“And when all things shall be subdued to Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 15:28 The Russellites argue that Christ is shown here to be inferior/subject to God the Father and will always be, that this verse proves Christ is something LESS than God! This passage is stating something the Russellites (and many others) have completely missed: Christ is at the present not subject to God, the Father!! When He resurrected from the grave He appeared to His disciples and declare: “ALL authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Matthew 28:18 In Ephesians 1:22-23 Paul writes by the Holy Spirit, “And has put ALL things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which in His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.” Again: “And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in ALL THINGS He might have the pre-eminence.” Colossians 1:18
When Christ has completed the task of vanquishing ALL things, subjected ALL things, THEN Jesus will subject Himself to the Godhead. This subjection involves, verse 24, the final act “when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down (abolished) all rule and all authority and power.” Jesus had said; “it is the Father’s good will to give you the kingdom”, it was the “Father’s will that Christ came to do”, John 7:16-23, and “According as He hath chosen us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children BY Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” Ephesians 1:4-5 Redemption is NOW complete, all things that Jesus had as a part in man’s eternal salvation, He has completed, so the Son will return to the Godhead the infinite, un-originated, absolute equality They had before the grand mystery, the plan of redemption, and the church was ever the thought of the Father!! The term God, here, refers to the Godhead, not just the Father! The distinctions made necessary by the coming of the Word into the world to accomplish salvation will be NO MORE, therefore the distinctions in the roles played (which necessitated the distinguishing descriptive titles, they were never names per se) by the eternal Three will be dropped!! Jesus and the Spirit will return to Their original forms and positions They had before the world began!! “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” John 17:5 “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Philippians 2:6
God (all three) gave Jesus a job to do. That job was to defeat sin, vanquish death, and liberate those who would make up the Church of Christ. The day will come when that task will be fully and finally accomplished, and then, to think of the thing in pictorial terms, the Son will return to the Father the object of His greatest love, the Church, ready to fellowship with Deity for the endless realms of eternity and like the victor coming home, Christ will judge those of His Church finding those who “remained faithful unto death” will “present her to the Father, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that we would be holy and without blemish.” As the Godhead sent forth the Son to redeem the world (Church), so in the end of all things this World (Church, John 3:16) God will receive to the glory of the Son. Then, there will be nothing in heaven or in earth outside the love and power of God!! What lies beyond that has not been revealed!!
