1 Corinthians 15:24-28

Date: May 18, 2025

Title: That God May be All in All

Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:24-28

Dense passage.

A lot of weighty truths are compressed together.

Focusing on the doctrine of the resurection.

All in Christ shall be made alive.

We will rise from the dead.

Christ resurrection gives us assurance of that.

Firstfruits of those who’ve fallen asleep.

His resurrection is a pledge that a future resurrection harvest is still to come.

Further illustrated by talking about the two representative heads—Adam and Christ.

Whoever you’re united to affects what your lot will be in the end.

If you are united to Adam, you experience the negative effects of His fall—death; if you are united to Christ, you will experience the positive results of His resurrection—life.

After pointing out (V. 23) that such life will be given to us at the second coming of Christ, Paul then begins to enter into a more detailed discussion about what will happen in the aftermath of His return.

Not solely focused on the future.

Paul describes the present reign of Christ as well, but even as he does so, it should be noted that his main purpose for reflecting on the present exalted status of Christ now is to tease out the implications that has on the future completion of all things when Christ returns.

You’ll see how that is so as we make our way through it. With that in mind, let’s now read through our passage.

Again, after making known that all those who belong to Christ will be raised at the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ in V. 23, he then goes onto say the following words:

1 Cor 15:24-28, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

INTRODUCTION

In the passage before us today, Paul takes us on a sweeping tour from glory to glory. From the glory of Christ’s resurrection which marked the beginning stage of His reign, all the way up to the end of His reign which climaxes in the kingdom being transferred over into the hands of the Father, all of this is couched in glory.

It’s a glorious story with a glorious end—an end that is ultimately about the glory of God. It’s not about us; it’s about Him. The prophetic program that is set fourth in this passage is here to show us that the creator of this story will finish His story, and at the end of it all, it will be signed and sealed with His very own name.

That’s important to keep in mind because as we consider how one day the kingdom of God will at last be consumatted, the enemies of God conquered, death defeated, everything subdued… we have to understand that the purpose for which God has ordered all of these things to occur is so that He might display His glory and get all the glory for it! Indeed, as Paul says in V. 28, it’s so “that God may be all in all.”

Which is to say; so that everything would redound to the praise and worship of God.

That’s so crucial for us to see!

As God accomplishes His perfect plan in and through His Son, He is working out all things so that the supremacy of His reign will be made known and acknowledged.

This is the end of the matter, “for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory both now and forever! Amen.”

This is the chief end of man, isn’t it?

And so keep that in mind… Understand that as Paul gives us this wholistic panoramic view of the glorious reign of the resurrected King, just know that his intent and goal is to get us on our knees; it’s to get us worshipping… and waiting.

As Paul showcases the glory of Christ, the glory of God, the glory of His plan… It’s to help us see that in the end, God will be all in all. There’s no doubt about it. He will be. The conclusion to this story has a glorious end.

But knowing that this is the case, we still have to ask the question, don’t we? - what are some of the things belonging to this incredible sequence of events that culminate in this great climatic crescendo?

Well, there are several things Paul mentions.

1 - The Kingdom will be delivered to God the Father

V. 24, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father…”

The end in view here is the end of all things. When the dead are raised at the second coming of Christ, which is what Paul just finished speaking about in V. 23, “then comes the end.” In other words, the second coming of Christ brings about the end of this present age. It sums history up. It concludes life here on earth. It ushers in the eternal state. It marks the completion of God’s redemptive purposes, which it’s why at this point the kingdom will be delivered into the hands of the Father.

You see, so far as it goes, right now the kingdom of God is in the hands of Christ. Jesus is mediatorial king of this kingdom. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. So at it stands, then, Jesus is the one who is presently reigning and ruling over this kingdom, and the reason for that is twofold: (1) He earned it.

As a result of His labours here on earth, from His life to His death, burial, and resurrection, God the Father has assigned unto Him a kingdom as a reward for His perfect obedience. He crowned Him with everlasting glory. He seated Him at His very own right hand. He exalted Him as the king of glory to whom every knee must bow.

