Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:24

Then [cometh] 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.

24. Then cometh the end ] The end, the completion, that is, of the present order of things, when sin and death cease to be, and ‘the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,’ Rev 11:15.

when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ] The passage suggests to us the idea of a prince, the heir-apparent of the kingdom, going out to war, and bringing the spoils and trophies of his conquest to his father’s feet. Such an idea must have recurred with fresh vividness to the minds of the early Christians a few years afterwards, when they saw Titus bringing the spoils of the holy city of the old covenant, the ‘figure of the true,’ to his father Vespasian, and must have led them to look forward with eager expectation to the time when types and shadows should have their end, and the kingdom be the Lord’s, and He the governor among the people. At the Last Day, Christ as man shall receive the submission of all God’s enemies, and then lay them, all His triumphs, all those whom He has delivered captive from the hand of the enemy, at His Father’s feet. “Not,” says Estius, “that Christ shall cease to reign,” for ‘of His kingdom there shall be no end,’ St Luk 1:33 (cf. Dan 7:14; Heb 1:8; Heb 2:8), but that He will, by laying all His conquests at His Father’s feet, proclaim Him as the source of all authority and power. There were certain heretics, the followers of Marcellus of Ancyra, who taught that Christ’s kingdom should come to an end, holding the error of the Sabellians that Christ was an emanation from the Father, and would be finally reabsorbed into the Father’s personality. It is supposed that the words, “Whose kingdom shall have no end,” were inserted in the Nicene Creed at the Council of Constantinople, a. d. 381, with a view to this error. The words, God, even the Father, are perhaps best translated into English by God the Father. So Tyndale renders.

when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power ] Put down, literally, brought to an end. See ch. 1Co 13:10. All rule, that is, all exercise of authority save his own; princehead, Wiclif; all authority, that is, the right to exercise dominion; all power ( virtus, Vulg.; vertu, Wiclif, see note on ch. 1Co 1:18), that is, all the inherent faculty of exercising authority. For earthly relations, such as those of father, magistrate, governor, prince, are but partial types and manifestations of the Divine Headship. Even Christ’s Humanity is but the revelation and manifestation of the Being of God. But ‘when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.’ Such human relations shall cease, for they shall be no more needed. Cf. Col 2:10.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Then cometh the end – Then is the end; or then is the consummation. It does not mean that the end, or consummation is to follow that event; but that this will be the ending, the winding up, the consummation of the affairs under the mediatorial reign of Christ. The word end ( telos) denotes properly a limit, termination, completion of anything. The proper and obvious meaning of the word here is, that then shall be the end or completion of the work of redemption. That shall have been done which was intended to be done by the incarnation and the work of the atonement; the race shall be redeemed; the friends of God shall be completely recovered; and the administration of the affairs of the universe shall be conducted as they were before the incarnation of the Redeemer. Some understand the word end here, however, as a metaphor, meaning the last, or the rest of the dead; but this is a forced and improbable interpretation. The word end here may refer to the end of human affairs, or the end of the kingdoms of this world, or it may refer to the ends of the mediatorial kingdom of the Redeemer; the consummation of his special reign and work resulting in the surrender of the kingdom to the Father. The connection demands the last interpretation, though this involves also the former.

When he shall have delivered up – ( parado). This word means properly to give near, with, or to anyone; to give over, to deliver up – Robinson. It is applied to the act of delivering up persons to the power or authority of others, as e. g. to magistrates for trial, and condemnation, Mat 5:25; Mar 15:1; Luk 20:20; to lictors, or soldiers, for punishment Mat 18:24; or to ones enemies, Mat 26:15. It is applied also to persons or things delivered over or surrendered to do or suffer anything, Act 15:26; 1Co 13:3; Eph 4:19. It is also applied to persons or things delivered over to the care, charge, or supervision of anyone, in the sense of giving up, entrusting, committing, Mat 11:27; Mat 25:14; Luk 4:6, Luk 4:10, Luk 4:22. Here the obvious sense is that of surrendering, giving back, delivering up, rendering up that which had been received, implying that an important trust had been received, which was now to be rendered back. And according to this interpretation, it means:

1. That the Lord Jesus had received or been entrusted with an important power or office as mediator; compare the note on Mat 18:18.

(2)That he had executed the purpose implied in that trust or commission; and,

1. That he was now rendering back to God that office or authority which he had received at his hands.

As the work had been accomplished which had been contemplated in his design; as there would be no further necessity for mediation when redemption should have been made, and his church recovered from sin and brought to glory; there would be no further need of that special arrangement which had been implied in the work of redemption, and, of course, all the entrustment of power involved in that would be again restored to the hands of God. The idea, says Grotius, is, that he would deliver up the kingdom as the governors of provinces render again or deliver up their commission and authority to the Caesars who appointed them. There is no absurdity in this view. For if the world was to be redeemed, it was necessary that the Redeemer should be entrusted with power sufficient for his work. When that work was done, and there was no further need of that special exercise of power, then it would be proper that it should be restored, or that the government of God should be administered as it was before the work of redemption was undertaken; that the Divinity, or the Godhead, as such, should preside over the destinies of the universe. Of course, it will not follow that the Second Person of the Trinity will surrender all power, or cease to exercise government. It will be that power only which he had as Mediator; and whatever part in the administration of the government of the universe he shared as divine before the incarnation, he will still share, with the additional glory and honor of having redeemed a world by his death.

The kingdom – This word means properly dominion, reign, the exercise of kingly power. In the New Testament it means commonly the reign of the Messiah, or the dominion which God would exercise through the Messiah; the reign of God over people by the laws and institutions of the Messiah; see the note on Mat 3:2. Here it means, I think, evidently, dominion in general. It cannot denote the peculiar administration over the world involved in the work of mediation, for that will be ended; but it means that the empire, the sovereignty, shall have been delivered up to God. His enemies shall have been subdued. His power shall have been asserted. The authority of God shall have been established, and the kingdom, or the dominion, shall be in the hands of God himself; and he shall reign, not in the special form which existed in the work of mediation, but absolutely, and as he did over obedient minds before the incarnation.

To God – To God as God; to the Divinity. The Mediator shall have given up the special power and rule as Mediator, and it shall be exercised by God as God.

Even the Father – And ( kai) the Father. The word Father, as applied to God in the Scriptures, is used in two senses – to designate the Father, the first person of the Trinity as distinguished from the Son; and in a broader, wider sense, to denote God as sustaining the relation of a Father to his creatures; as the Father of all. Instances of this use are too numerous to be here particularly referred to. It is in this latter sense, perhaps, that the word is used here – not to denote that the second person of the Trinity is to surrender all power into the hands of the first, or that he is to cease to exercise dominion and control; but that the power is to be yielded into the hands of God as God, that is, as the universal Father, as the Divinity, without being exercised in any special and special manner by the different persons of the Godhead, as had been done in the work of redemption. At the close of the work of redemption this peculiar arrangement would cease; and God, as the universal Father and Ruler of all, would exercise the government of the world; see, however, see the note on 1Co 15:28.

When he shall have put down – When he shall have abolished, or brought to nothing, all that opposed the reign of God.

All rule … – All those mighty powers that opposed God and resisted his reign. The words used here do not seem intended to denote the several departments or forms of opposition, but to be general terms, meaning that whatever opposed God should be subdued. They include, of course, the kingdoms of this world; the sins, pride, and corruption of the human heart; the powers of darkness – the spiritual dominions that oppose God on earth, and in hell; and death and the grave. All shalt be completely subdued, and cease to interpose any obstacles to the advancement of his kingdom and to his universal reign. A monarch reigns when all his enemies are subdued or destroyed; or when they are prevented from opposing his will, even though all should not voluntarily submit to his will. The following remarks of Prof. Bush present a plausible and ingenious view of this difficult passage, and they are, therefore, subjoined here. If the opinion of the eminent critic, Storr, may be admitted, that the kingdom here said to be delivered up to the Father is not the kingdom of Christ, but the rule and dominion of all adverse power – an opinion rendered very probable by the following words: when he shall have put down (Greek: done away, abolished) all rule, and all authority and power, and 1Co 15:25, till he hath put all enemies under his feet – then is the passage of identical import with Rev 11:15, referring to precisely the same period: And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever. It is, therefore, we conceive, but a special mode of denoting the transfer, the making over of the kingdoms of this world from their former despotic and antichristian rulers to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, the appointed heir and head of all things, whose kingdom is to be everlasting.

If this interpretation be correct, we are prepared to advance a step further, and suggest that the phrase, he shall have delivered up (Greek, parado), be understood as an instance of the idiom in which the verb is used without any personal nominative, but has reference to the purpose of God as expressed in the Scriptures; so that the passage may be read, Then cometh the end (that is, not the close, the final winding up, but the perfect development, expansion, completion, consummation of the divine plans in regard to this world), when the prophetic announcements of the Scriptures require the delivering up (that is, the making over) of all adverse dominion into the hands of the Messiah, to whose supremacy we are taught to expect that everything will finally be made subject – Illustrations of Scripture. A more extended examination of this difficult passage may be seen in Storrs Opuscula, vol. i. pp. 274-282. See also Biblical Repository, vol. 3:pp. 748-755.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 24. When he shall have delivered up the kingdom] The mediatorial kingdom, which comprehends all the displays of his grace in saving sinners, and all his spiritual influence in governing the Church.

