1 Corinthians 15:23

1Co_15:23-24

But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christs at His coming.

The sequences of the resurrection

I. When and how will the dead be raised?

1. Generally Pauls answer amounts to this. The resurrection is not a single act. All men are to be raised, but every one in his own order, i.e., in his own troop. The apostle sees an universal conflict between life and death. Christ the Lord of life has already achieved a personal victory; but all others are still in the thick of the conflict. What is to be the issue? Through the power of Christs life, troop after troop they will achieve their conquest, and defile before their victorious Captain with joyful acclamation. Christs resurrection, the first-fruits, is the first triumph in a series of triumphs over death; the second that of those who are Christs at His coming. It is impossible that they, with His life in them, should be holden of death, though death may keep them in ward for a while.

2. Do the dead in Christ rise before the other dead?

(1) Let us ask St. Paul to be his own interpreter. His fullest utterance is 1Th_4:13-17. The Thessalonians apprehended that only those who were alive when Christ came would reign with Him. Hence they mourned, as those without hope, over their brethren who departed this life, and thus lost their thrones. To comfort them, the apostle affirmed that those who are alive and remain will have no advantage over the Christian dead. The dead in Christ will rise first; and then those who are alive wilt be caught up to meet Him. Here, then, though he does not speak of a general resurrection, St. Paul does speak of one in which only those who sleep in Christ will take part.

(2) As his meaning is still obscure, let us call in another interpreter. In Rev_20:1-15 St. John describes at length the time and scene which were in St Pauls mind. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. How much of this vision is symbol, we cannot tell. But it is impossible to read it without admitting that, at least in St. Johns thought, there were to be in the future two successive triumphs of life over death; the first, at the resurrection of those who are in Christ; the second, at the general resurrection of all the dead.

(3) This view of the future illustrates many other Scriptures, and is confirmed and expanded by them (Jud_1:14-15; 1Co_6:2). But how should the saints come with the Lord to judge the world, unless they had had part in the first resurrection?

(4) The great Scripture, however, is Mat_25:1-46.

(a) The discourse commences with the parable of the ten virgins. When the Bride-groom comes the lamps of five are going out--at the point to expire. And so, when the Lord comes, they are not ready for Him. Yet they may be saved. For all we are told is that they are too late for that time; not that when they went to buy oil, the shops were shut. They were buying oil when they should have been burning it, and therefore were too late for the marriage supper. It is not the final judgment which is here set before us. Those who miss the first may be in time for the second resurrection.

(b) The same thought expressed in the parable of the talents. All who received talents from the lord are of his household. Two are faithful to their trust. One servant fails. The foolish virgins thought their task too easy: the slothful servant thinks his too hard. When his master comes, he has nothing but excesses to offer, and bases his excuses on a wilful misconception of the masters character. He is cast into the outer darkness. This is a parabolic delineation of the first resurrection, of the judgment of the Church rather than of the world. For there are many in the Church who misconceive the character of God. Among the awful possibilities of life there is also this: that those who have once been enlightened, etc. (Heb_6:4-6), may fall away beyond the reach of penitence, and therefore beyond the reach of redemption.

(c) But at this point we pass from the first to the second resurrection, from the judgment of the Church--which may extend through the millennium--to the judgment of the world. For now all the nations are gathered before the Son of Man. Those who stand on the right are the sheep who were not of this fold, the men of every nation who, taught by His Spirit though not through His gospel, have wrought righteousness. To them the King will say, Come ye blessed of My Father, etc. Mark their response. They cannot say, Lord, Thou didst not entrust us with talents. They do not know Him, nor His gifts. Mark also the Lords reply: Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren--and here we must suppose Him pointing to the saints who have come with Him to the judgment--ye did it unto Me. In short, all the details of this solemn scene indicate that the saints are distinct from the righteous; that they are already with Christ in glory, not before Him for judgment.

II. Then the end, etc. (verse 24). These words are expanded in the verses which follow. All this means that all the authority of man over man, all the power of death over the race, and even all the grace of Christ in the Church, are Divine expedients for delivering men from their bondage to the lusts which destroy them, and for quickening them into a new better life: that the authority of man and the power of death only reach their true and benignant ends as they are penetrated by the Spirit of Christ: that Christ, therefore, must reign till these various forms of rule are suffused by His Spirit; and that then, when all these have achieved their purpose, the end will come; the Divine expedients, having served their turn, will vanish away, and higher forms of life take their place; we shall know God, not only through the Son, but as He is in Himself, and the God whom as yet we know only through Christ, even the Father, will become all in all of us.

1. It is not difficult to see how all forms of human rule and authority are, at least, intended to check the evil dispositions of men, to save us from anarchy, from the tyranny of brute force and unbridled selfishness. Bad as the world is it would be far worse but for the restraints of domestic and political authority. Nor is it difficult to see that even the death we often fear is a wholesome check upon us. The mere fear of it holds back the tyrant from many crimes, the criminal from many offences.

2. Nevertheless human rule is apt to be austere and unlovely. Till it is penetrated by the Spirit of Christ, if it does some good, it also does much harm; and, in so far as it does harm to men, it is the enemy of Christ. Death, again, is a horror, till the light of life and immortality shine through it; and, in so far as it inspires the fear that hath torment, death is the enemy of Christ. Therefore God has ordained that Christ shall reign till He has put all enemies beneath His feet, till His Spirit has penetrated all forms of domestic and civil control, and suffused death itself with the splendours of life. But when He shall thus have drawn all things under Him, the reign of Christ will have achieved its purpose; the world will be full of living men who dwell together in charity, and to whom death means more life and fuller. Having achieved its purpose, the reign of Christ may well come to an end. It will be merged in the universal kingdom of the Father. The Mediator will be lost in the God to whom He has reconciled all men, from whom they can never more be alienated. God, even the Father, will be all in all. Unlike the princes of this world, the Divine King will reign, not when, but only until, He has put all enemies under His feet.

3. This, then, is the glorious prospect which lies before us. To our mortal weakness, indeed, we may find no beauty in it that we should desire it. For we do not care to rise above our need of Christ: the thought of losing Him is intolerable to us. Let us therefore remember that we do not lose a child when we find and love his father. We then really find the child, understand him better, love him more. And, in like manner, we shall not, in finding God, lose Christ. We shall then first truly find Him, know Him as we never knew Him before, love Him with a more perfect love.

4. Whatever else and more may be meant by Christ delivering the kingdom to His Father, and God becoming all in all, at least this must be meant: that the future is to be a grand progress, a golden ladder which we shall climb, round after round, till we stand amid the awful and transfiguring splendours of the eternal throne; a constant advance towards the central light, a constant increase in life, power, wisdom, charity: a beatific vision, which grows and spreads as we gaze upon it, and pours an enlarging volume of energy and peace into our souls. (S. Cox, D.D.)

Christ the first-fruits

I. The figure suggests the idea of precedence. As the presenting of the first-ripe fruits preceded the gathering in of the remainder of the harvest--so Christs rising from the grave, and, on His ascension, appearing before God, was the prelude of the rising of all His people and their gathering in to everlasting life. The resurrection of the blessed surety was the first irrecoverable and permanent rescue from the power of the grave. He was the first released victim which death was never to get back.

