But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.
The sequences of the resurrection
I. When and how will the dead be raised?
1. Generally Paul’s answer amounts to this. The resurrection is not a single act. All men are to be raised, “but every one in his own order,” i.e., “in his own troop.” The apostle sees an universal conflict between life and death. Christ the Lord of life has already achieved a personal victory; but all others are still in the thick of the conflict. What is to be the issue? Through the power of Christ’s life, troop after troop they will achieve their conquest, and defile before their victorious Captain with joyful acclamation. Christ’s resurrection, “the first-fruits,” is the first triumph in a series of triumphs over death; the second that of those “who are Christ’s at His coming.” It is impossible that they, with His life in them, should be holden of death, though death may keep them in ward for a while.
2. Do the dead in Christ rise before the other dead?
(1) Let us ask St. Paul to be his own interpreter. His fullest utterance is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. The Thessalonians apprehended that only those who were alive when Christ came would reign with Him. Hence they mourned, as those without hope, over their brethren who departed this life, and thus lost their thrones. To comfort them, the apostle affirmed that those who are alive and remain will have no advantage over the Christian dead. The dead in Christ will rise first; and then those who are alive wilt be caught up to meet Him. Here, then, though he does not speak of a general resurrection, St. Paul does speak of one in which only those who sleep in Christ will take part.
(2) As his meaning is still obscure, let us call in another interpreter. In Revelation 20:1-15 St. John describes at length the time and scene which were in St Paul’s mind. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” How much of this vision is symbol, we cannot tell. But it is impossible to read it without admitting that, at least in St. John’s thought, there were to be in the future two successive triumphs of life over death; the first, at the resurrection of those who are in Christ; the second, at the general resurrection of all the dead.
(3) This view of the future illustrates many other Scriptures, and is confirmed and expanded by them (Jude 1:14-15; 1 Corinthians 6:2). But how should the saints come with the Lord to judge the world, unless they had had part in the first resurrection?
(4) The great Scripture, however, is Matthew 25:1-46.
(a) The discourse commences with the parable of the ten virgins. When the Bride-groom comes the lamps of five are “going out”--at the point to expire. And so, when the Lord comes, they are not ready for Him. Yet they may be saved. For all we are told is that they are too late for that time; not that when they went to buy oil, the shops were shut. They were buying oil when they should have been burning it, and therefore were too late for the marriage supper. It is not the final judgment which is here set before us. Those who miss the first may be in time for the second resurrection.
(b) The same thought expressed in the parable of the talents. All who received talents from “the lord” are of his household. Two are faithful to their trust. One servant fails. The foolish virgins thought their task too easy: the slothful servant thinks his too hard. When his master comes, he has nothing but excesses to offer, and bases his excuses on a wilful misconception of the master’s character. He is cast into the outer darkness. This is a parabolic delineation of the first resurrection, of the judgment of the Church rather than of the world. For there are many in the Church who misconceive the character of God. Among the awful possibilities of life there is also this: that “those who have once been enlightened,” etc. (Hebrews 6:4-6), may fall away beyond the reach of penitence, and therefore beyond the reach of redemption.
(c) But at this point we pass from the first to the second resurrection, from the judgment of the Church--which may extend through the millennium--to the judgment of the world. For now “all the nations” are gathered before the Son of Man. Those who stand on the right are the “sheep who were not of this fold,” the men of every nation who, taught by His Spirit though not through His gospel, have wrought righteousness. To them the King will say, “Come ye blessed of My Father,” etc. Mark their response. They cannot say, “Lord, Thou didst not entrust us with talents.” They do not know Him, nor His gifts. Mark also the Lord’s reply: “Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren”--and here we must suppose Him pointing to the saints who have come with Him to the judgment--“ye did it unto Me.” In short, all the details of this solemn scene indicate that “the saints” are distinct from “the righteous”; that they are already with Christ in glory, not before Him for judgment.
II. “Then the end,” etc. (verse 24). These words are expanded in the verses which follow. All this means that all the authority of man over man, all the power of death over the race, and even all the grace of Christ in the Church, are Divine expedients for delivering men from their bondage to the lusts which destroy them, and for quickening them into a new better life: that the authority of man and the power of death only reach their true and benignant ends as they are penetrated by the Spirit of Christ: that Christ, therefore, must reign till these various forms of rule are suffused by His Spirit; and that then, when all these have achieved their purpose, “the end” will come; the Divine expedients, having served their turn, will vanish away, and higher forms of life take their place; we shall know God, not only through the Son, but as He is in Himself, and the God whom as yet we know only through Christ, even the Father, will become all in all of us.
