8. For He Must Reign
Covering 1 Corinthians Chapters 14-16:
Our title now means a billion times more than we ever could have imagined. I am glad that the majority of writing the Gospel Comments is not quite the blinding Glory of weaving all the Ruling Verses together into One. I am also glad that all this overwhelming Glory is still the same Jesus, the One who came into our hearts, even when we were children, this One who loves us.
Ruling Verse 11, the Form for Jesus, and Paul’s description of the Father as Love are both Covenant Verses, our bond together. “For He Must Reign,” along with most of Chapter 15, are Kingdom verses. Chapter 14, then, is the in-between, for Kingdom must always come out from Covenant.
The Operations of the Spirit. I have four bullet points in 1 Corinthians 14. These are descriptions of the operations of the Spirit inside the orderliness of the Church. Then we will see that verse 10 in Chapter 15 is Paul’s confession of faith that is God’s answer to the jeopardy of Love, that Love must be God-with-us. After that profound confession of faith, we will then venture into the Kingdom. Yet every aspect of that Kingdom comes only out from the mighty Bond of Love that makes us one Body together, the Form for Jesus inside all heaven-earth.
I see now that Chapter 14 must be understood inside a very specific context. The first is the orderliness of the Body, as expressed in 12:27-28, and the second is the Completion of every Word fulfilled, from 13:10. We covered both of those Gospel Verses in the last lesson.
Two Great Needs. (Chapter 14) 1 • Inside of love, then, earnestly desire the spirituals, especially that you might prophesy. – • 14 For indeed, when I pray in tongues, it is my spirit praying, even though my mind is not benefiting. 15 What then should it be? I will pray with my spirit; and I will pray also with my mind. I will sing praises with my spirit, and I will sing praises also with my mind.
We must consider the larger context of these verses as well, in order to have the whole picture for the Gospel Comments. In fact, Paul is setting side by side two great needs that always go together. Each one of us as members of Jesus’ Body must know God for ourselves. Yet at the same time, we can know God as He is only inside our gathering together. Never does one need cancel out the other.
Constructing God’s Dwelling Place. To “edify,” to “build up” in itself has a rather vague meaning, little more than a religious impression. What does it actually mean inside the Gospel?
It is for God that we are constructing a dwelling place. Now, God is all here now, so God in and of Himself needs no such thing. But Life for us is not God, per se, but knowing God. Thus a House for God that is part of creation begins with acknowledging God with us, continues through receiving and believing every Word He speaks, and becomes complete in knowing the Father. To build up one’s self is to increase in knowing the Father. To build up the brethren is to increase in knowing the Father together. This is Salvation; it is age-unfolding Life.
The Cause of Good Order. Let’s bring in our other two points before writing comments. • When you come together, each one has a psalm, or a teaching, or a revelation, or a prayer in tongues, or an interpretation. Let all be done for the building up of the house of God. – • 32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 Indeed, God is not a God of disorder, but of peace as in all the churches of the devoted ones.
The first three points are The Form for God through Jesus. But verses 32-33 are an important definition inside the Church. Verse 32 asserts that the spirit is subordinate to the mind and purpose of the human. We never come under the power of “another spirit.” Then, Paul places peace as the opposite of disorder, NOT control. Peace brings resolution; controlling order resolves nothing.
Knowing God Together. The Form for God through Jesus: Each of us personally, as well as our gathering together, is designed by God to be His dwelling place inside of creation, that the knowledge of God might fill all things. Our knowledge of God must then increase, personally and together, that God might fill that increase. Praying in tongues, in the Spirit, is essential to each of us to know God through the Spirit, whereas speaking Christ in words all can understand is essential to knowing God together. As we gather together, each one gives what each has received from the Spirit of God.
Definition: Spirit is always subject to the mind of the human; we never come under the power of “another spirit.” Liberty and peace, bringing resolution, are the cause of good order, and never the attempt to control.
Speaking Christ. Next we have a most powerful confession of faith that combines Covenant and Kingdom together in one expression. • (Chapter 15) 10 By the grace of God, however, I am what I am, and His grace into me has not been without purpose. Rather, I toiled more abundantly than them all, not I, however, but the grace and presence of God utterly together with me.
