コリントの信徒への手紙一15:25-28 1 Corinthians 15:25-28,

すべてが御子に服従するとき、御子自身も、すべてを御自分に服従させてくださった方に服従されます。神がすべてにおいてすべてとなられるためです。

（一コリント15:27-28）

父なる神様は、独り子キリストにすべてのものを服従させ、支配をおゆだねになりました。そして、キリストの支配に逆らうものがすべて滅ぼされたときに、キリストご自身も父なる神様に服従して、すべてのものを支配する権威をお返しになり、父なる神様が直接にすべてのものを支配し、すべてのものが父なる神様に服従するようになる、ということなのです。言い換えますと、この世界が最初に創造されたときのように、父なる神様が直接にすべてを支配され、すべてがよい状態で安らいでいる平和の状態が最後に到来する、ということです。

宗教改革者のカルヴァンは、この「神がすべてにおいてすべてとなられる」ということを、終わりの日における「来るべき安息の完成」であると理解しています。そして、十戒の「安息日を心に留め、これを聖別せよ」という戒めは、「この完成を求めて安息のたえざる瞑想を通じてあこがれるため」にあると述べています（渡辺信夫訳1962年版、第2篇8章30）。つまり、私たちが週に一度自分の仕事を休んで神様を礼拝するのは、私たちの人生の歩みとこの世界の歴史が「安息の完成」によって終わるということを思い起こし、それを待ち望むためであるということです。

また、16世紀に作られたキリスト教の教えの要約であるハイデルベルク信仰問答は、「神がすべてにおいてすべてとなられる」ということを「御国を来らせたまえ」という主の祈りの言葉と結びつけて理解しています。そして、「御国を来らせたまえ」とは、「あなたがすべてのすべてとなられる御国の完成に至るまで、わたしたちがいよいよあなたにお従いできますよう、あなたの御言葉と聖霊とによってわたしたちを治めてください、あなたの教会を保ち進展させてください、あなたに逆らい立つ悪魔の業やあらゆる力、あなたの聖なる御言葉に反して考え出されるすべての邪悪な企てを滅ぼしてください、ということです」（吉田隆訳、問123の答）と教えています。つまり、私たちは主の祈りを祈るたびに、世界の歴史が完成に向かって進んで行って、父なる神様ご自身がこの世界を完全に支配してくださる日が来るのを待ち望むのです。　　　　　　　　　（4月14日の説教より）

The present day is an age of unpredictability and continuing difficulties. We would like to go about our daily lives with a firm outlook that God has given us. Of course, there are many unpredictable things that happen in life, and no one can have a perfect outlook. However, blessed is the person who is firmly aware of the purpose of one’s life on earth, and who, if allowed, can have the outlook to live in the world and leave the world for that purpose. Such a person will be able to live a full life without wealth, status or honour. And in order to have a certain outlook on life, one must have an outlook on the history of the world. If you have an outlook on the history of the world and can place your life within that outlook, you can live with the conviction that what you are doing now has this meaning in the history of the world. In this way, you will be able to discern that what appears to be useless is actually not useless, and what appears to be important is actually not so important.

Augustine was one of the greatest ancient Christian leaders. Augustine was born in 354 and died in 430 at the age of 75; he was baptised in 387 in his mid-30s, became a priest in the North African city of Hippo in 391 and a bishop in 396, writing many important works while leading the church. Augustine lived during a turbulent period when the glory of the Roman Empire was coming to an end: in 395, the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western parts, and the so-called Great Migration of Germanic tribes invaded and devastated the western Roman Empire; in 410, Visigoths, led by Alaric I, attacked the Roman capital, destroying public buildings and looting the city. People were shocked by the destruction and loot of Rome, which was said to be the eternal city. Believers in Roman mythology then claimed that Christianity was to blame for the destruction and loot of the Roman city.

Against that claim, Augustine wrote a major work, The City of God, in which he calmly argued that the decline of the Roman Empire was due to the lack of justice in the country. In other words, he foresaw that a country lacking justice, no matter how powerful, would be doomed. In contrast, he offered the far-reaching outlook that the kingdom of God would one day be completed and eternal peace would come. At the end of his work The City of God, Augustine writes of the day when the kingdom of God will be completed: “There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise. This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?” Augustine left this world with a far-reaching vision of the completion of the kingdom of God, as chaos spread throughout the Western Roman Empire and the city of Hippo was besieged by the Vandals.

If the Christian faith had been a mere temporary comfort rather than a vision of world history, it would not have been widely believed by the world at large. In today’s passage, the apostle Paul makes it clear where the ultimate goal of this world’s history lies. In response to some of the believers of the Corinthian church, which had argued that dead people could not be resurrected, Paul states in 15:12-19 of this letter that if there were no resurrection of the dead, Christians would be “misrepresenting God” and “of all people most to be pitied.” But the fact is the opposite, he teaches in verses 20-23 that Christ has been raised from the dead and that Christians will be resurrected like him on the Last Day. Then, in verse 24, he tells us that at “the end” of the Last Day, Christ “delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”

Following these, today’s passage is a carefully Old Testament-based teaching on the final goal of world history, i.e., the completion of God’s rule. In verse 25, Paul writes: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet,” providing the rationale for verse 24: “he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” So what does it mean that “he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet”? When I gave an exposition on verse 24, I told you that “rule,” “authority,” and “power” are, firstly, the various powers that rule over the earth, and secondly, the spiritual powers, or demonic powers, that rule over the hearts of men, which can also be called the power of death. Also, the term “he must reign” gives the impression that there is a special nation somewhere on earth and that he rules over it, but this is not the case. The Greek word used here, basileuō (βασιλεύω), means to exercise authority at a royal level. The newer versions of the Shinkaiyaku Bible used by evangelical churches in Japan translate it as “to reign as king,” which better conveys the meaning of the original text. It then becomes clear that the passage means that Christ will continue to reign as king over the whole world and the whole universe until he comes to have complete his reign over the authorities and demons that oppose him.

