WWUTT 1626 When All Things are Subjected to Him (1 Corinthians 15:27-28)

As Paul is laying down an argument for the resurrection of the dead here in 1st

Corinthians 15, he mentions some other deep doctrines as well, things that are beautiful to ponder, and we should, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in the book of 1st

Corinthians 15, picking up where we left off last week. So I'm going to start reading in verse 27 to verse 34 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord to the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

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 accepted who put all things in subjection to him.

And 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.

Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?

Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brothers, by the boasting in you which

I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives

I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Become righteously sober -minded and stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

I speak this to your shame. So as we come back here to the start of this section, verse 27 is a reference to Psalm 8, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet.

Let's look at the immediate context first, and then we're going to look at the more biblical context by that particular reference to Psalm 8.

So a recap as to how we finished up last week. Verse 24. Well, let me look at verse 23 first.

Each in his own order, as we're talking about the resurrection of the dead, in Christ all will be made alive.

That was the statement in verse 22. 23 says, each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, after that those who are

Christ's at his coming. So he rises from the dead, he conquers death, he will never die again, and then everybody else, even our bodies will be raised from the dead at his coming.

So he's the first, then we also, our bodies will rise from the dead at his coming.

Verse 24, then comes the end. So after Christ's coming comes the end, and I love the way that's put there in 1

Corinthians 15, there's no other age that happens in there, right? When Christ returns, that's the end.

There's not another thousand year reign of Christ, then another end. It's the end.

Christ returns and that's it. We're with him forever in his glorious kingdom, where there will be no more death, no more dying, all the former things will have passed away.

He has dried every tear from our eyes. He has made everything new. We are with Christ in glory.

There's not another thousand year reign with Christ on the earth, and then there's still death going on in the earth, and Satan is released and deceives people again, while Christ is reigning on the earth.

That is a view of the millennial reign of Christ that I just do not have. He is reigning now on his throne in heaven.

We're not waiting for a future reign of Christ on the earth. Besides, within that particular view, what's called the premillennial view, where we're waiting for some kind of a thousand year millennial kingdom that will be after Christ's second coming, that view holds that there are people who are becoming

Christians and then dying in the earth during that thousand year reign. Where do they go?

Do they go to heaven where Christ is not there? Then how is that heaven?

Because he's reigning here on the earth. So if a person dies during that thousand year period, and they go to heaven, they're going to a place where Jesus is not, and that would not be heaven.

There's just all kinds of problems that I had with that particular view of the literal thousand year earthly reign of Christ, and it was asking those kinds of questions about things that I did not see in scripture that led me away from that view, and I hold the more amillennial view of eschatology, as I've shared before.

But just consider the order of things as they're given here in 1 Corinthians 15, all with regards to the end and the resurrection of the dead.

Verse 23, each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, after that, those who are

Christ's at his coming. And that resurrection that Paul is talking about there is our bodily resurrection from the grave.

When we die, our spirit goes to be in the presence of God. As Paul has said elsewhere, to be absent from the body is to be present with the

Lord. I think that's coming up in 2 Corinthians. So when we die, our spirit is with God.

You see that even in the Old Testament, in Ecclesiastes 12 .7, when a person dies, that body that was made from the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

So you die, your spirit goes to be with God, awaiting the return of Christ when our bodies will be risen from the dead.

Philippians 3, by his power he will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.

By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. So our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like his.

1 John 3, 2, we will be made to be like him because we will see him as he is.

So then this resurrected body is like Christ's resurrected body. We will not see decay, we will not die again, it is reunited with our soul, and there we are in this perfect body with God forever in his eternal kingdom.

So Christ rises first, then we who are Christ, we will rise at his coming, and then what's the next event?

Verse 24, not a thousand year earthly millennial reign, then comes the end, when

Jesus hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and all power, and that is a work that Christ is doing even now, it comes to a conclusion at Christ's return when he has defeated all of his enemies.

Verse 25, he must reign, Christ reigns now on his throne in heaven, he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet, and the last enemy to be abolished, which is the one

Christ will abolish at his second coming, is death, the last enemy to be abolished is death.

When Christ returns, that's it, that's the end, no more death, no more dying, no more tears, all the former things will have passed away, he has made all things new.

Verse 27, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet, and this is explained when he says all things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him.

