Saviour of All Fellowship
January 2001

Dear Friends in Faith,
    Concerning the culmination of history, Paul affirmed in 1 Corinthians 15:25-28 that Christ “must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy is being abolished: death. For He subjects all under His feet. Now whenever He may be saying that all is subject, it is evident that it is outside of Him Who subjects all to Him. Now, whenever all may be subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also shall be subjected to Him Who subjects all to Him, that God may be All in all.” On this text Origen wrote, “But even if this clear declaration of the apostle is not sufficient to inform us what is meant by ‘putting enemies under His feet,’ listen to what he says in the following words, ‘For all things must be put under Him.’ What then, is this ‘putting under’ by which all things must be made subject to Christ?” He answers, “I am of opinion that it is this very subjection by which we also wish to be subject to Him, by which the apostles were also subject, and all the saints who have been followers of Christ” (On First Principles).
    I appreciate Origen being so practical in his understanding of this passage. We as believers are subjected to Christ and truly do appreciate all the good that comes into our lives due to such subjection i.e. righteousness, peace, love, joy and all the other fruits of the spirit. We will enjoy a transfiguring of our bodies by way of vivification and it is through this operation which enables Christ to subject all to Himself (cf Phil.3:21). The rest of mankind being brought into subjection to Christ will result in a similar outcome of transfigurement which we now enjoy. This will bring much glory to God through Jesus Christ.
    We understand that the late A. E. Saxby of England was reticent to speak of himself and unconcerned about keeping his writings in print. But he often made his points very effectively with a fine sense of humor, as in the following response to comments “a recent writer” had made on Romans 5:18:
    “With pure motive, but only half a survey of the passage, he writes, “It is not (as in the Old Version) that the righteousness has come upon all men, for then all men would have been saved: but it has come unto–within the reach of, offered to, within the grasp of–all men, so that no man need be lost.”
    “What a breath of relief he must have given to have escaped God's logic just by the skin of his teeth and in his theology to have ‘saved’ the race from being saved as a whole! The question will obtrude itself, nevertheless, whether he has really done so. Where is the flaw of his argument? Just here; he omits to consult the context, a point where so many fail. It is quite true that the second preposition in this verse is rendered ‘upon’ when it should be ‘unto.’ That is only half the truth, however. There are three prepositions in this verse (Rom.5:18), and they are all the same . . . . Newberry gives the meaning of this preposition as ‘motion towards.’ Bullinger agrees and adds that it ‘implies purpose, to the end that.’ . . . Read the verse with this import in all three prepositions and it clearly means that as the judgment is ‘to the end that’ all are condemned, so the free gift is ‘to the end that’ all may be justified . . . . [Furthermore] we see that if words mean anything, we must understand here that just as the free gift is ‘to the end that’ all men may be justified, so that motion towards all men is ‘to the end that’ they may ultimately be justified by the possession of life in Christ.” -God's Ultimate, pp.52,53.
Yours in His grace and peace,

Dean Hough and Tony Nungesser

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