For Christ must reign until He humbles all His enemies beneath His feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under His authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under His authority,” that does not include God Himself, who gave Christ His authority.) Then, when all things are under His authority, the Son will put Himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave His Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.
1 Corinthians 15:25-28
Paul says the ultimate goal is the establishment of God’s / Christ’s reign on earth again. Just as it was lost in Adam it will be restored in Christ. Christ will reign until it happens that all enemies are beneath his feet. All enemies includes EVERYTHING. In the book of Ephesians 1:9-10 Paul makes it clear. “God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure.
And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.” He has made known to us the mystery of His will. Do you know that God has made known to you the mystery of His will; what he wants. He has told you numbers of times. He works everything in conformity with the purpose of that will. How is God’s Word made known, how is God’s will made known? Because when he makes it known, he makes sure that everything fits into it. Everything!
[I am not going to unpack Ephesians now we are dealing with Corinthians. But suffice to say that in Ephesians the theme words are “will of God” and “submitted/subjected”. Paul includes husbands and wives and ends with the spirit world, the principalities and powers. (Eph 6) It is like these comments here are Paul’s embryo thoughts for what he will develop later in Ephesians.]Paul has added a little scenario to the thoughts he has had relating to the order of things in the end times by indicating more of the scope of the coming plan. Yes absolutely everything will be submitted to Him ultimately, included death and hell. But not God. God and Christ are one. He is not included.
There is one problem in this section that I need to point out. Paul says “For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under His authority.”” Yet he does not expressly quote any passage, or make it certain to what he refers. It seems he is referring to Psalm 8:6 but Paul appears to be referring to some promise or prediction regarding the Messiah, Christ. Paul’s earlier comment, “For Christ must reign until He humbles all His enemies beneath His feet.” certainly seems to point us to Psalm 8:6. The “words” “hath put all things under his feet” are found in Psalm 8:6, but are applicable to “man,” This statement from Psalm 8 is designed to show the dignity and dominion of man. Whether the psalm has any reference to the Messiah is the subject of much debate among the scholars.
In this passage in 1 Corinthians Paul is not necessarily saying that the psalm had a particular reference to the Messiah. The reference to the Messiah is implied, that it was the intention of God to subdue all things to him. It seems that Paul has been overly free in his use of the Scripture to turn the focus of one part of Scripture to make it fit another situation. This has implications which many don’t like so it is hotly debated. I could add much more especially from my own experience here but I will refrain. Paul’s focus in this passage is not on this particular thought so I will let it go. There is no point making something a focus which was not a focus in the mind of the writer at the time. Thus we will leave it here for now.
Tomorrow we will move on to some more controversy. “Being baptized for the dead”. What do you think about that? What does Paul mean in 1 Cor 15:29 by referring to people being baptized for the dead?
It doesn’t matter what you know. But what you do with what you know.
Anon
Your power to resist temptation is proportionate to your submission to God.
A R Bernard
Jesus changed my hopeless end into an endless hope.
Anon