If so, God is the END of all things, i
PAUL refers. The whole is shut up unto unbelief in order that the whole may find mercy; 1000 loan now and as the unbelief is actual and absolute, so, if there be a parallelism, must the mercy be equally actual and absolute.
e., unto (or perhaps into) Him all things shall return. The original imports that God is at once SOURCE and GOAL; AUTHOR and END of all Creation. No outlook can be more magnificent; no hope more divine, or broader, than this. Naturally, and characteristically, popular teaching practically ignores such a passage. (How different would have been its reception had it contained an anathema.)
« AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD. SO THEN EVERY ONE OF US SHALL GIVE ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO GOD. » Rom. xiv. 11-12.
S. PAUL here quotes the great passage – Is. xlv. 22-23, in which salvation is promised to the entire human race, and which the apostle connects with the Judgment – see p. 295. From the whole context it seems that Christ’s empire over all is absolute; extends to the dead; implies salvation; and this salvation is linked with His (future) judgment. The word translated « confess » is properly to « offer praise » or « thanksgiving. » Thus, S. PAUL’S view of the true meaning of the judgment day and its issues, seems in direct conflict with endless ruin.
As ADAM actually brought death, spiritually, to all, so the last ADAM actually gives life, spiritually, to all. No mere offer of life can satisfy the plain language of the text. Nothing less than life really – spiritually imparted to all by the last ADAM – can fairly express S. But it is objected that as death in ADAM 15 not final in some cases, so life in Christ is not final in some cases. (I.) It would perhaps be enough to answer that the objection misses the mark, for the apostle’s thoughts are set simply on one point, on asserting that an universal life succeeds, and absorbs, an universal death. But I will reply further, that (II.) the plain words of the text require an actual communication of life TO ALL through Christ, else the comparison between ADAM and Christ is NOT TRUE; for it is certain that the link of evil between ADAM and the race is absolute, actual, and universal. And to call Christ the last ADAM, while denying a tie of grace and life equally actual, absolute, and universal, is to dupe men. (III.) The context involves the permanence of this life through Christ, for it claims for Christ a full victory; and requires us to believe that God will be All in All, at the End. (IV.) Life in Christ is thus not alone universal, it is final, v. 24-8.
« FOR HE MUST REIGN, TILL HE HAS PUT ALL ENEMIES UNDER HIS FEET * * THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL. » 1 Cor. xv. 25-28.
PAUL’S meaning
There is here, at THE END, no place for sin – no trace of evil – no hell – for is not God All and in All I His empire is to be unbroken, universal, absolute. And the subjection of all to Him is the same subjection by which He is to be subject to the Father, i.e., harmony and love, and peace; so the context requires. For note, that in summing up the final results of Christ’s work, the same word is used (in the original) of Christ’s own subjection to the Father, and of the subjection of Christ’s own enemies to Him. But, obviously, Christ’s own subjection can only be love and harmony – hence the subjection of Christ’s enemies cannot mean their endless incarceration in cvi.? and rain. Such a conception is no less excluded by the assertion that finally God shall be All in All.