II. The second idea suggested by the type is that of security. The first-fruits, when duly offered to the Lord, in obedience to His prescription, and as a becoming expression of dependence and thankfulness, formed a kind of Divine pledge to Israel of the remaining harvest. There are two ways in which the resurrection of Jesus may be considered as giving assurance of the resurrection of His people.

1. It involved in it an attestation, on the part of the Father that sent Him, to the divinity of His mission, and to the truth of all His testimony.

2. It was closely connected with His death, as the principal proof of its having answered its end. That end was atonement. It is not the fact that Christ died, even connected with the additional fact of His rising again, that constitutes the gospel. Both the facts may be believed, and yet the gospel rejected. The gospel lies in the purpose of His death--He died for our sins; and then His resurrection becomes the evidence of the purpose having been effectually answered--of the Fathers having accepted the propitiation.

III. The last idea suggested by the figure in the text is resemblance. The first ripe fruits were a specimen of the harvest. They were to be the best indeed in quality; and had it been otherwise, the type would ill have agreed with what the apostle represents it as having prefigured. For we must never fancy that, in the case before us, resemblance means the same as equality. The glory of His people can never be supposed equal in degree to that of Jesus Himself. But the glory shall be the same in kind; His the glory of the sun, ours of those stars that receive and reflect His light. See Php_3:20-21; 1Jn_3:2; Col_3:4. And oh, is not this enough?--enough to kindle all the ardour of desire, enough to fill the conceptions of the most capacious mind, enough to exhaust the efforts of the boldest and loftiest imagination? To be like Christ! Oh, what is there higher, holier, or happier, which it is possible for you to wish, either for yourselves or for the dearest objects of your love? (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God.--

The coming of the end

The end comes--

I. To mans greatness. Alexander the Great conquered all that was known of the world, and sighed because there was only one world to conquer, and yet one small grave in Babylon was large enough to hold him and his greatness. Solomons wisdom and greatness were such that there was none like unto him, and yet he was buried in the city of David his father. If I visit the Pyramids of Egypt, I am reminded of the glory of the Pharaohs, yet if I were to touch one of these Pharaohs roughly he would crumble into dust. William the Conqueror was a mighty king, yet his horse stumbling over the hot ashes of a burning town brought all this greatness to an end. Napoleons ambition knew no bounds, and yet a lonely tomb holds all that remains of that mighty conqueror.

II. To our opportunities for good. All have these opportunities, yet some of you are not using them. An end will come to them. God will not always strive with man, and then the recording angel will point sadly to the text, Then cometh the end.

III. To a life of open sin and dissipation. I see men and women staggering out of taverns, I see them gambling in reeking rooms. I see women hovering through the streets seeking whom they may devour, then I open my Bible sadly and read the text, Then cometh the end. And it is nearer by forty, or fifty, or sixty years than when you were born. What sort of end is it going to be? Conclusion:

1. There are only two kinds of endings possible for you: if you are in Christ Jesus, then the end will be for you the end of waiting, of toil, of sorrow, and it will be the beginning of peace, of joy, of rest everlasting. But for those who die in their sins, the end must be the end of all hope, of all amendment, and the beginning of the blackness of darkness for ever.

2. Choose then this day, whom you will serve! (H. J. W. Buxton, M.A.)

The certain end

I. It is not possible to rule these words out of life.

1. You tell of any process; but always by and by the process is exhausted. Then cometh the end. Your story has to round itself with that.

(1) We see a child growing up from childhood into manhood; but at last cometh the end.

(2) You start upon a new business, build you a new house, begin some new study, whatever you do, then cometh the end, is written, however far away, as the conclusion which all must reach.

(3) Our text tells that even of the great work Christ is doing it is written, Then cometh the end.

2. This constant recurrence of ends in life must certainly mean something. It may beget a mere frivolity. It may make it seem as if nothing were worth beginning or prosecuting very thoroughly. Or it may give a freshness and vitality to living. Now or never.

II. What sort of tempfr it ought to produce.

1. Note the way in which mens desire and mens dread are both called out.

(1) Look at mans desire of the end.

(a) It is a part of his dread of monotony. There is something very pathetic in mans instinctive fear of being wearied with even the most delightful and satisfactory experiences. Is it not a sign of mans sense that his nature is made for larger worlds than this? I would not live alway, has been a true cry of the human soul.

(b) But there is something deeper. Very early there comes the sense of imperfection and failure, and the wish that it were possible to begin the game again. And as life goes on that conviction grows. Tell any man that he, out of all these mortals, was never to die, and by and by must come something like dismay; for every man has gathered something which he must get rid of, and so there is promise to him in, Then cometh the end.

(c) But so far as life has been a success, the same satisfaction comes. It is a poor thing for a traveller along a dreary and difficult road to be able to say, Thank God, there is an end to this! But for a man to say, This road is glorious, but no doubt beyond is something yet more glorious still, that is a fine impatience. The noblest human natures are built thus. Let the life be filled with the spirit of the springtime, and the end which comes shall be the luxuriance of summer! And so in many tones, yet all of them tones of satisfaction, men desire the end. It is like a great company of travellers coming together in sight of the resting-place where they are to spend the night, and lifting up all together one great shout of joy. Their hearts have various feelings. Some are glad because their days task is done, others because of the new task which they can see opening out beyond them for to-morrow.

(2) Turn to the other side and think of the dread with which men think of the coming of ends in life. Can we give any account of this dread?

(a) It is the sheer force of habit. That this which is should cease to be is shocking and surprising. Even in that dread there is something which is good it is good for the tree to love the soil in which it grows and to consent with difficulty to transplanting. It is good that the burden of proof should be on the side of change.

(b) Men shrink from the announcement of the coming end because they know how far they are from having exhausted their present condition. A boy has longed to be a man, but when he stands upon the brink of manhood and looks behind him over the yet-unreaped acres of his youth, he is almost ready to go back and postpone his manhood till he has taken richer possession of those harvest fields. And so of the great end. Who wants to die so long as this great rich world has only had the very borders of its riches touched?

(c) But even more than this, perhaps, comes in the great uncertainty which envelops every experience which is untried. The passage from light into light must be always through a zone of darkness. How we are feeling this in these days! Old social conditions are ceasing to be possible any longer. In their place new ones are evidently coming, and who is not conscious of misgiving and of dread as he enters with his time into the cloud of disturbance that hovers between the old and the new? This is a large part of the reason why the most miserable cling to life, counting it better. To bear the ills they have than flee to others which they know not of.

2. Blessed indeed it is for man, standing in such confused and mingled mood, that the end of things does not depend upon his choice, but comes by a will more large, more wise than his. The workmans voice has not to summon out of the east the shadows of the night in which no man can work. It comes of itself, we say. We mean, God sends it.

(1) How many things there are of which we say, I thank God I may do this, but I thank God also that the time will come when I shall stop doing it! Our business associations, journeys, schools, homes, are of this sort. They are good and welcome because they are but for a while. Our mortal life, that too we are thankful for, but thankful also that it shall not last for ever. But all this satisfaction in the temporariness comes only from its being enfolded and embraced within the eternity of the eternal. There must be something which does not pass away, something to which comes no end. The soul and its character, God and His love and glory--it is because within these as the ends of life all other things are enfolded as the means of life, that we can be reconciled to, nay, even can rejoice in the knowledge that the means must cease when they shall have made their contribution to the end which must endure for ever. But to know no everlasting end or purpose, to have nothing but the means to rest on, to see them slipping out of our grasp and leaving nothing permanent behind--that is terrible! How is it with you? There comes an end to all these things which you are doing now! Not because God snatches them out of your hands, but because they exhaust themselves and expire, because they are by their nature temporary and perishing, they die. Have you anything to which there comes no end? Any passion for the character and love of God? Those are eternal. There is no end to the great ends of life.