So, by virtue of His perfect submission to His Father’s will, Jesus was rewarded with the privilege to rule over this kingdom, and rightly so because without the completion of His work on earth, there would be no Kingdom of God to begin with. This leads us to the second reason why the kingdom is presently in the hands of Christ.

(2) He is it’s only mediator. You know, when you think about the kingdom of God, it’s helpful to think about it in terms of two phases. There is the kingdom of grace and there is the kingdom of glory. Now, let it be said, there is only one eternal kingdom to be sure, but there are two major phases this kingdom passes through.

First, it’s in the hands of Christ, then at the end it will be delivered into the hands of the Father. But why is that? Well, it’s because when the end arrives, that will mark the completion of redemption. We will graduate from grace to glory.

Under grace, we need a mediator. Once we are glorifed and enter into the state of glory, we will no longer need a mediator standing in the gap for us, which is why it will be entirely fitting and appropriate at that time for Christ, our blessed mediator, to deliver the kingdom to God the Father.

Hope that makes sense.

None of this is to suggest that at some point down the road Jesus is going to stop reigning.

That would be missing the point.

The point, rather, is that once history is brought to a completion—once the saints are raised and the dead are judged: the point is that in the aftermath of those events the manner of His reign will undergo a change.

He will still continue to reign as king, but there will be a shift in the way His reign is expressed because by that point, there’s no longer going to be any need for Him to mediate on behalf of sinners or execute judgment on sinners. Those things will have been brought to completion. Everything that has taken it’s stand against the King will already have been dealt with.

Paul speaks to this in V. 24b-26.

2 - Every Enemy will be destroyed

V. 24-26, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

According to these verses, there are three categories of enemies that must be destroyed before Jesus officially hands over the kingdom to the Father. We’ll look at each in turn.

A) The Powers of Darkness

That’s who Paul has in mind when he refers to every rule, every authority, and every power. These are the powers of darkness. This is the demonic realm of fallen angels who exercise dominion over all those who are dead in their sins and tresspasses.

They rule over the lost, and they also harass those who belong to Christ, don’t they?

We know this well. These principalities aren’t only enemies of God, they’re enemies of the chruch!

Eph 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

This is what we’re up against, church! We are in a spiritual battle against cosmic powers of darkness. They are our enemies, and though we may find ourselves weak in our fight against them at times, a day is coming when we will struggle no more. The wrestling match will be over.

Christ will come to our aid; He will set things right, so that every last demonic spirit that’s ever laid seige to the church will meet with Him in a final reckoning. On that day, He’s going to crush them and destroy them once and for all. The devil and his angels will be thrown alive into the lake of fire.

There is more. Not only will Christ defeat all the powers of darkness, but there’s also going to be:

B) The Subjugation of all His Enemies

The powers of darkness—demons, certainly are enemies of God that need to be defeated, but they don’t make up the entirety of the vast army that stands against Christ. They may be its leaders, which no doubt they are… but there are other enemies beyond the demonic world that need to be subdued.

And that of course would include anyone and everyone who is under the grip of the archenemy of God. That is to say, everything that stands against Christ; everyone who belongs to the domain of darkness; everyone who is united to the first Adam, is an enemy of the King that must be subdued and will be subdued, for as Paul says, “he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”

This is a very important verse. It tells us that the universal reign of Christ which began at His first coming will reach a climatic end, resulting in the destruction of all His enemies.

That’s what it means for His enemies to be put under his feet; it means they’ll be destroyed. This is something that’s going to take place at the culmination of history: all the enemies of Christ will be forced to bow, only to then, meet their judgment. After they collaspe to their knees to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ on the great and glorious day of the Lord, they’ll then be cast in the lake of fire! That’s what this verse is teaching…

Now perhaps I should note that there are a few people out there who think the subjugation of Christ’s enemies is something that doesn’t happen at the end of history, but that it’s rather referring to a gradual process that’s taking place right now.