All rule, and all authority and power.] – – . As the apostle is here speaking of the end of the present system of the world, the rule, authority, and power, may refer to all earthly governments, emperors, kings, princes, c. though angels, principalities, and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and all spiritual wickedness in high places, may be also intended. Our Lord Jesus is represented here as administering the concerns of the kingdom of grace in this lower world during the time that this Divine economy lasts; and when the end-the time determined by the wisdom of God, comes, then, as there is no longer any need of this administration, the kingdom is delivered up unto the Father: an allusion to the case of Roman viceroys or governors of provinces, who, when their administration was ended, delivered up their kingdom or government into the hands of the emperor.

The apostle may refer, also, to an opinion of the ancient Jews, that there should be ten kings who should have the supreme government of the whole world: the first and last of which should be GOD himself; but the ninth should be the Messiah; after whose empire the kingdom should be delivered up into the hands of God for ever. See the place in Schoettgen on this verse, and on Lu 1:33.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Then cometh the end; the end of all the miseries and afflictions which believers meet with in this life, or the end of all our preaching and ministry, the end of the world, or the end of man; or rather, (as the next words seem to interpret it), the end of that mediatory kingdom of Christ, which he now administereth instead of his Father, and shall manage to the end of the world.

When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father: Christ shall then deliver up those keys of life, and hell, and death to his Father, yet shall not Christs kingdom cease (for the prophet saith, Isa 9:7, that of it there shall be no end): Christs essential kingdom, which is his dominion, which he hath and exerciseth over all created beings, together with his Father, and the Holy Spirit, (all being but one Divine essence), that shall hold and abide for ever; but his mediatory kingdom, by which he ruleth over his church in the midst of his enemies, that shall cease, and be delivered up unto the Father. So that Christs delivering up the kingdom to his Father, proveth no inferiority of Christ to his Father, more than his Fathers committing that mediatory kingdom to him can prove his Fathers not reigning, or inferiority to him, which it certainly doth not. It signifieth only the ceasing of that dispensation, or Christs exercise of his mediatory kingdom on earth, in the rule and government of the church, and subduing his and his peoples enemies.

When he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power; then shall all rule and authority of kings and princes of the earth cease, and all the ministration of good angels, and power of evil angels; so shall all ministrations and governments in the church militant here on earth, and all those that are the enemies of the church shall be subdued and brought under.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

24. Thenafter that: next inthe succession of “orders” or “ranks.”

the endthe generalresurrection, and final judgment and consummation (Mt25:46).

delivered up . . . kingdom to. . . Father(Compare Joh13:3). Seeming at variance with Da7:14, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion whichshall not pass away.” Really, His giving up of themediatorial kingdom to the Father, when the end for which themediatorial economy was established has been accomplished, isaltogether in harmony with its continuing everlastingly. The changewhich shall then take place, shall be in the manner ofadministration, not in the kingdom itself; God shall then comeinto direct connection with the earth, instead ofmediatorially, when Christ shall have fully and finally removedeverything that severs asunder the holy God and a sinful earth (Col1:20). The glory of God is the final end of Christ’s mediatorialoffice (Phi 2:10; Phi 2:11).His co-equality with the Father is independent of the latter, andprior to it, and shall, therefore, continue when its function shallhave ceased. His manhood, too, shall everlastingly continue, though,as now, subordinate to the Father. The throne of the Lamb (butno longer mediatorial) as well as of God, shall be in the heavenlycity (Re 22:3; compare Re3:21). The unity of the Godhead, and the unity of the Church,shall be simultaneously manifested at Christ’s second coming. CompareZep 3:9; Zec 14:9;Joh 17:21-24. The oldestmanuscripts for “shall have delivered up,” read,”delivereth up,” which suits the sense better. It is”when He shall have put down all rule,” that “Hedelivereth up the kingdom to the Father.”

shall have put down allrulethe effect produced during the millennary reign of Himselfand His saints (Psa 110:1;Psa 8:6; Psa 2:6-9),to which passages Paul refers, resting his argument on the two words,”all” and “until,” of the Psalmist: a proof ofverbal inspiration of Scripture (compare Rev 2:26;Rev 2:27). Meanwhile, He “rulesin the midst of His enemies” (Ps110:2). He is styled “the King” when He takes His greatpower (Mat 25:34; Rev 11:15;Rev 11:17). The Greek for”put down” is, “done away with,” or”brought to naught.” “All” must be subject toHim, whether openly opposed powers, as Satan and his angels, or kingsand angelic principalities (Eph1:21).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Then cometh the end,…. Or “after that the end”, the end of all things; either at the close of the thousand years, when the wicked dead will be raised last, and the final state of all men will openly take place; the end of the righteous will be peace and everlasting joy, and an uninterrupted communion with Christ, and enjoyment of life eternal, of the ultimate glory, and consummate happiness in soul and body; and the end of the wicked will be destruction and death, everlasting punishment in hell, where will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth for evermore: or at the beginning of the thousand years; immediately upon Christ’s second and personal coming, will be the end of the world; the heavens shall pass away, the elements shall melt, and the earth and all its works be burnt up; though these shall not be annihilated or destroyed, as to their being and substance, but only as to their present form and qualities; they shall be renewed, out of them shall arise new heavens, and a new earth, whereon righteous persons, and only righteous persons, will dwell, even all the righteous that will be raised at Christ’s coming, or shall then be bound alive, where they shall reign with him during the thousand years; and then there wilt be an end of preaching the Gospel, and of administering ordinances, there being no more elect souls to be gathered in; nor will saints stand in need of edification and comfort from such means; then will also be the end, the accomplishment of all the purposes, promises, and prophecies of God, relating to the state and condition of his church and people in all the periods of time, and to their complete glory and happiness; the number of God’s elect in regeneration, sanctification, and glorification will now be complete, the saints will be all perfected, and the church be as a bride prepared and adorned for her husband; and their salvation in soul and body consummate, there wilt be nothing wanting; then that which is perfect will be come, their bodies being raised and reunited to their souls, and both with the Lord: so the word “end” denotes the accomplishment, completion, and perfection of things; see Lu 22:37. Moreover, there will now be an end of all sin and sorrow of the saints; of all troubles and afflictions, inward or outward, and of death itself; and also of the kingdom of Christ, in its present form and manner of administration: the kingdom or church of Christ will not consist then of nominal and real Christians, of foolish and wise virgins, hypocrites and saints, but only of the latter; nor will it be governed by such laws and ordinances as now; nor will these be in the hands of such officers, as pastors and teachers, as at present, who are appointed to explain, enforce, and execute them: and this end of all things at the coming of Christ, will be

when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; not the kingdom of nature, which he has as the Son of God, as God equal with the Father, in right of nature, and upon the foot of creation, all being made by him; and which kingdom reaches to all creatures, angels, and men; this he did not receive from his Father, nor is he in it subordinate to him, but rules and works conjunctly with him in it; nor is he accountable to him in the administration of it; nor will he ever deliver it up to him: nor the kingdom of glory, which was prepared for the saints from the foundation of the world, is freely given to them by their Father, which they are called unto, and have a meetness for it, and a right unto it; this Christ has in his hands for them, and will not deliver it up to his Father, but introduce the heirs of it into it, quickly upon his coming; but the mediatorial kingdom is here meant, the kingdom of saints, over which Christ is appointed and set as King; even the whole church and general assembly of the firstborn, written in heaven. These were all given to Christ, put into his hands, and made his care and charge by his Father; and he undertook to preserve, protect, and save them; and had, as Mediator, all power in heaven and in earth, and everything subservient to support his kingdom and interest as such, given him; and he has been from the beginning of the world ruling in the midst of his enemies, subduing the people under him, and causing his people in the day of his power to be willing to serve him; writing his laws in their hearts, putting his Spirit within them, to cause them to walk in his statutes and keep his judgments; saving them out of the hands of their enemies, protecting and keeping them in safety, and providing every good thing for them; and continually delivering one or another of them from the power of darkness, and translating them into his own kingdom; and now having completed the number of them, in whose hearts he has reigned by his Spirit and grace, he will deliver them up to the Father from whom he received them; even everyone of them; all the children he gave unto him, and all of them; their bodies as well as their souls being now raised from the dead, as it was his Father’s declared will they should be, when he gave them to him; and they will be delivered up and presented by him to his Father, perfectly holy, entirely faultless, and without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing: and now this does not suppose that he will then cease to reign over his church and people; for, as the Father is the everlasting King, and reigned in and over the church, whilst this kingdom was in the hands of Christ, so Christ will continue to reign over it, when he shall have delivered it to the Father; he will no more cease to reign then, than the Father does, during the present administration of the government of the church; Christ will then be so far from ceasing to reign, that he will reign more visibly and gloriously than ever, though in a different manner to what he does now; now he rules over his people in the midst of his enemies, but then he will rule in the midst of his saints; now he reigns in their hearts by his Spirit, and through the use of the word and ordinances, but then he will reign in person among them, displaying the glory of his majesty, without the use of such means, signs, and symbols. Nor does this imply any inferiority in Christ, as God, to the Father; since this is to be understood of him as Mediator, who as such is the Father’s servant, and a righteous and faithful one he is, who will give a good account of the persons committed to his care and government, and of his administration; and in which sense it will be allowed the Father is greater than he; but this no way militates against his proper deity, and equality with the Father. The Ethiopic version, contrary to all copies and other versions, reads, “when God the Father shall have delivered up his own kingdom”. The Jews h speak of

“ten kings that have ruled, from one end of the world to another; the first King is the holy and blessed God, the second Nimrod, the third Joseph, the fourth Solomon, the fifth Ahab, the sixth Nebuchadnezzar, the seventh Cyrus, the eighth Alexander the Macedonian, the ninth will be the King Messiah, according to Da 2:35 and of the tenth King they say, “then shall the kingdom return to its author”; or to him that was the first King, and he shall be the last; as is said, Isa 44:6.”