1. It is not difficult to see how all forms of human rule and authority are, at least, intended to check the evil dispositions of men, to save us from anarchy, from the tyranny of brute force and unbridled selfishness. Bad as the world is it would be far worse but for the restraints of domestic and political authority. Nor is it difficult to see that even the death we often fear is a wholesome check upon us. The mere fear of it holds back the tyrant from many crimes, the criminal from many offences.
2. Nevertheless human rule is apt to be austere and unlovely. Till it is penetrated by the Spirit of Christ, if it does some good, it also does much harm; and, in so far as it does harm to men, it is the enemy of Christ. Death, again, is a horror, till the light of life and immortality shine through it; and, in so far as it inspires the fear that hath torment, death is the enemy of Christ. Therefore God has ordained that Christ shall reign till He has put all enemies beneath His feet, till His Spirit has penetrated all forms of domestic and civil control, and suffused death itself with the splendours of life. But when He shall thus have drawn all things under Him, the reign of Christ will have achieved its purpose; the world will be full of living men who dwell together in charity, and to whom death means more life and fuller. Having achieved its purpose, the reign of Christ may well come to an end. It will be merged in the universal kingdom of the Father. The Mediator will be lost in the God to whom He has reconciled all men, from whom they can never more be alienated. God, even the Father, will be all in all. Unlike the princes of this world, the Divine King will reign, not when, but only until, He has put all enemies under His feet.
3. This, then, is the glorious prospect which lies before us. To our mortal weakness, indeed, we may find no beauty in it that we should desire it. For we do not care to rise above our need of Christ: the thought of losing Him is intolerable to us. Let us therefore remember that we do not lose a child when we find and love his father. We then really find the child, understand him better, love him more. And, in like manner, we shall not, in finding God, lose Christ. We shall then first truly find Him, know Him as we never knew Him before, love Him with a more perfect love.
4. Whatever else and more may be meant by Christ delivering the kingdom to His Father, and God becoming all in all, at least this must be meant: that the future is to be a grand progress, a golden ladder which we shall climb, round after round, till we stand amid the awful and transfiguring splendours of the eternal throne; a constant advance towards the central light, a constant increase in life, power, wisdom, charity: a beatific vision, which grows and spreads as we gaze upon it, and pours an enlarging volume of energy and peace into our souls. (S. Cox, D.D.)
Christ the first-fruits
I. The figure suggests the idea of precedence. As the presenting of the first-ripe fruits preceded the gathering in of the remainder of the harvest--so Christ’s rising from the grave, and, on His ascension, appearing before God, was the prelude of the rising of all His people and their gathering in to everlasting life. The resurrection of the blessed surety was the first irrecoverable and permanent rescue from the power of the grave. He was the first released victim which death was never to get back.
II. The second idea suggested by the type is that of security. The first-fruits, when duly offered to the Lord, in obedience to His prescription, and as a becoming expression of dependence and thankfulness, formed a kind of Divine pledge to Israel of the remaining harvest. There are two ways in which the resurrection of Jesus may be considered as giving assurance of the resurrection of His people.
1. It involved in it an attestation, on the part of the Father that sent Him, to the divinity of His mission, and to the truth of all His testimony.
2. It was closely connected with His death, as the principal proof of its having answered its end. That end was atonement. It is not the fact that Christ died, even connected with the additional fact of His rising again, that constitutes the gospel. Both the facts may be believed, and yet the gospel rejected. The gospel lies in the purpose of His death--“He died for our sins”; and then His resurrection becomes the evidence of the purpose having been effectually answered--of the Father’s having accepted the propitiation.
