1 Corinthians 15:28, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all.”
At first the “when / then” logic in this verse can be a bit confusing. It makes it sound as though the Son is somehow not now subjected to the Father, but that He will one day be brought under His authority. This line of thinking is, of course, opposed to the clear biblical teaching that the Son is eternally subjected (in role, not essence) to the Father.
We see this as we consider that the Son is eternally granted to have life in Himself by the Father (John 5:26), that the Son does nothing apart from the Father but only what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19), that the Son is eternally given His glory by the Father (John 17:24), that the Son pours Himself out to death through the incarnation in obedience to the Father (Philippians 2:6-9), that the Son is seated at the right hand (a position of authority and yet submission) of the Father (Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3, etc.), and, on top of these and many other texts that could be brought to bear, there is the simple recognition that the name “Son” implies subjection to the “Father.” So—all this to say, the New Testament is clear that the Son—both eternally and in His incarnation—is subject (again, in role not in essence) to the Father. What then does Paul mean by saying that a future subjection is yet to come?
It seems to me that what is anticipated here is a climactic, within-time-and-space manifestation of the eternally reality of the Son’s joyful submission to the Father….a supreme economic instantiation of the ontological reality of God. God is Triune—Father, Son, and Spirit—and the His ultimate goal for created reality reflects this “form” or “shape”. The One True God is not glorified if praise ceases in the Son, or if the Father is worshipped apart from the Son and Spirit, or if the Spirit is loved without reference to Father and Son….in these cases, the “God” in view is no God at all since they are all distortions of His Triune form; rather, the One True God, the Triune God of scripture, is to be known and loved as the Father revealed in the Son by the Spirit.
Universal recognition of YHWH must be the Spirit-illumined recognition of the crucified and risen Son as the supreme revelation of the Father. The worship, the praise, the recognition is ignited by the Spirit, “continues through” the Son—as it were—and find its terminus in the Father. Thus, creation will not arrive at its appointed consummation until, by the working of the Spirit, ALL things have been subjected to, united in, harmonized with the Son and then—in the Son—subjected to the Father. This is how God is to be all in all…..How He is to see the universe saturated with the knowledge of His glory (Hab.2:14).
So, the “subjection” that Paul envisions here is not a new thing, rather it is a universally recognized manifestation of the eternal reality that God is Father, Son, and Spirit. When all is said and done, through the working of the Spirit, all of reality will be harmoniously united under the headship of the crucified and risen Son (Eph.1:10), and in Him will be delivered up to the Father, so that the Triune God—from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things—may be all in all.
