By Water & Blood

Chapter 16: How the Apostle said, “Then shall God be all in all”

Then too the conclusion of the apostolic teaching will reach its fulfilment, which said, “that God may be all in all.” This too we shall understand from another promise, in which it is said by God himself, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” But now, in the present age, the promise advances only into a few who are worthy, and in part, according to “we know in part, and we prophesy in part”; but after the consummation of the universe, when the new age has arrived, he will no longer dwell in a few, but in all who are then worthy of the kingdom of the heavens.

So, then, he will be “all in all”—that is, “dwelling in them and walking in them,” and not disdaining to be “their God,” and making all his own people. He will be in them, then, in the way in which he is also said to be in the Son himself, as the Son himself teaches, saying, “The Father is in me, and I in the Father.” And he will be “all things” in them by offering himself to all, according as the capacity of each can receive a share of his Godhead. The thrice-blessed hope and the unending and incorruptible life will be established in that end, in which God will be “all in all,” filling all with the radiant gleams of the ineffable light of his Godhead; while the Son, exulting and rejoicing in his achievement, placing about himself like a crown those who have been counted worthy of blessedness through him, will continue his ageless and unending kingdom under the Father as overseer (ἔφορος). Then the oracles concerning him will be fulfilled—the others, and especially those spoken by the angel Gabriel to the all-holy Virgin about the one to be born of her: that “he shall reign for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

Reigning, then, at that time, the Son of God will deliver all who are ruled by him to his Father—not ceasing from his kingdom, nor withdrawing from it. For the divine apostle did not say that he would cease from his kingdom (else he would have written the opposite of Gabriel, who prophesied to the Virgin that he would reign for ever and that of his kingdom there would be no “end”), but that he would deliver up “the kingdom”—that is, those ruled by him—“to God, even the Father.”

For he will deliver to the Father all those perfected under him, as though made radiant by his achievement, as one who has received a kind of deposit; which he himself teaches, saying, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father.” Therefore, fittingly, like a good guardian bearing the deposit safe and in every way sound, he will deliver it to God, presenting to him, after the manner of a high priest, all those consecrated under him, clothed in white and flashing, as it were, in most splendid robes—the incorruptible bodies of the resurrection—so that they may enjoy not only the kingdom under him, but may also be filled with the ineffable good things of the Father.

For so, according to the apostle, will “God be all in all,” the Son bringing those ruled by him to him, so that this whole may come to pass—I mean, the Father’s being “all in all.” For as he was formerly in the Son, according to “The Father is in me, and I in the Father,” so he will then be also in all who have been perfected under the Son.

For the apostle did not say that the Son will cease from the kingdom and that God will reign, but that the Son will deliver “the kingdom to God, even the Father,” showing the deposit to be safe and sufficient for the worship and priesthood of the Father; and that God will be “all in all,” as God dwelling and walking “in them,” and becoming all things to them. For of some he will be Master, of others King, of others something else; but of all together, God—becoming all things to them by the divine virtues and powers within him.

This end of the thrice-blessed hope the great apostle sketched when he said, “that God may be all in all.” But in all he will be all things, supplying to all the various aspects (ἐπίνοιαι) of his Godhead in proportion to the capacity of each; while for his only-begotten Son alone he will keep the exceptional and paternal glory and honour and kingdom, incommunicable to all the rest.