The Amazing Beauty of Subjection - 1 Corinthians 15:27-28
Blog Series: Since Jesus Rose from the Dead
Devotional Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15
Week 5
The Amazing Beauty of Subjection - 1 Corinthians 15:27-28
27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
At the end of our last devotional, we studied the words “then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” Today, we will be considering again the thought of Messiah Jesus handing the kingdom to the Father. The word that best summarizes Paul’s argument at this point is “subjection.”
History is full of examples of great generals who won fame and glory on the battlefield. At the end of his last and greatest conflict, the general would return to the cheering and adulation of the multitude in his native country but would still have to appear before the throne of the king or the desk of the president to make his report. The King or President would then seemingly take credit for the victory of the general in his proclamations. The general would accept that (at least publicly) because he was subject to the King or the President; he was under the ruler or leader who was responsible for the activities of many generals in the greater prosecution of the war.
Paul begins this section with a quotation from Psalm 8:6, “You have made him to rule over the works of your hands, you have put all things under His feet.” In this passage, David is marveling over the fact that God not only pays attention to unworthy humans, but in the beginning, He put all things under the rule of “the son of man.” The first Adam was, while in the garden, the ruler over all things. He lost that exalted position because of the Fall, when, knowing that God had forbidden it, he took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from Even. But Jesus Christ, “the second Adam” (see, in a coming devotional,1 Corinthians 15:45), who referred to Himself as “the son of man,” in the will of the Father has had all things put under His feet (see Psalm 2:7-8, and Psalm 110:1). All creation is moving toward the subjection of everything to the Son.
For the sake of God’s working out His perfect plan in creation, the Son has voluntarily subjected Himself to the Father. So, as Paul continues, he states logically that even though all things are put under subjection to the Son, the Father is not put under subjection to Him. As a result, when all things are subjected, put under the sovereign control of, the Son, He will present them and Himself to the Father.
The extraordinary phrase that ends this portion of 1 Corinthians 15, verse 28, “so that God may be all in all,” is found four times in Paul’s letters. The first is in an explanation of the variety of the gifts of God, who, “empowers them all in everyone.” In Ephesians 1:23, the Church is described as His (Christ’s) Body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.” The final passage is Colossians 3:11, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Literally, this last phrase is “but the all and in all (is) Christ.”
So whether describing the empowering of all gifts to everyone who receives; the fullness of the Body of Christ with Him in all and every part; the absence of distinctions in the Body of Christ in which He is everything in everyone; or, as in our passage, the point at which in all things and everything God will be supreme.
This is more than just the presence of God to all things, or His being the ultimate sovereign. These things have always been true: “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all,” (Ephesians 4:6). But the world has groaned under the bondage of sin; a corruption that had to be completely removed. At the future point described in 1 Corinthians 15:28, there will be nothing in all creation that will not be fully and completely under His control. No sin, no enemies, no death, and no impurity will be found. God will dwell with and among everything and everyone, and all will willingly and joyfully be subjected to Him.
John describes this beautifully in the 21st chapter of the Book of the Revelation, verses 3 and 4: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
How can we not eagerly long for the day when every bit of sin and ungodliness is gone, and our Triune God is recognized, worshipped, honored and enjoyed by every living creature?
Week 5
The Amazing Beauty of Subjection - 1 Corinthians 15:27-28
27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
At the end of our last devotional, we studied the words “then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” Today, we will be considering again the thought of Messiah Jesus handing the kingdom to the Father. The word that best summarizes Paul’s argument at this point is “subjection.”
History is full of examples of great generals who won fame and glory on the battlefield. At the end of his last and greatest conflict, the general would return to the cheering and adulation of the multitude in his native country but would still have to appear before the throne of the king or the desk of the president to make his report. The King or President would then seemingly take credit for the victory of the general in his proclamations. The general would accept that (at least publicly) because he was subject to the King or the President; he was under the ruler or leader who was responsible for the activities of many generals in the greater prosecution of the war.
Paul begins this section with a quotation from Psalm 8:6, “You have made him to rule over the works of your hands, you have put all things under His feet.” In this passage, David is marveling over the fact that God not only pays attention to unworthy humans, but in the beginning, He put all things under the rule of “the son of man.” The first Adam was, while in the garden, the ruler over all things. He lost that exalted position because of the Fall, when, knowing that God had forbidden it, he took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from Even. But Jesus Christ, “the second Adam” (see, in a coming devotional,1 Corinthians 15:45), who referred to Himself as “the son of man,” in the will of the Father has had all things put under His feet (see Psalm 2:7-8, and Psalm 110:1). All creation is moving toward the subjection of everything to the Son.
For the sake of God’s working out His perfect plan in creation, the Son has voluntarily subjected Himself to the Father. So, as Paul continues, he states logically that even though all things are put under subjection to the Son, the Father is not put under subjection to Him. As a result, when all things are subjected, put under the sovereign control of, the Son, He will present them and Himself to the Father.
The extraordinary phrase that ends this portion of 1 Corinthians 15, verse 28, “so that God may be all in all,” is found four times in Paul’s letters. The first is in an explanation of the variety of the gifts of God, who, “empowers them all in everyone.” In Ephesians 1:23, the Church is described as His (Christ’s) Body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.” The final passage is Colossians 3:11, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Literally, this last phrase is “but the all and in all (is) Christ.”
So whether describing the empowering of all gifts to everyone who receives; the fullness of the Body of Christ with Him in all and every part; the absence of distinctions in the Body of Christ in which He is everything in everyone; or, as in our passage, the point at which in all things and everything God will be supreme.
This is more than just the presence of God to all things, or His being the ultimate sovereign. These things have always been true: “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all,” (Ephesians 4:6). But the world has groaned under the bondage of sin; a corruption that had to be completely removed. At the future point described in 1 Corinthians 15:28, there will be nothing in all creation that will not be fully and completely under His control. No sin, no enemies, no death, and no impurity will be found. God will dwell with and among everything and everyone, and all will willingly and joyfully be subjected to Him.
John describes this beautifully in the 21st chapter of the Book of the Revelation, verses 3 and 4: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
How can we not eagerly long for the day when every bit of sin and ungodliness is gone, and our Triune God is recognized, worshipped, honored and enjoyed by every living creature?
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