It seems to me that Paul is placing himself absolutely into the Ruling Verse of the Bible. The key word is “purpose.” Grace is Covenant, the Lord Jesus enabling God and each of us to share life together. Purpose then causes Covenant to become the Kingdom. Purpose turns Paul to reciprocity, to giving back to the Father that which God has given us.
Purpose Turns Us Around. It is Purpose that turns us around, thus referring back to our definition of the Apostolic inside the Church, those who are concerned wholly for the fulfillment of the Father’s Desire. Thus Paul says, “I toiled more.” Yet he places himself entirely as and with the tip-point of the Pillar of Fire touching down upon Mercy. – “The Grace and presence of God utterly together with me.”
Ruling Verse 1: God’s Purpose turns us around, for we are concerned wholly with the Father’s Desire. All of our labor is synergeoing with God, making all things good. We speak boldly (Speak Christ), “The Grace and presence of God is utterly together with me in all of my labor. I give myself to the Father’s Purpose with all my strength.”
Opening the Door. As I consider what it will take to write the Gospel Comments for “He Must Reign,” I realize that I need to bring Paul’s definition of Jesus in first, which includes the whole of 1 Corinthians 15:35-49. Inside that larger set of verses, we have two bullet points, a definition of Jesus, first, and then a definition of us as we are just like Him.
Then, through the rest of Chapter 15, I must go more slowly, discovering every point before I write the Gospel Comments, for we must have the whole picture. We must see Jesus as He actually is, His form inside of creation. Only then will we know the authority given to us, that we might open the Door wide open to our God.
A Definition of Jesus. Inside of the explosive revelation of Jesus Christ, Paul inserts a very important definition of the Lord Jesus Christ. 45 So also it has been written: “The first man, Adam, became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7); • the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
I see now that we must have the next set of Gospel Verses with this one, for the meaning comes from all together. 46 However, the first was not the spiritual, but the natural, then the spiritual. 47 The first man was out from the earth, earthy; the second man was out from heaven. • 48 As is the one earthy, so also are those earthy and as is the one heavenly, so also are those heavenly. 49 And as we have worn the image of the earthy, we shall wear also the image of the heavenly.
An Evil Opposition. During Paul’s ministry, he dealt often with the legalism being pushed by former Pharisees who had become Christian preachers. By the time John wrote, a different opposition was forcing its way into Christian thinking. That opposition was the belief that earth, flesh, and natural were all part of evil, down-pulling, of the evil one, and to be escaped. And that heaven, spirit, and spiritual were all part of God, and that we had to rise up into “the higher life.”
At the core of this belief was the effort to split apart “Jesus” and “Christ.” Thus, Jesus “in the flesh,” was an illusion, for “Christ is “heavenly and superior.” The success of this attack became the arrogant “Christ,” the above-you “Jesus,” and its purpose was to continue hating the way God made us, that is, Adam’s rebellion, now made “Christian.”
Paul’s Thinking. The “above-you Christ” and “Constantine’s cross,” hacking at the flesh, go together, and sadly, this same poison infected the move communities of which I was a part and was found in most every word preached. Paul did NOT know this way of thinking. Paul is presenting heaven and earth as two qualities of the same thing. To be human is to be natural and spiritual together in one body.
Yes, there are times when the term “flesh” refers to a twisted way of thinking that excludes God and boasts in itself. But our physical bodies are part of Christ and filled with God, something Paul has already established. Except for the entrance of sin, the description of Adam is as God originally made us, pure and devoted to Him.
Understanding God from What is Seen. Paul’s purpose in comparing the natural and the spiritual, the earthly and the heavenly, is NOT to argue that the first is evil and the second “God.” His purpose is to show that we can understand the spiritual and heavenly by our first-hand knowledge of the natural and earthly. – Indeed, His invisible qualities of unceasing power and divine personalness are clearly perceived from the creation of the cosmos, being understood by the things He has made (Romans 1:20).
“Bearing the image of the heavenly” does NOT mean that we become “superior.” It MEANS the kindness of the Lord Jesus upon our physical faces. In the same way, “a living soul” and “a life-giving Spirit” are NOT in opposition to each other, but married together inside of union with Christ.
His Ability to Cause. Jesus is a PROFOUNDLY CAPABLE Being. And that is a tiny and limited understatement. – …down to the finest details of the Energeia, the mighty continuous and swirling action of His ability to cause ALL to be subject to Himself (Philippians 3:21b).