This was actually prophesied beforehand in the Old Testament. Namely, in Psalm 110:1 of the Old Testament, it says: “Sit at my right hand,     until I make your enemies your footstool.” This means that in the original Old Testament context, God gave the king of Israel the same authority as God to rule over his enemies. The New Testament interpreted this passage as a prophecy of Christ. For example, in Acts 2:34, the apostle Peter quotes this Psalm 110:1 in reference to Christ’s resurrection and ascension, and in Acts 2:36 he preaches to the people of Jerusalem that “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” This means that Christ will continue to rule over the whole world and the whole universe as king until he completes his reign.

However, some may question this. If Christ has risen from the dead and taken his place on the throne of heaven, does that not complete his reign? This is the question. This is similar to the case of a man who is newly crowned king of a kingdom on earth, but whose reign is not yet complete if there are those in the kingdom who refuse to obey him or who rebel against him. As the Apostles’ Creed confesses, “He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” Christ is on the throne of heaven, but there remain powers in this world that oppose him. It is, as I said earlier, the powers of this world and the demonic powers that oppose Christ. And the demonic powers can be described as the power of death. So Paul says in verse 26: “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” As I preached last week, life is given by being connected to God, the source of life. The soul, connected to God by faith, is alive even if the body dies. However, the soul that is not in normal fellowship with God is under the power of death. The reality of the world is that even though Christ rules on the throne of heaven, there are many souls under the power of death. Therefore, in “the end” of the Last day, Christ will destroy the power of death itself, as verse 26 says: “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” And any power that hinders the normal fellowship between God and man will cease to exist.

Paul explains the basis on which such an outlook is given by another Old Testament passage: the first half of verse 27 reads, “For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” This is a quotation from Psalm 8:7 in the Old Testament. Psalm 8 is a psalm that praises the greatness of God who created this world and sings about the wonder of his commissioning human beings to govern it. Thus, in verses 6 and 7 of Psalm 8, the psalmist recites, “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” In this Old Testament context, “he” refers to the entire human race. The New Testament, however, applies this “he” to the true man, Jesus Christ. For example, Hebrews 2:8-9 applies “he” of Psalm 8 to Christ and interprets the words of Psalm 8 as prophetic of his crucifixion and resurrection. In today’s passage, Paul interprets Psalm 8:7, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,” to mean that God the Father has put all things under the feet of Christ to submit to him. It then indicates that this reign of Christ will be completed at some future date.

The end of world history is not only the completion of Christ’s rule. The second half of verse 27 to verse 28 states as follows.

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. 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.

This passage is written in a logical way and may seem difficult to understand at first reading. However, what is written is not difficult to understand. God the Father has subjected all things to Christ, his only Son, and has given him reign over them. And when all that opposes Christ’s reign is destroyed, Christ himself will submit to God the Father and return his authority over all things, so that God the Father will directly rule over all things and all things will submit to God the Father. In other words, God the Father will directly rule over everything, just as he did when the world was first created, and a state of peace will finally arrive where everything is good and at rest.

The religious reformer Calvin understood this “God may be all in all” as “the future perfection of his sabbath on the Last Day.” He states that the commandment in the Ten Commandments to “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy” is “that by continual meditation on the Sabbath, they might throughout their whole lives aspire to this perfection.” This means that the reason we take a rest from our own work once a week to worship God is to remind ourselves that our lives’ journey and the history of this world will end with the “perfection of his sabbath” and to aspire to this perfection. The Heidelberg Catechism, a 16th century summary of Christian teachings, also understands that God “will be all in all” in connection with the words of the Lord’s Prayer,“Your kingdom come.” And “Your kingdom come” means as follows.

Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you.

Preserve your church and make it grow.

Destroy the devil’s work; destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy Word.

Do this until your kingdom fully comes, when you will be all in all.

 

In other words, every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we look forward to the day when the history of the world will move towards perfection and God the Father himself will take complete rule of this world. Those who pray sincerely, “Your kingdom come” are looking forward with hope to the day when God the Father’s rule will be complete and our salvation will be complete.

The fact that God’s salvation history will one day be completed may sound like a information that has nothing to do with our daily lives. But in fact it never is the information that has nothing to do with us. From 2020 to 2023, a novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) spread over almost the entire earth. And many people suffered because of it: in February 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine, starting a war between Russia and Ukraine. More than two years later, the war is still not expected to end. Last year, in October 2023, the Islamic organisation Hamas carried out a terrorist attack on Israeli territory, to which Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in the name of self-defence, killing so many civilians. In Russia, China and North Korea, autocratic powers continue to rule. And countries around the world are building up their military forces in the cause of defending their own countries. Not only that, last summer’s heat wave in our country and this winter’s mild winter remind us that global warming climate change is becoming more and more advanced and that the global environment is in serious crisis.

All this makes us pessimistic that the future of human race on this planet is becoming increasingly dark and miserable. And in their pessimism, many people may become self-centred, wanting only to save themselves, or throw themselves into whatever they want. Thus, today we are facing a crisis of moral decay among people in many different countries. But it is precisely in these dark times that we Christians should walk with the outlook of the completion of salvation history on the Last Day. History is moving towards the Last Day, when the proud powers will be judged and destroyed, and those who have lived according to Christ will be resurrected to the bodies of eternal life. Let us therefore trust in Christ as the final judge and live with the hope of the completion of salvation in the midst of tribulation.