(2) A noble independence this gives to a mans soul. Poverty comes up and joins you, and you say, Welcome. Poverty. We will walk together for a while, and when you have done for me all that you can, then I will dismiss you with my thanks. Riches comes rolling up to be your fellow-traveller, and you say, Welcome, Riches. There will come an end to you; but while you last we will be friends, and you shall help me. The more your soul is set upon the ends of life, the more you use its means in independence. You use them as a workman uses his tools, taking them up in quick succession, casting down one after the other, never falling in love with the tool because the work possesses him. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)

The end of the kingdom of grace

Consider--

I. What that kingdom is which Christ is to surrender.

1. There is the kingdom of nature, presided over not by the God of grace, but by the God of providence. In it there is system, order, reason, laws, everything that makes up a kingdom. But this is not the kingdom spoken of here, because it is not peculiarly Christs, and there is no necessity it should pass away. There are many reasons for believing that all its glory and richness only separated from mans sinfulness shall be preserved.

2. Now, there is over and above this the high, celestial, glorious kingdom in which the Lord reigns amongst His people and His angels in unveiled majesty. But this is not the kingdom whereof the apostle is speaking; for what reason is there that it should end? It is a kingdom in which God has gathered together the very choicest of all creatures. No; unless all Scripture be untrue, this kingdom of recompense and of glory is meant to be indestructible.

3. There is, however, a kingdom which is neither the kingdom of nature nor the kingdom of glory, but something between the two: but nevertheless, it belongs to earth in one respect, and to heaven in another. Its great object is to rescue sinners, and to build them up in holiness; and therefore the subjects of this kingdom are those that have been once rebellious, but, through the grace of God, have been brought into a state of loyalty and allegiance to the Lord. One of the grandest sketches we have of this kingdom is in Psa_110:1-7, where we see the Lords willing people being established, and His enemies crushed, and Christ reigning till He hath put all enemies under His feet. All men being originally Gods enemies, are predestined to be subdued--subdued by grace, or subdued by power. It is simply a question for ourselves in what department we shall find ourselves placed--enemies who have been reduced into friends, or enemies who are destined to be broken. Now this kingdom being provisional, is destined to pass away. Why should the scaffolding remain when the building is completed? When Gods mighty work is finished, should there be ministers, ordinances, means of grace?

II. The particular time at which this is to be done.

1. At the moment that Christianity was launched, calamities began to thicken upon the house of Israel. Jewish tribulation is running its course, but that will come to an end. Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

2. There is another dispensation that has set in concurrently with that of Gentile mercies. In the times of the Gentiles we are now living. But this dispensation must come to its end.

3. Another dispensation seems to have started concurrently with the dispensation of Christianity; that of Antichrist. Paul tells us in Thessalonians and 1 Timothy that in the last days perilous times shall come; and that this antichrist shall go on until the Lord shall consume him with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming. So that will have an end.

4. There is another grand expectation, viz., that of the returning Redeemer. And now take up these scattered threads and bring them, as they require, to a definite point connected with the second advent of our Master. Now is it not something to stand upon the mountain-top, and to look down upon all these railway trains making their way to one point? To one plunging on with the title of Jewish doctrines, and another with the title Gentile privileges, and another with the title Antichrist stamped upon them? Is it not something in the far distance to see the faintest glimmer of an unearthly light, and to see by the direction of all these various forces that they are hurrying one and all precisely to the same point, and eventually meeting at the worlds great centre, the returning Saviour? When all these destinies come to receive their concurring fulfilment, then the prophecy before us stands accomplished. And when that end comes there shall come a crush of kingdoms, for everything that is earthy shall fall into destruction, and The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and the Master shall be all in all. There shall also be the crush of a kingdom. The kingdom of grace is wanted no longer; it has done its necessary, its devoted work, long enough; for it has educated the Lords people for their privileges. And then the mighty President shall take it in His hands, and lay it down before the throne of His Eternal Father. Christs official existence, not His natural and intrinsic glory, will terminate, and then, without distinctions of official character, God shall be all in all. (Dean Boyd.)

The transitory and the eternal

We never repeat these words in reference to that which is charming without a certain sense of pain. Yet it is true in regard to all that pertains to us or to our surroundings. The longest, brightest day must end. Each season, each journey, vacation, however pleasant or prosperous, every human relationship, must end. The earthly life of each, though lengthened to a century and full of gladness, must come to an end. The structures built by man outlive the builder, and seem to say, We only are left behind, while the people once here are for ever gone! The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. The globe grows old and the new heavens and earth hasten. Even the mediatorial system is but for a time. So with everything with but one notable exception. The souls life is not to end. These facts suggest some practical lessons.

I. These things which are passing away are not to become the object of the supreme desire of the spirit which is not to come to an end. It is of course possible to go to extremes.

1. Some affect a disgust for pleasure and property, but by right enjoyment we are recreated. We are not to undervalue it. Again, property may be held without undue ambition or worldly pride. Christianity honours toil and reminds men that Jesus was a working man, and Paul as well. Economy is good. Omnipotence has recognised it. True religion is not hostile to the spirit of thrift and carefulness in acquisition.

2. But there is peril in the other extreme. We are apt to love pleasure and property inordinately. The souls welfare is subordinate, and so the lesson of the text is timely, Then cometh the end. The most opulent wealth will pass away.

II. There is a Divine purpose in these fleeting objects and experiences, to wit: to serve the culture of the soul which does not pass away.

1. The beauty and enjoyment He furnishes us so richly is intended to give tone and tincture to our taste; and by a contemplation of His handiwork our minds are affiliated with His.

2. So, too, by the proper gratification of the instinct of possession our will force is invigorated. The more means we possess, the more of culture we can give ourselves and households, the more useful we can be in the world. Moreover, character is unfolded in these activities. There is an Italian proverb that The solitary man is either a beast or an angel.

3. The body, too, is a means of spiritual culture. Our appetites are to be curbed and our passions confined, and so physical forces may now aid in our spiritual enrichment.

4. This world, though it is to come to an end, is another educational power. Its wealth we are to garner, its mines explore, and its forces subdue. All things are to minister to man, and to be subordinate to the souls life.

III. To the soul that has thus wisely used the transitory things of time, the end of all things does not in any sense mean defeat, disaster. What is the end of a campaign? Victory. Of a revolution like that of 1776? A new nation. The end of some superb cathedral, like that of Cologne, six centuries in building, is a poem in stone. The end of a true life is not destruction, but consummation. The river finds its end in the distant sea, and the day its end in the glory of a star-lit sky, a glory only seen when the day has found its close. We should not be sad, therefore, as the summer is ended, the harvest past, the journey completed, and the friendly associations terminated which cheered us for a season. The traveller passes the river, the village, or city on his way home, and is not disappointed, for he journeys to an end, his home. We seek an end. (R. S. Storrs, D.D.)

