📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 15:28
What does 1 Corinthians 15:28 mean?
"When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all."
— 1 Corinthians 15:28 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.
When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?
Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
Explanation
This verse comes at the climax of Paul's great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, where he is defending and explaining the future bodily resurrection of believers against some in the Corinthian church who denied it. Paul has just walked through a sequence of end-time events: Christ has been raised first, then at his coming those who belong to him will be raised, and then comes "the end," when Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule, authority, and power, including death itself, the last enemy. Verse 28 caps this sequence by describing what happens once that final subjugation is complete: the Son himself will be subjected to the Father, so that God may be "all in all."
In plain language, Paul is saying that Christ's mission of conquering every hostile power reaches a definite goal. Once everything opposed to God — sin, death, every rebellious authority — has been brought under Christ's rule, the Son will place himself under the Father's authority in a final, complete way. The result is that God will be the all-encompassing reality, fully present and sovereign over everything, with nothing left outside his rule or in opposition to him.
Theologically, this verse has generated much careful discussion because it speaks of the eternal Son being "subjected" to the Father. Read alongside the rest of the New Testament, which affirms the full deity and eternal equality of the Son with the Father, this subjection is best understood not as a change in Christ's essential nature or worth, but as the culmination of his mediatorial work. Christ took on a role as the one who subdues all enemies and reigns as
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