God may be
all in all
God’s being “all in all” is rooted in the
truth
of Jesus’ resurrection and the
resultant future,
when Christ returns and
“the Son himself will be made
subject to him
who put everything
under him,
so that
God may be all in all”
(1 Corinthians 15:28)
Paul begins 1 Corinthians 15 by discussing
The gospel message,
namely, that Jesus died, was buried, rose from the dead, and
appeared to many witnesses
(1 Corinthians 15:1–11).
Some of the Corinthians
had been claiming the
resurrection was a false doctrine
(1 Corinthians 15:12).
Paul counters that the
resurrection of Jesus
and of
those who believe in the gospel
is crucial for the present process
of becoming holy
and the Christian’s future
glorification.
As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:17–19,
if the resurrection of Jesus is a false reality,
the Christian’s future resurrection
is not a reality.
Without the resurrection of Christ, the Christian is
“of all men most to be pitied.”
Paul makes a clear
defense of the resurrection of Christ beginning in 1 Corinthians 15:20.
This resurrection
will lead
to a future resurrection for all those
who have
life through faith in Him.
Jesus was the first person
to be raised
from the dead, never to die again.
His is an
eternal resurrection
As Jesus has led the way,
other events will follow:
believers who have died
before Jesus’ second coming will be
resurrected when He comes
(1 Corinthians 15:23), and
those still living
will be
made incorruptible
(1 Corinthians 15:50–58; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17).
After Jesus comes again,
He will bind Satan, set up an earthly kingdom,
and physically rule for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1–6).
At the end of that time,
Satan will be released from imprisonment, and
Satan and his followers will rebel and be destroyed
(Revelation 20:5–10).
Jesus will then give
authority
back to the Father, and
He Himself
will be
in subjection to the Father.
It’s based on these truths that Paul claims,
“God may be all in all.”
Ultimately, all in all is an expression of
The rightful
Authority
that God possesses
In the future, when evil has been eradicated forever,
God will reign as the unchallenged Supreme over all the universe.
He will be the one and only Ruler of all hearts and lives and the only desire of His creatures. When God is all in all, our redemption will be fully accomplished, and God’s glory will fill all creation (cf. Psalm 72:19).
God’s being “all in all” is expressed in the NLT as being “utterly supreme over everything, everywhere.” The full context: “
All who belong to Christ
will be raised
when he comes back
After that the end will come, when he will
turn the
Kingdom over to God the Father,
having destroyed
every ruler and authority and power.
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.’ . . .
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 15:23–28, NLT).
The AMP depicts God
as “
manifesting His glory without
any opposition,
the supreme indwelling
and
controlling factor of life.”
It’s important to note that, in reality, God has always
had complete
authority over His creation,
although, in this present world,
His rule is not as evident
due to the
presence of His enemies.
One day,
all God’s enemies will be vanquished.
Not even death can last
(1 Corinthians 15:26).
According to 1 Corinthians 15:28, Jesus will practically continue in an eternal submission to God the Father. Ontologically, Jesus is equal with God as the Second Person of the Trinity (John 8:58). Just as God has absolute authority as Creator, Jesus has absolute authority as Creator (see Colossians 1:15–16; 3:11).
As Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 15, he
shows the implications of God’s being
all in all.
Those who are to be resurrected
need to lead holy lives,
fulfilling the purpose
of
bringing God glory.
For if the resurrection isn’t true, why not “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”
(1 Corinthians 15:32)?
However, the resurrection is true—all of humanity will be resurrected by God, so “do not be misled . . . and stop sinning” (1 Corinthians 15:34).
Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead. He will gather His elect to Himself in the future, reign on earth, and abolish Satan and death. Upon completing these events, all enemies will be defeated. All things will be subject to God, giving all authority to God, and He will be “all in all.” In light of this future, let us obey Jesus, stop sinning, and enjoy the grace of God.
The Latin verb incarnare meant
“to make flesh.”
When we say that Jesus Christ is God “Incarnate,” we mean that the Son of God took on a fleshly, bodily form (John 1:14). However, when this happened in the womb of Mary, Jesus’ earthly mother, He did not stop being deity. Although Jesus became fully human (Hebrews 2:17), He retained His status as God (John 1:1, 14). How Jesus is able to be both man and God simultaneously is one of the great mysteries of Christianity but is nevertheless a test of orthodoxy (1 John 4:2; 2 John 1:7). Jesus has two distinct natures, divine and human. “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11).