So now we've got the context here, what Paul was talking about is he's laying out this doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, we've started out by talking about the witnesses to the resurrection, the scriptures that foretold it, you have the witnesses to Christ's resurrection, and then

Paul giving the negative case, now let's say Christ doesn't rise from the dead, what does that mean for us?

Well, your faith is worthless, and you're still in your sins. Then he gives the positive affirmation for Christ's resurrection, but now

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, and then that's the context we picked up there leading up to verse 27.

So now, this reference to Psalm 8, he has put all things in subjection under his feet.

Who's the he first of all? He has put all things. That would be the father, right?

So again, going back to verse 24, then comes the end when

Jesus, the son, hands over the kingdom to the God and father, when he, the son, has abolished all rule and all authority and all power.

So now verse 27, for he, the father, has put all things in subjection under his feet.

So the statement is in verse 6 of Psalm 8. Psalm 8, 6. You make him to rule over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet. Who are we talking about here?

Well, let's jump back a little bit to verse 3. So Psalm 8, verse 3.

Sometimes my mind gets way out in front of my mouth. I gotta slow down so I can catch up with my thoughts here.

All right, Psalm 8, 3. When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, what is man that you remember him and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels and you crown him with glory and majesty.

You make him to rule over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet. Now, we would think that this is in reference to man.

And of course, that's the context there. Who is man that you remember him?

But then notice the second part of verse 4, the son of man that you care for him. What was the name that Jesus used to refer to himself?

He called himself the son of man. That's out of the book of Daniel, but you have that reference to the son of man here in Psalm 8, 4.

And so just as all things are going to be put under our feet, the apostle Paul talking in Romans 16 about how

God will soon crush Satan under your feet, right? So even the enemies of Christ will be crushed under our feet.

But how is this done? It's done through Christ, through the power of Christ that this is accomplished. So even all things in creation that are placed in subjection under our feet, it's because we reign with Christ, not because man in and of himself has some great authority.

Although God has given us dominion over creation, we do not have authority in the heavenly places until we join with Christ in glory.

So all things being placed under our feet is because all things have been placed under Christ's feet and we reign with Christ.

Okay, so there's the reference there in verse 27 to Psalm 8, 6. He has put all things in subjection under his feet.

And then Paul explains that. But when he says all things are put in subjection, all things yield to his authority, that's essentially what's being said there.

It is evident that he is accepted, referring to the father, who put all things in subjection to him.

That's just a very smart theological argument that Paul is making here.

Like the father has put all things in subjection under the son, but the father is not in subjection under the son.

So when we read in scripture that he's placed all things under his feet, it's plain, it's just evident.

It should be common sense to us that he, the father, is accepted. He's not put in subjection under the son.

He's brought everything into subjection under the son. So he's not subject to the son, but what about the son's relation to the father?

Now we have that going on in verse 28. And when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself also will be subjected to the one, the father, who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.

Now that's an eternal statement that's being made there. So the son is in subjection to the father forever.

You understand that Christ as the God -man, the incarnate son of God, Jesus who put on human flesh and dwelt among us, who took on the likeness of sinful man, lived a perfect life, died the death that we were supposed to die, but by his perfect sacrifice, by his blood that was shed for us, we who believe in Jesus, our sins are forgiven.

They have been atoned for by the precious blood of Christ. And not only have our sins been imputed to him who died in our place on the cross for us, but his righteousness is imputed to us.

And we who believe in Christ also wear his righteousness that we may walk in his goodness, growing even in sanctification as we pursue godliness and Christ likeness.

This is what we receive by faith in Jesus. Our sins imputed to him and his righteousness imputed to us so that through him we now have fellowship with God.

It is only through the God -man that this broken relationship between God and man could have been repaired.

So the God -man repaired the relationship between God and man. And that is

Jesus Christ. Jesus is eternally now the God -man. It's not that he was at one point incarnate, but now he's not anymore.

Because Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 that there is one mediator between God and man and that is the man,

Christ Jesus. So he is going to be in that eternal resurrected state forever, just as we will be.

Because again, 1 John 3, 2, we'll be made to be like him because we'll see him as he is.

Just as he's received a resurrected body, so we will also receive resurrected bodies. And Christ has that perfected body, imperishable, raised anew, just like we will.

Just like we're being promised the same thing. So he's forever now the God -man and we will forever be resurrected and with God.

