09.06 All Things in Subjection

9 - God All in All; Section 6 ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION

"Then comes the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have PUT DOWN all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has PUT all enemies UNDER HIS FEET. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says all things are PUT UNDER Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did PUT all things UNDER HIM. And when ALL THINGS shall be SUBDUED UNTO 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 15:24-28). In the 27th and 28th verses one single verb meaning "put in subjection" is used six times. It is variously translated as "put under," "subdue," and "be subject." Paul chooses this word to make clear his meaning that ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE are to be brought INTO SUBJECTION to God. To bring into subjection is to bring into obedience. There can be no reconciliation, no harmony, no orderly Kingdom, no "God all in all" without a subjugation; and as God accepts nothing but a willing obedience, He plans to bring ALL to a willing obedience to His will. God does not make anyone do anything. But He certainly knows how to "make" us WILLING! God didn’t "make" Jonah go to Nineveh, but He DID MAKE HIM WILLING to go!

"Who will transform the body of our humiliation into a conformity with His glorious body, according to the energy by which He is able to SUBJECT ALL THINGS to Himself" (Php 3:21). The power that transforms our bodies into the likeness of His glorious body, is the same power that will subdue ALL THINGS unto Him. They will become His subjects, and own Him as their King. Some erroneously teach that THINGS does not mean people, that it only means nature, thrones, governmental positions, etc. If so, God loves the created inanimate THINGS more than man who was made in His image! That is but another of Babylon’s infamous lies, a deceitful smokescreen to keep the Lord’s precious people from the truth. The Scriptures plainly repudiate such an untenable position. Of course ALL THINGS includes ALL PEOPLE! Numerous passages could be cited, but I share only two briefly, to establish the point. "Therefore let no man glory in men. For ALL THINGS are yours; whether PAUL, or APOLLOS, or CEPHAS, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; ALL are yours" (1 Corinthians 3:21-22). It should be plain to anyone that people - Paul, Apollos, and Cephas - are among the ALL THINGS that Paul enumerates as belonging to the saints. Such other items as "the world" and "life" are included with them as "things." No less illustrious a personage than our blessed Lord Jesus Christ is called in Scripture a "thing." "The angel answered and said unto her ... that HOLY THING which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). The real proof, however, lies right within the passage under consideration. "For HE hath put ALL THINGS under His feet. But when He says ALL THINGS are put under Him, it is manifest that HE is excepted, which did put ALL THINGS under Him" (1 Corinthians 15:27). Now, I am sure that all will admit that GOD is a person. God is not an inanimate object or an abstract governmental position. He is a living being! And He is the only thing, according to Paul, that is NOT SUBDUED UNTO THE CHRIST. Thus the internal evidence in our text reveals beyond any shadow of a doubt that within the scope of the "all things" subdued unto Christ and delivered up to the Father are ALL LIVING BEINGS other than God Himself. None can contradict this fact but those so bound in the darkness of error that they no longer care what the Word of God says - they will fight to the end for their man-made traditions! The description, moreover, of this consummation in the verses quoted is so sweeping that words and terms mean nothing at all if it does not set forth total and universal homage paid by WILLING HEARTS to Christ, and thus to God. Some have the idea that the subjection referred to is something like the subjection of the Jews in the Nazi concentration camps during the second world war. Those who hold that view envision billions of people confined to the lake of fire screaming, cursing, hating and blaspheming God in their torments, but subjected, confined, held by force, unable to escape, or to ever again be free to spread their sin and rebellion through God’s universe - but never changed. But notice, precious friend of mine, the very same Greek word that suffices to describe the complete and loving subjection of the Son to the Father, is used to declare what is the nature of the submission of all things under the Son’s rule and reign. There will be nothing anywhere that is any longer antagonistic to God, therefore the reason why Christ’s REDEMPTIVE REIGN comes to an end, and He hands over to God all the subjugated and loyal realms of heaven and earth and hell that He may become "All in All." The same word for "subdue" is used in other places for the kind of subjection that Christ yielded to His parents, that the Church gives to Christ, and that God’s children render to their Father - the identical subjugation into which Christ will bring all things when the consummation of His reign arrives. This kind of total subjugation to God is that which is being wrought in the "firstfruit company" in this hour. Have you totally surrendered yourself to God? This is what God demands. In numerous places, in various ways, in different words, God says the same thing over and over again. And yet, sometimes it seems that we fail to get the message: Yield yourselves to God. Submit yourselves to Christ. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices. Die to self. Lay down your life. Present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness but as instruments of righteousness unto God. Put off the old man. Put on the mind of Christ. Walk in the Spirit. Over and over again, God says the same thing. And what He now requires of us, His firstfruits, He ultimately requires of the whole creation! He wants us to yield ourselves to Him. Andrew Murray, in a great monograph on this subject, calls our attention to the encounter that King Ahab had with Ben-hadad, king of Syria. From that encounter, Murray draws a very significant lesson. Perhaps you recall the situation.

