If you have ever had a boss, a coach, or a teacher, you know that leadership has consequences. Put the right person in charge, and those under their leadership will thrive. Put the wrong person there, and everyone pays the price. If you have a boss who is diligent, hard-working, generous, patient, and encouraging—someone who uses their authority and influence to bless others, then the entire company that they lead will be blessed by it. But, if you have a boss who is lazy, unethical, short-tempered, and condescending—then their authority will feel like nails on a chalkboard. His braying and demands will lead to his employees wilting and hardening, not flourishing. Authority is like nuclear energy; if used wisely, it can be wonderful; used wrongly and it can destroy.
The first person who was given authority in history was Adam, the first man. Both him and his wife are given authority over the created world—or the word in Genesis is dominion. God authorizes Adam and Eve to be His representative: to rule over the world in such a way that reflects God’s own good, life-giving authority—the kind of authority that was just used to quite literally give life! So, God installs the first human couple into this position of authority, blesses them, and charges them with a mission: be fruitful and multiply, work the garden and keep it, and then generously provides for them with fruit to enjoy from every tree. But, He also warns them. There is one—only one—tree that they must not eat from. They are given a test to see what they will do when given a choice. And if they fail? Then they and all their progeny, will die.
And, the first king and queen of earth fail the test; they use their authority badly. They allow the serpent, God’s enemy, exert his own authority over them and break God’s Law. And the consequences of their rebellion, like a nuclear fallout, radiate outward to the world, and to us. Bad leadership has consequences. So, what then?
God created this world to be ruled. And the slot of “ruler” is human-shaped. An angel cannot do it. A beast cannot do it. Only mankind bears God’s image and therefore only mankind can reflect (like an image) God’s authority to the world in how he uses authority. But for a man to rule, He must first be subject to God’s rule perfectly. But now because of Adam’s sin, we are all born into sin—we are unqualified to fill the slot. Further, we are still victim to the serpent’s temptations. The powers of hell hold sway over men. Our sin generates bent cravings in us that become terrifying when amplified by too much power. And, even if we could bridle and constrain that ugliness within us, the reality is that the best of all kings, of all sons of Adam, die. There is no eternal rule, no thousand-year reign. The mightiest and noblest of kings are eventually humbled by the grave. So, after the Fall, the throne sits empty.
We are locked in a catch-22, an unwinnable predicament. The problem with our world is that it was intended to be run by a human being—no one else can fill that slot. But, no human being is qualified to do it. For a human being to fill that slot He would have to pass the test, resist the serpent, be free from sin, and never die. It’s like we need an Adam 2.0! If only such a Person existed…
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
- 1 Cor 15:20-28
Jesus Christ came to defeat sin, death, and the devil, and to restore what was lost back in Eden…and more.
Christ’s Victory Over Sin
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive,” (1 Cor 15:21-22).
This entire section we are studying is looking at the implications of the resurrection: if Jesus is raised, we will be as well. But Paul contrasts the work of the first Adam with the work of the second Adam. Jesus brings life, but that was only necessary because Adam brought death. But how did Adam bring death? His sin, His rebellion. God warned Adam that if he were to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would certainly die. Sin brings death, not just physical death, but moral, intellectual, and spiritual death as well. Sin rots us from the inside out. After Adam and Eve rebel, they are then thrust out of the garden so that they will not eat of the tree of life—if they do, they would live forever (Gen 3:22). I wonder if that strikes you as odd? Why would God forbid them from the tree of life? These two trees represent the great problem and the great longing of humanity: the tree of evil, that has brought such death and destruction into our life; and the tree of life, our thirst for immortality. But what if you lived forever with the termite of sin ever gnawing away from the inside? If you could decay, and decay, and putrefy into more and more depravity, but never finally expire? Well, that would be the same thing as Hell.
God does not want mankind to live in perpetuity with the rot of sin eating them alive. No, God has a remedy to cure mankind of their illness before they live forever, to rid them of their sin. But, our problem is that the disease of sin has been passed on from father to son, mother to daughter, from the time of Adam. What we need is a new Adam, and a new humanity.