III. The last idea suggested by the figure in the text is resemblance. The first ripe fruits were a specimen of the harvest. They were to be the best indeed in quality; and had it been otherwise, the type would ill have agreed with what the apostle represents it as having prefigured. For we must never fancy that, in the case before us, resemblance means the same as equality. The glory of His people can never be supposed equal in degree to that of Jesus Himself. But the glory shall be the same in kind; His the glory of the sun, ours of those stars that receive and reflect His light. See Philippians 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2; Colossians 3:4. And oh, is not this enough?--enough to kindle all the ardour of desire, enough to fill the conceptions of the most capacious mind, enough to exhaust the efforts of the boldest and loftiest imagination? To be like Christ! Oh, what is there higher, holier, or happier, which it is possible for you to wish, either for yourselves or for the dearest objects of your love? (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)
Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God.--
The coming of the end
The end comes--
I. To man’s greatness. Alexander the Great conquered all that was known of the world, and sighed because there was only one world to conquer, and yet one small grave in Babylon was large enough to hold him and his greatness. Solomon’s wisdom and greatness were such that there was none like unto him, and yet he “was buried in the city of David his father.” If I visit the Pyramids of Egypt, I am reminded of the glory of the Pharaohs, yet if I were to touch one of these Pharaohs roughly he would crumble into dust. William the Conqueror was a mighty king, yet his horse stumbling over the hot ashes of a burning town brought all this greatness to an end. Napoleon’s ambition knew no bounds, and yet a lonely tomb holds all that remains of that mighty conqueror.
II. To our opportunities for good. All have these opportunities, yet some of you are not using them. An end will come to them. God will not always strive with man, and then the recording angel will point sadly to the text, “Then cometh the end.”
III. To a life of open sin and dissipation. I see men and women staggering out of taverns, I see them gambling in reeking rooms. I see women hovering through the streets seeking whom they may devour, then I open my Bible sadly and read the text, “Then cometh the end.” And it is nearer by forty, or fifty, or sixty years than when you were born. What sort of end is it going to be? Conclusion:
1. There are only two kinds of endings possible for you: if you are in Christ Jesus, then the end will be for you the end of waiting, of toil, of sorrow, and it will be the beginning of peace, of joy, of rest everlasting. But for those who die in their sins, the end must be the end of all hope, of all amendment, and the beginning of the blackness of darkness for ever.
2. Choose then this day, whom you will serve! (H. J. W. Buxton, M.A.)
The certain end
I. It is not possible to rule these words out of life.
1. You tell of any process; but always by and by the process is exhausted. “Then cometh the end.” Your story has to round itself with that.
(1) We see a child growing up from childhood into manhood; but at last “cometh the end.”
(2) You start upon a new business, build you a new house, begin some new study, whatever you do, “then cometh the end,” is written, however far away, as the conclusion which all must reach.
(3) Our text tells that even of the great work Christ is doing it is written, “Then cometh the end.”
2. This constant recurrence of ends in life must certainly mean something. It may beget a mere frivolity. It may make it seem as if nothing were worth beginning or prosecuting very thoroughly. Or it may give a freshness and vitality to living. “Now or never.”
II. What sort of tempfr it ought to produce.
1. Note the way in which men’s desire and men’s dread are both called out.
(1) Look at man’s desire of the end.
(a) It is a part of his dread of monotony. There is something very pathetic in man’s instinctive fear of being wearied with even the most delightful and satisfactory experiences. Is it not a sign of man’s sense that his nature is made for larger worlds than this? “I would not live alway,” has been a true cry of the human soul.
(b) But there is something deeper. Very early there comes the sense of imperfection and failure, and the wish that it were possible to begin the game again. And as life goes on that conviction grows. Tell any man that he, out of all these mortals, was never to die, and by and by must come something like dismay; for every man has gathered something which he must get rid of, and so there is promise to him in, “Then cometh the end.”
(c) But so far as life has been a success, the same satisfaction comes. It is a poor thing for a traveller along a dreary and difficult road to be able to say, “Thank God, there is an end to this!” But for a man to say, “This road is glorious, but no doubt beyond is something yet more glorious still,” that is a fine impatience. The noblest human natures are built thus. “Let the life be filled with the spirit of the springtime, and the end which comes shall be the luxuriance of summer! “And so in many tones, yet all of them tones of satisfaction, men desire the end. It is like a great company of travellers coming together in sight of the resting-place where they are to spend the night, and lifting up all together one great shout of joy. Their hearts have various feelings. Some are glad because their day’s task is done, others because of the new task which they can see opening out beyond them for to-morrow.
(2) Turn to the other side and think of the dread with which men think of the coming of ends in life. Can we give any account of this dread?
(a) It is the sheer force of habit. That this which is should cease to be is shocking and surprising. Even in that dread there is something which is good it is good for the tree to love the soil in which it grows and to consent with difficulty to transplanting. It is good that the burden of proof should be on the side of change.
(b) Men shrink from the announcement of the coming end because they know how far they are from having exhausted their present condition. A boy has longed to be a man, but when he stands upon the brink of manhood and looks behind him over the yet-unreaped acres of his youth, he is almost ready to go back and postpone his manhood till he has taken richer possession of those harvest fields. And so of the great end. Who wants to die so long as this great rich world has only had the very borders of its riches touched?
