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Monday 18 October 2010

1 Corinthians 15:20-28 - He must reign

In the previous section Paul got them to consider the consequences of Christ not having been raised. He did this, not because he thought this was indeed the case, but to get them to realise that without the resurrection the gospel is nothing at all.
Christ has, of course, been raised from the dead. Moreover, He is the first fruits. This means that what happened to Him is what will happen to us. All who die in Christ will be raised to eternal life in the same way.
We all know that one day we will die, we may not like to think about this, but no one doubts that it is true. It is equally certain that we will be raised. For as death came through Adam, life comes through Christ. This resurrection will happen when Christ returns. So although this chapter is focused on the resurrection, it also teaches us about the second coming of Christ, and also about creation with the frequent references to Adam.
The end will come when Christ returns. Death shows us that there is an end to this life. In the same way there will be an end to this world as it is. Christ will return and destroy all ungodly power and dominion, and hand the kingdom over to His Father. So we see that Christ is under the authority of the Father. The gospels make this abundantly clear as well.
All this is so important and wonderful. Christ is fully God and fully human, and we will become like Him. We will share in His glory, but we will still be under the authority of Christ and the Father. 
He must reign until .. See the implication here. Jesus is reigning now. He did not ascend to heaven to sit at his Father's right hand so he could put His feet up! He is seated on the throne to reign, and He is doing so in order to put all His enemies under His feet (see Psalm 110). Jesus is in the victory business. And the final enemy is death.
Paul then says that he of course does not mean that God Himself (the Father) will be put under Christ. This would be absurd, and is a warning against making silly deductions from statements. The Son will be subject to God. An equally silly deduction would be that v28 means that Christ is not God. A whole bunch of other Scriptures make it clear that He is, but He is not the Father. 

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