Jesus has come to restore what Adam lost, to be the new Adam. Later, Paul explains: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit,” (1 Cor 15:45). Jesus is the “last Adam” because He not only became a being who received life, but one who gives life. How can Jesus give life?
Paul told us earlier in chapter fifteen: “Christ died for our sins,” (1 Cor 15:3). Jesus came to draw the venom from the wound, into Himself; to pull the rot of sin that lay within us, and take it up to the cross. And there face the judgment, the condemnation, the wrath we deserve. As Jesus dies on the cross, He is dying for our sins, so that we can be forgiven, healed, made clean.
What does that mean for you? I wonder if describing sin as a “rottenness” in you sounds overblown or melodramatic? As if you went into a doctor for a tickle in the back of your throat, and they came back into the room and said they needed to rush you into surgery. Woah! Slow down! I came in for a cough! And to hear me talk about the human dilemma in such dire terms may feel that way. But were you to go in to the doctor for something you thought innocuous, and he responded with grave and dire warnings…then in that instance, either the doctor is seriously mistaken, or you are. And if God describes our situation in dire terms, explains that it is only the blood of the Son of God that is precious enough to free us from our dread consequence…but we don’t think we are that bad…then either God is mistaken, or we are. And is that a gamble you are prepared to take?
Or, perhaps your issue isn’t that you doubt your sin, but know it all too well. You may have done some messed up things in your life. You may have done some messed up things this week, this very morning. Maybe you sense that rottenness in you, you know yourself to be a sinner, and the issue for you is truly and honestly believing that God would forgive you. The death of Jesus Christ is the welcome sign God has hung on the door of heaven for sinners like you and me.
Christ’s Victory Over Death
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor 15:20)
Jesus is the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” What does it mean that Christ is the “firstfruits”? This means that Jesus is the forerunner of our salvation—meaning, what He received in His resurrection, we too will receive—life everlasting, and a new, glorified body. We will eat of the tree of life!
But here is the wrinkle: death is not immediately disposed of. Paul argues: “But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ,” (1 Cor 15:23). Christ’s resurrection is a “firstfruits” resurrection, but there is a sizeable gap of time hidden in that word “then.” …then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Later, while describing the enemies that Jesus destroys, Paul explains: “The last enemy to be destroyed is death,” (1 Cor 15:26). That has not happened yet; those in Christ still die. The hope of the gospel is not that Christians are never lowered into a grave. The hope is that Death, the grave executioner, has now become a gardener. We are planted and we will rise from our grave.
This is why earlier, when speaking of Christians who have died, Paul describes them as “asleep.” Death is an awful thing, an “enemy,” no doubt. Yet, because of the resurrection, this tyrannical force that robs us of our loved ones, that terrifies us…has now been reduced to something as innocuous and temporary as sleep. In one of John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, he mocks death by pointing to how Scripture compares it with sleep, a sweet and pleasurable experience, and then famously concludes:
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
In the words of John Donne, death will die, our short sleep will pass, when Christ returns. Which puts us in this interesting situation. Jesus has resurrected from the dead and is the firstfruits of our own resurrection. But we are left waiting. It is like Jesus has lifted off the ground in a hot-air balloon at His resurrection, and He has a resurrection-rope tied to us, but there is a long coil of slack—time—resulting in a delay between His resurrection and our own.
What does all of this mean for us? Jesus taught: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die,” (John 11:25-26). “You die and die and then you are beyond death,” (Lewis, Screwtape). We die and yet we do not die—we sleep. One short sleep past, we wake eternally. Many people are able to live life by functionally ignoring their own mortality. They may give lip-service to the idea that we all will one day die, but it is not something they ever stare squarely in the face. Death unnerves us. It is the ultimate humiliation. Not only in how it humbles us physically in that we grow in our enfeeblement till we perish, but also in that it humbles us intellectually and spiritually. It is a black box that we do not get to examine on this side of the grave. The proudest of minds at the end of the day are left with an uncertainty about what happens at death. The most moral of all saints still perish.
