By Angus Harley
Read an article very recently strongly urging that 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 teaches the eternal subordination of the Son (ESS)- the Son was from eternity past subordinate to the Father, and will be unto all eternity:
24 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. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 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. 28 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]
The article, to be fair, is from almost ten years ago, so it’s dated. The website caters to Southern Baptist Convention folks, claiming to be “a leading source for information, opinions, and discussion of matters of concern for the Southern Baptist Convention.”[2] And as the SBC are, once again, currently in the Christian news, I thought why not look at the article. The writer, John Wylie, is the elder of Springer Baptist Church, OK. It is not a technical article, but a theological assertion.
Even so, one wonders how it is the article manages to entirely ignore the context of 1 Corinthians 15, for Paul’s thinking goes through three successive steps.
Step 1: toward Adam
In context, Jesus is plainly stated by Paul to be acting as the Man for us, that is, the last man, the “last Adam” and the “second man”, contrasted to the first man, Adam. Nor does the article explain how both ‘men’ are contrasted: one is the head of the entirety of fallen mankind; the other, Jesus, is the head of the whole assembly. Added to this list of failures is ignoring that Jesus is called the “second man…from heaven”; whereas, Adam, the first man, was from the soil. This contrast implies yet another- ignored once again- that Adam’s body went into the soil as a body of death, not to be raised. Jesus’ dead body, however, could not be contained by the soil, or held down by death, but was raised by the power of heaven. The next contrast is that of the nature of these two contrasting bodies: Adam’s is earthy, dishonorable (without glory), natural, perishable and mortal; Jesus’ body is heavenly, imperishable, immortal, and glorious.
The ’Christ’ that is presented here in 1 Corinthians is not therefore the Son stripped down to his divine ‘bare bones’. He is the Man for us, the Mediator. Let’s listen to Paul from elsewhere, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim.2:5). Speaking of these two ‘men’, Paul succinctly writes, “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many” (Rom.5:15).
Step 2: toward the Father
It is as this Man for us, the Mediator, that Jesus “hands over the kingdom to the God and Father” (1 Cor.15:24). For, as the Christ, the Man for us, Jesus will have completed the task set him by the Father: the complete victory over death, sin, and the Law, and over all rule and authority. Until that day when he does hand over the kingdom to the Father, the Son continues to reign over his enemies, being at war with them. Then on that day, the Man for us will put all these powers under his direct subjection. To repeat (because it is of dire necessity), it is also in his capacity as the Man for us, the Mediator, that Jesus will hand over the kingdom to the Father. It is most fitting that the Son as Mediator subjects himself to the Father as God, and hands over the kingdom to its Lord.
Step 3: toward the saints
It is after both these stages that Paul then refers to the resurrection of the saints. For by taking all power to himself, and by subduing his enemies in their entirety, throughout the created cosmos (see Col.1:15-20), that the Man from heaven will return to raise all his saints from the dead and give to them glorious, immortal, and imperishable bodies as his own. For the Christ as the heavenly Man is considered the “first fruits” of those saints who are dead (1 Cor.15:20-23).
Nothing is stated about Jesus’ eternal status as Son, whether eternity past or eternity to come. Evidently, Paul is assessing the Christ exclusively, only, completely, and entirely in his Mediatorial role as the Man for us. Yet, ‘pastors’, theologians, and Christians who have ‘read theology for decades’, manage to ignore entirely this context. Why? Because, as the article clearly demonstrates: it is about asserting a theological model, not exegeting the word of God. Apparently, it is not only scholars who suffer from eisegesimitosis!
[1] John Wylie, “The Eternal Subordination of the Son is a Biblical Viewpoint,” SBC Voices, July 1, 2016, https://sbcvoices.com/the-eternal-subordination-of-the-son-is-a-biblical-viewpoint-by-john-wylie/.
All Things New Covenant 