Sermon on 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, Last Sunday of the Church Year 2020 (A), "All Rule Returns to Him"

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Ever since the dawn of mankind, people have tried to push aside God’s rule in favor of our own rule. God’s rule in the Garden of Eden was perfect, harmonious, blessed and peaceful. But Adam and Eve rejected God’s rule in favor of self-rule or autonomy. The logic of sin is: “Better to make our own rules and ignore God’s command.” But the new rule that they ushered into the world was not friendly. Sin and death entered the world and became Adam and Eve’s new slave masters.

The question of “Who will rule us?” echoes down through the Old Testament. When the Israelites were ruled by literal slave masters of Egypt, God rescued them. But they couldn’t bear the responsibility of freedom and grumbled to have their old easy life of slavery back—craving easy food more than freedom. When they were finally a free nation, they were ruled by Moses, Joshua, the Judges, and prophets like Samuel, until…they thought they knew better than God again and chose a king for themselves. Down through history mankind has tried every form of rule—from tribal rule to dictatorships and monarchies to empires, communism, socialism, fascism, feudalism and democracy. Winston Churchill cynically remarked that democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried. We hope a change of government or leaders will solve our problems, but we’re still stuck in the same rut of being self-serving sinners ruled by self-serving sinners. Every form of rule, authority and power has ultimately failed to deliver on the grander promises. Nevertheless, some have been far better than others. The more that justice and altruism take hold, the better the prospects.

But why does it always fail anyhow? Because of our sinful human nature and because we underestimate the spiritual forces of darkness behind human rule. Ultimately humans don’t know how to properly take hold of power without bending it to our own selfish ends in ruling over others. C.S. Lewis said our exercise of power always ends up being the power of some over others. We exploit, enslave, and subjugate others so that our vision, our will, or our pursuits can triumph. Any power we win ends up being a power exercised over others beneath us. Our Founding Father’s had no illusions about the corrupting force of power and built lots of checks and balances into the Constitution to protect against just such. abuses of power. It’s still an imperfect system. John Adams, William Wells, Benjamin Franklin, all said at our Founding, that this government would only work for a moral and religious people who sought after virtue. Freedom couldn’t serve a corrupt people. Franklin said the more corrupt we are the more need we have of masters. So, our sinfulness, selfishness, and unreliability always hamper human rule from being truly good. Checks and balances are good and necessary, but they are necessarily built on an accurate suspicion of human nature and bad people misusing power.

What does this have to do with our reading? Simply that no form of human rule will permanently satisfy the age-old question of “who will rule us?”. God is decisively telling us in 1 Corinthians 15 that All Rule with Return to Him. This is the major implication of Jesus’ resurrection and His Second Coming to earth one day. Christ will “deliver the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” Earth has suffered so long from human rule and error, but it will at last be completely redeemed. God will restore His perfect rule over us that was abandoned in the garden. Jesus brings all rule and authority under Himself, and hands over the kingdom to God.

How is Jesus consolidating and expanding His rule? Right now the kingdom of God is largely hidden in the Church. It’s not expressed in power, but in grace. Not an open rule of nations or territories, but the rule of the Prince of Peace, through His body, the Church. His rule extends peacefully in people’s lives, not destructively by the sword. But the day is quickly approaching when He will destroy every rule, authority and power. On the last day, His rule will be expressed through power over His enemies, and not grace.

What does Paul mean by “every rule and every authority and power?” This trio of words is often used to describe the spiritual forces of darkness. In Ephesians 6:12 it says “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The spiritual forces are the explicit enemy; not “flesh and blood”. Then in Colossians 2:15 he writes: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Christ disarmed and triumphed over the “rulers and authorities” by His cross and resurrection. Again, this seem to focus more on the spiritual forces of evil in league against God: sin, death, and the devil.