(c) But even more than this, perhaps, comes in the great uncertainty which envelops every experience which is untried. The passage from light into light must be always through a zone of darkness. How we are feeling this in these days! Old social conditions are ceasing to be possible any longer. In their place new ones are evidently coming, and who is not conscious of misgiving and of dread as he enters with his time into the cloud of disturbance that hovers between the old and the new? This is a large part of the reason why the most miserable cling to life, counting it better. “To bear the ills they have than flee to others which they know not of.”
2. Blessed indeed it is for man, standing in such confused and mingled mood, that the end of things does not depend upon his choice, but comes by a will more large, more wise than his. The workman’s voice has not to summon out of the east the shadows of the night in which no man can work. “It comes of itself,” we say. We mean, “God sends it.”
(1) How many things there are of which we say, “I thank God I may do this, but I thank God also that the time will come when I shall stop doing it! “Our business associations, journeys, schools, homes, are of this sort. They are good and welcome because they are but for a while. Our mortal life, that too we are thankful for, but thankful also that it shall not last for ever. But all this satisfaction in the temporariness comes only from its being enfolded and embraced within the eternity of the eternal. There must be something which does not pass away, something to which comes no end. The soul and its character, God and His love and glory--it is because within these as the ends of life all other things are enfolded as the means of life, that we can be reconciled to, nay, even can rejoice in the knowledge that the means must cease when they shall have made their contribution to the end which must endure for ever. But to know no everlasting end or purpose, to have nothing but the means to rest on, to see them slipping out of our grasp and leaving nothing permanent behind--that is terrible! How is it with you? There comes an end to all these things which you are doing now! Not because God snatches them out of your hands, but because they exhaust themselves and expire, because they are by their nature temporary and perishing, they die. Have you anything to which there comes no end? Any passion for the character and love of God? Those are eternal. There is no end to the great ends of life.
(2) A noble independence this gives to a man’s soul. Poverty comes up and joins you, and you say, “Welcome. Poverty. We will walk together for a while, and when you have done for me all that you can, then I will dismiss you with my thanks.” Riches comes rolling up to be your fellow-traveller, and you say, “Welcome, Riches. There will come an end to you; but while you last we will be friends, and you shall help me.” The more your soul is set upon the ends of life, the more you use its means in independence. You use them as a workman uses his tools, taking them up in quick succession, casting down one after the other, never falling in love with the tool because the work possesses him. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
The end of the kingdom of grace
Consider--
I. What that kingdom is which Christ is to surrender.
1. There is the kingdom of nature, presided over not by the God of grace, but by the God of providence. In it there is system, order, reason, laws, everything that makes up a kingdom. But this is not the kingdom spoken of here, because it is not peculiarly Christ’s, and there is no necessity it should pass away. There are many reasons for believing that all its glory and richness only separated from man’s sinfulness shall be preserved.
2. Now, there is over and above this the high, celestial, glorious kingdom in which the Lord reigns amongst His people and His angels in unveiled majesty. But this is not the kingdom whereof the apostle is speaking; for what reason is there that it should end? It is a kingdom in which God has gathered together the very choicest of all creatures. No; unless all Scripture be untrue, this kingdom of recompense and of glory is meant to be indestructible.
3. There is, however, a kingdom which is neither the kingdom of nature nor the kingdom of glory, but something between the two: but nevertheless, it belongs to earth in one respect, and to heaven in another. Its great object is to rescue sinners, and to build them up in holiness; and therefore the subjects of this kingdom are those that have been once rebellious, but, through the grace of God, have been brought into a state of loyalty and allegiance to the Lord. One of the grandest sketches we have of this kingdom is in Psalms 110:1-7, where we see the Lord’s willing people being established, and His enemies crushed, and Christ reigning till He hath put all enemies under His feet. All men being originally God’s enemies, are predestined to be subdued--subdued by grace, or subdued by power. It is simply a question for ourselves in what department we shall find ourselves placed--enemies who have been reduced into friends, or enemies who are destined to be “broken.” Now this kingdom being provisional, is destined to pass away. Why should the scaffolding remain when the building is completed? When God’s mighty work is finished, should there be ministers, ordinances, means of grace?
II. The particular time at which this is to be done.
1. At the moment that Christianity was launched, calamities began to thicken upon the house of Israel. Jewish tribulation is running its course, but that will come to an “end.” “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
2. There is another dispensation that has set in concurrently with that of Gentile mercies. In “the times of the Gentiles” we are now living. But this dispensation must come to its “end.”
