“That the government will then be delivered up by Jesus to the Father, who will manifest Himself as the “all-in-all”; sin and death having been taken out of the way, and the race completely restored to the friendship of the Deity”. Article XXX
The completion of the events associated with the “great white throne” (Rev. 20:11) marks the beginning of a new chapter in God’s purpose with mankind. The last resurrection has now taken place; the righteous have been endowed with immortality and have taken their place with those granted eternal life at the commencement of the thousand years; the wicked have suffered the “second death”, hierogryphically depicted as being cast into the lake of fire. Even death and the grave are destroyed, in the symbology of the Revelation, having also been cast into the lake of fire.
The earth will then be occupied only with immortal beings who have had their bodies glorified and fashioned like unto that of the Son of God. Since there are no mortals on the earth and no more sin, the priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ is completed. His mission to make mankind one with the Father will then be achieved, for God will be at perfect harmony with all His creation. Paul speaks of this final phase of Christ’s reconciliatory work in his first letter to the Corinthians. The apostle first relates the two resurrections which shall precede and follow the reign of Christ: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power” (1 Cor. 15:21-24). Verse 24 should read, “then, the end etc. . . .”, the word “cometh” not being in the original. This presents to us the orderly arrangement of the resurrection of Jesus (the “first”), then “afterwards” (those raised from the dead at His coming), and finally, “then the end” (of the millennium for those who have become responsible after the return of Jesus prior to the Kingdom age).
Paul next proceeds to delineate the work of Christ during the thousand years as He conquers all enemies: “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 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. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (V 25-28). The subjugation of all things which stand in the way of God’s purpose will mark the completion of the work with which Jesus Christ has been entrusted. He will then, as it were, present to His Father the finished package, a race of immortals made one with Him. It would be impossible for us to improve upon the comments of Robert Roberts in Christendom Astray as they bear upon the foregoing. With his words we shall bring to an end this series of articles on Our Statement of Faith.
“From this we learn that Christ at the end of the thousand years is to abdicate the position of absolute sovereignty, which he occupies in the earth during that period. It would seem as if, on the accomplishment of his mission in the complete redemption of the world, that God Himself is manifested (without a medium) as the only eternal Governor. The idea will be apprehended in the light of Paul’s statement that ‘the head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is GOD.” During the thousand years, it is Christ’s headship that is the institution of the day: after that, it is the headship of the Father in some specially manifested form. The headship of the Father is the fact now, but it is in the background. The state of things upon the earth does not admit of its manifestation or even its recognition. During the thousand years, the headship of the Father is a visible fact in the headship of Christ. But at the end of the thousand years, the headship of the Father is manifested direct.
It, therefore, seems that the change to take place then is more a change in the aspect of things as they appear to man, than as they exist in themselves. Though no longer the supreme ruler of the earth, Christ will continue in his position of peculiar pre-eminence as ‘Captain’ of the ‘many sons’ who he will have been instrumental in ‘bringing to glory’. God will be ‘all in all’. He will be manifested as the power, and supporter, and constitutor, of all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending, the only self-Almighty one. He will no longer work by interposition. He will no longer work with man meditatively: He will establish direct communication with His perfected children; and the world—freed from sin and death –will become a happy, loyal, glory-giving province in that already universal dominion which extends to the utmost bounds of space, reflecting the wisdom and the goodness of the Highest. The divine scheme of redemption will then have been consummated: and earth’s glorified inhabitants in holy gratitude—exalted employment—and an eternity of unbroken felicity lying before them, will realize the perfection and glory and gladness of life as it is in God.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One