God and man together, united forever. We will get to join God in glorifying him forever as God had glorified himself before the ages began.

The Son, the Father, the Holy Spirit, all glorifying in one another before we were ever made.

Jesus talks about that in his high priestly prayer in John 17. And we will join in that chorus of glory forevermore, which is just amazing to behold, to consider.

Now, this is difficult for us to wrap our minds around. We don't even really think about it most of the time, but Christ incarnation is now an eternal thing.

He will always be the God -man. He will always be that one who became God incarnate, lived, died, rose again.

And so as Christ's resurrected body will be eternal, so will ours be. Now there's a doctrine out there, tends to stir up a lot of controversy, but the name of this doctrine is the

Eternal Relations of Authority and Submission or ERAS.

This might also be described as Eternal Subordination of the Son or ESS.

It gets abbreviated both ways. Those that hold the doctrine tend to call it or tend to refer to it as ERAS.

And those who hate the doctrine or are otherwise skeptical about it will refer to it as ESS.

And they'll even go as far as calling it either heterodox, which means that it's not true.

It may not be heretical, but it's just untenable with scripture. Or they'll straight up call it heresy, which means it's a damnable doctrine.

If you hold to the Eternal Subordination of the Son, then you're believing something heretical about the relationship of the

Trinity, and then you're outside of orthodoxy, you're outside of the saving faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Now in all that I've looked into ERAS, I don't see that at all. There's no heresy going on there.

You may disagree with the doctrine, but you could not call it heretical. What we see stated here in 1

Corinthians 15, it's plain that Christ is eternally in subjection to the

Father. Now and forevermore. Was he always in subjection to the

Father? See, that's where the question would be. Was the Son in subjection even in eternity past?

And that's where the disagreement might be. Some would say that he has always been in subjection because he's the

Son. The Father is the first person of the Trinity. The Son is the second, the Holy Spirit, the third.

So therefore the Son and the Holy Spirit are subject to the Father, and that's the way that it's always been.

Does the scripture say that? We can be in disagreement there, and nobody's being a heretic simply because they believe or do not believe that the

Son has always been in submission to the Father. What we must agree on, though, based on what's stated here in 1

Corinthians 15, is that the Son will forever be in subjection to the Father. Verse 28 again.

When all things are subjected to him, when Christ has defeated all of his enemies, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one, to the

Father, who subjected all things to him, who gave all things to the Son, so that God may be all in all.

Now notice that when the Son gives the kingdom to the Father who gave it to the Son, it's at that point that God is all in all.

So if that's then the relation of the Trinity forevermore, then wouldn't you also say that the

Son was in subjection to the Father even in eternity past? Because God was all in all even then.

There's obviously some room for disagreement there that we may have some healthy, robust theological discussions, even with regards to eschatology, which

I mentioned earlier. Not everybody is in agreement on how these things are going to happen at the end.

Why is that confusing to us? Why do we have differing views of eschatology, and why is the whole concept of the

Trinity even difficult for us to understand? Because we're not God. We live in the time and place in which we are.

We see things from a very limited perspective, but a day will come when we will see all these things as they are, because again, 1

John 3, 2, we'll see Him as He is, having been made to be like Him.

So let us rejoice in God in the present, in the places in where He has put us.

We give glory to Him. We share the gospel of Christ with others, so that many others may hear and believe and turn from sin and have the promise of everlasting life.

And as we bounce different theological ideas off of one another, let us do so charitably, helping to build one another up.

See, all of these things, as we discuss them even, help us to seek after God more and come back to His Word, that we may see

Him more clearly, growing in godliness and in Christlikeness. We help one another do that day by day, and all the more as we see the day drawing near, the day of Christ.

Let's finish there, and then we'll pick up here tomorrow. Heavenly Father, we thank You for good, deep truths that You have made us aware of through Your Word.

We get to know these things when we open up the Bible and ponder them. And we have been given Your Spirit that we may understand deep spiritual truths.

As Paul had said earlier in 1 Corinthians 2, that the Spirit searches all things, even the things of God, that we may fathom these deep mysteries that You have revealed to us because we are

Your children, adopted into the family of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So grow us as Your children more and more in godliness and Christlikeness day by day, and help us to continue to look to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated on high at the right hand of the throne of God.

Bring us into Your kingdom, Lord God, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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