Christ resigning His administration

There are two different ideas attached to kingdom. One regards it as the empire of Satan, and the other as the empire of Christ. If the former be adopted, then the passage teaches that when Christ has subdued all the principalities and powers of this kingdom, He will deliver the whole up to the Father. Then the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever. If the latter, then it means that when Christ, in the exercise of His mediatorial authority, has subjugated all the powers of moral evil, He will deliver up His commission to God, who will then be acknowledged as the absolute ruler of all. The latter is the most plausible. Learn then--

I. That the government of our world is administered by Christ. The New Testament is full of the doctrine that Christ reigns over our world, and this explains several things otherwise inexplicable.

1. The perpetuation of the human race. Death was threatened on Adam if he sinned. He sinned, and died not, but became the father of the human family. The Biblical doctrine of mediation is the only principle that explains this.

2. The coexistence of sin and happiness in the same individual. Under the government of absolute righteousness we should antecedently expect that wherever there was sin there would be misery proportioned to it. There is perfect happiness in heaven, because there is perfect holiness; there is unmitigated misery in hell, because there is unmixed depravity; but here there is sin and happiness. The mediative government is the only principle that explains this

3. The offer of pardon, and the application of remedial influences to the condemned and corrupt. Under a righteous government, how is this to be explained? This is explicable only on the ground that He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance, etc.

II. That Christ administers the government of our world in order to put down all human evils. There are two classes of evil referred to.

1. Moral. All rule, all authority, and power. Sinful principles are the moral potentates of this world--the principalities and powers of darkness. Christs government is to put them down from governments, churches, books, hearts, etc.

2. Physical. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Death is the issue--the totality of all physical evils. Christ will destroy this. He will one day open the graves of the globe.

III. That when these evils are entirely put down, Christ will resign His administration into the hands of the everlasting Father. Moral evil shall be exterminated, and death swallowed up in victory. Then comes the end. Christ having finished the work that was given Him to do, resigns His office. The end realised, the means are no longer needed. Patriarchalism had its day; and Abraham delivering up his ministration to Moses. Judaism had its day: and Moses delivered up his ministration to Christ. Mediation is having its day; and when it shall have realised its design, Christ will deliver up His administration to the primal fountain of all authority and power.

IV. That when Christ shall have resigned His administration, God will be all in all.

1. This does not mean--

(1) That there will be dissolution in the human and Divine in the constitution of Christ.

(2) That Christ will lose any part of His influence in the Divine empire. Christ will ever rise in the esteem and devotion of all who know His history, and especially of all who have been saved by His grace.

(3) That God will become something different to the universe in general than He has ever been. To the unfallen districts of His vast kingdom He has ever been all in all.

2. The apostle is speaking of humanity, and what he means, I presume, is that God will become all in all to it--that He will become to man, after this, very different to what He had ever been. Two facts will illustrate this.

(1) He will treat all men after this on the ground of their own moral merits. From the fall up to this period He had treated them, during their existence in this world, on the ground of Christs mediation; but now, the mediation removed, each man shall reap the fruit of his own doings.

(2) All good men will, after this, subjectively realise the absolute one as they have never done before. The atmosphere of their nature purified, He shall appear within them as the central orb, revealing everything in its light--uncovering the Infinite above and the finite beneath--making the finite manifest and glorious in the conscious light of the Infinite. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The end of the mediatorial reign

The Scriptures constantly teach that Christs kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of His dominion there is no end. In what sense, then, can He be said to deliver up His kingdom? It must be remembered that the Scriptures speak of a threefold kingdom as belonging to Christ.

1. That which necessarily belongs to Him as a Divine person, extending over all creatures, and of which He can never divest Himself.

2. That which belongs to Him as the incarnate Son of God, extending over His own people. This also is everlasting. He will for ever remain the head and sovereign of the redeemed.

3. That dominion to which He was exalted after His resurrection, when all power in heaven and earth was committed to His hands. This kingdom, which He exercises as the Theanthropos, and which extends over all principalities and powers, He is to deliver up when the work of redemption is accomplished. He was invested with this dominion in His mediatorial character for the purpose of carrying on His work to its consummation. When that is done, i.e., when He has subdued all His enemies, then He will no longer reign over the universe as Mediator, but only as God: while His headship over His people is to continue for ever. (C. Hedge, D.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 15:23. But every man — Shall be reanimated, raised, and glorified; in his own order — Or in his own band, as τω ιδιω ταγματι more properly signifies, denoting a band of soldiers, a cohort, or legion; the word for order being rather ταξις. According to this interpretation, it is here intimated that the righteous will be raised by themselves, and the wicked by themselves; that is, according to the next verse, the righteous are to be raised at Christ’s coming, or are to be first raised, even before the living are changed, and much more before the wicked are raised. See 1Th 4:15-17.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. Every man—Shall be made alive, in his own order. Order is in the Greek a military term, signifying a band or battalion. The three battalions are Christ, his own, and the wicked. As the apostle, however, is writing for Christians, and for Christian consolation, he here skips the wicked and pictures the resurrection of the righteous solely. He paints the glorious resurrection, or, in other words, the glorious side of the resurrection, alone. That he believed in the resurrection of the wicked is shown by his words, Act_24:15, where see note.

At his coming—His PAROUSIA; a Greek word which, in reference to Christ, always denotes his personal presence at the second advent to judge the world. Of this event the Apostles’ Creed says: “He ascended into heaven,… from thence he shall come to judge the quick,” (living) “and the dead.” The passages containing the word parousia, in application to Christ, and always translated coming, are the following: Mat_24:3; Mat_24:37; Mat_24:39; 1Co_15:23; 1Th_2:19; 1Th_3:13; 1Th_4:15; 2Th_2:1; 2Th_2:8-9; Jas_5:7-8; 2Pe_1:16; 2Pe_3:4; 2Pe_3:12; 1Jn_2:28. Other comings of God or Christ are mentioned in the Old Testament and New, both in verb and noun forms, which may designate any of the providential interpositions of God in great events, and which are not to be identified with this PAROUSIA.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 15:23. Ἕκαστος—ἀπαρχὴ—ἔπειτα) In this verse we must thrice supply ἐστὶ or εἰσί. In 1Co 15:24 is must likewise be supplied.—τάγματι) in order divinely constituted. τάξις, however, is the abstract; τάγμα, the concrete. The conjugate, ὑπέταξεν, occurs in 1Co 15:27.—ἀπαρχὴ, first fruits) The force of this word comprehends the force of the word ἀρχὴ beginning, to which the end corresponds as its opposite.—ἔπειτα—εἶτα) Ἔπειτα is more disjunctive; εἴτα more copulative, 1Co 15:5-7. Ἔπειτα, afterwards, Latin, posterius, the comparative being opposed to primum, ‘first,’ 1Co 15:46; of which first the force is contained in first fruits, in this passage: εἴτα, afterwards, is used in a more absolute sense. The disjunctive power of the ἔπειτα, and the copulative power of the εἶτα is clear in 1Co 15:5-7. For the twelve are joined with Cephas by εἴτα; The five hundred are disjoined [from the Twelve and Cephas] and James from these; but the Apostles are coupled to the last named person by εἴτα. Therefore those, who are introduced by ἔπειτα, are put in between, as it were, by parenthesis. But here 1Co 15:23 the matter seems to be ambiguous. If we make a twofold division, we may either insert Christ and those who are Christ’s into the one member of the division, and τὸ τέλος, the end, into the other; or we may put Christ alone [by Himself] as the principle person, and join to the other side those who are Christ’s, and afterwards τὸ τέλος the end. By the former method, Christians are the appendage of their head; by the latter Christ everywhere retains His prerogative, and all the rest of persons and things are heaped together in one mass. By the former method, a comma is put in the text after χριστὸς,[136] by the latter also a colon; and so ΕἾΤΑ retains a more absolute sense, and yet its copulative power more than the ἜΠΕΙΤΑ. Paul describes the whole process of the resurrection, with those things that shall follow it, and therefore he renders the resurrection itself the more credible. For this resurrection is necessarily required to produce this result, that God may be all in all.—ΟἹ ΤΟῦ ΧΡΙΣΤΟῦ, those who are Christ’s) A pleasant variety of cases, Polyptoton, Χριστὸς, ΧΡΙΣΤΟῦ, Christians are, so to speak, an appendage to Τῆς ἈΠΑΡΧῆς, the first fruits. The ungodly shall rise at the same time; but they are not reckoned in this blessed number.—ἐν τῆ παρουσίᾳ, at His coming) then it shall be the order of Christians [their turn in the successive order of the resurrection]. They shall not rise one after another [but all believers at once] at that time. Paul does not call it the judgment, because he is speaking of and to believers.