In other words, all the enemies of Christ are being put under His feet during this present age, and then when Christ returns, at that point death will be defeated. But before He comes, all the other enemies will be subdued. Usually this is associated with a very optimistic view of the future where you have all the nations being Christianized.

This is how Doug Wilson approaches this passage: “The Lord will rule from heaven, progressively subduing all His enemies through the power of the gospel, brought to the nations by His Church.”

This certainly is a nice thought; the problem, however, is that it has nothing to do with what the text is saying. First of all, to suggest that being subdued under the feet of Christ is referring to the converting grace of the gospel is to turn this passage on it’s head, because this section has nothing to do with the salvation of His enemies and everything to do with the destruction of His enemies!

But why, then, the confusion? It appears that the issue pastor Wilson (others) seem to be getting tripped up on is that little word “until.” “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet,” and when they read this, they assume that since Christ is presently reigning as King, it therefore follows that He must be presently subduing all His enemies.

But this is a misreading of this passage for several reasons.

And I want us to think about this more deeply.

This is an important question to answer.

When will Christ subdue His enemies under His feet?

Well, if you look at the text carefully, I think you’ll see that it doesn’t happen through a long worn-out process, but rather it happens within a moment at the very end of history!

Paul is explicit about this in V. 27-28: “For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

Now before I comment on the issue of the subjugation of all things, you might be wondering how it can be said that Jesus will be subjected to Him—referring to the Father, if Jesus is one with the Father.

How can it be said that Jesus will be subject to Him who subjected all things under Him? What’s going on here? because isn’t it the case that Jesus is co-equal with the Father? Well, that certainly is true. Jesus and the Father are one in power and glory.

But without getting into too much of a detailed discussion over how all of this should be understood within a trinitarian framework, suffice it to say that when Paul speaks about Christ in this passage, He’s speaking about Him as the last Adam. And so it’s the humanity of Christ that’s being emphasized. Christ is, here, viewed in his role as the Davidic king who has been entrusted by the Father to execute judgment on His enemies.

But once that task is completed, at that point Christ will willingly subject Himself to the Father. He will yield His authority. As we saw earlier, He will deliver the kingdom over to God the Father.

Hopefully that’s clear enough. But to circle back to the timing of the subduing of Christ’s enemies, these verses help us out with that.

According to V. 27, there is a sense in which everything is already subjected to Christ now: “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” That’s a present reality.

But according to V. 28, there is a sense in which everything has not yet been subjected to Christ: “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him.”

So, there’s a sense in which all things are already subjected to Christ and yet there is another sense in which all things are not yet subjected to Christ.

So what’s going on here?

This is the already-not yet paradigm that pervades the NT.

Christ has already been enthroned; everything has been legally subjected to Him; all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him; Christ is presently reigning in the midst of His enemies, but as it stands He has not yet conclusively defeated His enemies. That awaits the day of judgment. Grace first, then judgment.

This is what we see in the book of Hebrews as well.

I want to draw your attention to it: Hebrews 2.

Superiority of Christ over angels.

Superiority of Christ over everything, even the world to come.

Though He has been crowned with glory, the triumph of His reign is first seen through suffering and death before it is visibly seen in the subjugation of everything that is already under his control.

Hebrews 2:5–9 “For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

So as you can see here, everything is already subjected to the resurrected Christ, but we do not yet see everything subjected to Him in a definitive sense. You want to know why? It’s because He’s waiting until the proper time to do so.

Hebrews 10:11–13 “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.”

So again, Christ is seated at the right hand of God, He is presently on the throne, but from the moment that He was seated on that throne, He has been waiting until the appropriate time to visibly make His enemies a footstool for His feet.

You might ask, why the wait? Right? If Christ is the ascended King of glory, who has every right to make His enemies a footstool for His feet whenever He wants, why wait?

The reason for the wait is because before Christ exercises the power of His might in judgment, He has graciously chosen to be patient with them. He’s giving them time to come to repentance. Judgment has been delayed. The wrath of the King will not consume His enemies in this conclusive climatic sense, until the time of waiting has reached it’s end.

