Harmony Between the Father and the Son

This week we shall consider the final, closing phase of the resurrection. Paul indicates that this will be preceded by the resurrection of true believers – “those who are Christ’s at His coming” – and will coincide with the consummation of Christ’s millennial kingdom.

“But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He [Christ] delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:23-26)

In verse 24 Paul moves on to the final phase of the resurrection. This he refers to in the phrase “Then comes the end.” He goes on to indicate the other main events that will be associated with this final phase of the resurrection.

At this time Christ will have completed His earthly reign of one thousand years, by the end of which God the Father will have brought all Christ’s enemies into subjection to Him. The last of these enemies will be death.

Thereafter, Christ the Son will in turn offer up His kingdom to God the Father. In accordance with His position as the Son, He will voluntarily place Himself and His kingdom in subjection to His Father.

This closing event of Christ’s earthly reign is described by Paul two verses later.

“Now when all things are made subject to Him [Christ], then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Cor. 15:28)

As we study this prophetic picture of the end, we notice the perfect harmony that exists within the Godhead between the Father and the Son. First God the Father will, during the millennium, establish Christ the Son as His appointed representative and ruler over all things. By the close of this period the Father will have brought all Christ’s enemies into subjection to Him – the last enemy being death. Thereafter Christ the Son will in turn offer up in subjection to the authority of the Father both Himself and all that the Father has made subject to Him. In this way, Paul says, God the Father, through Christ, will be “all in all.”

This offering up of the completed kingdom by Christ to the Father represents the climax and culmination of God’s plan for all the ages. Paul also describes this glorious culmination of God’s purpose.

“[God has] made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation [or administration] of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.” (Eph. 1:9-10)

This gathering together of all things in Christ by God the Father, Paul says, will usher in “the administration of the fullness of the times” – that is, the period which will mark the culmination and consummation of God’s plan that has been gradually maturing throughout all preceding ages.