What does it mean that God will be all in all in 1 Corinthians 15:28?

Then again at the close of the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, it is God's purpose to receive everything into His own hands and to be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). He will be "in all" for He will pervade the whole of the realms of light, and each and all who dwell therein, whether in heaven or on earth. He will be "all" for He will be the supreme and exclusive Object of every soul that He fills. All this too hinges on the resurrection of Christ. Established in the power of that, all is permanent; without it all would be passing away.

Then, when every evil has been dealt with, Christ will deliver up the kingdom to God, the Father. The whole passage views the Son as having become Man, in order to accomplish the will of God in bringing the whole creation into subjection to God. In order to accomplish this great end God has committed to the Son, as become Man, universal power. Having by His mighty kingdom power brought all into subjection to God the Father, He still remains the subject Man as when upon this earth, in order that God may be all in all. The Son does not cease to be God and one with the Father, even as He was on earth, but “Christ will take His place, as Man, the Head of the whole redeemed family, being at the same time God blessed for ever, one with the Father” (J.N.D.). It does not say that the Father may be all in all, but that God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost — may be all in all. What a blessed world will that be when in the new heavens and the new earth God will be the Object of all, and morally set forth in all, for is not this the meaning of these words, so simple in their language but so profound in their significance?

In verse 27, Psalm 8 is quoted, and in the present tense. In reality today God has already put all things under Christ's feet; yet the public display of this in power will not be complete until the Great White Throne. The issue is settled now, but the full manifestation is future. But God's putting all things under the feet of the Son of Man plainly does not imply that God Himself is subject. Indeed, the Son of Man is He who is delegated to bring all things into subjection, not only to Himself, but to God. And when this is done, then the Son also, together with the kingdom He has subdued, is subject to the great God who gave Him this stewardship - "that God may be aIl in all." As Son of Man He is subject, in order that God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) may be all in all.

When that point is reached the whole work of redemption and new creation will have reached finality, and the Son will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. In becoming Man the Son took the subject place, and that place He retains to all eternity: a clear proof that He has taken up Manhood for ever. Subjection, be it remembered, does not necessarily imply inferiority. The Son was no whit inferior to the Father when here on earth, nor will He be in eternity. In the eternal state God is to be everything, and in everything; but of course the Spirit is God, and the Son is God, equally with the Father. The Son however retains His place in Manhood, the Head and the Sustainer of the new creation universe, which exists as the fruit of His work; this guarantees that it shall never be encroached upon by evil, but remain in its original splendour for ever.

We learn, then, first of all, that just as the rapture of the saints is preparatory to the appearing, so the kingdom of Christ, when all things will be subdued unto Him, is but the prelude to the eternal state. Without trespassing beyond the due limits of reverence, it may be permitted to us to meditate, if but for a moment, upon the joy of the Lord when His work has been accomplished, in delivering up the kingdom to God, the Father. In all His mission as the sent One of the Father, we know from His own words that His object was to glorify the Father, and that He realised this object perfectly. As He said on the eve of His departure from the world: "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee;" and also, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." (John 17:1-4.) In like manner He will glorify God, for He will make good all that God is in His blessed sway of righteousness and peace. Hence it is that "His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed." (Ps. 72:17.) Then, His work once more completed, He surrenders the kingdom, with gladness of heart, into the hands of Him from whom He received it.

But thereupon another wondrous thing takes place. "When all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." This divine secret can only be revealed in the light of redemption, and, blessed be God, it has been revealed. The Son became incarnate, and He remains incarnate for ever. This mystery has been unveiled through the Apostle Paul: "Whom he [God] did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Rom. 8:29.) When therefore Christ has delivered up the kingdom and Himself becomes subject, it is that He henceforward takes His place as Man amongst the redeemed, but as the Firstborn amongst His brethren. In every circle in which He is pleased to move He must be pre-eminent, must have the first place. His Father is our Father, and His God our God, but throughout eternity, while we are sons with Him before the Father's face, He will ever be the Firstborn, and as we fall at His feet in adoration, we shall delightedly own that He is supreme in that circle of divine affections. Together with this it must be remembered that while the blessed Lord remains Man for ever, He will never cease to be a divine Person, and that the term God, when used absolutely, as at the end of verse 28, includes all that God is as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

1 Corinthians 15:28. — ". … that God may be all in all." The last member of this passage is often confounded with the close of Col. 3:11. The latter applies now, the former not till the end of the millennium: it is the grand characteristic of the eternal state (see Rev. 21:1-8). Even now Christ is all and in all; his death and resurrection have blotted out before God and to the eye of faith all mere human and earthly features in those who are one with Him. "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all." The one thing which the Apostle would have us to see in the saints is Christ, and Christ in every one of them. Such is the standing of all as united to Christ in heaven, and there only: for there are other points of view in which the same persons are regarded in Scripture, and differences of position which have their just place assigned by God. The condition of things in which God (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) shall be all in all is in contrast with the Son's administration of, and exaltation in, "the kingdom." If the kingdom be delivered up to God by the exalted Lord, it is that the human holding of it should cease its mediatorial character. God, as such, makes all things new. Christ reigns and subdues all things — work which God the Father has committed to Him in His creation. Christ as man, having held this special kingdom for purposes of subjection, and having put down all other authority, gives it up, that the power may be God's exclusively.

