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resurrection, and brings to bear this great theme in order to reveal the
tremendous issues that hang upon the doctrine.
The Coming of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:23 is the parousia. This word
means personal presence, and is found in the papyri in reference to the
coming of a king (Teblunis Papyri No. 116, 57).
'We now may say that the best interpretation of the primitive Christian
hope of the parousia is the old advent text, Behold thy king cometh
unto thee' (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 372).
Its first occurrence is Matthew 24:3. It comes again in Matthew
24:27,37,39, and also in 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2
Thessalonians 2:1,8; James 5:7,8; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4,12; 1 John 2:28. It is
associated with the time when the earth will be like it was in the days of
Noah, with great signs in the heavens, with the man of sin and the temple,
with the period immediately after the great tribulation. The word parousia
is never used by Paul in his later epistles for the hope of the church of the
One Body. It is limited to the period covered by the Gospels and the Acts
and is associated with the people of Israel, and the Day of the Lord.
The death brought in by Adam is removed by Christ, in the case of some
believers at His Coming, in the case of others after the Millennium. None
can live again apart from Christ. He is the Firstfruits.
The Corinthians are now taken one step further in
the endeavour to impress upon them the fundamental importance of the
resurrection. The very goal of the ages is impossible without it. This is
shown in the verses that follow.
1 Corinthians 15:24-28
A
15:24-.
The end.
B
a
15:-24-. When He delivers up the kingdom.
b
15:-24. When He abolishes all rule.
c
15:25-. For He must reign.
d
15:-25. Till all enemies under foot.
d
15:26. The last enemy death abolished.
c 15:27-. For He hath put all things under His
feet.
b
15:-27. When.
The one exception.
a
15:28-. When.
The Son Himself shall be subjected.
A
15:-28.
That God may be all in all.
There is no word for 'cometh' in the original of verse 24. It simply
reads, 'Then the end'. Some understand the words to mean, 'Then the end
rank', but we can find no justification for such a rendering. Cremer, in his
note on to telos, says that this word does not primarily denote the end,
termination, with reference to time, but the goal reached, the completion or
conclusion at which any thing arrives, either as issue or ending; or as a
result, acme, consummation, e.g. polemou telos, 'victory' (literally 'the end
of war', end, not measuring time but object); telos andros, 'the full age of
man' (not the end of man -- death), also of 'the ripening of seed'. In Luke
1:33 and Mark 3:26 the idea of termination seems uppermost. The idea of
issue, end, conclusion, is seen in Matthew 26:58, 'to see the end'; James
5:11, 'Ye have seen the end of the Lord'; 1 Peter 4:17, 'What shall the end
be of them that obey not the gospel?'