There are indeed those who hold that in 1 Co 15'-'' there is an explicit reference to the resurrection of unbelievers, interpreting rb riXos as 'the last act (of the resurrection)' (Meyer)or ' the remainder,' the rest of men, those not ' in Christ,' as forming a third rdyiia.. According to this view, a resurrection of believers takes place at the Parousia, then, after an interval of indefinite duration — between the point marked by IweiTa and the following elra. in which Christ gradually subdues all His enemies — a resurrection of the wicked (.see Lietzmann and J. Weiss, in loc). Such a mUlennarian view finds support in Rev 20'"-, where, although there is no specific reference to the resurrection of the wicked, tills is implied in the expression ' the first resurrec- tion,' as well as in the connexion established between the Resurrection and the Judgment. But the introduction of such a thought is quite irrele- vant to St. Paul's argument here where he is answering the difficulties raised as to the resurrec- tion of those who have died in Christ. St. Paul's interest throughout is in the resurrection of Chris- tians, and for the rest he is content to urge men to the attaining of this resurrection (Ph 3"), and to warn them of the fate attendant on the rejection of Christ (Ro 2=, 2 Th 1» ; cf. 1 Th l'", Ph 3'», etc.).
3. What it means for the Kingdom of God. — The resurrection of Christ, as thus the ground not only of the moral but of the physical resurrection of believers, is further the pledge and ground of the ultimate dominance of spiritual interests, the consummation of the Kingdom of God. This is its wider cosmic significance.
(a) The redemption of the body from the power of death and the grave, St. Paul shows, is an essential part of the Divine world-plan, necessary to the fulfilment of God's Kingdom through Christ (1 Co lb-"--"). Without this Christ is not Lord of all ; 'all things' are not subdued unto Him (v.'-^). ' Then comes the end (rd riXos, not merely the termination, but the consummation, expressing and manifesting the goal of the whole process) when he shall have abolished every rule (dpxnv) and every authority (i^ovulav) and power {ovvap.iv)' — every force or power antagonistic to the Divine dominion. 'The last enemy to be abolished is death (6 fidraros).' For St. Paul, death, not the mere
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phys-iciil experience, but, as for Hebrew tli()ui;ht genenilly, tliis experience in co-relation with sin, was tiie supreme enemy (see Kennedy, Last Things, p. 113). When 'he '(6 davaro^ — St. I'aul aInio.st liersonities it) lias been vanquished, Christ's do- minion is complete (cf. He 2", ' Him that had the
lower of death, that is, the devil,' and Kev iO").
n the resurrection of Christ we have the assurance that sin and death are not the tinal realities in the universe, but are destined to be swallowed up in victory.
(6) In the redemption of the body through Christ, we have the pledge of the ultimate subjugation of the entire material order to the purposes of spirit, the revelation of the destiny of the whole material universe to be included in the transformation wrought by Christ. The material order has shared with the moral and spiritual in the consequences of sin. It has been subjected to futility duaraiiirTjT-i, Ko 8^°), to vain striving ; the full purpose of its existence has been defeated through man's sin. Like human life, it is 'in thraldom to decay' (v.-', <p9opa) and 'waits with eager hmging' (v.'^j for ' the freedom of the glory {rfis 56;?)s) of the child- ren of God' (v.-'). The redemption of the body (ij dTToXiVpuiris toO ffu/iaros) which is tlie climax of material evolution, the rescue of it from the bondage of (pdopd, and the transKguring and trans- forming of it so as to make it the complete in- strument of the spirit — this contains the promise of the transhguration and transformation of the entire creation, ' new heavens and a new earth ' (2 P 3'^ Kev 211), . all things new ' (Rev 21^). In the resurrection of Christ as the pledge and ground of the moral and physical resurrection of believers we have, accordingly, the assurance that the re- demption of Christ involves the rectification of the material as well as of the spiritual universe. This new condition of things Jesus once names the ' regeneration ' or ' new birth ' {TraKipyeveala, Mt ID'") of all things. (St. Peter's phrase in Ac 3'-i [&XP'- XP^^^^ dTroKaraaTd(T€ws irdi^Twv] renilered in AV 'until the times of restitution of all things' is hardly a parallel.)
(c) So, finally, in the resurrection of Christ we have the pledge of the consummation of God's redeeming purpose — the ' summing up {dvaKe<pa\aL- uiraaSai) all things in Christ, the things in heaven, and the things on earth' (Eph 1'"), and thus the bringing in of iinal world-unity, when ' Christ is all and in all' (?rdi'T-a Kai ^f Trdain, Col 3"). For 'it pleased (the Father) ' — this was His aim — ' through {Sid) him to reconcile all things unto (t/s) himself . . . whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens' (Col 1'": cf. Ph 2"-"). Tlie Resurrec- tion, that is to say, was for the apostles not only the completion of the incarnation and atonement of Jesus; it was the fulfilment of the original purpose of God in creation, the consummation of the whole evolutionary process. This is expressed most definitely by St. Paul in Col l""', where Christ, ' the firstborn of all creation ' (Trpwroro/cot Trdarjt KTia-eus), its norm and type, that which sets for it its true end — ' for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth . . . all things have been created through him, and unto [with a view to] him' (els avrdf, v.'^'') — is described as the beginning (dpxv, the first principle), the first begotten from the dead in order that He might become (iVa y^fTiTai) prominent over all {iv irdffiv, ' no doubt purposely left indefinite, includ- ing every province of creation ' [Kennedy, ^t^ Paul's Conceptions of the Last Thin(fs, \>. 29S]). Through the ResuiTection, ag the culmination of the In- carnation and Atonement, by uieaus of which Christ becomes the d/)x'? or life-giving principle of a new humanitj', God's aim in the whole process of creation attains its end.