3. Another dispensation seems to have started concurrently with the dispensation of Christianity; that of Antichrist. Paul tells us in Thessalonians and 1 Timothy that in the last days perilous times shall come; and that this antichrist shall go on until the Lord shall “consume him with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming.” So that will have an “end.”
4. There is another grand expectation, viz., that of the returning Redeemer. And now take up these scattered threads and bring them, as they require, to a definite point connected with the second advent of our Master. Now is it not something to stand upon the mountain-top, and to look down upon all these railway trains making their way to one point? To one plunging on with the title of “Jewish doctrines,” and another with the title “Gentile privileges,” and another with the title “Antichrist” stamped upon them? Is it not something in the far distance to see the faintest glimmer of an unearthly light, and to see by the direction of all these various forces that they are hurrying one and all precisely to the same point, and eventually meeting at the world’s great centre, the returning Saviour? When all these destinies come to receive their concurring fulfilment, then the prophecy before us stands accomplished. And when that end comes there shall come a crush of kingdoms, for everything that is earthy shall fall into destruction, and “The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ”; and the Master shall be all in all. There shall also be the crush of a kingdom. The kingdom of grace is wanted no longer; it has done its necessary, its devoted work, long enough; for it has educated the Lord’s people for their privileges. And then the mighty President shall take it in His hands, and lay it down before the throne of His Eternal Father. Christ’s official existence, not His natural and intrinsic glory, will terminate, and then, without distinctions of official character, “God shall be all in all.” (Dean Boyd.)
The transitory and the eternal
We never repeat these words in reference to that which is charming without a certain sense of pain. Yet it is true in regard to all that pertains to us or to our surroundings. The longest, brightest day must end. Each season, each journey, vacation, however pleasant or prosperous, every human relationship, must end. The earthly life of each, though lengthened to a century and full of gladness, must come to an end. The structures built by man outlive the builder, and seem to say, “We only are left behind, while the people once here are for ever gone!” “The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed.” The globe grows old and the new heavens and earth hasten. Even the mediatorial system is but for a time. So with everything with but one notable exception. The soul’s life is not to end. These facts suggest some practical lessons.
I. These things which are passing away are not to become the object of the supreme desire of the spirit which is not to come to an end. It is of course possible to go to extremes.
1. Some affect a disgust for pleasure and property, but by right enjoyment we are recreated. We are not to undervalue it. Again, property may be held without undue ambition or worldly pride. Christianity honours toil and reminds men that Jesus was a working man, and Paul as well. Economy is good. Omnipotence has recognised it. True religion is not hostile to the spirit of thrift and carefulness in acquisition.
2. But there is peril in the other extreme. We are apt to love pleasure and property inordinately. The soul’s welfare is subordinate, and so the lesson of the text is timely, “Then cometh the end.” The most opulent wealth will pass away.
II. There is a Divine purpose in these fleeting objects and experiences, to wit: to serve the culture of the soul which does not pass away.
1. The beauty and enjoyment He furnishes us so richly is intended to give tone and tincture to our taste; and by a contemplation of His handiwork our minds are affiliated with His.
2. So, too, by the proper gratification of the instinct of possession our will force is invigorated. The more means we possess, the more of culture we can give ourselves and households, the more useful we can be in the world. Moreover, character is unfolded in these activities. There is an Italian proverb that “The solitary man is either a beast or an angel.”
3. The body, too, is a means of spiritual culture. Our appetites are to be curbed and our passions confined, and so physical forces may now aid in our spiritual enrichment.
4. This world, though it is to come to an end, is another educational power. Its wealth we are to garner, its mines explore, and its forces subdue. All things are to minister to man, and to be subordinate to the soul’s life.
III. To the soul that has thus wisely used the transitory things of time, “the end of all things” does not in any sense mean defeat, disaster. What is the end of a campaign? Victory. Of a revolution like that of 1776? A new nation. The end of some superb cathedral, like that of Cologne, six centuries in building, is a poem in stone. The end of a true life is not destruction, but consummation. The river finds its end in the distant sea, and the day its end in the glory of a star-lit sky, a glory only seen when the day has found its close. We should not be sad, therefore, as the summer is ended, the harvest past, the journey completed, and the friendly associations terminated which cheered us for a season. The traveller passes the river, the village, or city on his way home, and is not disappointed, for he journeys to an end, his home. We seek an end. (R. S. Storrs, D.D.)
