Exegetical Insight (Chapter 32)

Infinitives often complete important ideas. No more important idea exists than the one Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15:25. Here he says, “For it is necessary that he (Jesus) be reigning (basileuvein) until he (God) has put all things in subjection under his (Jesus’) feet.” Now a Greek infinitive contains tense, something that is not clear in English infinitives. The tense in the case of this verse is a present tense, which describes a continuous action. So this present infinitive explains what is necessary about what God is in the process of doing through Jesus. (Remember that tense highlights type of action.) So Paul stresses that Jesus is in the process of ruling until the job of subjecting everything under his feet is complete. The remark about subjection is an allusion to Psalm 110:1, one of the New Testament’s favorite Old Testament passages.

This idea is important because some think only of Jesus’ rule as one anticipated in the future. There will be a total manifestation of that authority one day as the rest of 1 Corinthians 15 makes clear, but the process has already started in the second Adam, the one who reverses the presence of sin in the world and does so in each one of us daily as an expression of his authority to redeem us from the curse of sin. May his rule be manifest in us!

Darrell L. Bock