Col. 1.24). The world can’t get at Jesus now since He is in Heaven, so they persecute the followers of Jesus. If we belonged to this present Age, it would love us and we would not suffer. But this is not our Age. We belong to another Age. If the Church is not suffering then it has compromised with the world.
The final part of this text has confused many people. Paul is not referring here to literal water baptism for people who have physically died. (The Mormons believe you can actually be baptized for people who have died.) That is to miss the point of the figurative language of the text. Paul was someone who had experience suffering for Jesus. He had personally died with Christ to this present, evil world (Gal. 6.14). He had personally, like the Lord, experience a baptism of suffering for Christ (Mk. 10.38; Lk. 12.50; Phil. 3.10). Paul taught and lived out the truth that suffering with and for Christ precedes enjoying the glory of the resurrection of the dead. We must first die with Christ, suffer with Him in this world, and THEN be raised in conformity to His glorious resurrection (See Rom. 6.1-5). If we have not died with Christ to the world, and if we are not suffering with Him, then we do not have the hope of sharing in His resurrection glory. It is God’s purpose to conform us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8.28-31), which includes suffering like Christ in this world. Since he was already dead to the world, Paul did not avoid suffering for Christ (See 2 Cor. 11.23-27).
But if there were no hope of the resurrection of the dead, then Paul would not have had any reason to lose his life in this world. If this world and this life is all there is, then it would make no sense to give it up. But it was his belief in the resurrection of the dead that made Paul willing to continue to die to the world each and every day. Likewise, the believer must be willing to die to the world in hope of a better life at the resurrection of the dead (Heb. 11.35). This may even mean literally giving up our lives in martyrdom. We cannot keep this life anyway. What would we gain if we had the whole world, yet we lost the one part of us that will outlive the world (Matt. 16.26)? It is certainly true that Christians are giving up what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot lose.
We Deny Sinful Desires and Associations
If there is no hope of the Resurrection of the dead, then we would be better off becoming hedonists, or people who just live for pleasure. Just enjoy the life you have while it lasts! Why suffer at all for Christ if this life is all there is? But this life is not all there is. And one implication of the resurrection of the dead is the reality of the Day of Judgment when we will give an account of our lives to God (Rev. 20.11-15). Our own generation lives as if there is no resurrection, as if this life is all there is, and as if there is no accountability to God. Anyone who dives into sin and worldliness is either ignorant of God or has rejected the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Anyone who makes friends with this world, which is in rebellion against God, is making himself an enemy of God (James 4.4).
Some of the Corinthians had rejected the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and had fallen into sin and worldliness. Rejecting the truth will eventually translate into sinful and foolish living. We really do live what we believe. Many people fail to make these critical connections, never stopping to examine what they actually believe and the implications of those beliefs. Being ignorant of God and the truth of the Gospel is always a liability. This is because we do not live in a vacuum.
We must avoid close communion or fellowship with those who have rejected the truth and have aligned themselves with this world. (I say close fellowship because we cannot literally avoid all contact with worldly people or we would have to either leave the world altogether and live on another planet or physically separate ourselves from society. Neither of these are real options for the believer.) There are people who teach doctrines of demons (1 Tim. 4.1). Corrupt religious people must especially be avoided because they are all the more dangerous, often coming disguised (2 Cor. 11.14).
Some reject sound doctrine because they want to justify sin using the grace of God as a license (Rom. 6.1; Rev. 2.14-15, 20). Those who dive into sin and worldliness are like men who get drunk. The world has a stupefying effect on our minds. Christians are to be sober, or clear-headed, in this world (Rom. 13.11-14). If we are thinking clearly, the knowledge of God and our accountability to Him should keep us far away from the world and from sin. It is our fear of God that should cause us to perfect holiness (2 Cor. 7.1).
The world poses a real danger to the believer. We are in enemy territory. There are certain doctrines that teach some kind of automatic or unconditional security for the believer which are dangerously misleading and disarming. We must remember that we are fighting against spiritual Powers of Darkness (Eph. 6.10-13) which are much more powerful than we are and certainly much wiser. If we don’t put on the spiritual armor that the Lord provides we will not be safe in this world. The world is not friendly, morally neutral, or lovingly tolerant. It is always pressuring us to conform to its pattern of rebellion against God (Rom. 12.1-2). The world wants to press us into its mold so we come out looking like everyone else who is ignorant of God. Motivating this pressure from the world is Satan, who is the god of this world, and who wants us to serve him instead of God (2 Cor. 4.4). We must be continually resisting the Devil and the pressure from the world. Living in this world is like swimming upstream, against the current.
We disconnect from the world in our hearts and minds, through getting new affections and desires, not through physical separation (1 John 2.15-17). (Of course there are people and places we should literally avoid, but we still can’t just leave the world.) But the world will continue to woo us, like a seductive ex-lover. The world does have some lingering attraction for our Flesh. We can still be tempted by the world. But when we are tempted we must remember that this world is cursed and is temporal. God has promised us eternal life, which is something the world can never give.