[136] This is the punctuation of Lachmann and Tischendorf. The former, however, puts a comma between τέλος and ὃταν: the latter does not.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_15:23. Each, however, in his own division, sc. ζωοποιηθήσεται.

τάγμα] does not mean order of succession, but is a military word (division of the army, legion, Xen. Mem. iii. 1. 11, and see the passages in Wetstein and Schweighäuser, Lex. Polyb. p. 610 f.), so that Paul presents the different divisions of those that rise under the image of different troops of an army. In Clement also, Cor. i. 37, 41, this meaning should be retaine.

ἀπαρχὴ Χριστός] as first-fruits Christ, namely, vivificatus est. What will ensue in connection with the ἀπαρχή, after the lapse of the period between it and the Parousia, belongs to the future. It would appear, therefore, as though ἀπαρχὴ Χ. were not pertinent here, where the design is to exhibit the order of the future resurrection (1Co_15:22). But Paul regards the resurrection of all, including Christ Himself, as one great connected process, only taking place in several acts, so that thus by far the greater part indeed belongs to the future, but, in order not simply to the completeness of the whole, but at the same time for the sure guarantee of what was to come, the ἀπαρχή also may not be left unmentioned. There is no ground for importing any further special design; in particular, Paul cannot have intended to counteract such conceptions, as that the whole τάγμα must forthwith be made alive along with its leader (von Zezschwitz), or to explain why those who have fallen asleep in Christ continue in death and do not arise immediately (Hofmann). For no reader could expect the actual resurrection of the dead before the Parousia; that was the postulate of the Christian hope.[44]

We may note that, in using ἀπαρχή, Paul departs again from his military mode of conception as expressed in τάγμα; otherwise he would have written ἀρχός, ἀρχηγός, ἔπαρχος, κορυφαῖος, or something simila.

οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ] the Christians, Gal_5:24; 1Th_4:16.

ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ] at His coming to set up the Messianic kingdom, Mat_24:3; 1Th_2:19; 1Th_3:13; 1Th_4:15; Jam_5:7 f.; 1Jn_2:28; 2Pe_3:4. Paul accordingly describes the τάγμα which rises first after Christ Himself (as the ἀπαρχή) thus: thereafter shall the confessors of Christ be raised up at His Parousia. It is opposed to thisthe only correctmeaning of the words to restrict οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ to the true Christians (οἱ πιστοὶ καὶ οἱ εὐδοκιμηκότες, Chrysostom), and thereby to anticipate the judgment (2Co_5:10; Rom_14:10), or to include along with them the godly of the Old Testament, as Theodoret, and of late Maier, have done. Not less contrary to the words is it to explain away the Parousia, as van Hengel does: qui sectatores Christi fuerunt, quum ille hac in terra erat. This is grammatically incorrect, for the article would have needed to be repeated;[45] inappropriate as regards expression, for ἡ παρουσία τοῦ Χ. is in the whole New Testament the habitual technical designation of the last coming of Christ; and lastly, missing the mark as to meaning, since it would yield only a non-essential, accidental difference as to the time of discipleship as the criterion of distinction (Mat_20:16).

ἔπειτα is simply thereafter, thereupon, looking back to the ἀπαρχή, not following next, as Hofmann would have it. The intervening period is the time running on to the Parousia. Hofmann inappropriately compares the use of the word in Soph. Ant. 611, where τὸ ἔπειτα occurs and denotes what follows immediately next; see Schneidewiin on Soph. l.c.; also Hermann in loc.: a quo proximum est cum eoque cohaeret.

[44] This applies also against the view of Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 429, that Paul wishes to anticipate the question, Why, then, has no other of them that sleep arisen, seeing that Christ has truly arisen already?

[45] Because ἐν τῇ παρουσ. αὐτοῦ does not blend together with οἱ τοῦ Χ. into a unity of conception; as, for example, τοῖς πλουσίοις ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι, 1Ti_6:17, where τοῖς πλουσ. receives an essential modification of the conception by the note of time added.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 15:23 . But ἀπαρχὴ implies difference in agreement, distinction in order along with unity in nature and determining principle. Hence the added qualification, ἕκαστος δὲ ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι , κ . τ . λ .: “But each in his proper rank Christ (as) firstfruit; thereafter, at His coming, the (people) of Christ”. τάγμα signifies a military division ( cf. 1Co 14:40 ). There are two τάγματα ( cf. Mat 13:8 ) of the resurrection host; the Captain ( ὁ ἀρχηγός , Heb 2:10 ; cf. ἀπαρχὴ above), in His solitary glory; and the rest of the army now sleeping, to rise at His trumpet’s sound (1Co 15:52 , 1Th 4:16 ). It is incongruous to make a third τάγμα out of τὸ τέλος (1Co 15:24 ) as Bg [2356] and Mr [2357] would do, paraphrasing this as “the last act (of the resurrection),” viz ., the resurrection of non-Christians. Their introduction is irrelevant: P. has proved the resurrection of Christ, and is now making out that the resurrection of His sleeping ones is bound up with His own. Christ and Christians are the participants in the resurrection of life. ἔπειτα , opp [2358] of πρῶτον ( cf. 46) implied in ἀπαρχὴ , is defined by ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ . Some attach the latter phrase to οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ , referring it to the first advent; but Christ’s παρουσία in the N.T. always signifies His future coming. There is nothing to exclude O.T. saints (see 1Co 10:4 ; Heb 11:26 ; Heb 11:40 , Joh 1:11 ), nor even the righteous heathen (Act 10:35 , Mat 25:32 ; Mat 25:34 , Joh 10:16 ), from the τάγμα of “those who are Christ’s”.

[2356] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[2357] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[2358] opposite, opposition.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 23. “But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits, and afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” — The word τάγμα, order, denotes the place assigned in a series to each individual or group. The apostle has here before him two ranks of the risen: the first formed by Christ alone, moving foremost; it is He who opens up the way to the life of glory. Then He is followed by all His faithful people who form the second rank. It is the same idea as was expressed by the figure of the first-fruits and the harvest.