In the contest for who will rule us, that really seems to marginalize and minimize the role of human power. It’s true, I am downplaying the prestige and power of human governments and rule and saying that the real concern is the spiritual rule, authorities, and power behind them. I’m not saying it’s meaningless or we shouldn’t care or be involved. But in the eternal scope of things, all rule must ultimately be returned to Christ. These temporary human affairs, struggles and conflicts, are but a moment in history, in comparison with the eternal scope of God’s salvation, and the permanent reestablishment of His rule. There’s no hope for any peaceful, man-made utopias so long as we are self-serving sinners. Some of the most disastrous attempts of human rule apart from God, have been the utopian visions of tyrannical leaders like Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and Pol Pot, that led to the deaths of tens of millions of their subjects. Behind all the great works of human evil stands the spiritual forces of darkness. ALL this wicked and corrupt rule, spiritual and fleshly, every authority and power is doomed for destruction by Christ. Every enemy will become the defeated footstool under Jesus’ feet. There is no question of His victory and who wins the conquest to rule over us.

“Jesus must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.” Under His feet means that every power will be placed in submission to Him. No rule or authority will escape His full control. This is encouraging to believers but frightening to unbelievers. Even unbelievers see how humans abuse absolute power. So, when they contemplate God having absolute power, it alarms them, and they imagine God as a super tyrant! But this is all part of the devil’s original lie. Surrendering God’s rule for our own power trips has been the problem all along. We can’t exercise power without taking advantage or seeking our own self-interest. It’s endemic to our sinful nature. But when Jesus reigns, and all enemies are under His feet, it’s not an exploitative rule, or an oppressive rule (N.T. Wright), but He restores and redeems through His rule. Jesus restores justice and peace to the creation that has suffered so long under the rule of mankind, and frees us from the invisible, tyrannical rule of sin, death, and the devil. All Christ’s enemies, all evil will be crushed beneath His feet. Christ’s subjects, all who “belong to Christ” will peacefully live under His good kingdom. His rule is the very opposite of tyranny! He overthrows all that is against our wellbeing and good.

All rule must return to Him because that is the final trajectory of human history. What was broken and disordered through the Fall into sin in the Garden, has been reversed, restored, and set right by Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection. His resurrection is the disarming of rulers and authorities, and Christ’s triumph over them. Creation is being restored to God’s rule. Slowly and patiently now through the peaceful spread of the Good News of Jesus Kingdom. It’s received openly and without force or coercion by the work of the Holy Spirit, for whoever will believe and follow Christ as Lord. But all rule will continue to return to Christ, until at the end it is all complete. Since nothing can remain outside His rule, He must ultimately destroy those enemies that stand opposed. For they continue to stand for injustice, death, immorality, sin, corruption, and all that has made human history and rule so full of death, bloodshed, and violence. He must make a final end of evil and return all power to Himself.

His rule is ultimately peace, goodness, and blessing. For believers in Christ, it is a joy and a source of hope to anticipate freedom from the competition of selfishness, greed, and corruption—or even the best intentioned but tiresome fights over how to rule and who to rule. God has never left His throne through all the dark chapters of human history. God has never left His throne through all the changes of power and our attempts to rule without Him. He does reign now, and He will reign again fully, so that God may be all in all. All rule will return to Him. His rule is righteousness and peace (Ps. 85:10). Death will be destroyed once for all and His resurrection means our place in eternal life is secured.

I encourage you then, live knowing that all rule returns to Him, and we are already under His gracious reign by faith. Until Christ returns, spread His reign through the Good News of Jesus. There is no barrier to citizenship for all who come to Christ as refugees and believers, to join His kingdom. And all those places that seem now to be beyond His power or reign—whatever corner of human life still seems void of His presence, or ruled by darkness—be confident that His reign will come one day and cast out every darkness. His reign is over all and every knee will one day bow down and acknowledge Him as Lord. We long and wait for His just and peaceful reign when all rule returns to Him. Amen! Come quickly Lord Jesus!