and this will be,

when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power; which since it is expressed in such universal terms, may very well be thought to reach to, and include all sort of rule, authority, and power whatever; when this time and state of things take place, all civil rule, authority, and power, will cease; even that which is now of God, and to which we are to be subject for the Lord’s sake, and for conscience sake; and which is now encouraged and supported by Christ, by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice; this will be pulled down and utterly destroyed by him, the stone cast out of the mountain without hands; when the kingdom and the greatness of it will be given to him and to his saints; when the kings and princes of the earth will be no more, have no more rule and authority among men, but be upon a level with the meanest peasants, and shall be brought to the tribunal of Christ, and be judged by him: then also will all ecclesiastical rule, authority, and power be laid aside; there will be no more apostles, prophets, evangelists, nor bishops, elders, pastors, and teachers; who are now set over the churches in the Lord, to rule them according to the laws of Christ, by ministering the word faithfully, and administering the ordinances truly; and to whom when they rule well, subjection and honour are due; but all this will be no more, when the end comes, and the kingdom is delivered to the Father: nor will there be any more domestic, or family rule and government, as of the husband over the wife, the parent over the child, or the master over the servant; all will be upon an equal foot: nor any angelical authority and power, which angels may now exercise under God, over kingdoms, provinces, states, or particular persons: and especially all diabolical rule, authority, and power will be abolished, which Satan has usurped, or has been given him by men, as the god of this world; he, the prince of the world, was cast out through Christ’s death, and by the preaching of the Gospel in the Gentile world; his principalities and powers were then spoiled and triumphed over; though he has still retained some sort and show of government, but then there will not be the least appearance of any; during the thousand years he will be cast into and shut up in the bottomless pit, and not suffered to go out and deceive the nations any more; and at the end thereof, though he will make one and his last onset, on the city of the saints, it will be fruitless, and he and all his shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and there lie in torment for ever and ever: not the persons of these several powers shall be destroyed, but they shall be divested of the power and authority which they now have, either by right or usurpation.

h Pirke Eliezer, c. 11.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then cometh the end ( ). No verb in the Greek. Supply “at his coming,” the end or consummation of the age or world (Matt 13:39; Matt 13:49; 1Pet 4:7),

When he shall deliver up ( ). Present active subjunctive (not optative) of with , whenever, and so quite indefinite and uncertain as to time. Present subjunctive rather than aorist because it pictures a future proceeding.

To God, even the Father ( ). Better, “to the God and Father” or to “His God and Father.” The Kingdom belongs to the Father.

When he shall have abolished ( ). First aorist active subjunctive with , indefinite future time. Simply, “whenever he shall abolish,” no use in making it future perfect, merely aorist subjunctive. On see 1Cor 6:13; 1Cor 13:8; 1Cor 13:10; 1Cor 13:11.

Rule (),

authority (),

power (). All forms of power opposing the will of God. Constative aorist tense covering the whole period of conflict with final victory as climax.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Rule – authority – power [, , ] . Abstract terms for different orders of spiritual and angelic powers; as Eph 1:21; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12; Col 1:16.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Then cometh the end,” (eita to telos) “Then the finish, completion, or consummation,” alluding to Christ’s reign over the Davidic kingdom for 1,000 years, leading to its delivery to the Father, Rev 11:15; Rev 20:9.

2) “When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;” (hotan paradidou ten basileian to theo kai patri) “Whenever he delivers or presents the kingdom of God, even the Father.” The end of “the world order,” which occurs “at His coming,” and the “end of all things,” requires time, in time, for effecting at the coming of our Lord.

3) “When he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.” (hotan katargese pasan archen kai pasan eksousian kai dunamin) “When he abolishes all rulership, authority, and enabling power or dynamics,” of depraved and deranged earthly rule. Our Lord’s initiative and administrative putting down “all things that offend,” begins with His appearance bodily in the air, 1Th 4:16-18, and is consummated in rank and order of persons and time to the finish of His kingly work.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

24. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered. He put a bridle upon the impatience of men, when he forewarned them, that the fit time for the new life (53) would not be before Christ’s coming. But as this world is like a stormy sea, in which we are continually tossed, and our condition is so uncertain, or rather is so full of troubles, and there are in all things such sudden changes, this might be apt to trouble weak minds. Hence he now leads them forward to that day, saying that all things will be set in order. Then, therefore, shall come the end — that is, the goal of our course — a quiet harbour — a condition that will no longer be exposed to changes; and he at the same time admonishes us, that that end must be waited for, because it is not befitting that we should be crowned in the middle of the course. In what respect Christ will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, will be explained in a little. When he says, God and the Father, this may be taken in two senses — either that God the Father is called the God and Father of Christ, or that the name of Father is added by way of explanation. The conjunction et (and) will in the latter case mean namely. As to the former signification, there is nothing either absurd, or unusual, in the saying, that Christ is inferior to God, in respect of his human nature.

When he shall have abolished all rule. Some understand this as referring to the powers that are opposed to Christ himself; for they have an eye to what immediately follows, until he shall have put all his enemies, etc. This clause, however, corresponds with what goes before, when he said, that Christ would not sooner deliver up the kingdom Hence there is no reason why we should restrict in such a manner the statement before us. I explain it, accordingly, in a general way, and understand by it — all powers that are lawful and ordained by God. (Rom 13:1.) In the first place, what we find in the Prophets (Isa 13:10; Eze 32:7) as to the darkening of the sun and moon, that God alone may shine forth, while it has begun to be fulfilled under the reign of Christ, will, nevertheless, not be fully accomplished until the last day; but then every height shall be brought low, (Luk 3:5,) that the glory of God may alone shine forth. Farther, we know that all earthly principalities and honors are connected exclusively with the keeping up of the present life, and, consequently, are a part of the world. Hence it follows that they are temporary.

Hence as the world will have an end, so also will government, and magistracy, and laws, and distinctions of ranks, and different orders of dignities, and everything of that nature. There will be no more any distinction between servant and master, between king and peasant, between magistrate and private citizen. Nay more, there will be then an end put to angelic principalities in heaven, and to ministries and superiorities in the Church, that God may exercise his power and dominion by himself alone, and not by the hands of men or angels. The angels, it is true, will continue to exist, and they will also retain their distinction. The righteous, too, will shine forth, every one according to the measure of his grace; but the angels will have to resign the dominion, which they now exercise in the name and by the commandment of God. Bishops, teachers, and Prophets will cease to hold these distinctions, and will resign the office which they now discharge. Rule, and authority, and power have much the same meaning in this passage; but these three terms are conjoined to bring out the meaning more fully.

(53) “ C’est a dire, de la resurrection;” — “That is to say, of the resurrection.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(24) All rule and all authority and power.Not only hostile rule and authority and power, but all intermediate rule of any sort, good and bad. The direct government by God of all creatures is to be at last attained. All the interventions of authority and power which the fall of man rendered necessary will be needless when the complete triumph of Christ comes in. Thus Humanity, having for ages shared the condition of fallen Adam, will be finally restored to the state of unfallen Adam. Man will see God, and be ruled by God face to face.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(24-28) When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.The Apostle carries on the thought of a triumph which the use of the word troop in the previous verse had commenced or suggested. There rises before the prophetic vision of St. Paul the final triumph of Christ over all evil, over all power, and the Son giving up to the Father (not His humanity, which is for ever and everLuk. 1:32-33) the kingdom of this world, which in His humanity He conquered for the Father as well as for Himself. He will, the moment He becomes conqueror, sit down with the Father on His throne. Christ laying the spoils of a conquered world at the foot of the throne of the Father, shows, by that supreme act of self-sacrifice, that in His office as Redeemer He came, not to do His own will, but the will of the Father. In this sense the Son Himself, as Redeemer, is put under HimGod is all in all. We must clearly remember that the Apostle is here speaking of the Son as Redeemer, and is not penetrating into the deeper mysteries of the relation of the Persons in the Godhead. (See Joh. 17:5; Heb. 1:8.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

24. Then cometh the end The end of the mediatorial and probationary kingdom of the Messiah; that is, its restoring by Christ to the Father. This is the result of the completed judgment of both the righteous and the unrighteous. The words afterward and then, which mark the second and third of the points of succession, are in Greek and , which furnish no indication of the length of interval between the points. As the apostle was not given to know the length of time between Christ’s resurrection and second advent, nor between that advent and the end, he gives no measurement. Personally, he may have believed it possible that the three events were with little or no interval; and the revelation vouchsafed here to him, affirms nothing as to time. But many commentators hold that there are two bodily resurrections; one of the righteous and the other of the wicked, a thousand years apart; so that the end, the third point, is at least that length of period from the parousia. The only authority for this opinion is Rev 20:5, which, however, describes a resurrection of “souls,” not of bodies. The same two resurrections are shadowed by John in his gospel, Joh 5:25-29. There is nothing here to show any length of interval between the advent and the end, or to show that there is more than a one twofold resurrection at that advent. And such is the doctrine of Matthew 24, 25, and of Joh 5:28-29, as well as of the Apostles’ Creed just quoted, and, we may add, of all the confessions of faith of the great Churches of Christendom. The parousia or advent of this verse is identical with the “great white throne” of Rev 20:11.

The kingdom The rule of the Son, as bringing to order the rebellion of the world, is well compared by Grotius to the vice-royalty of a king’s son, sent forth to subdue an insurgent province. When every enemy is subdued, he returns to the capital, gives up his commission, resigns his foreign viceroyalty, and resumes his royal place at the royal right hand; and the king is all-ruling in all things, owing to the harmony restored.

