The challenges in this lesson likely will center in two considerations. First, the concepts will be new to some. Second, everyone will need to think rather than react. The objective is to expand insights. The objective is not to demand agreement.
In God's work of redemption, Jesus' work as a man ended in his death. The resurrected Jesus Christ's work as Lord will end in the restoration of God's sovereignty. Jesus' ultimate goal in a comprehensive view of his God given objective is the restoration of God's sovereignty. Providing us salvation by allowing God to use his death to produce our redemption and forgiveness was a major, essential step toward achieving that objective. As essential as human redemption is to the restoration of God's sovereignty, it was [is] only one necessary step.
Most Christians are quite familiar with Jesus' mission to redeem us and through redemption provide us forgiveness. Many Christians have not spent much time in a study of God's sovereignty. This lesson affirms human redemption was one [but only one] necessary step in restoring total sovereignty to God.
In today's reading, first focus on verses 20-23. In affirming Jesus' resurrection to the Christians at Corinth, Paul gave these insights:
Jesus, as the first one permanently resurrected from death, is the Christian's assurance that our permanent resurrection from death will occur.
Just as death became reality for all through Adam, life became a reality option for all in Jesus Christ.
The order of permanent resurrection: first, Christ [the first fruit]; then all who belong to Christ when he returns.
Help your students understand (1) Paul affirmed these three things in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 and (2) the basic meaning of these three concepts. Paul was discussing a permanent resurrection from the dead. Jesus physically raised some people from the dead to return to their physical existence, but all of them were resurrected to die again. Paul affirmed the permanent resurrection in Jesus. In the illustration concerning Adam, Paul affirmed that a human condition could be passed to all through one person. There is an order to permanent resurrection: first, Christ, later all who belong to Christ.
Paul affirmed the certainty of permanent resurrection for Christians. Then he transitioned to "end" happenings. After the resurrection of those who belong to Christ, "then comes the end."
What will Jesus do when the "end" comes? (1) Jesus will present the kingdom to God. Up to the moment of this presentation, Jesus rules as Lord over the kingdom. Because he is Lord over the kingdom, all authority is vested in him (Matthew 28:18). He rules over Christians [his church] which is to be in subjection to him as its head (Ephesians 1:22, 23).
Jesus Christ will give the kingdom to God the Father.
(2) Immediately preceding his presentation of the kingdom to God is Jesus' complete defeat of everything that opposes God's sovereignty. All rule, power, and authority that opposes God will be abolished. Jesus must continue to reign over the kingdom until he abolishes all that opposes God's sovereignty.
Jesus Christ will return the kingdom to God after he eliminates all opposition to God's sovereignty.
(3) The last of God's enemies that will be abolished is death. Death will be abolished by resurrection. The sovereign God created people to live. Death occurred as a consequence of human rejection of God's sovereignty. People die because the people God created defied [rejected] His sovereignty. Death has its origin in evil. The first force to pervert God's "very good" creation will be the last defiant force Jesus defeats.
The verification that the "end" has come will be the permanent resurrection. Resurrection will mark the defeat of death. See 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
(4) The resurrected Jesus Christ is the reigning Lord over the kingdom. Only one being is not under Jesus Christ as he reigns: God Himself. God made Jesus Lord. God gave Jesus the authority to reign. God excluded Himself from subjection to Jesus Christ.
At this moment Jesus Christ reigns as Lord over all that exists except God the Father.
(5) When the moment arrives that all things, including death, are in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will then subject himself to God [willingly]. Jesus Christ's objective will be achieved: God's sovereignty will be restored. Jesus Christ will subject himself to God in order that God may be the "all in all." When that occurs, God [the "all in all"] will possess complete sovereignty over all things.
The concluding, culminating act of the Lord Jesus Christ's reign will be to place himself in subjection to God by giving the kingdom to God. Through this act, the sovereign God will again be the "all in all."
Today's Christian needs two essential understandings concerning Jesus subjecting himself to God in order for God to be the "all in all." First, this subjection of Jesus Christ to God in no way diminishes who Jesus Christ is to us or what Jesus Christ did and does for us. There is no suggestion that Jesus Christ will be forced to subject himself to God by surrendering the kingdom to God. This willful subjection fulfills Jesus' objective, completes his purpose. God sent Jesus (1) to be our Savior and (2) to reign as the resurrected Lord. These were [are] complimentary steps toward the same objective: the restoration of God's complete sovereignty so that God can be the "all in all."
