Bible Studies

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Paul wrote, "Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power" (1 Corinthians 15:24).However, God's purpose is to remake humanity in the likeness of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:5) through regeneration (John 3:3), not to destroy it. While the Greek word translated "destroying"is not a wrong translation, it does not (and cannot) convey the whole of God's intentions here. The KJV translates the word as shall have put down, others translate it as abolish. It is important to see that God intends to get rid of one kind of rule, authority and power, and to establish another. Thus, we can think of the whole of this action as a kind of reconfiguration. God intends to remove the spam and viruses, and reconfigure the world's operating system, which will require a reboot in order to function correctly (if I may use a more contemporary analogy).

Paul presses on, "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). The principle enemy in mind here is Satan, who inaugurated death in the world at the Fall, when he deceived Adam and Eve into understanding themselves as autonomous individuals who could think and act apart from God. While this did not threaten the character of the Trinity itself, it did damage the Trinitarian image in which humanity had been created. It damaged the bond or relationship between humanity and God. Moses described that damage as death: "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17). By destroying death God will reestablish eternal life through the work of Christ. In that Day the "all" of verse 22 will be comprehensive (complete, whole, total, all inclusive), and that aspect of God's promise will be fulfilled exactly as Paul wrote it. All under Adam's covenant headship will perish, and all under Christ's covenant headship will thrive.

There's more: "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" (1 Corinthians 15:27-28).

Paul was quoting Psalm 8:6— “you have put all things under his feet.”

Having mentioned subjection six times in two verses we can trust that subjection is the central theme. By subjection Paul means subordination. He is talking about hierarchical or representative authority. Elsewhere Paul described this authority: "the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3). Paul was talking about the Trinitarian interrelatedness of all things, and particularly of all authority on earth and in heaven. He sketched the major outlines of that authority so that we understand that it is hierarchical. God is at the top and Christ is under God's authority and "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to" Christ (Matthew 28:18).

Paul concludes by alluding to the Trinitarian character of God and, by implication, to the Trinitarian character of God's image, and how, because of that Trinitarian character, God Himself, by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit through regeneration, is the glue that binds all of the various aspects and levels of authority together. Paul is talking about human authority, but more than that. He has in mind the whole order of creation. From the stars to the critters, every element in creation has a unique and specific place of occupation and a unique and specific set of gifts (interests, talents, abilities, qualities, characteristics, etc.). Our individual placement in Christ is a function of God's sovereignty and dominion in that God "works all things according to the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11), not some things but all things.

In answer to the earlier concern about the definition or limitations of the word "all" Paul answers here that God Himself is "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Scottish Prayer For The Road

God before me
God behind me
I on Thy path, O God
Thou, O God, in my steps.
In the twistings of the road.
In the currents of the river.
Be with me by day.
Be with me by night.
Be with me by day and by night.
—Anonymous

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