The third and last step remains to be considered. It is the ultimate object and end of the delivering up the kingdom, and the consequence of the Son Himself being subject to Him that put all things under Him: it is that GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL. We may not attempt to explain these wondrous words, though we may offer a few observations with the view of eliciting the adoration of our hearts in meditating upon this blissful prospect. The end of redemption then is that God may be all in all. If the expression in John 3, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands," is timeless, if, that is to say, it refers to the past eternity, setting forth the Father's delight in the Son, and reaching that it was His purpose, before the foundation of the world, to deliver all things into the hand of the Son, we have a wondrous unfolding of divine thoughts. From all eternity, in that case, it was in the heart of the Father that the Son should be supremely exalted in this scene; and Hebrews 1 teaches that the Son is appointed Heir of all things. For the effectuation of His purpose the incarnation, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ at the right hand of God were, as we have already seen, necessary; and now we learn that there was another object in it all, that God might be all and in all. If the Father was bent upon glorifying the Son, the Son was equally bent upon glorifying the Father (compare John 13:31-32; John 17:1-2).

And he shall reign till all things are brought into order according to the mind and counsel of God; then He will give up the kingdom to Him who is God and Father; and, Himself, as Man, to whom God had put all things in subjection, shall be subject; and God shall be all in all—God—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The deep and infinite blessedness of this is inexpressible. God, in all the glorious perfection of His own nature and being, all in all: Man, in all the beauteous grace that is seen in Christ, eternally subject to God, whom He has glorified and who has glorified Him.

But he adds, "then, cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father." The special kingdom put into His hands as Man is to he delivered up. Nay, He takes it only for the purpose of bringing everything into subjection to God. That which He taught His disciples to pray, that the Father's kingdom might come, is that which He accomplishes in power by taking Himself the kingdom. It is not for eternity, it is not even for a long period of time, and those who would tell us that the millennium is in fact but the commencement and threshold, as it were, of His kingdom, which is to continue for a long, perhaps indefinite period after it, mistake altogether the purpose of the kingdom itself. The One who takes it is, in it all, the Minister, as He ever was. He takes it, not for His own glory, but for the Father's glory. God indeed must honor the One who has glorified Him, and will put every enemy under His feet. That is right and necessary, but His own thought in it is that He must accomplish that which is in His heart; He must be, as Isaiah expresses it, "the Father of eternity." He must bring things into that condition in which they will abide eternally. Having accomplished this, for Him all is accomplished. He desires no kingdom separate from that of the Father; while, on the other hand, the throne will be ever "the throne of God and of the Lamb." It will never cease to be characterized by the One who now sits upon that throne.

Christ has manifested God for all eternity, and that manifestation abides, but the purpose of the separate kingdom is to bring everything into subjection to God as God. He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet, not after He has put all enemies under His feet, but until this is perfectly accomplished, — and the last enemy which is abolished is death. Thus, then, the final resurrection, the resurrection anticipative of the judgment of the great white throne, is implied here; and all things thus being put under Him, the Son also Himself becomes "subject to Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." For the perfection of eternity, there can be nothing separate and distinct from this divine rule. The establishment of it according to this perfection is just the glory of Christ to accomplish. The Father's kingdom is the kingdom of God in this character, where all the subjects are children, and God is seen in that place in which the epistle to the Ephesians characterizes Him, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," thus "the Father of every family, whether in heaven or earth." All these families are drawn near to God in a perfect relation which Christ has established, and to which He, therefore, gives its full and eternal character.

Thus the subjection of all things to Him risen is already true to faith, according to the use made of Psalm 8, while at His coming from the right hand of God His enemies will be made His footstool, and He will rule in their midst. To this last answers the necessity of His reigning till He put all the enemies under His feet, death's annulling included at the last. It is what scripture calls the kingdom, during which the Lord is to reduce all rule and all authority, and power, and then render it up to Him who is God and Father. (Ver. 24.) This will be at the end of the thousand years' reign, which reign is characterised in verse 25, verse 26 adding what will be at its close. Verse 27 states the universality of His present title, as bound up with His resurrection; as verse 28 the eternal condition, when the universe has been subjected in fact, and the Son Himself shall be also, to Him who subjected it all to Him, in order that, not the Father exclusively, but God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) should be all in all, instead of the kingdom of man in Christ exalted and reigning. Thus is the lie of Satan met by the truth, grace, righteousness, and glorious counsels of God: man in Christ governing all first; and finally God all in all, where righteousness needs not to rule, but can dwell in endless blessing and peace.