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resurrection. The very goal of the ages is impossible without it.
This is
shown in the verses that follow:
1 Corinthians 15:24-28
A
15:24.
The end.
B
a
15:24. when He delivers up the kingdom.
b
15:24. when He abolishes all rule.
c
15:25. For He must reign.
d
15:25. Till all enemies under foot.
d
15:26. The last enemy; death abolished.
c
15:27. For He hath put all things under His
feet.
b
15:27. when The one exception.
a
15:28. when The Son Himself subjected.
A
15:28. That God may be all in all.
There is no word for `cometh' in the original of verse 24. It simply
reads `Then the end'. Some understand the words to mean `Then the end rank',
but we can find no justification for such a rendering. Cremer, in his note
on to telos says, that this word does not primarily denote the end,
termination, with reference to time, but the goal reached, the completion or
conclusion at which anything arrives, either as issues or ending; or as a
result, acme, consummation, e.g., polemon telos, `victory' (literally, `the
end of war', end, not measuring time but object); telos andros, `the full age
of man' (not the end of man -- death), also of the `ripening of seed'. In
Luke 1:33 and Mark 3:26 the idea of termination seems uppermost. The idea of
issue, end, conclusion, is seen in Matthew 26:58, `To see the end'; James
5:11, `Ye have seen the end of the Lord'; 1 Peter 4:17, `What shall the end
be of them that obey not the gospel?'
The idea of a goal reached is seen in Romans 6:21, `The end of those
things is death'; Philippians 3:19, `Whose end is destruction'. So also 2
Corinthians 11:15; Hebrews 6:8. When the apostle wrote the words of 1
Corinthians 15:24 `Then the end', what goal had he in view? What is the
object of resurrection? Does it not take man back into the place intended
for him in the Divine purpose, for which sin and death had for a while
rendered him unfit? The goal, this end in view, is contained in the words of
1 Corinthians 15:28, `That God may be all in all'. Although `the end' is
mentioned immediately after the resurrection of those that are Christ's at
His parousia, it is not attained without a reign of righteousness and a rule
of iron. The uninterrupted statement at the end is as follows:
`Then the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father ... with the object that God may be all in all' (1 Cor.
15:24-28).
The reader is aware, however, that the end is not attained in this
unbroken sequence. The first `When' is conditional upon the second, `When He
shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power'. This will not be
effected by one grand miraculous stroke, but by the reign of Christ as King,
`For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet'. He reigns
`till'; His reign has one supreme `end', and that end cannot be reached while
one unsubdued enemy exists. All this, be it noted, is long after the
Millennium. (See Millennial Studies9).