God Is All In All
“For He (Jesus) hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He (God) is excepted, which did put all things under Him (Jesus). And when all things shall be subdued unto Him (God), then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him (God) that put all things under Him (Jesus), that God may be all in all.” I Corinthians 15:27-28
This verse can get confusing concerning the pronouns, but the Apostle Paul knew exactly what he was writing about. God the Father gave to Jesus, His Son, rule and power over all of God’s creation, but not over God Himself. Jesus is Man and God. He holds a human nature that is sinless and also a divine nature. He is the Mediator between God and mankind and the spiritual Conduit between God and God’s creation. When Jesus took James, John, and Peter up onto the mountain where Jesus was transfigured into His glorious body, God spoke from heaven and declared Jesus as His true Spokesman: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matthew 17:1-5).
Just before Jesus ascended back to His Father, He told His disciples that “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). God made Jesus head over the church, the body of believers, to protect and defend her, and finally to destroy the enemies of God and the enemies of the church. When Satan, his minions, and all those who follow Satan (which includes all those who do not follow Christ because there is no neutral ground between heaven and hell) are destroyed, then Christ will assume His role as the submissive Son of the Father.
While Christ was on the earth the first time, He was here to do the work of the Father. He said in John 14:31 that as His Father gave Him commandment, He did whatsoever the Father said. Jesus came to earth to show man what God was like and what He required so that man could be made right in God’s eyes. Jesus died on the cross to provide forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to the Father. Jesus did not do this for Himself since He is sinless nor did He make this sacrifice to gain any glory for Himself, but only to please the Father. When He has subdued and destroyed all evil, He will present the church, His bride, to the Father, “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). There is only one way that can happen, and that is, by the blood of Christ which covers man’s sins, obliterating anything that can come between sinful man and a holy God, even anything as small as a wrinkle.
When Jesus presents the church to His Father, He will be as one of us because He bore our sins on the cross. Even though Christ is sinless, He identified Himself with us, assuming our pain, our hurts, our disappointments, and our grief, taking upon Himself the shame of our sin and the sting of our punishment, not to please us, but to please His Father so that His victory over death by way of resurrection would show forth that God is “all in all”, that He is the sovereign God of all creation, and the Author of salvation. That is humility at its best.
If the pure and sinless Son of God was submissive to His Father and obeyed every command, where does that leave the rest of us? Are we really serious about our commitment to Christ? Are we obeying His commands and endeavoring to live a life pleasing to Him? When we are born again, our lives become a 24/7 commitment that should take priority over everything else. Of course we have to care for our families and do the everyday tasks that are necessary, but we should never forget Who it is that we are serving first and foremost. We must remember that Christ is with us at all times. He will never leave or forsake us. Isn’t that knowledge enough to make us desire to love and serve Him with all that we are?