1 Corinthians 15:28 — The Son Subjected, God All in All

Paul's target verse is the climactic clause of a chain that runs from 15:24 to 15:28. Verse 24 announces that the Son 'shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father' once every opposing rule, authority, and power has been abolished. Verse 25 grounds this reign in Psalm 110:1: 'he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet.' Verse 26 identifies the final abolished enemy as death. Verse 27 quotes Psalm 8:6 — 'He put all things in subjection under his feet' — and inserts the necessary caveat that the one doing the subjecting is himself excepted from the 'all things' being subjected. Verse 28 then completes the chain: 'when all things have been subjected unto him' (that is, to the Son, in his messianic reign), 'then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him' (that is, to the Father).

The clause 'that God may be all in all' (ἵνα ᾖ ὁ Θεὸς [πάντα] ἐν πᾶσιν) gives the purpose clause of the entire sequence. The construction uses the Greek ἵνα ('in order that') followed by ᾖ, the subjunctive of εἰμί ('to be'), and the repeated πᾶς ('all'). The point is teleological: the abolition of every enemy, the resurrection of the dead, and the handing over of the kingdom are not ends in themselves — they serve the goal that God may be 'all in all.' The phrase sets an orientation rather than a metaphysical absorption; the preceding context (15:24 — 'deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father') already distinguishes the Son from the Father, and verse 28 reinforces that distinction by speaking of the Son being 'subjected to him that did subject all things.'

The passage therefore preserves both unity and distinction within Paul's theology of the end. There is one God the Father to whom the kingdom is delivered, and one Son whose reign is the means by which every enemy is abolished. The Son's subjection is not a reversal of his person but the completion of the mediatorial role described across verses 24–27. The cross-references supplied with this passage point in the same direction: 'Christ is God's' (1 Corinthians 3:23), 'the head of Christ is God' (1 Corinthians 11:3), 'Christ is all, and in all' (Colossians 3:11), and 'the fulness of him that filleth all in all' (Ephesians 1:23).

Chapter 15 opens with Paul rehearsing the gospel he 'received' and 'delivered' (vv. 1–4): Christ died, was buried, was raised, and appeared to witnesses including Cephas, the twelve, the five hundred, James, the apostles, and finally Paul himself. The rest of the chapter defends the resurrection of the dead against those who deny it (vv. 12–19), presents Christ as 'the firstfruits of them that are asleep' (v. 20), and moves through the order of resurrection (vv. 22–23) to the eschatological climax of verses 24–28. The chapter then turns to practical questions about the nature of the raised body (vv. 35–49) and to the mystery of being 'changed' at the last trumpet (vv. 51–57), closing with the exhortation to be 'stedfast, unmoveable' because 'your labor is not vain in the Lord' (v. 58).

Within this flow, verse 28 is the apex of the doctrinal section (vv. 20–28). Verses 25–27 form its immediate context: the reign of the Son until every enemy is put under his feet, the abolition of death as the last enemy, and the citation of Psalm 8:6 with the crucial observation that the Father who subjects is himself excepted from the subjected 'all things.' Verse 29 — 'Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead?' — opens the next movement of the chapter, in which Paul turns from doctrine to rhetorical and existential argument for the resurrection.