It is very important for Christians to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ subjecting himself to God in the "end" in no way takes away from the importance of Jesus Christ being our redeemer who provides us opportunity for forgiveness. Becoming our redeemer was his first step in restoring God's sovereignty.
Second, human redemption was a necessary part [an essential step] in restoring God's sovereignty. This earth's attack on God's sovereignty began through human rebellion. It began when people through rebellion rejected God's will. It began when people thought that knowing evil was desirable. An essential step in restoring God's sovereignty was people acknowledging God's sovereignty by accepting it through surrender. While that surrender could be achieved through force, that was not our loving God's desire. In love, God created people. In love, God willed to heal people's rebellion against Him.
The first sin perverted God's entire "very good" creation. Humans yielding to evil resulted in a rebellious creation. God's sovereignty was defied! The world God created was in rebellion! Certainly God could have reestablished His sovereignty by a total destruction of everything in rebellion. But the loving God wanted to provide people with the option of voluntarily surrendering to His sovereignty.
A loving, merciful God wanted [wants] human acceptance of His sovereignty to be achieved by willful human surrender. God's sovereignty over people can be achieved by people's willful surrender to His love or by force. God's preference is human willful surrender to His love. That preference is why God expressed the depth of His love for us through Jesus' unjust death. God provided us reason to yield to His sovereignty and produced opportunity for us to accept His sovereignty with gratitude.
God had [and still has] the power to reestablish His sovereignty through force. Love and mercy are a part of God's being. God's justice rightfully could use His power to force everything in rebellion to accept His sovereignty. However, that course of action would place divine justice in conflict with divine love and mercy. In divine love, God made enormous, sacrificial efforts to make voluntary human surrender to His sovereignty possible.
Remember: God, our Creator, uses love to become our sovereign. Evil, our source of temptation, uses deceit to become our sovereign. God is rightfully sovereign. Evil has no right to be sovereign. For God to be sovereign is just. For evil to be sovereign is unjust.
Sovereignty over humans rightfully belongs to God. He created humans. He gave life. Sovereignty over humans does not rightfully belong to evil. God creates. Evil deceives.
A concluding thought: Christians [the church] through ignorance have endorsed evil's perspective and called their deception God's will. This is the basis of the deception: God's will can be [even should be] reduced to "correct acts." "Correct acts" can be reduced to "correct procedures" and "correct positions." In that reasoning a Christian's "faith" is much more a matter of "your position on this issue" and "how you perform what 'we' regard as approved religious acts" instead of a life declaration about the transformation of the Christian.
The point is simple: yielding to God's sovereignty involves much more than correct acts, correct procedures, and correct positions. As important as those three considerations are, those three things are [by themselves] inadequate for a complete surrender to God's sovereignty. The faith in God that controls a person's thoughts and emotions [mind and heart] must involve more than controlling external behavior. It must involve the transformation of the person.
Increasingly, in deeply troubled lives among Christians [from children who feel rejected and abused in Christians homes, to Christian marriages in crisis, to Christian singles who live ungodly lifestyles], a fact becomes quite evident. This fact: many Christians are not afraid of evil and see no danger in evil. These Christians are quite comfortable with allowing evil to dominate areas of their lives as long as they "hold the correct religious positions" and follow "correct religious procedures" on what they conclude are "essential religious occasions."
Teachings and emphases that encourage Christians to conclude that God is primarily pleased through external acts fail to help Christians see the enormous contrast between God's nature/ character and evil's nature/character.
Because they have little knowledge or understanding of God's sovereignty, they have little fear of evil. Then when life and relationships fall apart, they are baffled and confused by the agony of their failures. After all, they did the "correct things" by following the "correct procedures" on the "correct occasions." Never have they understood evil's nature. Never have they understood the importance of a Christian's "being" or "becoming." Never have they understood why evil is their enemy. Sadly, they are more afraid of God and hell than they are of evil.
The more Christians spiritually mature in their understanding of the enormous contrast between God's nature/character and evil's nature/character, the more they want to flee from evil toward God. Their understanding of transformation grows, and they do not want evil to control any part of their hearts or minds.
Discussion: share your insights stirred by this lesson.
This sharing will be an individual reaction to the concepts of this lesson.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 9