First, some scriptures:
“For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be given life.” 1 Cor 15:22
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to me.” John 12:32
“For the grace of God has appeared, giving salvation to all human beings.” Titus 2:11
“So, then, just as through one transgression came condemnation for all human beings, so also through one act of righteousness came redemption for all human beings:”. Romans 5:18
“Our savior God, who intends all human beings to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of truth.” 1 Tim 2:3
“Thus God was in Christ reconciling the cosmos to himself, not counting their trespasses to them, and placing in us the word of reconciliation. “. 2 Cor 5:19
“For I came not that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world”. John 12:47
“For which reason God also exalted him on high and graced him with the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend -of beings heavenly and earthly and subterranean - and every tongue gladly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of the Father.” Phil 2:9-11
“And he is atonement for our sins, and not only for ours, but for the whole cosmos.” 1 John 2:2
“For God shut up everyone in obstinacy so that he might show mercy to everyone.” Romans 11:32
And on and on……
The boundless depth and breadth of the crucifixion and resurrection are captured in the scores of New Testament verses attesting to its all-encompassing nature. The simple yet profound pronouncement, over and over, is that “all”. - everyone, everything- is emphatically and ultimately reconciled by the work of Christ through the cross.
Many Christian theologians and church leaders have sought to convince themselves and others that “all” means “many” or “some” or “a few” or “the elect” or just about anything except “all” - the plain and obvious meaning of the texts.
Those folks amend these scriptures so that they fall in line, doctrinally, with the way they have interpreted other verses; passages that they give preference to. For myself, I let these verses speak for themselves with their clear and unambiguous message. I choose an interpretation where “all” actually means “all” because, in my view, the cross of Christ reflects an expansive, universal revelation of God’s eternal love and grace, a decisive act of redemption that redirects the entire cosmos towards its original path, one which leads always and ever Godward.
In the cross, the power of sin and death is defeated - obliterated, really - and a radical realignment of the cosmos begins its course, in which God will be “all in all”, a dynamic recapitulation where the entire universe will ultimately find its purpose in the God who created it. How, then, could these verses mean other than what they declare? Anything less than that is unworthy of the God who is the ground of being, whose love never fails, whose mercy has no end, whose justice seeks reconciliation, not retribution, and who cannot, and will not, fail to bring to fruition all of God’s good purposes - for all of God’s creation - in the ages to come.
The cross finds its culmination when God is truly “all in all”, not conditionally or in a limited sense, where sin and spiritual death continue to reign in a perpetual kingdom of darkness in defiant opposition to the Good, sequestered in a corner of existence. Rather, when these last enemies are themselves destroyed, then everyone and everything-all- will have finally been made right again.
“Then the end will come, when the Son hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power….(and) when he has done this, the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Cor 15:24,28