Christ resigning His administration
There are two different ideas attached to “kingdom.” One regards it as the empire of Satan, and the other as the empire of Christ. If the former be adopted, then the passage teaches that when Christ has subdued all the principalities and powers of this kingdom, He will deliver the whole up to the Father. Then “the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever.” If the latter, then it means that when Christ, in the exercise of His mediatorial authority, has subjugated all the powers of moral evil, He will deliver up His commission to God, who will then be acknowledged as the absolute ruler of all. The latter is the most plausible. Learn then--
I. That the government of our world is administered by Christ. The New Testament is full of the doctrine that Christ reigns over our world, and this explains several things otherwise inexplicable.
1. The perpetuation of the human race. Death was threatened on Adam if he sinned. He sinned, and died not, but became the father of the human family. The Biblical doctrine of mediation is the only principle that explains this.
2. The coexistence of sin and happiness in the same individual. Under the government of absolute righteousness we should antecedently expect that wherever there was sin there would be misery proportioned to it. There is perfect happiness in heaven, because there is perfect holiness; there is unmitigated misery in hell, because there is unmixed depravity; but here there is sin and happiness. The mediative government is the only principle that explains this
3. The offer of pardon, and the application of remedial influences to the condemned and corrupt. Under a righteous government, how is this to be explained? This is explicable only on the ground that He is “exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance,” etc.
II. That Christ administers the government of our world in order to put down all human evils. There are two classes of evil referred to.
1. Moral. “All rule, all authority, and power.” Sinful principles are the moral potentates of this world--“the principalities and powers of darkness.” Christ’s government is to put them down from governments, churches, books, hearts, etc.
2. Physical. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Death is the issue--the totality of all physical evils. Christ will destroy this. He will one day open the graves of the globe.
III. That when these evils are entirely put down, Christ will resign His administration into the hands of the everlasting Father. Moral evil shall be exterminated, and death swallowed up in victory. Then comes the end. Christ having finished the work that was given Him to do, resigns His office. The end realised, the means are no longer needed. Patriarchalism had its day; and Abraham delivering up his ministration to Moses. Judaism had its day: and Moses delivered up his ministration to Christ. Mediation is having its day; and when it shall have realised its design, Christ will deliver up His administration to the primal fountain of all authority and power.
IV. That when Christ shall have resigned His administration, God “will be all in all.”
1. This does not mean--
(1) That there will be dissolution in the human and Divine in the constitution of Christ.
(2) That Christ will lose any part of His influence in the Divine empire. Christ will ever rise in the esteem and devotion of all who know His history, and especially of all who have been saved by His grace.
(3) That God will become something different to the universe in general than He has ever been. To the unfallen districts of His vast kingdom He has ever been “all in all.”
2. The apostle is speaking of humanity, and what he means, I presume, is that God will become “all in all” to it--that He will become to man, after this, very different to what He had ever been. Two facts will illustrate this.
(1) He will treat all men after this on the ground of their own moral merits. From the fall up to this period He had treated them, during their existence in this world, on the ground of Christ’s mediation; but now, the mediation removed, each man shall “reap the fruit of his own doings.”
(2) All good men will, after this, subjectively realise the absolute one as they have never done before. The atmosphere of their nature purified, He shall appear within them as the central orb, revealing everything in its light--uncovering the Infinite above and the finite beneath--making the finite manifest and glorious in the conscious light of the Infinite. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The end of the mediatorial reign
The Scriptures constantly teach that Christ’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of His dominion there is no end. In what sense, then, can He be said to deliver up His kingdom? It must be remembered that the Scriptures speak of a threefold kingdom as belonging to Christ.
1. That which necessarily belongs to Him as a Divine person, extending over all creatures, and of which He can never divest Himself.
2. That which belongs to Him as the incarnate Son of God, extending over His own people. This also is everlasting. He will for ever remain the head and sovereign of the redeemed.
3. That dominion to which He was exalted after His resurrection, when all power in heaven and earth was committed to His hands. This kingdom, which He exercises as the Theanthropos, and which extends over all principalities and powers, He is to deliver up when the work of redemption is accomplished. He was invested with this dominion in His mediatorial character for the purpose of carrying on His work to its consummation. When that is done, i.e., when He has subdued all His enemies, then He will no longer reign over the universe as Mediator, but only as God: while His headship over His people is to continue for ever. (C. Hedge, D.D.)