Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:24-28

The Big Idea

Why is there so much pain, brokenness and death in the world? Everyone is offering a fix, and every fix fails. God’s answer is the “All in All.” Jesus reigns now, and He will keep reigning until every enemy, including death itself, is destroyed. Then He’ll hand the kingdom to the Father, and God will be all in all. Until then, He’s already our all in all, and He invites us to fix our single eye on Him.

A Dumpster Fire

Why is there pain in this world? Why is there suffering that can’t be explained? Death, sickness, hatred, rejection, storms in nature and storms in the culture?

It seems like everywhere we look, something is broken. And someone on every corner is offering a solution: their drink, their drug, their plan, their lifestyle. They all say it’ll fix things.

It’s all empty. It’s all false. It’s all going to crash and burn.

We see flameouts all the time. This person couldn’t hold it together. That person finally gave up. The sadness finally got that one. And each precious person who falls becomes another log on the dumpster fire of a life we still have to crawl through.

If you’ve ever cried out into the void, “Why?” or “How long?” or “Is there any real hope at all?”, then let me put on a new record. It’s called “All in All.”

It’s God’s answer to all of it, and the only solution that truly brings new life out of death. Jesus wades into the mud and blood of death and swallows it all up, so He can change it all into life.

Context

Verse 20: Christ is risen from the dead.
Then Jesus makes us alive with Him.
Then He returns from heaven: the second coming.
And then comes the end.

The Text (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

Then comes the end, when Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after He has destroyed every ruler, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put everything in subjection under His feet. (When it says “everything” has been put under Him, it obviously doesn’t include God Himself, who put everything under Christ.) And when everything has been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to the One who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all.

The End Is a Beginning (1 Corinthians 15:24)

The culmination of God’s perfect plan is this “end,” when Jesus hands the kingdom to the Father.

I love a good movie ending, where everything gets resolved. And I get fired up when there isn’t one. I’ll accept a cliffhanger, as long as I know there’s a sequel coming. (I’m still mad at a TV show that got canceled on a cliffhanger years ago.)

In a way, Jesus left us with a cliffhanger. He rose from the dead, spent forty days with His followers, ascended, and the “movie” ended. But the sequel is coming: the one where Jesus returns as King and sets everything right according to His Father’s will.

That’s called the kingdom.
People and God reunited. Humanity as God’s counterpart, filled with His Spirit. The bride of Christ.
And the sin that caused all our death and separation from God destroyed forever.

Paul says God’s eternal purpose is to bring everything in heaven and on earth together under one head, Christ, when the times reach their fulfillment (Ephesians 1:10). Here he looks ahead to the moment when everything is resolved in Jesus, and Jesus presents it all to the Father, giving glory to the God who authored the plan of the ages. Resolved. Fixed. Redeemed.

By raising Christ from the dead, God set in motion a chain of events that must end with the final destruction of death, and with God being, as in eternity past, all in all.

Every Enemy Destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:24-26)

“When He puts an end to all rule, authority and power.”

Everything that rebels against God will be destroyed.
Everything that has ruined His perfect creation.
Everything used to hurt people or make them suffer.
Jesus will destroy all of it, so He can rule the way only He can: with love and justice for all.
He’s the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:9-10; Revelation 5:5).
God will fix everything, in His perfect timing. Including death.

“For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

In New Covenant language, this means Jesus is reigning as King right now. His victory over sin and death was won through His death and resurrection. He’s seated at God’s right hand, and He reigns until every enemy is subdued (Psalm 110:1; Hebrews 10:12-13).

The “enemies” are every form of opposition to God’s kingdom: sin, death and the spiritual forces of evil.
“Under His feet” is a picture of total victory. Jesus has ultimate authority, and everything will be brought under Him.
The last enemy, death itself, will be destroyed at the final resurrection, when believers are raised to eternal life.
He’s patient. He’s waiting for every one of His saints to be born and discover His grace before He brings it all to a close (2 Peter 3:9).

For believers, this is a source of huge hope and assurance. We live in the reality of Christ’s reign. His victory is secure, and we’re part of His kingdom. We can rest, confident that Jesus is in control and His purposes will be fulfilled.

Yes, death is an enemy. The last enemy.

God didn’t cause death. We did. Our sin did (Romans 5:12).
Yet God gets blamed for it all the time.
And one day He’s going to take care of it, for good.

We got a preview at Jesus’ resurrection, when tombs opened and many holy people who had died were raised, and after His resurrection they appeared to many in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53). Spurgeon called those early skirmishes, foreshadowings of the great victory by which death will finally be overthrown.