And so the clock is ticking. Time is running out. You need to submit to His rule before it’s too late. You need to repent of your sins. You need to pledge your allegiance to Christ. You need to bow the knee to the King! You need to do this quickly because there will be no escaping His wrath on that day.

Listen, Christ is on His throne, and He will remain on that throne. He will continue to reign up until that point when He subdues all His enemies under His feet! His patience will not last forever. Kings, captains, chiefs, men, women, children—all His enemies, will be shattered on the day of His wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations. He will wield a rod of iron, and when He does, the fury of His wrath will be unleashed on all His enemies. If you want to know what that looks like, read Revelation 19.

Make no mistake about it, when the end comes (which is what Paul is talking about in 1 Cor 15), the glory of the King’s wrath will be made visible in the subjugation of all His enemies. We will see it. When Christ returns, there are going to be many, many enemies for Him to defeat, and we are going to bear witness to it. We will see everything subjected under the feet of the Lord God Almighty!

Now at the present time, that’s not exactly what we see… When we look out in our world today, we tend to see a lot of sin, chaos, and rebellion. We see injustices committed all he time. It’s all around us. But even so, church, there’s nothing to worry about because Christ is in control of it all.

He’s got a plan and a purpose, and we are called to trust Him.

Called to walk by faith.

Called to fulfill the Great Commission.

Called to proclaim the good news—how Jesus died for our sins and defeated death once and for all through His triumphant resurrection!

We’re called to tell people that because of what Christ Jesus has done for sinners like us, death is no longer an enemy we need to fear; the reason being — it’s going to be destroyed.

Not only will the powers of darkness be destoyed.

Not only will the enemies of the King be destroyed.

At the culmination of all things, Christ is going to wrap everything up by destroying one last enemy.

C) The Destruction of Death: V. 26

V. 25-26, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

You know, death is not a good thing. Death is an enemy. It’s a foe. It’s one of the consequences of sin. Sin leads to death. Adam was threatened with this penalty from the very beginning: “In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” Since then, death has held its sway over all humanity. Nobody has been able to avoid its influence. It exerts its power over sinners everyday. BUT… nevertheless…

A day is coming when death itself will be sudued. It will be no more. It will be undone. It will be defeated in an absolute sense.

Right now, for the Christian, we know that death has already been dealt a significant blow. Christ is risen, and in Christ, we too have risen. We’ve been seated with Him in heavenly places. We’ve passed from death to life, which means the power of death no longer holds us captive. We’re not prisoners of death anymore. Now we still die, but as Calvin says, “death is no longer deadly to believers.”

That’s a good way of putting it, “death is no longer deadly to believers,” and it’s no longer deadly to us because as we saw a couple of weeks ago, in Christ all shall be made alive.

There’s going to be a resurrection unto life, and so there’s nothing to fear. We look to the future with great expectation, eagerly awaiting what God will do for those who belong to Christ.

Thomas Schreiner has rightly said, “Christ has conquered death as the firstfruits, but believers must wait until death is vanquished before they are raised from the dead.”

CONCLUSION

This is the hope we share as Christians. We believe a resurrection harvest is coming, at which point, death, in the fullest sense of that term, will be finally and forever abolished! This is a promise that will become a reality. Faith will become sight.

After this whole web of events that Paul describes in this section comes to pass at the end when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father, the destruction of death will be the final foe He subdues!

He will subdue the powers of darkness; He will subdue all His enemies, but at last, the resurrected Christ will defeat death and hurl it into the lake of fire for good.

And after all is said and done, God will be all in all.

After the kingdom of Christ is handed over to the Father; after every rule, authority, and power is overthrown; after all His enemies have been put under His feet; after death has been destroyed; after everything has been definitively subjected to the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords, then at that point, the Son Himself will will be subjected to Him who subjected all things under Him, and in the end — God will be all in all.

Everything will revolve around Him and it will be awesome!

The plans a purposes of God for this present age will have reached it’s completion. God will turn the page; a new chapter will begin; and for ages and ages we will never cease to sing the praises of our God and King.

Prayer.