There is no solid reason for including, as Meyer would, in the expression οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, they that are Christ’s, all who confess the name of Christ, Christendom in general. Paul explains clearly enough what he understands by being Christ’s when he says, Rom 8:9: “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” In Colossians (1Co 3:4) he says likewise: “When Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory,” which shows that in his view Christ must be our life if His advent is to be the signal of our participation in His glorious appearing. The same also is clearly obvious from Php 3:11, where he goes the length of employing this expression of doubt in regard to himself: “If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.” He could not so express himself in speaking of the universal resurrection, for all will infallibly share in it; he is therefore thinking of the special resurrection, in which only true believers will participate; and he recalls the constant effort whereby alone he can reach that desirable goal. For, in order to reach it, it is necessary, according to 2Co 7:1, “to be cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,” and “to perfect holiness in the fear of God.” Such, according to St. Paul, is the character of those who are Christ’s, and who shall form the second order in the company of the risen. It will not therefore be all those who bear the name of Christians. There will be a first division, which will be effected at the time of the Advent, between the true and the false members of the Church; this will be the prelude of the universal final judgment. Van Hengel has unfortunately thought of applying the word Parousia to the epoch of Christ’s presence on the earth. The believers who had the privilege of living with Jesus Christ here below will also have, according to him, the privilege of rising first with Him. But how should this privilege have attached to an external and accidental circumstance? And is not the term Parousia in the New Testament a constant expression, all the meanings of which were known to the Churches? Finally, the article οἱ could not be wanting before the regimen ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ.

Edwards, at least if I understand him, refers the ἕκαστος, each, in this verse, to God, to Christ, and to believers: Christ, 1Co 15:23 a; believers, 1Co 15:23 b; God, 1Co 15:28.

The apostle now establishes the relation between this resurrection of believers at the Advent, and the whole cycle of events which shall precede the end of all things.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_15:23

But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christs at his coming.

In his own order. The word τάγμα is properly a concrete term, meaning a band, as of soldiers. If this be insisted upon here, then Paul considers the hosts of those that rise as divided into different cohorts or companies; first Christ, then his people, then the rest of mankind. But the word is used by later writers, as Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians 1:37, and 41, in the sense of τάξις, order of succession. And this best suits the context, for Christ is not a band. All that Paul teaches is, that, although the resurrection of Christ secures that of his people, the two events are not contemporaneous. First Christ, then those who are Christs. There is no intimation of any further division or separation in time in the process of the resurrection. The resurrection of the people of Christ is to take place at his coming, 1Th_3:13; 1Th_4:14-18.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He doeth two things together: for he showeth that the resurrection is in such sort common to Christ with all his members, that notwithstanding he far passeth them, both in time (for he was the first that rose again from the dead) and also in honor, because that from him and in him is all our life and glory. Then by this occasion he passeth in the next argument.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

But every man in his own order--rather, "rank": the Greek is not in the abstract, but concrete: image from troops, "each in his own regiment." Though all shall rise again, let not any think all shall be saved; nay, each shall have his proper place, Christ first (Col 1:18), and after Him the godly who die in Christ (Th1 4:16), in a separate band from the ungodly, and then "the end," that is, the resurrection of the rest of the dead. Christian churches, ministers, and individuals seem about to be judged first "at His coming" (Mat. 25:1-30); then "all the nations" (Mat. 25:31-46). Christ's own flock shall share His glory "at His coming," which is not to be confounded with "the end," or general judgment (Rev 20:4-6, Rev 20:11-15). The latter is not in this chapter specially discussed, but only the first resurrection, namely, that of the saints: not even the judgment of Christian hollow professors (Mat. 25:1-30) at His coming, is handled, but only the glory of them "that are Christ's," who alone in the highest sense "obtain the resurrection from the dead" (Luk 14:14; Luk 20:35-36; Phi 3:11; see on Phi 3:11). The second coming of Christ is not a mere point of time, but a period beginning with the resurrection of the just at His appearing, and ending with the general judgment. The ground of the universal resurrection is the union of all mankind in nature with Christ, their representative Head, who has done away with death, by His own death in their stead: the ground of the resurrection of believers is not merely this, but their personal union with Him as their "Life" (Col 3:4), effected causatively by the Holy Spirit, and instrumentally by faith as the subjective, and by ordinances as the objective means.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. But every man in his own order] The apostle mentions three orders here:

1. Christ, who rose from the dead by his own power.

2. Them that are Christ's; all his apostles, martyrs, confessors, and faithful followers.

3. Then cometh the end, when the whole mass shall be raised.

Whether this order be exactly what the apostle intends, I shall not assert. Of the first, Christ's own resurrection, there can be no question. The second, the resurrection of his followers, before that of the common dead, is thought by some very reasonable. "They had here a resurrection from a death of sin to a life of righteousness, which the others had not, because they would not be saved in Christ's way. That they should have the privilege of being raised first, to behold the astonishing changes and revolutions which shall then take place, has nothing in it contrary to propriety and fitness;" but it seems contrary to 1Co 15:52, in which all the dead are said to rise in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. "And, thirdly, that all the other mass of mankind should be raised last, just to come forward and receive their doom, is equally reasonable:" but it is apparently inconsistent with the manner in which God chooses to act; see 1Co 15:53. Some think that by them that are Christ's at his coming, "we are to understand Christ's coming to reign on earth a thousand years with his saints, previously to the general judgment;" but I must confess I find nothing in the sacred writings distinctly enough marked to support this opinion of the millennium, or thousand years' reign; nor can I conceive any important end that can be answered by this procedure.

We should be very cautious how we make a figurative expression, used in the most figurative book in the Bible, the foundation of a very important literal system that is to occupy a measure of the faith, and no small portion of the hope, of Christians. The strange conjectures formed on this very uncertain basis have not been very creditable either to reason or religion.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(23) But every man in his own order.—Or, literally, in his own troop. There is to be a sequence in the resurrection of the dead, and St. Paul explains this by the three groups:—(1) Christ Himself, the firstfruits; (2) the faithful in Christ at His coming; (3) all the rest of mankind at the end, when the final judgment takes place. The interval between these latter two, as to its duration, or where or how it will be spent, is not spoken of here. The only point the Apostle has to treat of is the order of the resurrection. (See 1Th_4:13; 1Th_4:17; Revelation 20)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. But every man in his own order] This explains why the last verb in 1Co_15:22 is in the future. Christ’s resurrection must necessarily precede in order the resurrection of the rest of mankind, for as in the world at large, so in every individual, the natural necessarily (1Co_15:46) precedes the spiritual. Christ’s mediatorial work was, in truth, but begun when He ascended to His Father. It continues in the gradual destruction of the empire of sin, the ‘bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’ (2Co_10:5). Meanwhile the natural order for the present still exists. We live under it, subject to the law of sin and death, until Christ, having first destroyed the former (1Co_15:24-25), shall finally, as a consequence, destroy the latter (1Co_15:26), and then, and not till then, shall we be made fully partakers of the completed work of Christ.

