Andrew Fuller Fridays: Fuller on Passages that Seem Contradictory (Luke 1:33 & 1 Corinthians 15:24)

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“He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”—Luke 1:33.

“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. 15:24.

When the kingdom of Christ is said to have “no end,” it may mean that it shall never be overturned or succeeded by any rival power, as all the kingdoms of this world have been, or shall be. Such is the interpretation given of the phrase in Dan. 7:14, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

But this need not be alleged in order to account for the phraseology, which will be found to be literally true. The end of which Paul speaks does not mean the end of Christ’s kingdom, but of the world, and the things thereof. “The delivering up of the kingdom to the Father” will not put an end to it, but eternally establish it in a new and more glorious form. Christ shall not cease to reign, though the mode of his administration be different. As a Divine person, he will always be one with the Father; and though his mediatorial kingdom shall cease, yet the effects of it will remain for ever. There will never be a period in duration in which the Redeemer of sinners will be thrown into the shade, or become of less account than he now is, or in which honour, and glory, and blessing will cease to be ascribed to him, by the whole creation.

Fuller, A. G. (1988). The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: Memoirs, Sermons, Etc. (J. Belcher, Ed.) (Vol. 1, pp. 667–684). Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications.

By |January 22nd, 2016|Categories: Blog|Tags: |

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