By Campus Missionary Mary Rowley, based on 1st Corinthians 15:20-28
Have you ever wanted something? Silly question, I know – we want things all the time. For example, as I write this on Tuesday, I’m wishing for someone to appear and clean my apartment. I’m hungry for ice cream. I want the rain to stop. I could go on, but the point is, we all have wants. Your wants are doubtless different from my wants, but we all want something.
This passage of 1st Corinthians describes the end of the world. When Christ returns, he will destroy every rule, authority and power. His Father will give him subjection over everything in the entire world; everything will be “in subjection under his feet” (verse 27). The passage ends thusly: “God will be all in all” (verse 28).
What does that mean, exactly? To some extent it’s self-explanatory. God will be all in all because there will be nothing else left. He will be everything to his people. But there’s a deeper meaning behind it, as well. Luther puts it like this: “Everybody will find all wants that are now satisfied by all things satisfied in God himself. When he will reveal himself, we will be satisfied in body and soul and will no longer stand in need of so many things as we now do here on earth.”
In other words, God will be all in all. We will no longer want for anything, which will be quite a change from our current state. He will be all we require to be satisfied. Instead of being so focused on what we want, we will be able to focus our entire beings on our Lord. That’s something we can look forward to! We can thank God in advance for that gift this Thanksgiving: that we will someday have no wants, only satisfaction in Him.