“That God May Be All in All”: 1 Corinthians 15:20–28 – Part 5

Click here for part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

There are three resurrections in 1 Corinthians 15:20–28: Christ, those at His coming, and unbelievers. These resurrections take place one after the other in the future, separated by gaps of time. In the last post, we also qualified the coming of Christ as a complex event as it is variously described in the New Testament.

For the third and final resurrection (unbelievers), 1 Cor 15:24b–28a identifies this resurrection as taking place alongside two other events that end the ages (15:24b–28a).

First, unbelievers are resurrected from the dead “when” Christ “delivers the kingdom to God the Father” (1 Cor 15:24). If this passage allows us to say anything of the timing of the kingdom of Christ, it certainly speaks to its end. What is not mentioned is its beginning. Nonetheless, we do know that this kingdom is the mediatorial kingdom, a kingdom in which the Father rules through a mediator (Christ). This is not the universal kingdom over which the Father always has been, is, and will be King. Being yet future, this kingdom’s beginning is at the final descent of Christ when He takes His throne here on earth (Matt 25:31; Rev 3:21). Though He initially removes His enemies when He comes, as the kingdom progresses, enemies arise. Where do they come from?

In answering that question, those who believe and survive during the Tribulation enter Christ’s kingdom in their natural bodies. These believers bear children (cf. Isa 65:20), multiplication continues, and many of those born during the kingdom never believe but follow Satan after his release from the abyss (Rev 20:7–8). Then, finally, Christ will rid the earth of His enemies once and for all (Rev 20:9–10). Then comes the resurrection of unbelievers at “the end” (1 Cor 15:24a; cf. Rev 20:11–15) and the end of “the kingdom” of Christ (1 Cor 15:24b).

Having said this, we have begun to explain the next of our two events, the destruction of God’s enemies. The delivery of the kingdom comes only “after” Christ’s “destroying every rule and every authority and power” (1 Cor 15:24). If “death” is the last of these “enemies” to be destroyed, then a “rule, authority, and power” seems to include and anything else that stands as an enemy of God and Christ (1 Cor 15:24–25).

This destruction will take place because Ps 110:1 promises that it will—“He must reign until he [Christ] has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor 15:25). “The last enemy to be destroyed is death,” and death must indeed be one of the enemies destroyed because, as Ps 8:6 promises, “God” at this time “has put all things,” death included, “in subjection under His feet” (1 Cor 15:26). The Father is obviously “excepted” from this subjection (1 Cor 15:27). Finally, even “the Son Himself will also be subjected to” the Father “who put all things in subjection under” His Son (1 Cor 15:28).

1 Corinthians 15:20–28 is a treasure trove of details that are rich and rewarding to study. This passage is a wonderful, prophetic layout for how God brings Himself glory at the end of the ages, and then ages without end. May He be all in all!

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David Huffstutler is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Troy, MI. He blogs here, where this article first appeared. It is republished here by permission.

Photo by Dominik Schröder on Unsplash