To God, even the Father Literally, to the God and Father.

Put down A bad rendering for , which means nullify, abolish, or put out of existence, not the persons of his enemies, but their organic rule, authority, and power.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Co 15:24. When he shall have put down all rule. Shall have abolished, or deposed. The word generally signifies divesting a thing of some power, whether lawful or usurped, which it formerly had, and of reducing it to an incapacity of exerting that power any more. Thus it is used of Satan, Heb 2:14 of death, here and 1Co 15:26 of temporal princes, 2Ti 1:10 and 1Co 1:28; 1Co 2:6 and of the ceremonial law, Eph 2:15.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Co 15:24 . ] sc. . Then shall the end be , namely, as is clear from the whole context, the end of the resurrection . Bengel puts it aptly: “correlatum primitiarum ” (comp. Mat 24:14 , where is correlative with in 1Co 15:8 , also Mar 13:7 ; Mar 13:9 ); although Christ is only the first-fruits of the believers , He is nevertheless at the same time the beginning of all . According to Paul, therefore, the order of the resurrection is this: (1) it has begun already with Christ Himself; (2) at Christ’s return to establish His kingdom the Christians shall be raised up; (3) thereafter how soon, however, or how long after the Parousia, is not said [46] sets in the last act of the resurrection , its close , which, as is now self-evident after what has gone before, applies to the non-Christians [47] . These too shall, it is plain, be judged (1Co 6:2 , 1Co 11:32 ), of which their resurrection is the necessary premiss (in opposition to Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 430 f.). Paul has thus conjoined the doctrine of Judaism regarding a twofold resurrection (Bertholdt, Christol . pp. 176 ff., 203 ff.) with the Christian faith, in accordance with the example of Christ Himself (see on Luk 14:14 ; Joh 5:29 ). The majority of interpreters after Chrysostom (including Reiche, Ewald, Maier) understand of the end of the present age of the world , [48] the final consummation (Weiss), the closing issue of things (Luthardt, v. d. letzten Dingen , p. 127), which includes also the resurrection of all men. In connection with this Rckert thinks (comp. Kling, p. 505) that indicates the immediate following, one upon the other, of the and the ; Olshausen, again, that Paul conceived the thousand years of the Messianic kingdom to come in between the Parousia and the , and the resurrection of the non-Christians to be joined together with the . But against the latter view it may be urged that, according to the constant doctrine of the New Testament (apart from Rev 20 ), with the Parousia there sets in the finis hujus saeculi , so that the Parousia itself is the terminal point of the pre-Messianic, and the commencing-point of the future, world-period (Mat 24:3 , al. ; Usteri, Lehrbegr. p. 344). Against the former view it may be decisively urged, that in the assumed sense would be inappropriate here, where the order of the resurrection is stated and is begun with ; further, that Paul would not have given, in any proper sense at all, the promised order of succession, whether we take , 1Co 15:22 , simply of believers or correctly of all in general . For in the former case there could be no mention at all of several (see on 1Co 15:22 ); and in the latter case Paul would have passed over in silence the very greatest of all, that of those who died non-Christians. But how complete and self-consistent everything is, if is the beginning, the second act, and the last act of the same transaction! So in substance among the old interpreters, Theodoret and Oecumenius, later Cajetanus, Bengel, Jehne, de resurrect. carn . Alton. 1788, p. 19; Heydenreich, Osiander, Grimm in the Stud. u. Krit. 1850, p. 784. In accordance with what has been said, we must reject also the view of Grotius and Billroth, that is the end of the kingdom of Christ (comp. Kahnis, Dogm . I. p. 575); in connection with which Billroth leaves it undecided whether Paul conceived that there would be a thousand years’ reign, but finds rightly that his conception is different from that of Rev 20:1 ff. [49] The same considerations militate against this view as against that of Rckert; moreover, requires its explanation not from what follows, but from what precedes it, with which it stands in the closest relation. This also in opposition to de Wette (so, too, Lechler, apost. u. nachapost. Zeitalter , p. 140; Neander in loc. ), who understands the completion of the eschatological events (comp. Beza), so that the general resurrection would be included in the conception (comp. Theophylact: ); similarly, therefore, as regards the latter point, with Luthardt and Olshausen. Theodoret is right, in accordance with the Pauline type of doctrine (comp. Mat 13:39 f.), in remarking already at the preceding class ( .): . For the intervening period between the and the is by no means to be reckoned to the , but to the , of which it is the first stage in time and development; the absolute consummation is then the giving over of the kingdom, which is immediately preceded by the last act of the resurrection ( ). Hofmann (comp. also his Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 657) takes adverbidlly , and then the two clauses commencing with as protases to . , 1Co 15:26 , so that in this way . . . , 1Co 15:25 , falls to the second of those two protases as a reason assigned, inserted between it and the apodosis; consequently: then shall finally, when , when , the last enemy be brought to nought . This bringing to nought of death, he holds, includes the raising to life of such as, being ordained to life, did not belong to Christ during their bodily existence, and thus there is formed of these a second , for the possibility of which Hofmann adduces Rom 2:15 f. But in what an involved and violent way are the simple, clear, and logically flowing sentences of the apostle thus folded and fenced in, and all for the purpose of getting out of them at last a second , which, however, does not stand there at all, but is only inserted between the lines; and that, too, such a as is entirely alien to the New Testament eschatology, and least of all can be established by Rom 2:15 f. (see in loc. ) as even barely possible! And how unsuitable it is to treat 1Co 15:25 , although introduced with solemn words of Scripture, as a subordinate sentence of confirmation, making the chain of protases on to the final short principal sentence only the longer and clumsier! In this whole section withal Paul employs only sentences of short and simple construction, without any involved periods. It may be added that, from a linguistic point of view, there would be nothing to object against the adverbial interpretation of , considered solely in itself (comp. 1Pe 3:8 ); but, after the two elements which have gone before, the substantive explanation is the only one which presents itself as accordant with the context; nay, the adverbial use would have here, as the whole exegetical history of the passage shows, only led the understanding astra.

. . . ] states with what will be contemporaneous: when he gives over the (Messianic) kingdom , etc. The church , or the fellowship of believers (van Hengel), is never designated by ., not even 1Co 6:9 f.; Eph 5:5 ; Col 1:13 ; Col 4:11 ; neither is it so here. The conception, on the contrary, is: the last act of Christ’s Messianic rule consists in the close of the resurrection, namely, the raising up of the non-Christians; [50] this He performs when He is about to hand over the rule to God, after which the last-named wields the government Himself and immediately, and Christ’s Messianic, and in particular His kingly office the regency which had been entrusted to Him by God (Phi 2:9 f.) is accomplished. It was a purely dogmatic (anti-Arian) explaining away of the clear meaning of the word to take as equivalent to (Chrysostom) or (Theophylact); such, too, was the interpretation of Theodoret, Ambrosiaster, Cajetanus, Estius, and others, including Storr and Flatt, according to which the giving over of the kingdom to the Father denotes the producing the result, that God shall be universally acknowledged as the supreme Ruler, even by those who did not wish to acknowledge Him as such. Hilary and Augustine ( de Trin. i. 8) have another mode of explaining it away: what is meant is the bringing of the elect to the vision of God; similarly van Hengel (comp. Neander): Paul means to say, “Christum sectatores suos facturum peculium Dei , ut ei vivant;” and in like manner Beza, Heydenreich: we are to understand it of the presentation of the citizens of the kingdom, raised from the dead, before God . Another mode is that of Calovius, Bengel, Osiander, Reiche, al. (comp. also Gess, Pers. Chr . p. 280): it is only the form of the rule of Christ (namely, as the reconciler ) that ceases then; the regnum gratiae ceases, and the regnum gloriae follows, which is what Luther’s and Melanchthon’s exposition [51] also comes to in substance. No; Christ, although by His exaltation to the right hand of the Father He has become the of God, is still only He who is invested with the sovereignty by the Father until all hostile powers are overcome (comp. Phi 2:9 ff.; Eph 1:21 ; Act 2:33 ff.; Heb 1:3 ; Heb 1:13 ), [52] so that the absolute supreme sovereignty, which remains with the Father, is again immediately exercised after that end has been attained; the work of Christ is then completed; He gives up to the Father the Messianic administration of the kingdom, which has continued since His ascension. [53] The thought is similar in Pirke Ecc 11 . “Nonus rex est Messias, qui reget ab extremitate una mundi ad alteram. Decimus Deus S. B.; tunc redibit regnum ad auctorem suum .” We must not mix up the spiritual , Joh 18:37 , here, where the subject is the exalted Lor.

. ] God, who is at the same time Father , namely, of Jesus Christ. Comp. Rom 15:6 ; 2Co 1:3 ; 2Co 11:31 ; Gal 1:3 ; Eph 1:3 ; Eph 5:20 ; Col 1:3 ; 1Pe 1:3 ; Jas 1:27 ; Jas 3:9 . Estius says rightly: “unus articulus utrumque complectens.” See Matthiae, p. 714 f., and on Rom 15:6 . That Paul, however, means by , not the supernatural bodily generation, but the metaphysical spiritual derivation, according to which Christ is the Son of God, see on Rom 1:4 .

But this giving over of the kingdom will not take place sooner than: . . . , when He shall have done away , etc. Observe the difference of meaning between with the present ( ) and with the aorist ( futur. exact .). See Matthiae, p. 1195. And this difference of tense shows of itself that of the two clauses introduced with , this second one is subordinated to the first, and not co-ordinated with it (Hofmann). Hence, too, we have no or with the second . It is the familiar phenomenon of the double protasis, the one being dependent on the other (Khner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 2. 35; Anab. iii. 2. 31).

