1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 15
Of the Resurrection of the Dead. 1 Corinthians 15, 1–58
A victorious line of argument: V. 27. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith, All things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted which did put all things under Him. V. 28. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
The unlimited dominion which will belong to Christ by the removal of all His enemies is finally pictured: For "all things He put underneath His feet." But when He says, "All things are subjected," — obviously with the exception of Him that put all things in subjection to Him, — when all things will have been made subject to Him, then also the Son Himself will subject Himself to Him (the Father) that has subjected all things to Him (the Son), that God may be all in all.
The apostle here applies the words of Ps. 8, 6 to Jesus, the Man above all men. Compare Ephesians 1, 22. God gave to Christ, according to His human nature, power and dominion over all things, subjected everything to His will. So absolute and all-encompassing is this "all" that only the Father Himself is excepted, since His is the unlimited supremacy.
And incidentally the Son will then subject Himself to the Father, not as subordinated to Him in essence, but in the free submission of love. In all the works of His office as Redeemer, He was loyal to His Father in perfect obedience, and now the Son, in His Sonship, subjects Himself to His Father, as Father, that God may be all, the one object of praise, glory, and adoration, in all, the believers giving Him the joyful reverence of their blessedness, and the unbelievers and all other creatures bowing before Him as the supreme Lord.
Mark: These words in no way teach the inferiority of the Son to the Father in essence: on the contrary, the absolute unity in the distinction of persons stands out all the more clearly and conspicuously. Whatsover glory the Son has gained is devoted to the glory and power of the Father, who, in turn, glorifies the Son. Compare Chapter 3, 22; 11, 3. (Compare Luther, 8, 1187).