The Bible clearly teaches the deity of Christ by presenting His fulfillment of numerous Old Testament prophecies (Isaiah 7:14; Psalm 2:7), His eternal existence (John 1:1–3; John 8:58), His miraculous virgin birth (Luke 1:26–31), His miracles (Matthew 9:24–25), His authority to forgive sin (Matthew 9:6), His acceptance of worship (Matthew 14:33), His ability to predict the future (Matthew 24:1–2), and His resurrection from the dead (Luke 24:36–39). The writer of Hebrews tells us Jesus is superior to angels (Hebrews 1:4–5) and angels are to worship Him (Hebrews 1:6).
The Bible also teaches the
Incarnation—Jesus became
fully human
by taking on human flesh.
Jesus was conceived in the
womb and was born
(Luke 2:7), He experienced normal aging (Luke 2:40), He had natural physical needs (John 19:28) and human emotions (Matthew 26:38), He learned (Luke 2:52), He died a physical death (Luke 23:46), and He was resurrected with a physical body (Luke 24:39). Jesus was human in every way except for sin; He lived a completely sinless life (Hebrews 4:15).
When Christ took on the form of a human, His nature did not change, but His position did. Jesus, in His original nature of God in spirit form, humbled Himself by laying aside His glory and privileges (Philippians 2:6–8). God can never stop being God because He is immutable (Hebrews 13:8) and infinite (Revelation 1:8). If Jesus stopped being fully God for even a split second, all life would die (see Acts 17:28).
The doctrine of the Incarnation says that Jesus, while remaining
fully God, became fully man.
The indwelling
of the
Holy Spirit
is the action by which God takes up permanent residence in the body of a believer in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, the Spirit would come and go from the saints, empowering them for service but not necessarily remaining with them (see Judges 15:14; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Psalm 51:11; Ezekiel 11:5). Jesus revealed to His disciples the new role the Spirit of Truth would play in their lives: “He lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). The apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
These verses are telling us that the believer in Jesus Christ has the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, living in him. When an individual accepts Christ as personal Savior, the Holy Spirit gives the believer the life of God, eternal life, which is really His very nature (Titus 3:5; 2 Peter 1:4), and the Holy Spirit comes to live within him spiritually. The fact that the believer’s body is likened to a temple where the Holy Spirit lives helps us understand what the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is all about. The word temple is used to describe the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum in the Old Testament tabernacle structure.
There, God’s presence would appear in a cloud and meet the high priest, who came once a year into the Holy of Holies. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest brought the blood of a slain animal and sprinkled it on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. On this special day, God granted forgiveness to the priest and His people.
Today, there is no Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and the animal sacrifices have ceased. The believer in Christ has become the inner sanctum of God the Holy Spirit, as the believer has been sanctified and forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:7). The believer in Christ becomes the habitation of the Holy Spirit of God. In fact, Scripture also says that the believer is indwelt spiritually by Christ (Colossians 1:27) and by God the Father (1 John 4:15)--
the Trinity is involved.
As the Holy Spirit lives in the believer, He brings about some life-changing results:
1) The indwelling Spirit comes to a soul dead in sin and creates new life (Titus 3:5). This is the new birth Jesus spoke of in John 3:1–8.
2) The indwelling Spirit confirms to the believer that he belongs to the Lord and is an heir of God and fellow-heir with Christ (Romans 8:15–17).
3) The indwelling Spirit installs the new believer as a member of Christ’s universal church. This is the baptism of the Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 12:13.
4) The indwelling Spirit gives spiritual gifts (God-given abilities for service) to the believer to edify the church and serve the Lord effectively for His glory (1 Corinthians 12:11).
5) The indwelling Spirit helps the believer understand and apply the Scripture to his daily life (1 Corinthians 2:12).
6) The indwelling Spirit enriches the believer’s prayer life and intercedes for him in prayer (Romans 8:26–27).
7) The indwelling Holy Spirit empowers the yielded believer to live for Christ to do His will (Galatians 5:16). The Spirit leads the believer in paths of righteousness (Romans 8:14).
8) The indwelling Spirit gives evidence of new life by producing the fruit of the Spirit in the believer’s life (Galatians 5:22–23).
9) The indwelling Spirit is grieved when the believer sins (Ephesians 4:30), and He convicts the believer to confess his sin to the Lord so that fellowship is restored (1 John 1:9).
10) The indwelling Spirit seals the believer unto the day of redemption so that the believer’s arrival in the Lord’s presence is guaranteed after this life (Ephesians 1:13–14).
When you accept Christ as your Savior
(Romans 10:9–13)
, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart, bringing with Him an entirely new life of love, relationship, and service to the Lord.