.] every dominion and every power and might , is to be understood, as 1Co 15:25 proves clearly, of all hostile powers , of all influences opposed to God , whose might Christ will bring to nought ( ., comp. 1Co 2:6 ); consequently we may not explain it simply of demoniac powers (Chrysostom, Calovius, and others, including Heydenreich, Billroth, Usteri, Neander, Luthardt), nor refer it to worldly political powers as such (Grotius). In opposition to the context on account of , 1Co 15:25 , Calvin interprets it (comp. Cajetanus): “potestates legitimas a Deo ordinatas ;” and Olshausen understands all rule, good as well as bad, and even that of the Son also , to be meant. The subject of . must, it may be added, be the same with that of , consequently not God (Beza, Grotius, Bengel, Heydenreich, van Hengel, and others).

[46] Within this intermediate time falls the continued conquest of Christ over all hostile powers, vv. 24, 25, whose subjugation will not yet be completed at the Parousia. This also in opposition to Weiss, bibl. Theol . p. 427. To import into this period a process of redemption for the non-Christians and the wicked (Weizel, Stroh), is neither in accord with Paul nor with the New Testament generally.

[47] Van Hengel, too, takes it rightly of the closing act of the resurrection, but explains this in consequence of his incorrect understanding of . . : “tum ceteri Christi sectatores , qui mortem subierant, in vitam restituentur.”

[48] Comp. Calvin: “ finis, i.e. meta cursus nostri , quietus portus, conditio nullis amplius mutationibus obnoxia.” Erasmus, Paraphr.: “finis humanarum vicissitudinum .”

[49] According to the Apocalypse, between the first and second resurrection there is the thousand years’ reign, which ends with Satan’s being again let loose and again overcome and cast into hell. Olshausen, who does not admit the variation of the Pauline doctrine from the Apocalyptic, holds that the Revelation, which handles the doctrine ex professo , is only more detailed. But this plea would only avail if Paul had shown himself to be a Chiliast somewhere else. This, however, he has never done, often as he had opportunity for doing so. In substance like Olshausen’s is the view of de Wette and of Georgii in Zeller’s Jahrb . 1845, 1, p. 14, who, however, puts this difference between Paul and the author of the Apocalypse, that the former leaves the duration of the reign indefinite, and places the Messiah’s conflict not at the end of this regnal period, but throughout the whole time of its duration . But these differences are so essential, that they would do away with the agreement of the two.

[50] With which their judgment is necessarily bound up; but an express mention of the latter as included was not called for by the connection of the passage.

[51] Luther: Christ is now ruling through the word, not in visible public fashion, as we see the sun through a cloud. “ There we see indeed the light, but not the sun itself; but when the clouds are gone, then we see both light and sun together in one and the same subsistence .” Melanchthon: “Offeret regnum patri, i.e. ostendet has actiones (namely, of the mediatorial office), completas esse, et deinde simul regnabit ut Deus, immediate divinitatem nobis ostendens .”

[52] Comp. upon the relation of the dominion of Christ, as conferred by the supreme Sovereign , the parable in Luk 19:12 ff.

[53] Comp. von Zezschwitz, l.c. p. 208; Luthardt, l.c. p. 128.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

(24) Then cometh 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. (25) For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. (26) The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (27) For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. (28) 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.

I detain the Reader at those verses, just to observe to him, that when it is said, the Lord Jesus will deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father, and that the Son also himself shall be subject unto him. that put all things under him, that God may be all in all; the meaning plainly is, according to all the analogy of scripture, that as all the purposes for which the kingdom of grace, during the present time-state of the Church, are answered, and for which, indeed, the very time-state of the Church eras appointed; the kingdom of grace will cease; for at the end of it begins the open display of the kingdom of glory. But all this doth not refer to the Person of Christ, as if the Lord Jesus would cease to be mediator; or, as if all communications of glory then will not be as much in Him, and through Him, as are the communications of grace now Christ’s kingdom of grace ceaseth; but Christ never ceaseth to be Christ, that is, God-man in nature. Never to all eternity will he cease to be the Head of his body the Church, the fulness which filleth all in all, Eph 1:22-23 . He is, and was, and will be, the everlasting mediator of communication to the Church, here in grace, and hereafter in glory. And all our approaches, drawings nigh, enjoyments, felicities, glory, manifestations from, and communions with Jehovah; in his threefold character of Person, will flow in upon the Church in all the individuals which constitute the one body of Christ the Church, from Him, and through Him, who is the Head of all things, to his body the Church, according to what the Prophet, commissioned by the Holy Ghost, declared, the Lord shall be unto thee am everlasting light, and thy God thy glory, Isa 60:19 ; Rev 22:5 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

24 Then cometh 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.

Ver. 24. Delivered up the kingdom ] Not his essential kingdom, as God, by his economical, as Mediator.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

24. ] then, next in succession, introducing the third , see above.

] the end : not the end of the resurrection , as Meyer, after Theodoret, cum., Bengel, al.: nor, of this present world , as Chrys., al., which properly happens at the : nor exactly, of the Kingdom of Christ , as Grot. and Billroth: but generally , THE END, when all shall be accomplished, the bringing in and fulness of the Kingdom by the subjugation of the last enemy, the whole course of [the] mediatorial work of Christ, the salvation of the elect; the time indicated by Mat 25 ult.: , .

] when He (Christ) gives up (the pres., for that which is certainly attached to the event as its accompaniment indicating the uncertainty of the time when, and the verb being probably subjunctive: see Winer, Moulton’s Trans, p. 360, note 2), the Kingdom to God, and the Father (reff.: to Him who is God and His Father)

Then the rest of the section as far as 1Co 15:28 , is in explanation of the giving up the kingdom. And it rests on this weighty verity: the KINGDOM FO CHRIST over this world , in its beginning, its furtherance, and its completion, has one great end, THE GLORIFICATION OF THE FATHER BY THE SON. Therefore , when it shall be fully established, every enemy overcome, every thing subjected to Him, He will, not, reign over it and abide its King, but DELIVER IT UP TO THE FATHER. Hence as in 1Co 15:25 , His reign will endure, not, like that of earthly kings, WHEN He shall have put all enemies under His feet, but only TILL He shall have, &c., and then will be absorbed in the all-pervading majesty of Him for whose glory it was from first to last carried onward. It may be observed that the whole of this respects the mediatorial work and kingdom: the work of redemption, and that Lordship over dead and living, for which Christ both died and rose. Consequently nothing is here said which can affect either (1) His coequality and coeternity with the Father in the Godhead, which is prior to and independent of this mediatorial work, and is not limited to the mediatorial kingdom; or (2) the eternity of His Humanity: for that Humanity ever was and is subordinate to the Father; and it by no means follows that when the mediatorial kingdom shall be given up to the Father, the Humanity, in which that kingdom was won, shall be put off: nay, the very fact of Christ in the body being the first-fruits of the resurrection, proves that His body, as ours, will endure for ever: as the truth that our humanity, even in glory, can only subsist before God by virtue of His Humanity, makes it plain that He will be VERY MAN to all eternity.

] That kingdom, which in its fullest sense is then first His. At this very time of , Mat 25:34 , He first calls Himself by the title of . The name will no sooner be won, than laid at the feet of the Father, thus completing by the last great act of Redemption the obedience which He manifested in his Incarnation, and in his Death.

] (aor.) when He shall have brought to nought, &c.: see above.

. . . . .] not only , as Meyer, &c., hostile power and government, but as the context necessitates , ALL power. Christ being manifested as universal King, every power co-ordinate with His must come under the category of hostile : all kings shall submit to Him: the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ: and see the similar expressions Eph 1:21 , where speaking proleptically, the Apostle clearly indicates that legitimate authorities, all the powers that be, are included. Compare by all means Rev 11:15 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 15:24 . : “ Then (is) the end” sc., “at His coming”. Christ’s advent, attended with the resurrection of His redeemed to eternal life, concludes the world’s history; then “the harvest” which is “the end of the world” (Mat 13:39 f., Mat 13:49 ; cf. Rev 14:15 f.), “the end of all things” (1Pe 4:7 ), the dnoment of the drama of sin and redemption in which “the Adam” and “the Christ” have played out their respective parts, the limit of the human horizon. As was defined by , so by the two clauses: “when He yields up the kingdom to His God and Father, when He has abolished every rule and every authority and power”. The two vbs. denote distinct, but connected and complementary acts. (the reading is sbj [2359] , not opt.: Bm [2360] , p. 46) is pr . sbj [2361] , signifying a proceeding, contingent in its date and manner of occurrence, but concurrent with , which again rests upon . . The aor [2362] sbj [2363] (Lat. futurum exactum ) signalises an event lying behind the and by its nature antecedent thereto, “when He shall have done away, etc.”; every opposing force has been destroyed, then Christ lays at the Father’s feet His kingdom. “Cum tradat (not tradiderit : so Vg [2364] , eading ) regnum, etc., cum evacuerit omnem principatum, etc.” The title , “to Him who is God and Father,” contains the reason for this : Christ’s one aim was to glorify the Father (Luk 2:49 , Joh 4:34 ; Joh 6:38 ; Joh 17:4 , etc.); this end was reached proximately at the cross (Joh 19:30 ), and will be so ultimately when our Lord, having “subdued all things to Himself” (Phi 3:21 ), is able to present to the Father a realm dominated by His will and filled with His obedient sons ( cf. Mat 6:9 f.). This is no ceasing of Christ’s rule, but the inauguration of God’s eternal kingdom: does not connote the losing of anything (see Joh 17:10 ); it is just the rendering to another of what is designed for Him ( cf. 1Co 15:3 , 1Co 5:5 , Rom 8:32 , Luk 4:6 ; Luk 10:22 , etc.). “The end” does not mean the termination of Christ’s sovereignty , which in its largest sense began before the world (Joh 1:1-3 ; Joh 17:5 ) and is its goal (Col 1:16 ); but the termination of the reign of sin and death (Rom 5:21 ; cf. Joh 6:37 ff.). At the “the throne of God and of the Lamb,” “the kingdom of Christ and of God,” fills the N.T. horizon (Eph 5:5 , Rev 11:15 ; Rev 22:3 ). , . . ., should not be limited (with Ff [2365] generally, Est., Ed [2366] , Gd [2367] , El [2368] , Sm [2369] : Everling, Paulin. Angelol. u.s.w ., p. 44, in view of Eph 1:21 ; Eph 6:12 , Col 2:15 , etc.) to angelic powers , or demons ; nor (as by Cv [2370] , Gr [2371] : cf. 1Co 2:6 ) to earthly rulers : (see , 25; , 27; also Rom 8:37-39 ) embraces all forces oppugnant to God (Bg [2372] , Cr [2373] , Hn [2374] , Hf [2375] , Bt [2376] ), on earth or above it, whether they exercise princely sway ( ) or moral authority ( ) or active power ( ). Death is a amongst these (Rom 5:14 ); and behind death Satan (Heb 2:14 f.), “the prince” and “god of this world” (2Co 4:4 , Joh 14:30 ). On , see note to 1Co 1:28 .