Christ the firstfruits] Cf. Act_26:23; Col_1:18; Rev_1:5; also St Joh_14:19. “How should He be overcome by corruption, Who gave to many others the power of living again? Hence He is called ‘the first-born from the dead,’ ‘the firstfruits of them that slept.’ ” Cyril of Alexandria.

at his coming] The word here translated coming is most nearly expressed by our English word arrival. It implies both the coming and having come. See ch. 1Co_16:17; 2Co_7:6. It is the usual word used for the Second Coming of Christ, as in St Mat_24:3; Mat_24:27; Mat_24:37; Mat_24:39, and 1Th_3:13; 1Th_4:15. We are not restored to life until Christ comes again, because not till then will the present, or natural order of things, be brought to an end, and the spiritual order of things be finally and fully inaugurated, so that ‘God will be all in all.’ See succeeding notes, and note on last verse.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Luk 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 Dan 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Ver. 23. At his coming] As in the meantime their very dust is precious; the dead bodies consumed are not so destroyed, but that there is a substance preserved by a secret influence proceeding from Christ as a head. Hence they are said to be dead in Christ, who by rotting refineth them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But every man - Everyone, including Christ as well as others.

In his own order - In his proper order, rank, place, time. The word τάγμα tagma usually relates to military order or array; to the arrangement of a cohort, or band of troops; to their being properly marshalled with the officers at the head, and every man in His proper place in the ranks. Here it means that there was a proper “order” to be observed in the resurrection of the dead. And the design of the apostle is, probably, to counteract the idea that the resurrection was passed already, or that there was no future resurrection to be expected. The “order” which is here referred to is, doubtless, mainly that of “time;” meaning that Christ would be first, and then that the others would follow. But it also means that Christ would be first, because it was “proper” that he should be first. He was first in rank, in dignity, and in honor; he was the leader of all others, and their resurrection depended on his. And as it was proper that a leader or commander should have the first place in a march, or in an enterprise involving peril or glory, so it was proper that Christ should be first in the resurrection, and that the others should follow on in due order and time.

Christ the first-fruits - Christ first in time, and the pledge that they should rise; see the note on 1Co 15:20.

Afterward - After he has risen. Not before, because their resurrection depended on him.

They that are Christ’s - They who are Christians. The apostle, though in 1Co 15:22 he had stated the truth that “all” the dead would rise, yet here only mentions Christians, because to them only would the doctrine be of any consolation, and because it was to them particularly that this whole argument was directed.

At his coming - When he shall come to judge the world, and to receive his people to himself. This proves that the dead will not be raised until Christ shall re-appear. He shall come for that purpose; and he shall assemble all the dead, and shall take his people to himself; see Matt. 25. And this declaration fully met the opinion of those who held that the resurrection was past already; see 2Ti 2:18.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In his own order, either with respect to time, or dignity, lest any should say: If Christ’s resurrection be the cause of the resurrection of believers, then why did not all the saints, that were in the graves, rise with Christ? The apostle saith: God had appointed an order, and this order was, that they that were dead, or should be dead, before Christ’s second coming, should not prevent one another, 1Th 4:15, &c. Besides, the order which God had set was, That Christ should be

the first-fruits of this harvest, rising first from the dead, so as to die no more.

Afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming; then believers, that are members of Christ, by faith implanted into him, should also rise, but not before his second coming.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In his own order. The word in classic Greek means "a cohort." Here it must either mean "rank" or be used as in St. Clement ("Ad. Corinthians," 1:37), in the sense of "order of succession." They that are Christ"s. "The dead in Christ". (1Th_4:16) At his coming. The word here used for the second Advent is Parousia, which means literally, presence. It is implied (apparently) both here and in 1Th_4:15-17; Rev_20:5, that there shall be an interval how long or how short we do not know between this resurrection ofthe just and the final resurrection. But all the details are left dim and vague.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Afterward - The whole harvest. At the same time the wicked shall rise also. But they are not here taken into the account.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Here our apostle answers an objection. Some might say, If Christ’s resurrection be the cause of the believer’s resurrection, then why did not all believers rise when he arose? The Head being risen, why did not all the members rise with him?

He answers, No: God hath appointed an order which must be observed; and this order was, that Christ should be the first-fruits of the harvest; that he should rise first from the dead, and then they that are Christ’s, at his coming to judgment, shall rise after him. And then cometh the end; that is, the end of the world, when Christ will deliver up his kingdom to God the Father.

What kingdom? His mediatorial kingdom, which, as Mediator, he received from his Father; not his natural and essential kingdom, which as God he had with his Father from eternity; this shall never be delivered up, for of this his kingdom there shall be no end. But at the end of the world, Christ having subdued all his and his church’s enemies, and put down all rule, authority, and power, both in the world and in the church, he shall deliver up his mediatorial kingdom to his Father, and reign no longer as Mediator, and as deputed by his father; but he shall still reign, eternally reign, as God equal with the Father; for his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endureth to eternal ages.

Here note, That when our apostle is setting forth the order in which the saints shall arise, he says nothing of a first and second resurrection, nothing of a first and second coming of Christ to judgment; one to reign on earth a thousand years, and a second to judge all the world. Mention is here made of a general resurrection, when all the saints shall be raised together; but not a word of some being raised before the rest to reign with Christ a thousand years.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. “Everyone in his own rank.” In the resurrection we will all be identical with our former selves, i. e., everyone will be what he has been. There will be infinite degrees in the resurrection, as in Heaven and Hell. Here is the greatest conceivable inspiration to be as good and true as we possibly can, as we will rise what we have been and so remain through all eternity; enough to stir everyone to strive night and day to attain as good an estate as possible, since you are assured that you will retain it forever. “Christ the first-fruits, then those that are Christ’s at His coming.” Here is certainly a beautiful allusion to the Rapture of the saints when our Lord comes, the burden of the apostle’s argument being the establishment of the great truth of corporeal resurrection universal and without defalcation.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But each in his own order [literally, cohort, regiment, or military division]: Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ's, at his coming . [After clearly reaffirming his testimony to the resurrection of Christ, he goes on to show the comprehensive, all-inclusive nature of that resurrection. This he does by appeal to Scriptural figure and fact. On the morrow after the Sabbath of the passover a sheaf of barley (the earliest grain to ripen) was waved as firstfruits before the Lord ( Lev_23:9-14 ). The firstfruits had to be thus presented before the harvest could be begun, and its presentation was an earnest of the ingathering. Now on this very day after the Sabbath Christ was raised as the firstfruits from the dead, and became the earnest of the general resurrection. Moreover, that which was so clearly shown in the type was written with equal clearness in the history. If the justice of God caused the death of Adam to include in its scope the death of all, so the mercy of God had caused the resurrection of Christ to work the contrary effect of liberating all from the grave. But as the firstfruits preceded the harvest, so the raising of Christ preceded the resurrection of the race. But as the firstfruits was part of the harvest, so the resurrection of Christ is a partial resurrection of all humanity. He must be the Omega as well as the Alpha of the resurrection, and must raise all in whom his Spirit dwells. Because Paul states that there shall be order in the resurrection, and because he names but two parties in the order--Christ and his disciples, commentators have been deceived into thinking that there will be a third order--the wicked. Thus they have the anomaly of firstfruits followed by two harvests. But this is contradicted by the entire trend of Scripture, which speaks of a resurrection, and not of resurrections; of a harvest ( Mat_13:36-43 ), and not harvests; and which describes the judgment day in terms which can not be reconciled with two separate resurrections ( Mat_25:31-46 ). The only apparent exception is the spiritual or figurative resurrection mentioned in the Apocalypse ( Rev_20:4-6 ). The truth is that in this chapter Paul is considering only the resurrection of the righteous, and takes no account of the resurrection of the wicked at all, for to have done so would have involved his readers in endless confusion. The context clearly shows this. There is but one resurrection day for humanity, and but one trumpet to summon them to arise and appear in one common hour of judgment.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. But each in his own order. In his own rank or division. The first order or division is Christ. The second division is “they that are Christ's,” who will be raised at his coming. The time of the third division, the wicked, is not named, but hinted at in the beginning of the next verse (verse 24). “All that are in the grave shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” John 5:28, 29. This is what Paul teaches here.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

23. ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι. This explains why the last verb in 1Co 15:22 is in the future. Christ’s Resurrection must necessarily precede in order the resurrection of the rest of mankind, for as in the world at large, so in every individual, the natural necessarily (1Co 15:46) precedes the spiritual. Christ’s mediatorial work was, in truth, but begun when He ascended to His Father. It continues in the gradual destruction of the empire of sin, the ‘bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’ (2Co 10:5). Meanwhile the natural order for the present still exists. We live under it, subject to the law of sin and death, until Christ, having first destroyed the former (1Co 15:24-25), shall finally, as a consequence, destroy the latter (1Co 15:26), and then, and not till then, shall we be made fully partakers of the completed work of Christ. The word τάγμα is used twice by Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians. In the first place he uses it of ranks in the army, in the second of the various offices or orders in the Church. τάγμα means a troop or company in a regiment. Here, however, it clearly relates to the order of time, as when the several divisions of an army successively march to their appointed destination.

ἀπαρχὴ Χριστός. Cf. Act 26:23; Col 1:18; Rev 1:5; also Joh 14:19. ‘How should He be overcome by corruption, Who gave to many others the power of living again? Hence He is called “the first-born from the dead,” “the first-fruits of them that slept.” ’ Cyril of Alexandria.

παρουσίᾳ. The word here translated coming is most nearly expressed by our English word arrival. It implies both the coming and having come. See ch. 1Co 16:17; 2Co 7:6. It is the usual word used for the Second Coming of Christ, as in Mat 24:3; Mat 24:27; Mat 24:37; Mat 24:39, and 1Th 3:13; 1Th 4:15. We are not restored to life until Christ comes again, because not till then will the present, or natural order of things, be brought to an end, and the spiritual order of things be finally and fully inaugurated, so that ‘God will be all in all.’ See succeeding notes, and note on last verse.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23.] But in this universal Resurrection, all shall not hold the same rank. Chrys. rightly, εἶτα, ἵνα μὴ τὴν ζωοποίησιν κοινὴν ἀκούδας, καὶ τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς νομίσῃς σώζεσθαι, ἐπήγαγεν ἕκαστος δὲ κ.τ.λ. Hom. xxxix. p. 367.

τάγμα is not order of priority, but rank, or ‘troop in an army,’ so Plut., Otho, p. 1072 (Wetst.): λεγεῶνες, οὕτω γὰρ τὰ τάγματα Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσιν ἐπίκλησιν. The three ranks are mentioned in order of priority, but this does not constitute their distinctive character:—Christ is the ἀπαρχή this is His ἴδιον τάγμα, see Col 1:18:—οἱ τοῦ χριστοῦ follow at His coming, who are the φύραμα (as understood by the context, and implied by ἀπαρχή), in the proper and worthiest sense, made like unto Him and partaking of His glory; then (after how long or how short a time is not declared, and seems to have formed no part of the revelations to Paul, but was afterwards revealed,—see Rev 20:4-6: compare also 1Th 4:15-17) shall come the end, viz. the resurrection of the rest of the dead, here veiled over by the general term τὸ τέλος,—that resurrection not being in this argument specially treated, but only that of Christians. The key to the understanding of this passage is to be found in the prophecy of our Lord, Mat 24:25Mat 24:25Mat 24:25, but especially in the latter chapter. The resurrection and judgment of οἱ τοῦ χριστοῦ forming the subject of vv. 1-30 there, and τὸ τέλος,—the great final gathering of πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, of vv. 31-46.

ἀπαρχή, therefore necessarily the first τάγμα: and hence the word stands first.

οἱ τοῦ χρ.] = οἱ νεκροὶ ἐν χριστῷ 1Th 4:16. No mention occurs here of any judgment of these his ἴδιοι δοῦλοι, as in Mat_25, for it does not belong to the present subject.

ἐν τῇ παρ. αὐτ.] ἐν as forming part of, involved in, His appearing,—which, as the great event of the time, includes their resurrection in it. It ought to be needless to remind the student of the distinction between this παρουσία and the final judgment; it is here peculiarly important to bear it in mind.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. ἔκαστος δὲ ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι. ‘But each in his own division.’ There is little doubt that τάγμα is a military metaphor; ‘company,’ ‘troop,’ ‘band,’ or ‘rank.’ We are to think of each ‘corps’ or body of troops coming on in its proper position and order: 2Sa 23:13; 1Sa 4:10; Josephus B.J. 1. ix. 1, III. iv. II. In B.J. 2. viii. 14, after mentioning the Pharisees, he goes on, Σαδδουκαῖοι δέ, τὸ δεύτερον τάγμα, … ψυχῆς τε τὴν διαμονὴν καὶ τὰς καθʼ ᾅδον τιμωρίας καὶ τιμὰς ἀναιροῦσι. Of these τάγματα there are two, clearly marked, in the present passage; Christ, who has already reached the goal of Resurrection; and Christ’s Own, who will reach it when He comes again. Perhaps St Paul is thinking of a third τάγμα. those who are not Christ’s Own, to be raised from the dead some time before the End. But throughout the passage, the unbelievers and the wicked are quite in the background, if they are thought of at all. The whole context is governed by ἐν Χρ. ζωοποι. (v. 22). It is perhaps because only the good are under consideration that St Paul used παρουσία rather than κρίσις or ἡμέρα κρίσεως. With the beautiful expression, οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, comp. 3:23; Gal 5:24; Joh 10:3, Joh 10:14: it means all the saved, whether Christians, Jews, or heathen. Deissmann (Light, pp. 372, 382) has shown that παρουσία was a technical term for the arrival of a potentate or his representative, and that Καίσαρος “belonging to the Emperor,” was used in much the same sense as Χριστοῦ is used here.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Order [ταγματι] . Only here in the New Testament. In Sept., a band, troop, or cohort; also a standard; Num 10:14; Num 18:22, 25. How the one idea ran into the other may be perceived from the analogy of the Latin manipulus, a handful of hay twisted round a pole and used by the Romans as the standard of a company of soldiers, from which the company itself was called manipulus. In classical Greek, besides the meaning of company, it means an ordinance and a fixed assessment. Here in the sense of band, or company, in pursuance of the principle of a descending series of ranks, and of consequent subordinations which is assumed by Paul. The series runs, God, Christ, man. See ch. 1Co 3:21 - 23; 1Co 11:3. The reference is not to time or merit, but simply to the fact that each occupies his own place in the economy of resurrection, which is one great process in several acts. Band after band rises. First Christ, then Christians. The same idea appears in the first - fruits and the harvest.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.