His ability to cause
And one of the incredible things Jesus can do is change His form even while remaining the exact same Person. Jesus can appear as you, and He can appear as me. He can even do both at the same time! Talk about capable! Jesus appeared in a physical, fleshly form, the same as ours, for 34 + years (including in the womb), and then He returned on the Day of Pentecost to take on the form of His Church.
A God Who Makes Himself Visible. Yet this Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, and it was in His physical fleshly form that He showed us the Father. The Father is also One who changes form, from All-Here-Now to the face of a man stumbling under a cross he cannot carry. And when God designed us, He followed the pattern of Jesus, the Person, not Jesus the form-changer.
A human is someone who is just like Jesus in His Person, for He is the first one of our kind. But Jesus, now in the form of a Life-Giving Spirit, that is, in the same form as God, all-here-now and inside of each, this Jesus is still the same human Person by which we are designed. This all actually makes sense because God is Spirit Word.
Living and Energeoing. The Word stays the same, but the Spirit carrying that Word flows from one place to the next, from one form to the next. God is living and energeoing; He is not static and crusty. And how on earth am I going to convey all this meaning in just a few Gospel Comments? I think the only way I can do that is to assume the True and to make no mention of the false, even though most Bible readers imagine the false.
Definition: The natural and the spiritual are part of each other and always together. We then can comprehend the realities of spirit by observing the natural (see Romans 1:20), and then by transferring the meaning, by the Spirit, to the heavenly. Bearing the image of the heavenly is the kindness of Jesus upon our human face; it is the normal Christian life.
A Capable Man. Jesus, now in the form of a Life-giving Spirit, fills His Church since the Day of Pentecost. The Church is literally His Body, His Form. This is Jesus as He is. Yes, the fruit of the plant, the life brought forth, is many more sons just like Himself, but the Form for Jesus remains the Church forever.
Definition: So that we might know Him, that we are made by His Pattern, Jesus took on the form of a solitary man. In that form, He showed us His Love and He showed us the Father. Then, on the Day of Pentecost, Jesus returned as a Life-giving Spirit, taking upon Himself the form of the Church, many together as one (see Ephesians 1:23). Yet Jesus remains Himself inside His Form, fully capable of revealing Himself as each one and as all together (see Philippians 3:21).
It Is Fitting. Now we bring in a most incredible expression of the Kingdom – “It is fitting for Him to reign.”
• 20 Now, however, Christ has been raised out from the dead, the firstfruit of those having died. 21 For since through man death, through man also the resurrection of the dead. • 22 For as inside of Adam all indeed die, so also inside of Christ all will be made alive. • 23 Each, however, in their own order: the firstfruit Christ, then those belonging to Christ inside of His presence, 24 then the completion, when He shall give the kingdom to Father God, when He shall have rendered inoperative all other sources and authorities and powers. • 25 For it is fitting for Him to reign until [God] has placed all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy to be rendered inoperative is death.
Being Paul. Verse 28, coming up next, is part of this presentation. Paul is being very confusing, for he has jammed together three very different topics in these seven verses, weaving them back and forth with no real explanation, and saying lots of very different things about each of those three topics. One topic is death and its defeat, a second is the placement and ordering of things, including firstfruits, and the third is the nature of the Kingdom, including the end state of everything created.
The beating heart of this confusing mix is “It is fitting for Him to reign.” Yet, in agreement with Hebrews 10, Jesus is the one sitting there, and someone else does the placing under. Yet Jesus’ reign is fixed and absolute.
More of the Picture. We must have the whole picture, Hebrews 2:8-9 & 10:12-14. “You have put all in subjection under the feet of humans” (Psalm 8:4-6). For in already and always subjecting all to mankind, God left nothing not subject. Now, however, we do not yet see all things subjected. But we see Jesus, …crowned with glory and honor, so that by grace coming out from God, He might eat up death for the sake of all.
This One, having offered one unlimited sacrifice for sins, sat down inside of the right hand of God, from now on waiting expectantly for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering, He has perfected those who are continuously being made devoted by God.
I must come back on another morning to see the unfolding of what God wants me to write.