[2359] subjunctive mood.

[2360] A. Buttmann’s Grammar of the N.T. Greek (Eng. Trans., 1873).

[2361] subjunctive mood.

[2362] aorist tense.

[2363] subjunctive mood.

[2364] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[2365] Fathers.

[2366] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[2367] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[2368] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .

[2369] P. Schmiedel, in Handcommentar zum N.T. (1893).

[2370] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .

[2371] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[2372] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[2373] Cremer’s Biblico-Theological Lexicon of N.T. Greek (Eng. Trans.).

[2374] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklrung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[2375] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[2376] J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

end. Greek. telos. Not the same “end” as in 1Co 1:8. Christ’s coming brings that “end”, but this is the end of the millennial age.

shall, &c. The texts read, “delivers up”.

kingdom. See App-112, App-113, App-114.

Father. App-98.

put down = brought to nought. Greek. katargeo. See Rom 3:3.

rule. Greek. arche. App-172.

authority. App-172.

power. App-172. Compare Eph 1:21. 1Pe 3:22.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

24. ] then, next in succession, introducing the third ,-see above.

] the end : not the end of the resurrection, as Meyer, after Theodoret, cum., Bengel, al.:-nor, of this present world, as Chrys., al.,-which properly happens at the : nor exactly, of the Kingdom of Christ, as Grot. and Billroth: but generally, THE END, when all shall be accomplished, the bringing in and fulness of the Kingdom by the subjugation of the last enemy, the whole course of [the] mediatorial work of Christ, the salvation of the elect; the time indicated by Matthew 25 ult.: , .

] when He (Christ) gives up (the pres., for that which is certainly attached to the event as its accompaniment- indicating the uncertainty of the time when, and the verb being probably subjunctive: see Winer, Moultons Trans, p. 360, note 2), the Kingdom to God, and the Father (reff.: to Him who is God and His Father)

Then the rest of the section as far as 1Co 15:28, is in explanation of the giving up the kingdom. And it rests on this weighty verity: the KINGDOM FO CHRIST over this world, in its beginning, its furtherance, and its completion, has one great end,-THE GLORIFICATION OF THE FATHER BY THE SON. Therefore, when it shall be fully established, every enemy overcome, every thing subjected to Him, He will,-not, reign over it and abide its King, but DELIVER IT UP TO THE FATHER. Hence as in 1Co 15:25, His reign will endure, not, like that of earthly kings, WHEN He shall have put all enemies under His feet, but only TILL He shall have, &c.,-and then will be absorbed in the all-pervading majesty of Him for whose glory it was from first to last carried onward. It may be observed that the whole of this respects the mediatorial work and kingdom: the work of redemption,-and that Lordship over dead and living, for which Christ both died and rose. Consequently nothing is here said which can affect either (1) His coequality and coeternity with the Father in the Godhead, which is prior to and independent of this mediatorial work, and is not limited to the mediatorial kingdom; or (2) the eternity of His Humanity: for that Humanity ever was and is subordinate to the Father; and it by no means follows that when the mediatorial kingdom shall be given up to the Father, the Humanity, in which that kingdom was won, shall be put off: nay, the very fact of Christ in the body being the first-fruits of the resurrection, proves that His body, as ours, will endure for ever: as the truth that our humanity, even in glory, can only subsist before God by virtue of His Humanity, makes it plain that He will be VERY MAN to all eternity.

] That kingdom, which in its fullest sense is then first His. At this very time of , Mat 25:34, He first calls Himself by the title of . The name will no sooner be won, than laid at the feet of the Father, thus completing by the last great act of Redemption the obedience which He manifested in his Incarnation, and in his Death.

] (aor.) when He shall have brought to nought, &c.: see above.

. . …] not only, as Meyer, &c., hostile power and government, but as the context necessitates, ALL power. Christ being manifested as universal King, every power co-ordinate with His must come under the category of hostile: all kings shall submit to Him: the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ:-and see the similar expressions Eph 1:21, where speaking proleptically, the Apostle clearly indicates that legitimate authorities, all the powers that be, are included. Compare by all means Rev 11:15.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 15:24. , afterwards) after the resurrection of those who are Christs; for He, as King, will consummate the judgment between the resurrection and the end.- ) The end, viz., of the whole resurrection. This is the correlative to the first fruits. In this end all orders [referring to every man in his own order] will obtain their completion [consummated development]: 1Pe 4:7; Rom 6:22. This noun contains the force of the verbs, delivered up [1Co 15:24] and destroyed [1Co 15:26]. See how great mysteries that apostle draws from the prophetic syllables and , Psa 110:1; Psa 8:6. Gr. , until, and , all things. Therefore even the words of Scripture are inspired by God, . For all Scripture words rest upon the same principles as these [The same reasoning is applicable to all Scripture words].–) when:-namely, when. The former is explained by the latter; and the first part of the following verse is to be referred to the former; the second part, to the latter. So soon as the Son shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, the Father will destroy all authority; and the deliverance of the kingdom into His hands takes place, that all authority may be swept away.- , shall have delivered up the kingdom) The Father will not then begin to reign without the Son; nor will the Son cease then to reign without the Father; for the divine kingdom both of the Father and of the Son is from eternity and will be to eternity. But the apostle is here speaking of the mediatorial kingdom of the Son, which will be delivered up, and of the immediate [i.e., without mediation] kingdom of the Father, to which then it will give place. In the meantime, the Son manages the affairs, which the Father has put into His hands, for and by His own people, for the elect, by the instrumentality of angels also, and in the presence of the Father and against His enemies, so long as even an effort of these last continues. The Son will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, inasmuch as the Father gave it to the Son, Joh 13:3. The Father does not cease to reign, though He has appointed the Son to be king; nor does the Son cease to reign, when He delivers up the kingdom to the Father; and by the very circumstance, that it is said, not that it is to be abolished, but to be delivered up to the Father, it is signified, that it itself also is of infinite majesty. But the glory before the foundation of the world will remain, after the kingdom has been delivered up: Joh 17:5; Heb 1:8 : and He will not cease to be king according to His human nature, Luk 1:33.[137] If the citizens of the New Jerusalem shall reign for ever and ever, Rev 22:5; how much more will God and Christ reign?- , to God even the Father) God is here regarded in a twofold point of view. He is considered, both as God and as the Father in respect to Christ, Joh 20:17; even in His state of exaltation, Rev 3:12; Rev 3:21 : and in respect to believers, Col 3:17. He is considered as God, towards [in relation to] His enemies. [shall have put down] shall have abolished) viz., God even the Father, of whom it is also said (until) He put (, 1Co 15:25) and He has subjected [, 1Co 15:27]. In a similar manner, the subject is changed to a different one [from God to Christ] in the third person, 1Co 15:25; 1Co 15:29 [the baptized for the dead-the dead-they, i.e., the former].- , all rule and all authority and power) Rule and authority are also said of the powers of men, Tit 3:1 [principalities and powers]: but oftener of those of angels, Col 1:16 : and that too in the concrete, to denote their very essence [substances]: here however they are in the abstract, as , concerning the kingdom of the Son: for the essences of angels will not be destroyed. denotes rule; subordinate to this are , authority, magistracy, and , an army, forces.- and are more closely connected as is seen by the fact that they have the one epithet, all, in common [The one qualifies both and ; though has a separate ]. Here not only rule, authority, forces of enemies, are signified, 1Co 15:25, such as is death, 1Co 15:26; but the all intimates that the rule, authority, etc., even of good angels shall cease. For when the king lays down His arms, after His enemies have been subdued, the soldiers are discharged, and the word , to put down, is not an inapplicable term even to these latter: 1Co 13:8; 2Co 3:7.