Ben-hadad ruled over Syria, located to the north of Israel. The wicked King Ahab was the monarch reigning over the Northern Kingdom from the capital city of Samaria. Ben-hadad gathered together his hosts which he described as more numerous than all the dust of Samaria. He, along with thirty-two other kings, attacked and devastated the countryside of Israel. Finally they surrounded the capital of Samaria. And here they stood in a vast unnumbered seriate array of tanks, thousands upon thousands of foot soldiers, chariots, and horsemen - all with their bright and beautiful shields and spears and armor shining in the sun. Totally surrounding the city for as far as the eye could see, they "warred against Samaria," we are told.

Just how long the battle continued, we are not told. It may have been an extended period of time, but one thing is certain. The rebellious King Ahab of Samaria was brought to complete submission to Ben-hadad. All hope for King Ahab fled. There was to be no victory for him. There was to be no conditional surrender. Instead, he lost everything. The message came from Ben-hadad: "Thus says Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine." When Ahab received this message he didn’t resist - and curse and blaspheme Ben-hadad. No! He responded, "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am yours, and all that I have." Now, what Ben-hadad demanded was ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL SURRENDER. And what Ahab gave was total surrender: "I am yours, and all that I have." Ah, here is a picture of that which God demands of us, who are in rebellion against Him, the just and only Potentate. God comes to us and demands that we surrender to Him. He demands it of the whole creation! This is what it means when it says that He subjects to Himself ALL RULE AND ALL AUTHORITY AND POWER AND ALL THINGS. Glory to His name!

It seems that, usually, we are ready to do almost anything but surrender ourselves to God. I recall the time when the British general came to surrender to Washington. The general began with a flowery speech in which he praised Washington for his magnificent military tactics and the way he had conducted the campaigns. He was eloquently praising Washington when Washington suddenly interrupted him with these words: "Your sword, sir!" Similarly, we come to offer God the flattery of our lips, the praise of our hymns. And God is saying to us, "Your sword, sir!" Surrender is what God wants! Total surrender of our lives! The following words by George D. Watson will help us see the unsurpassable beauty and majesty of what it really means to be SUBDUED UNTO God. "Before God can launch us out into the breadth and sweetness of His service, and entrust to us great things for Himself, we must be perfectly subdued in every part of our nature to His will and disposition of His mind. We must be subdued in our hearts, in our wills, in our words, in our tempers, in our manners; subdued through and through so thoroughly that we will be flexible to all His purposes and plans. We must be subdued that harshness, severity, criticism, sluggishness, laziness, impetuosity, and all wanting our way, even in religious matters, must be subdued out of us. Conversion will not finish this work.

"We must be subdued, not merely in our own opinion, not merely think ourselves subdued, not only subdued in the esteem of our friends and fellow workers, but subdued so perfectly that the all-seeing eye of God can look us through, and the omniscient One knows that we are subdued. God must conquer the man that He can trust with His great thoughts and plans. The Holy Ghost must saturate us with a divine conquest, before He can use us to conquer other souls. The Lord will begin to subdue us with gentle means; and if we sink lovingly and promptly into His mind, the work will be done; but, if we have flint or iron in our nature, and it is necessary, He will use heroic means and put us between the millstones and grind us to powder, until He can mold us without any resistance to His purpose. We must be so subdued that we can hold our tongues, and walk softly with God, keep our eyes upon Jesus, attend to our own work, and do God’s will promptly and lovingly, glad to have a place in His Kingdom.

"Oh! it is grand to be absolutely conquered by the Holy Ghost, and swing out a thousand miles from everybody and everything into the ocean of God’s presence. When we are subdued in the sight of God, He will work miracles in us, and power in experience, in healing, in finance, in service, in gentleness, and in sweetness of the inner heart life; miracles of grace that will astonish us and surprise our friends, and utterly amaze our enemies, when they come to know the magnitude of what God has wrought. Let us get subdued in every way, in everything!" - end quote.

