Category: 1 Corinthians (Page 5 of 5)

“… then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

“History is linear, not cyclical. We are not caught in an unending experience of living through the past’s reruns. We are headed somewhere. There is coming a time, in ‘the end’, when the authority invested in Christ by the Father will have been brought to its end goal. The kingdom of God will win. Justice will be served. All opposition will be put down. All ‘dominion, authority and power’ will have been destroyed. Christ will be Victor! Finally, and forever all that displeases and dishonors God will be under His feet! Having won the battle He was sent for, Jesus will hand the kingdom over to the Father once again. He then ‘will be made subject to him who put everything under him.’ Think of it! Mystery of mysteries! How can the co-eternal, co-equal Son eternally subject Himself to the Father with Whom He shares all the prerogatives and essence of Deity? ‘The passage is a summary of mysteries which our present knowledge does not enable us to explain, and which our present faculties, perhaps, do not enable us to understand.’ Though our minds cannot fully comprehend it, this implies no inferiority of the Son to the Father either in His person, nature, or dignity. It simply means that even the Son, without surrendering His deity or dignity, is willing to subject Himself eternally to the Father so that the authority of the triune God might be forever a wonder the new creation can’t take its eyes off of.” (Embracing Authority, pp.206-207)

“Love never ends … For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:12-13)

Faith is necessary now because we do not see fully. God, by His grace, opens our eyes and allows us to see truth. But we do not as yet see all truth/reality. So we walk by faith. But one day “our faith shall be sight” (as the hymn puts it). Faith will give way to full and perfected sight.

Hope is necessary now because we do not see fully. God, by His grace, has given us good and sound reason for hope. His promises are true. But they are not yet fully realized. “Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” (Rom. 8:24). No, “we hope for what we do not see” (v.25). But one day we shall see fully and our hope will be fully realized. Hope will give way to experiential reality.

Love is necessary now. But love–unlike faith and hope–will never give way to something fuller, bigger, more permanent. We love now because we do not see fully (and thus are not able to make final judgments). We will love then because we will see fully (and understand what we do not as yet comprehend). Thank God, “Love never ends.”

Faith? Wonderful! But temporary.

Hope? Magnificent! But transient.

Love? Yes! Now. Forever. Always.

Amen and Amen — “the greatest of these is love.”

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)