[137] S. R. D. Moldenhauer on this passage refers to it the passage in Luke; comp. Dan 7:14. He very often agrees with Bengel: for example, ver. 32, 49, etc.-E. B.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 15:24

1Co 15:24

Then cometh the end,-The consummation of the gospel dispensation or state of things, which will open the new and eternal period.

when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father;-The mission of Jesus Christ on earth was to redeem and rescue the world from the rule of the evil one, to whom it had been surrendered by the first Adam, and deliver it up to God, even the Father.

when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.-Everything that is in the world, that exercises rule, authority, or power, save as it comes directly from God, and is used under his direction, to promote his rule and dominion, is an enemy of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, and must be destroyed by the rule and dominion of the Son before the kingdom and dominion of the world can be delivered up to the Father. Jesus Christ came into the world to rescue it from the evil one, and to destroy everything that exerts power or authority or dominion on the earth, and to establish the kingdom of God on earth. When that work is done every one will render homage and obedience to God. Then, and only then, will peace and harmony and good will dwell among men, and every being in the universe will realize that his happiness will be promoted, by promoting the happiness of every other being, and all guided by one law will work in unison and harmony to the promotion of the glory of God and the good of men. Before the consummation can come every plant not planted of God shall be rooted up. (Mat 15:13). Every institution or organization of earth that exerts rule or authority or power must be destroyed. This earth in the material, moral and spiritual world must become again a garden of Gods own planting. Not a brier, or thistle, or thorn can grow in the material, moral, or spiritual world. Only those plants planted by the Fathers hand and nurtured by his love will grow in that redeemed and rescued Eden of God.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

kingdom

Kingdom (N.T.), Summary: See “Kingdom (O.T.)” Gen 1:26-28. (See Scofield “Zec 12:8”). Kingdom truth is developed in the N.T. in the following order:

(1) The promise of the kingdom to David and his seed, and described in the prophets 2Sa 7:8-17,; Zec 12:8 enters the N.T. absolutely unchanged. Luk 1:31-33. The King was born in Bethlehem; Mat 2:1; Mic 5:2 of a virgin.; Mat 1:18-25; Isa 7:14.

(2) The kingdom announced as “at hand” (See Scofield “Mat 4:17”), by John the Baptist, by the King, and by the Twelve, was rejected by the Jews, first morally, See Scofield “Mat 11:20”, and afterward officially Mat 21:42; Mat 21:43 and the King, crowned with thorns, was crucified.

(3) In anticipation of His official rejection and crucifixion, the King revealed the “mysteries” of the kingdom of heaven, (See Scofield “Mat 13:11”) to be fulfilled in the interval between His rejection and His return in glory Mat 13:1-50.

(4) Afterward He announced His purpose to “build” His church Mat 16:18 another “mystery” revealed through Paul which is being fulfilled contemporaneously with the mysteries of the kingdom. The “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” and the “mystery” of the church Eph 3:9-11 occupy, historically, the same period, i.e, this present age.

(5) The mysteries of the kingdom will be brought to an end by “the harvest” Mat 13:39-43; Mat 13:49; Mat 13:50 at the return of the King in glory, the church having previously been caught up to meet Him in the air 1Th 4:14-17.

(6) Upon His return the King will restore the Davidic monarchy in His own person, re- gather dispersed Israel, establish His power over all the earth, and reign one thousand years Mat 24:27-30; Luk 1:31-33; Act 15:14-17; Rev 20:1-10.

(7) The kingdom of heaven (See Scofield “Mat 3:2”) thus established under David’s divine Son, has for its object the restoration of the divine authority in the earth, which may be regarded as a revolted province of the great kingdom of God See Scofield “Mat 6:33”. When this is done (1Co 14:24; 1Co 14:25) the Son will deliver up the kingdom (of heaven), Mat 3:2 to “God, even the Father,” that “God” (i.e. the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) “may be all in all” (1Co 14:28). The eternal throne is that “of God, and of the Lamb” Rev 22:1. The kingdom-age constitutes the seventh Dispensation, See Scofield “Eph 1:10”.

Then cometh Then, finally, when he delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he has done away with every rule, and every authority and power (for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet), the last enemy, death, is destroyed.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

cometh: Dan 12:4, Dan 12:9, Dan 12:13, Mat 10:22, Mat 13:39, Mat 13:40, Mat 24:13, 1Pe 4:7

the kingdom: Isa 9:7, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:27, Mat 11:27, Mat 28:18, Luk 10:22, Joh 3:35, Joh 13:3, 1Ti 6:15

Reciprocal: Gen 49:9 – a lion’s Psa 8:6 – put Psa 72:5 – as long Dan 2:44 – break Dan 7:9 – till Mar 16:19 – and sat Luk 1:33 – he Joh 14:28 – Father Phi 2:9 – God Heb 2:8 – but 1Pe 3:22 – angels Rev 17:14 – the Lamb shall

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE END

Then cometh the end.

1Co 15:24

It is not possible to rule these words out of life. They are perpetually recurring. We contemplate a mans life from childhood to full manhood and old age; all the works that he will do; all the associations he will form; our eye runs along his whole course; but at last we reach the point where Then cometh the end sums up and closes all.

I. The most striking thing about the whole matter is the way in which mens desire and dread are both called out by this constant coming of the ends of things; this stopping and restarting of the works of life.

(a) There is mans desire of the end. This partly arises from mans instinctive dread of monotony. I would not live always has been a true cry of the human soul. Mans mere dread of monotony, his sense of the awful weariness of living on for ever, has made him rejoice that down the long avenues of life here he could read the inscription of release, Then cometh the end. Every man has gathered something which he must get rid of, something he would not carry always; and so he welcomes the prophecy, Then cometh the end. But it is not only the sense of the evil element in life that makes men desire the coming end. That is, after all, a poor and desperate reason. When life has been a success and developed its better powers, then, for a man to say, This road is glorious, but I am glad to see it stops yonder; for beyond, without doubt, there is something yet more gloriousthat is a fine impatience. The noblest human natures are built thus.

(b) There in mans dread of the end. Undoubtedly the sense of the changefulness of things is what sends such a feeling of insecurity through all our ordinary livinga dread which haunts the very feature of life which, as we have seen, wakens also the almost enthusiastic desire of mens souls. And one reason is, the soul shrinks from change. Another reason is, that one shrinks from the thought of the coming end of the condition in which he is now living in proportion as he is aware of how far he is from having fulfilled and exhausted the fulness and richness of this present life. But the strongest element in our dread of change is the great uncertainty which envelops every untried experience, the great mystery of the unlived. We dread the end even of our own imperfect condition.

II. Fortunate, indeed, is it that the end of things does not depend upon mans choice, but comes by a will more large, more wise than his. If we, in such mingled mood, were at last compelled to give the sign when we thought the time had come for this mortal to put on immortalityhow the desire and the dread would fight within us! We are spared all that. It comes of itself, men say; the Christian man with perfect reverence and truth exclaims, God sends it. Apart from this view of the changefulness of life, this perpetual hurrying of all things to an end, we can make nothing out of it all. But if around this instability of human life is wrapped the great permanence of the life of God; if no end comes which is not in His sight truly a beginning; then there is light shed upon it all, and everything is instinct with His spiritual design.

III. How is it with you?Have you anything to which there comes no end? Any passion for character, and the love of God? Those, and such like things, are eternal. There is no end to the great things of life. If one is living in the resolute pursuit of them, he may first welcome, and then rejoice to leave behind, the several means which in succession offer him their help to attain the object of life. A noble independence this gives to mans soul. The more your soul is set upon the ends of life, the more you use its means in independence. Consider the life of your Lord, particularly its crowning scenes. Let such be your lives. As He was, so let us seek to be. That while we hang upon our cross, and cry It is finished, it may be with a shout of triumph, counting the end but a new beginning, and looking out beyond the cross to richer growth in character, and braver and more fruitful service of our Lord.

Bishop Phillips Brooks.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 15:24. Then is an adverb of time, and refers to the words “at his coming” in the preceding verse. This verse gives the information as to what is to come to end at the coming of Christ, namely, the kingdom or rule of Christ. Paul directly says that the kingdom with Christ as its head will end when He comes, and he will deliver it up to his Father. From this inspired prediction come two other important truths, namely, that the kingdom of Christ will have been in existence before His second coming, and also that he will not be a king after that coming. Therefore, the doctrine that the kingdom is still a thing of the future, and that He will set up a thousand year reign when he comes is false.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 15:24. Then cometh the endthat is, when the saints are raised; not after a whole dispensation of risen saints ruling the earth has elapsed after their resurrection, as Alford and such as hold the premillennial theory maintain,when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Fatherin what sense may appear at 1Co 15:28,when he shall have abolished all rule, and all authority and powerall hostile power, as is plain from what follows.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

1Co 15:24. Then After the resurrection and the general judgment; cometh the end Of the world, the grand period of all those wonderful scenes that have appeared for so many succeeding generations; when he shall Publicly and solemnly; have delivered up Greek, , when he shall deliver up; the mediatorial kingdom to God, even the Father By whose commission he had held it, and to whose glory he had always administered it; when he shall have put down , when he shall have destroyed all adverse rule, authority, and power That had opposed itself to his government, and shall have triumphed over all the efforts which either men or devils could ever make against his dominion. This mediatorial kingdom which Christ will deliver up, is represented, Mat 28:18, to be his possessing all power in heaven and in earth; that is, power over angels as well as over men. This kingdom our Lord received in the human nature, as the reward of his humiliation, and was solemnly installed in it after his resurrection, when he ascended into heaven, and was invited by God to sit at his right hand till he should make his enemies his footstool. Further, because it is said, Col 1:17, He is before all things, and by him all things consist; and because we are told, Heb 1:3, that the Son, while he spake the gospel, upheld all things by the word of his power; it is believed, that besides the mediatorial kingdom which the Son administered in the human nature, and which he will deliver up to the Father after the judgment, he possessed the government of the universe from the beginning, in his character as Creator: and that, after the mediatorial kingdom is delivered up, the kingdom which he holds as Creator, will remain with him as from the beginning. So that after the judgment, the righteous shall enter still into the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ, as they are represented to do, 2Pe 1:11. Macknight. Indeed, the divine reign, both of the Father and the Son, is from everlasting to everlasting. And only so far as the Father gave the kingdom to the Son, shall the Son deliver it up to the Father, Joh 13:3. Nor does the Father cease to reign when he gives it to the Son, neither the Son when he delivers it to the Father; but the glory which he had before the world began, (Joh 17:5; Heb 1:8,) will remain even after that is delivered up. Nor will he cease to be a king even in his human nature, Luk 1:33. If the citizens of the New Jerusalem shall reign for ever, (Rev 22:5,) how much more shall he!