Oh, the ineffable glory to be revealed when ALL RULE AND ALL AUTHORITY AND ALL POWER AND ALL ENEMIES AND ALL THINGS SHALL BE SUBDUED UNTO CHRIST AND GOD SHALL BE ALL IN ALL! What anticipation this stirs in our hearts!

Oh! the beauty of God’s plan of the ages! "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9). It is a fundamental and wonderful fact that salvation is of the Lord and not man, but the Lord does not save all in this age. Why not? He does save some; and if He saves some, why not others? Is it because they are too sinful and depraved? No; for the apostle wrote, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief " (1 Timothy 1:15). Therefore, if God saved the "chief" of sinners, none are excluded because of their depravity. Why then does God not now save all? Is it because some are too stony-hearted to be won? No; because of the most stony-hearted people of all it is written, that God will yet "take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). Then is it because some are so stubborn, so intractable, so defiant, so incorrigible that God is unable to woo them to Himself?

I shall answer that question by asking another. Beloved, was there not a time when you walked in the counsel of the ungodly, stood in the way of sinners, sat in the seat of the scornful, and with them said, "We will not have this Man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14)? Was there not a time when you "would not come to Christ that you might have life" (John 5:40)? With shamed face most of those who read these lines have to acknowledge there was. But how is it that all is now changed? What was it that brought you from haughty self-sufficiency to a humble suppliant, from one that was at enmity with God to one that is at peace with Him, from lawlessness to subjection, from hate to love? And, as one born of the Spirit, you will readily reply, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

What is it that caused you to put your trust in Christ? Is it because you were more intelligent than your fellows, and quicker to discern your need of salvation? Perish the thought - "Who makes you to differ from another? And what have you that you did not receive? Now if you didn’t receive it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it" (1 Corinthians 4:7)? Then do you not see that it is due to no lack of power in God, nor to His refusal to coerce man, that other rebels are not now saved too? If God was able to subdue your heart, then is He not able to do the same for others? Assuredly He is! Then how inconsistent, how illogical, how foolish of men to argue that God is unable to save the masses of hell-bent humanity because THEY WILL NOT LET HIM. Do you say, "But the time came when I was willing, willing to receive Christ as my Saviour." True, but it was the Lord who made you willing! (Psalms 110:3; Php 2:13).

Why then does He not make other sinners willing? The answer is of course: HE WILL! "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive. BUT EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER: a firstfruit Anointed; afterwards they that are Christ’s at His appearing. Then ... the end, when ... ALL SHALL BE SUBDUED UNTO HIM ... that God may be ALL IN ALL." I shall fight that battle for the supremacy of Christ while there is a drop of blood in my body. I shall claim that every foot of this earth and every man upon this earth and under the earth belongs to Christ, for He made the earth and He made every man. He tasted death for every man, and therefore, every foot of the earth; and every man on the earth and under the earth belongs to Christ my Lord. They are His by right of creation and by right of redemption. I claim for His this great and universal Kingdom. The Church has forgotten that Christ came to establish a Kingdom and that it must break in pieces and CONSUME (take into itself) every other kingdom including the devil’s kingdom. The Gospel which Christ preached was the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The hope and aim of all His work was the establishment of the Kingdom of God. When the end shall come, He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, and in it will be everything God created, that God may be ALL IN ALL. We who preach this Gospel of the all-inclusive redemption of Christ preach not a Gospel of limited atonement, nor of a partial Kingdom, nor of a Christ who was a failure, nor of a devil who wins the battle for souls and possesses the souls of untold billions throughout an endless eternity. Such a doctrine would be blasphemy! We preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and of the triumph of that Kingdom in every realm. We demand that every man upon this God’s earth, and under the earth, and in heaven and hell and throughout the universe, shall bow the knee and glorify God by calling Jesus Lord and serving and obeying Him with a willing heart. God shall grant it! If it takes ages upon ages, God shall grant it! After all, what difference does it make as to how long God chooses to take to bring any given thing to pass? The Church world has long been in a frenzy to get the world destroyed and the sinners into hell and all the saints into heaven for eternity. It sort of reminds me of someone driving at dangerous speeds to get somewhere in a hurry so he can sit down and do nothing. Such people have no conception at all of God’s all-wise plan, nor of the intensity of His love, nor of the omnipotence of His power. But God will have the last laugh! Life and death are in HIS hands, none other. God gives life or takes it away. His express will is that ALL be saved, for God "will have all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4). He will get His way. You can count on it!