“Jesus Reigns”
[I Corinthians 15:20-28]
November 23, 2008 Second Reformed Church
Today is Christ the King Sunday – the Sunday we emphasize that Jesus reigns as Sovereign over all. We are turning to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to consider this, and we may remember that the Corinthian church was a mess. In the first century, it was an insult to call someone a Corinthian because they engaged in every type of strange and sinful behavior imaginable. Corinth was at a crossroads in the trade route and they received, not only every type of goods in the world, but every type of philosophy and religion that was popular.
In the section we are looking at, Paul is defending the resurrection of the dead. There were some who were arguing – as some do today – that Jesus did not physically rise from the dead, but the resurrection is merely a spiritual idea – that Jesus’ Spirit was received into Heaven and His disciples saw His Spirit in the days that followed His burial.
In the section preceding our reading, Paul argues that if Jesus did not really – physically – rise from the dead, then we – His followers – will not really – physically – rise from the dead. And if Jesus did not really – physically – rise from the dead, and if we do not really – physically – rise from the dead, then our peaching and our faith means nothing – worse than that, we have been telling and believing lies about God. And even worse than that, we are still dead in our sins, and Christianity is the most pitiful of beliefs. This is the heart of the Gospel: if Jesus did not physically rise, Christianity is a lie.
“But in fact,” Paul tells us in our Scripture, Jesus did physically rise from the dead. Paul was an eyewitness to Jesus being alive, and there were hundreds of others alive at that time who were also eyewitnesses. And Jesus is the “firstfruits” of those who died believing in Him. In other words, just as the “firstfruits” of the harvest or the flock are the first growth or the first born, Jesus is the first to be raised from the dead with the perfected body that all who believe in Him shall receive in the Kingdom. Jesus is first; all those who believe in Him follow.
Paul explains that all humans die because of the sin of Adam – Adam leads his children to death, and all those who believe in Jesus for their salvation – Christ leads His children to life, and life eternal. And it will be at His Coming, when He returns, that the dead in Christ shall be raised in their perfected bodies.
Remember what Peter wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3, ESV).
And Paul wrote, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will raise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (I Thessalonians 4:16-18, ESV).
Then, Paul tells his readers, the end will come. When Jesus returns, the end will come. But it will not be the end as some talk about it. It will not be destruction of all things physical. No, what will end will be all the temporary things, all the corrupt things, all the sin-damaged things, including our governments, human laws, ranks, distinction of class, discrimination, and so forth, all of these things will pass away.
Paul says that Jesus will deliver the Kingdom to the Father “after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” Sin and its effects will be removed, and we shall all be of pure equality with each other. The last of the effects of sin that Jesus will destroy – remove – is death. The first consequence promised in the Garden will be the last one removed. But on that day, death will be done away with – there will never be any more death.
Now consider this: if those Corinthians were right that there is no physical resurrection, that the life eternal is merely a spiritual existence, then death would be meaningless to them – it would be a meaningless consequence of sin, because death of the body would simply be freedom of the spiritual self. Unless the death of the body is a disruption of what was intended, it is not a punishment.
But, if they were wrong, as Paul says they are wrong, and the physical body was created to last eternally, then the removal of death as the last enemy makes sense. Since the body can die, the removal of death means that the body won’t die. It means that the end of death, and the resurrection of the physical body, is the apex of the restoration of the Creation.
Paul tells us that Christ must reign until all these – His enemies – are under His Feet – until they are destroyed. Christ is now seated at the Right Hand of the Father in power and glory and He is reigning over all, working out His Salvation Plan for His people. And once all His enemies are under His Feet, it will be the sign and seal of His Authority and His Reign over all, including them.
Paul wrote, “according to that working of [God’s] great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:19b-23, ESV).
The good news is that Jesus has conquered death, so all of His enemies are under His Feet – we have just not seen the fulness of that worked out in history, but we know in rising from the dead, Jesus conquered death. So death is no longer deadly to believers – our death is entrance into the Kingdom. By dying, we enter into life.
Jesus said of His Authority, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27, ESV), and “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18, ESV).
Jesus has full authority now, as God, reigning over all of Creation, having put all of His enemies under His Feet, and now that is working itself out in history, and will conclude with Jesus’ Return.
Paul describes the difference between the future of the believer and the enemy of Christ: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is their destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved” (Philippians 3:18-4:1, ESV).
If physical resurrection is true, and Jesus has physically risen from the dead, then we shall physically rise from the dead, as He promised. And if Jesus has physically risen from the dead, then He has already defeated death, and all His enemies are under His Feet, and He is reigning over all Creation, working out His Plan of Salvation. And we have hope and joy, secure in our future in His Kingdom.
Then Paul says something that we might find very curious, beginning in verse twenty-seven, “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.”
Paul says that God put all things in subjection under Jesus’ Feet, except for God Himself. Jesus, Paul says, is subjected to God. How can that be? We confess One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – Three Equal Persons of the One Divinity. How can One Person of the One Divinity be subject to Another?
You may remember from past sermons, or you may remember from the evening class we just had on the first seven ecumenical councils, that the Scripture teaches us that before the Creation the One Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always are, were, and will be. Each Person is the Same One God, but a different Person – that is the mystery of the Trinity. However, after the Son Incarnated – after the Son was born on earth of the Virgin Mary – the Son took on the real full human, Jesus. So, Jesus, the Son of God, is One Person with two natures, a full human nature and a full divine nature. Jesus is, at the same time, 100% God and 100% human.
So, we can understand Paul to be saying that Jesus, in His Divinity, is co-equal with God the Father, but, in His Humanity, He is subjected to the Father. Other than saying that, it seems we must leave this in the area of the mystery of the Trinity.
The final phrase, “that God may be all in all,” means that everything will be brought back into its rightful relationship with God. The Creation will be restored to the state it was before the Fall – before our first parents’ sin – all will be as God initially Created it, with God, our Savior, reigning on His Throne.
So let us rejoice on this Christ the King Sunday: Jesus reigns. He is Sovereign over all Creation. All His enemies are defeated – under His Feet – history is just working out God’s Plan. And, as Christ was raised, we shall be raised, and death shall be no more. And we shall live forever with our God and Savior, Jesus, in His Kingdom without end.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for sending Your Son to live and die and rise to Your Glory and to be our Salvation. Cause us to live lives of confidence knowing that Jesus is sovereignly reigning over all, bringing His Plan to pass, and there is nothing that happens by chance, but all occurs according to Him Who gave His Life for us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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