A New Morning. The Spirit of God gave me the answer to this dilemma. By the Spirit, I heard Jesus saying, “Meet Me in the Air.” This comes from our study on “Being a Witness of Christ,” to which I added another lesson, “Meet Me in the Air,” an extension of “The End of the World,” and very, very exciting.
In essence, just as the Father gave Jesus to us as His most precious Gift, so now the same Father is giving us to Jesus as His most precious gift. As we join with Jesus in “the air,” we give our authority to the Father and thus insert the Kingdom into the pathways of power that influence all human interactions. We make His enemies His footstool. We render obsolete all that opposes God in this world.
Defining Death. I have five bullet points for the larger passage, 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. Part of the meaning of “rightly dividing” is what we are doing, this attempt to understand the Word. The topics do not divide by the bullet points however. First, Paul is discussing death and our Victory out from death, not just in this passage but the entire chapter. Second, Paul is defining the Kingdom of God, an essential definition. Third is the setting for our role, or part, and fourth is the final end.
Definition: Death is the enemy of God, of us, and of the gospel. Death is the absence of the knowledge of God; it is the insertion of a false story in place of that knowledge. Death is the splitting apart of heaven and earth; it is the loss of our earthly form. The first work of the Kingdom is the elimination of death in all its forms, swallowed up by Life.
To Render Inoperative. I want to draw out from our verses three aspects of the Kingdom spread across three bullet points. The key word is “to render inoperative,” which is the action of “propitiation,” surrounding that which opposes in order to separate it from us first and to eliminate it from our knowing second. And this key action is found inside of “for He must reign,” or, in the JSV, “it is fitting for Him to reign.” Then, the words consume, eat up, or swallow up, are the same as “to render inoperative.”
Kingdom: Covenant defines the first action of Kingdom, to render inoperative all that opposes God, that is, propitiation. Through His Resurrection, Jesus eliminated the power of death, yet its appearance continues. A man, Adam, brought the horror of death into the human experience; as the firstfruits of Christ, we have a role to play in its final removal.
The Place of Resurrection. Now I see clearly the exact context God means for us to “meet with Jesus in the air.” There is a whole lot of “rendering authorities inoperative” prior to “the last enemy, death.” We need a clearer picture of Kingdom before we insert our role.
Kingdom: The larger action of the Kingdom is reciprocity. Jesus first comes out from God, bringing forth and sustaining all, and then He returns to the Father, carrying all inside Himself, bringing all, with Himself, into the Father’s purpose. God gives all of Himself, yet always expecting all in return.
Kingdom: Just as God gave Jesus to us, so God now gives us to Jesus. Jesus is waiting in expectation (see Hebrews 10:12-14) for us to join with Him (see 1 Thess. 4:17) as His firstfruits, in rendering inoperative all the authorities of “the air.” Our final Victory, with Jesus, is Resurrection Life in our physical bodies.
Paul’s Gospel Rules. • 28 Now, when He [Father God] shall have placed all under Him [Christ Jesus], then also the Son Himself will be placed under the One having placed all under Him, so that God may be all inside of all.
The end of Paul’s Gospel, the final condition of the universe, is God acknowledged as all Goodness inside of every created thing. There is no evil known or found inside of Goodness.
Ruling Verse 9: Paul’s Gospel Rules. The final condition of the universe, already True now, is God filling all things with His knowledge, Life, God all inside of all. No evil remains, no split creation, no unending torment. Every sentient and created thing gives thanks inside of all, bending the knee to Jesus. Every sentient and created thing speaks Christ Jesus, the only Life of all.
A Mystery Unveiled. • 51 Look and see, I tell you a mystery. We will not all die; we all, however, will be changed – 52 in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised unable to decay, and we will be changed.
The defeat of death is the culmination of inserting the power of God into all the avenues of influence governing all human interaction. It happens as a result of “meeting Jesus in the air.” Indeed, I must now go back and insert another Gospel Comment, a definition, under that verse in Thessalonians. And here’s the truth of the matter. It was in 2020, that God first led us into this very thing, meeting with Jesus inside the authority of the Kingdom.
Kingdom into Tabernacles. The certainty of Victory over death is at the core of the Covenant God entered into with us. And the visible display of that Victory, our bodies swallowed up by LIFE, is the first entrance of the KINGDOM into the Age of Tabernacles.