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 24. Then the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father: when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power.

The , then, does not allow us to identify the time of the , the end, with that of the Advent. Paul would have required to say in that sense , at that time, and not , then or thereafter. The implies, in the mind of the apostle, a longer or shorter interval between the Advent and what he calls the end.

What is this end? According to Theodoret, Bengel, Meyer, Osiander: the end of the resurrection, the third act of the drama of which we have just seen the first two (the resurrection of Christ and that of believers); consequently the universal resurrection. But would not Paul have qualified the word the end more precisely, if such had been his thought? And would he not have brought out more clearly the relation between this third phase and the two preceding? Used without qualification, as it is here, the end must designate the end absolutely speaking, , the end of all things, as Peter puts it (1 Eph 4:7), the goal of the entire economy of education, redemption, and sanctification, the time when God’s thought shall be at length fully realized in regard to man, come to his perfect stature in Christ. Chrysostom explains: the end of the present age; which is true only if we include within the present age the whole interval between the Advent and the end; Holsten: the end of this created world, which, when believers have once been removed by resurrection to a higher world and hostile powers vanquished, has no more value and passes away. This critic rightly points out the mistake of Meyer, who thinks that Paul makes the present age end at the Advent, failing to remember that so long as death is not destroyed (1Co 15:26), the present age still continues. Besides, the apostle will say positively what he understands by the end in 1Co 15:28.

And what fact shall mark this solemn epoch which the apostle calls the end? He explains in the following words: when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father. A reading which is found in two Byz. and in the T. R. runs: When He shall have delivered up, (the aorist subjunctive). If this were the true reading, the end would not coincide with the delivering up of the kingdom into the hands of the Father; it would follow it. But this reading is too weakly supported and has not sufficiently appreciable intrinsic superiority to make it preferable to that of the Alex. and Greco-Lat. documents. The latter read or (two equivalent forms of the present subjunctive), which signifies: When He delivers up, for: when He shall deliver up. According to this reading, what Paul calls the end coincides absolutely with the delivering up of the kingdom into the hands of the Father. The same follows from 1Co 15:28.

We may understand by (the reign), either the kingdom, the state of things in which God shall reign perfectly, or the kingship, the dominion exercised over this state of things. The second is the more natural meaning according to 1Co 15:25 (He must reign till…) and 1Co 15:28, where it is said the kingdom of the Father must follow from the cessation of that of the Son.

In the expression: to God and the Father, are contained the two relations of Jesus to God: His subordination to Him as His God and His essential union to Him as His Father.

How will the interval be filled between the Advent and the end when the kingdom shall pass from the Son’s hands into those of the Father? This is what the apostle explains in the following words: When He shall have put down all rule…He really uses here the subjunctive aorist, according to all the documents, which proves that he is taking a step backwards. For this aorist is equivalent to our future perfect. It implies that the event which is about to be mentioned will transpire, on the one hand, immediately before the end, on the other, after the Advent. It is obvious how false it is to translate, as is often done: When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father and put down all powers… This translation makes two events coincide, which, according to Paul, are successive. The meaning, on the contrary, is: When He shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, after having put down all powers… The Advent will therefore be separated from the end (the delivering up of the kingdom) by an epoch of judgment. The word strictly signifies: to reduce to impotence; hence to put down a power. The powers put down can only be the powers hostile to God and His kingdom; for they are called enemies in 1Co 15:25, and their fall is the condition of the establishment of the Divine kingdom (1Co 15:28). It has been thought that the reference here was to earthly powers (Calvin, Grotius); but the terms used by the apostle are so frequently employed by him to designate the invisible powers which contend against God and which seek to drag mankind into their opposition to His kingdom (comp. Rom 8:38; Col 1:13; Col 1:16; Col 2:15; Eph 2:2; Eph 6:11-12), that it is impossible to depart from this almost technical meaning. What confirms this explanation is, that in 1Co 15:26 death personified is ranked among the powers put down by the reigning and judging Christ. By , command, may be understood the superior beings who, in this invisible domain, exercise command over the others; the designate authorities armed with legal qualification; , the executive forces. The , all, is not repeated with the third term, which would have been monotonous.

Such, then, will be the use of the interval between the Advent and the end. This period of judgment will only end with the complete reduction of the last enemy; and it must be so, for such is the declaration of Scripture.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Then cometh the end [the apostle does not mean to say that this end comes immediately after the resurrection, but that it is next in order of great events, so far as humanity is concerned], when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

END OF THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM

1Co 15:24-28

24. Then cometh the end, i. e., the end of time and the mediatorial kingdom, this being the only one that will ever have an end. When He may deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He may destroy all government, all authority and power, i. e., all governmental authority antagonistic to God. When a human province revolted, the emperor always sent out a proconsul with an army to put down the rebellion, the former preparing to furnish the latter all of the men and money he needed until the work was done. When the news of the Fall reached Heaven, all the golden harps were hung on weeping willows, and Heaven turned into a Bochim of weeping over the loss of this world; no finite power was adequate to the emergency. Behold, the glorified Son espouses the lost cause! The news thrills all Heaven with unutterable surprise and shakes all Hell with unspeakable consternation. Then and there was inaugurated the mediatorial kingdom for the restoration of this lost world. Under this kingdom is every soul from righteous Abel to the last one that will be saved in the nick of time, when Gabriel is lifting the trumpet to roar the judgment blast. What is time? It is that portion of eternity which measures the duration of the mediatorial kingdom. Before the fall eternity was revolving its mighty course while millions of worlds sped their flight around the Throne of God. The revolt supervened and the Son of God came down from the Throne, mediatorial King, to put down the rebellion and expurgate sin from the universe. The mediatorial kingdom will sweep on through the Millennium from the simple fact that it includes the theocracy, which is the culmination of it. Hence salvation will continue through the Millennium down to the end of time.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

15:24 {14} Then [cometh] the {h} end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down {i} all rule and all authority and power.

(14) The fourth argument with which also he confirms the other, has a most sure ground, that is, because God must reign. And this is the manner of his reign, that the Father will be shown to be King in his Son who was made man, to whom all things are made subject (the promiser being the only exception) to the end that the Father may afterward triumph in his Son the conqueror. And he makes two parts of this reign and dominion of the Son in which the Father’s glory consists: that is first, the overcoming of his enemies, in which some must be deprived of all power, as Satan and all the wicked, be they ever so proud and mighty, and others must be utterly abolished, as death. And second, a plain and full delivery of the godly from all enemies, that by this means God may fully set forth the body of the Church cleaving fast to their head Christ, his kingdom and glory, as a King among his subjects. Moreover he puts the first degree of his kingdom in the resurrection of the Son, who is the head: and the perfection, in the full conjunction of the members with the head, which will be in the latter day. Now all these tend to this purpose, to show that unless the dead do rise again, neither the Father can be King above all, neither Christ the Lord of all. For neither should the power of Satan and death be overcome, nor the glory of God be full in his Son, nor his Son in his members.

(h) The conclusion and finishing of all things.

(i) All his enemies who will be robbed of all the power that they have.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The end refers to the end of the present heavens and earth in view of what Paul said about it here. This will come more than 1,000 years after the Rapture. Then Christ, who will have been reigning over His earthly millennial kingdom, will turn over that reign to His Father. Christ’s abolition of all other rule, authority, and power will take place when He subdues the rebels that rise up against Him at the end of the Millennium (Rev 20:7-10). He will also defeat death, and from then on no one will die. The saved will enter the new heavens and new earth to enjoy bliss with God forever while the lost will suffer everlasting torment (Mat 25:46; Rev 20:11 to Rev 21:1).

"Many see evidence of the millennium in Paul’s discourse on resurrection (1 Corinthians 15, esp. 1Co 15:20-28)." [Note: Robert L. Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism, p. 280.]

". . . it is not only possible but probable that Paul understood this final triumph to take place during the millennial reign of Christ. To sum up the principal evidence, Paul’s use of epeita (’after that’) and eita (’then’) in 1Co 15:23-24, the syntax of 1Co 15:24-25, and the parallel use of Psalms 8, 110 in 1 Corinthians 15 and Hebrews 1, 2 all point to the understanding that when Paul mentioned a kingdom and reign in 1Co 15:24-25, he referred to the reign of Christ on this earth following His return and prior to the eternal state, a time that Rev 20:4-6 calls ’the thousand years.’" [Note: D. Edmond Hiebert, "Evidence from 1 Corinthians 15," in A Case for Premillennialism: A New Consensus, p. 234.]

Even though Jesus triumphed over death in his resurrection, believers still die. Therefore we must experience resurrection because we are in Christ and because only then will the final enemy, death, be subdued. Only then will God become all in all (i.e., everything that matters; cf. Col 3:11).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)