“If death is destroyed, why do Christians still die?” Spurgeon answered that since Jesus died, death is no longer a penalty for God’s children; He has abolished it as punishment. Believers pass through death because their bodies must be changed before entering heaven. In that sense, saints don’t so much die as depart.

The Son and the Father (1 Corinthians 15:27-28)

“He has put all things under His feet.” Obviously that doesn’t include the Father, who put everything under the Son.

God the Father is always still the Father.
Jesus delights to submit to His Father, even though they’re equal in every way.
Their relationship displays the humility and love of Father and Son.

When everything is subjected to Him, the Son Himself will also be subject to the Father, so that God may be all in all.

Jesus will always be the Son who loves and serves His Father. Why? Because it shows us God perfectly. We can’t understand everything about God from the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Spirit alone. Each reveals more of God for us to enjoy and worship. One God in three Persons. The Trinity.

What “All in All” Means

The phrase captures God’s ultimate supremacy and fullness in everything. He’s the source, sustainer and ultimate purpose of all creation.

In New Covenant language, it means that through Jesus Christ, God has reconciled everything to Himself, and His presence and power fill every part of life.

For believers, Christ is our everything. We’re complete in Him, lacking nothing. In Him all the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form, and you have been made complete in Him (Colossians 2:9-10).

He is our life.
His Spirit lives in us, guiding and empowering us to live out His love and grace.
We don’t need to strive for more of God, because we already have all of Him living within us.
Our role is to rest in that truth and let His life flow out through us naturally.

A Single Eye

Jesus said the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness, and how great that darkness is (Matthew 6:22-23).

A “good” eye can also be translated a single eye: focused on one thing.
A “bad” eye is a divided one. Double vision will confuse you. You might as well be blind.
What are you looking at? What are you seeing?

Picture a pendulum swinging back and forth between “good” and “bad” circumstances. When my eye is fixed on the swinging, I’m focused on the wrong thing.

Jesus is all in all. He’s the source.
He can send blessings, and He can take the bad and work it for my good (Romans 8:28).
He can use hard things to discipline me as His child (Hebrews 12:10-11).
He always knows what He’s doing.

How can I trust Him? Test His promises. Search His Word, or come and hear His promises taught. Then decide to depend on them, one by one. When your eye is single, fixed on Him, He promises light in your soul.

But what do we usually do? We mostly ignore Him and give Him a token moment each day. That will never work.

He isn’t “all in some,” or all in one part of our lives.
We can’t keep one eye on Him and one eye on everything else.
He is our life. All of our life. We have no real life outside of Him.
And often He waits until we realize this, believe it and fully surrender to it before we really see His power at work in our lives.

Living with a Single Eye

Paul urges us, in view of God’s mercies, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable worship. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you can discover God’s good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2).

That’s how to live with a single eye, focused on Jesus alone, letting Him be your all in all, part of His kingdom work that will one day fill the earth.

Know that you’re holy. Believe it! Believe the gospel.
Then give your holy life back to Jesus every day to serve Him.
Don’t let the world tell you who to be or what to do.
Look to the Word of God for every part of your life. It’s truly sufficient for every need (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Read it and pray through it. That’s how our minds catch up with what God has already accomplished in our spirits by His grace.
This is God’s perfect will for your life.

“Man, I wish I knew God’s perfect will for my life.” Well, here it is! “I mean, I’d rather do something besides read the Bible, pray and believe God’s promises.” Ha!

Live like a child of God who knows you’re loved by God, redeemed by God, and passionate about serving God in love.

Why This Matters

Everywhere we look, something is broken, and someone’s offering a fix that won’t work. But if we simply look to Jesus, He is all in all.

He swallows up the brokenness and sin, and what’s left is God and us. United forever. Able to receive love and give love in a perfect relationship. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and now we’ve been invited in too.

We’re the loving bride of Christ, redeemed from sin by His blood, and called to serve Him with our lives, loving and serving everyone we can reach in the moment we’ve been given.

Will you fully surrender to Jesus today? What are you holding back? Ask God to show you, if you dare.

Jesus will be your all in all, or nothing at all. Which will it be?

Why so extreme? Ask any husband whether he wants his wife to be faithful to him 100 percent of the time, or just 90 percent. In relationships, faithfulness matters. We give our all to Jesus, and He is our all in all.

Grace Takeaway

Every human fix eventually fails, but Jesus is reigning, and He will destroy every enemy, even death. One day God will be all in all. Until then, He’s already your all in all. Fix your single eye on Him, give Him your whole life, and watch Him fill every part of it.

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