The resurrection of Christ, however, punches a hole in the black wall of death. The Son of God has emerged from the other side of the veil, and has now blazed path of life for us to follow. Later in chapter fifteen, Paul explains: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Cor 15:56-57). What does that mean? What makes death awful? Unforgiven sin. What empowers sin? The Law of God—it exposes us and reveals our own sinfulness by showing us what real goodness is. The Law is the high-bar of morality and spirituality that exposes how out of shape we all are, how glutted with sin we still are. But we have victory through Jesus Christ, the Righteous One who cleared the bar, who fulfilled the Law, and who died to forgive us our sin. The sting of death has been removed! And He has resurrected to give us life! When Jesus clears the bar, and then stands at winner’s podium, He then looks at us and says: “Because I am up here, and you are bound to me, you too will be here.”
Christ’s Victory Over the Powers
But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Cor 15:23-25)
Here is the idea: Jesus resurrects from the dead. In so doing He proves that our sins are forgiven, and proves that death is no problem for those who belong to Christ—we too will rise again “at his coming.” When Jesus resurrected and ascended back to the Father’s side, He promised He would return. At his coming (Parousia) those who have died in Christ, that is, those who are waiting in heaven, will be reunited with their bodies, but their bodies will be made new, just as Christ’s body was made new at the resurrection.
After this comes “the end.” That is, the end of this present evil age as we know it. There will come a climactic and final judgment at the conclusion of history, where Jesus will finally “destroy every rule and authority and power” which opposes Him, before finally destroying “death” entirely. And for Paul, “rulers, authorities, and powers” are usually demonic beings (Eph 6:12)—like the serpent in the garden. But Satan and his demons also manifest themselves through any man-made system or institution or government or leader who uses their authority and influence to promote worldliness and oppose Christ. For Paul, that would have been the Roman authorities who put him in jail, or the Jewish authorities who tried to assassinate him. Jesus will destroy all of these and assign them and any who persist in rejecting His authority to the everlasting destruction of the lake of fire.
But notice: Paul is claiming that Jesus Christ is now ruling from heaven and actively working to destroy those entities, the satanic forces at work to hinder the kingdom of God. And once Jesus does that, then comes the end, where Jesus then delivers the fully-formed kingdom of God to the Father. Remember: Adam was supposed to rule over the earth as God’s vice-regent, His apprentice-king, exercising dominion and authority in a way that images God as the image of God. Adam failed. He succumbed to the serpent. Jesus, the image of the invisible God, the second Adam, doesn’t fail. He passes the test, He is qualified to sit on the throne and rule this earth. And that’s exactly what He does. After His resurrection, Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father to sit on the throne, to rule as king over this earth. After His resurrection Jesus tells His disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” (Matt 28:18). Jesus, the God-Man, now possess all authority—He has the right to rule and reign over this world, and because this world is populated with God’s enemies He is working to destroy these enemies. He crushes the head the of the serpent.
You may be wondering: Why does Jesus need to deliver the kingdom to the Father? Once He defeats all of His enemies, He then presents the kingdom He has established to the Father—but this does not mean that He no longer rules His kingdom. It only means that His work of purifying it and ridding it of enemies is now complete—He can sheath His sword and no longer rule it as a warrior King, but as a Prince of Peace.
In fact, why did He have to live, die, and resurrect to have all authority in heaven and earth? Didn’t He already have that by nature of being God? Yes, He did in His divinity. But remember: God’s plan was for a human being to run this world. But since no human being was qualified, He came down and took on a human nature Himself. Became a man, so that we could finally have a perfect man, a new Adam, sit on the throne of Creation. So, in His humanity, Jesus achieved His authority and dominion through His death and resurrection.
This is why Paul cites Psalm 8 in verse 27, “For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet,” (1 Cor 15:27; Ps 8:6). Psalm 8 is the classic mediation on the glory of a human being. What is man that you are mindful of him? Jesus finally is the perfect expression of what a human being is supposed to be. And because He is perfect, He is also submissive: “For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all,” (1 Cor 15:27-28).
The emphasis that Paul puts on Jesus being “subjected” to the Father is not referring to the Son of God in His divinity being subordinate to the Father, but to the Jesus Christ in His humanity being subjected to the Father. If a perfect human being is one who submits to the Father, then Jesus, as the human being par excellence must likewise submit to the Father.
What does this mean for us?
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt 28:18-20