Covenant: God has given us all Victory over death. The certainty of the resurrection, our presently mortal bodies swallowed up by life, is an essential part of the Covenant God has entered into with us.
Kingdom: The resurrection of our physical bodies, with all those belonging to Jesus returning out from physical death into living, immortal earth forms, marks the entrance of the Kingdom into the Age of Tabernacles. This resurrection is the immediate goal of the Gospel, the fulfillment of all of God’s promise to us in the New Covenant.
Placing Victory. • 53 For it is necessary for this decaying to put on, to enclothe itself with the inability to decay; and this dying to put on, to enclothe itself with the inability to die. 54 Now when the decaying shall have put upon itself the inability to decay and when the dying shall have put upon itself the inability to die, then the word which was written will become, “Death has been swallowed up into and eliminated by victory” (Isaiah 25:8). • 57 To God be thanks, however, the One presently and actively giving us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Now we come to the operation of our role in Victory over death. Now we see that “Victory” is the word for the Kingdom side of propitiation, that is fully rendered inoperative. And Victory is already given to us.
Our Role in Victory. That Victory is the fabric of the Lord Jesus, the fabric of our lives and of the Kingdom forever. Thus, our part is found entirely inside the commandment – Put Jesus upon yourself.
Ruling Verse 10: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is the one commandment of the Gospel inside of which all else is fulfilled. Victory over death is an essential quality of the Lord Jesus which we place upon ourselves through faith and inside of Him. We walk in all Resurrection Life before resurrection.
Ruling Verse 4: Victory over death is the direct result of those who have overcome the accuser, casting down all accusation against their brethren. It is the entrance of the full Salvation of God into our world. We presently possess that Victory for God has given it to us. It is the very fabric of the Lord Jesus with whom we are enclothed.
Great Purpose. For the first time, I understand the whole of 1 Corinthians 15, and this next verse is very much part of that whole. Our daily lives are filled with great Purpose. • 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding inside of the work of the Lord, being fully aware that your toil is not without purpose inside of the Lord.
Ruling Verse 1: The Purpose of God is creation set free as it is filled with all the Knowledge of God, that God might be Himself towards all created things. In all that we do throughout our daily lives, we labor together with the Spirit, turning all things towards goodness in the giving of thanks. Our toil is filled with great Purpose, the Father revealed.
The Ground of Victory. (Ch. 16) • 13 Watch; stand firm inside of the faith; be responsible; become strong. 14 Let all things be done inside of love.
“To watch, to stand firm” is Ruling Verse 7, the Ruling Verse that oversees the going forth of the Kingdom. This rule also reaches back to 15:58, steadfast and immovable. There is NO wishy-washiness in the Christian life, no back and forth, no schizophrenia, but utter certainty. To watch is to bring God always into every moment and circumstance.
Ruling Verse 7: We stand always upon firm, upon the immovable Rock that is our Covenant with God, the Lord Jesus. We are part of Christ because we are confident that we are part of Christ. Our “watch” is to bring God always into every moment and circumstance. We are strong inside of Jesus; we go forth always in the celebration of Victory.
Defining Victory. The word “death,” Greek, thanatos, has another very different and very unique meaning a few times that it is used in the New Testament. There is a quality of the Lord Jesus that is forever, “The Lamb that was slain.” There is a quality of Resurrection Life that is forever, “out from death.”
One of the most profound things I have ever written is Chapter 10 in Our Glorious Salvation, “Resurrection Life.” “Out from death” has become the quality of always carrying our brethren, and all creation, inside our hearts, returning always to the Father. It is the First and the Last, the first to come out from the Jordan into LIFE, and the Last, carrying the last little one safely in His arms.
This quality is the fabric of Victory by which we are made.
God as Himself. I have positioned the Kingdom as God our Father just being Himself inside the forms and particulates of creation. The Ekenosis shows us God, and the greatest picture of the Ekenosis is a man on his face in the mud under a cross he cannot carry, carrying us, carried by God. Somehow, it is this picture that conveys to us the greatest depths of meaning that are the Father’s Heart. It is surely the picture that has forever won my own heart.
God our Father is One who gives Himself away for the sake of others, with joyous laughter, and with all costliness. We are the continuous return into this God, carrying in our Hheart shared with Him all whom we love, all whom the Father has given to us, that God Himself might be filled full.