The Meme on Facebook asked its readers to help him understand how “in Adam all die” refers to everyone, but “in Christ all shall be made alive” does not. It asked who changed the meaning of “all.”
My response:
The answer to the question is the Apostle Paul, when he wrote the words “in Christ.” That prepositional phrase governs the meaning of “all” in that part of the sentence. All means everyone in Christ, just as the previous part of the sentence refers to everyone in Adam.
You would have thought I had shot God.
What followed was a series of replies, each politely telling me I don’t know what I am talking about. They insist that ALL means ALL.
The best argument is not to try to explain that ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ is a prepositional phrase describing those who will be made alive because of their relationship to Christ.
The strongest argument appears to be contextual rather than lexical. In other words, the meaning of “all” (πάντες) is controlled by Paul’s resurrection argument in 1 Corinthians 15, not by the phrase ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ considered in isolation.
That distinction matters, because πάντες carries no fixed quantity of its own. It takes its scope from the sentence and from the argument in which it stands. Paul himself qualifies an “all” inside this very chapter (15:27), and he does it without apology.
The Immediate Context (1 Cor 15:20-23)
Paul writes:
20 Νυνὶ δὲ Χριστὸς ἐγήγερται ἐκ νεκρῶν
23 ἕκαστος δὲ ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι· ἀπαρχὴ Χριστός, ἔπειτα οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ
Notice what Paul does immediately after saying:
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”
He explains who the resurrected “all” are:
“after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.”
Verse 23 functions as an interpretation of verse 22. The people made alive “in Christ” are identified as οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (“those who are Christ’s”), not all humanity indiscriminately.
If Paul intended universal salvation, verse 23 would be a strange and unnecessary restriction.
The sequence in the paragraph does the work. Paul has just called Christ the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, the first sheaf of a harvest that guarantees the rest of the field. Then he says that each will rise in his own order, a word for ranks or divisions in an ordered body. Paul is not describing two harvests with two populations. He is describing one harvest, gathered in ranks, from the first fruits to those who are Christ’s at His coming, and then to the end, when the kingdom is handed over to the Father (15:24).
If πάντες in verse 22 reached every human being without exception, verse 23 would have to say “then everyone,” and the qualifier “at His coming” would lose its point.
The Parallelism Is Corporate, Not Numerical
Universalists often assume the verse means:
- All humanity in Adam = every human being.
- Therefore all humanity in Christ = every human being.
But Paul’s wording does not require that.
The parallel can be understood as:
- Everyone who is in Adam dies.
- Everyone who is in Christ lives.
The emphasis falls on the two realms or corporate heads.
Paul uses this kind of representative language elsewhere:
- Adam represents the old humanity.
- Christ represents the new humanity.
The “all” in each clause is naturally limited by the sphere in which it occurs.
Thus:
πάντες ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ
“all who are in Adam”
versus
πάντες ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ
“all who are in Christ”
The second group is not coextensive with the first.
The same pattern appears in Paul’s longest treatment of the two heads. In Romans 5:12 he says that “death spread to all men, because all sinned.” A few sentences later he calls the same group “the many” who died (5:15) and “the many” who will be appointed righteous (5:19). The “all” of verse 18 and the “many” of verse 19 describe one group, a whole body sharing the destiny of its head. Paul does the same in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49. “The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit,” and the conclusion is not that everyone bears the image of the heavenly, but that “just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly” (15:49). The “we” there is the church.
The phrase “in Adam” occurs only here in the New Testament. “In Christ” occurs again and again, and it always has an entrance: faith, baptism, His body.
Paul’s Normal Usage of “In Christ”
Throughout Paul’s letters, being “in Christ” is never a universal human condition.
Examples:
- “There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).
- “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17).
- “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26).
For Paul, union with Christ belongs to believers. The phrase never describes the entire human race irrespective of faith.
Therefore, it would be highly unusual for Paul suddenly to use ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ in 1 Corinthians 15:22 as though every human without exception were already united to Christ.
Two more witnesses. In Ephesians 1:3 God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” and in 1:10 His purpose is “the summing up of all things in Christ.” Even where Christ’s headship is as wide as creation, the blessing is located in Him. And Paul tells us how a person comes to be there: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal 3:27). The phrase has an entrance.
A preposition that marks union cannot be read as though it marked mere membership in the race. If “in Christ” meant “human,” Paul’s longing to be found in Him would be nonsense.
The Resurrection in View Is Resurrection unto Glory
The chapter is not discussing merely resurrection from the dead.
Everyone, righteous and wicked, will be raised (cf. John 5:28-29). But Paul is arguing for the resurrection of believers and their victory over death.
The sequence is:
- Christ raised.
- Those who belong to Christ are raised.
- The kingdom is consummated.
The chapter never discusses the resurrection of unbelievers.
Therefore, “made alive” (ζῳοποιηθήσονται) is best understood as participation in the resurrection life of Christ, not simply reanimation.
The verb settles it. Paul uses ζῳοποιέω for the life that the Spirit gives, not for the restoration of a corpse. In Romans 8:11, the Spirit who raised Christ “will also give life to your mortal bodies.” In 2 Corinthians 3:6, “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” In 15:45, the last Adam is “a life-giving spirit,” and 15:22 uses that same verb. To be made alive in this chapter is to receive the body Paul has just described, sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body (15:42-44).
This is why the universalist reading would not even deliver what universalists want. If πάντες meant every human being without exception, the verse would teach that every human being is raised in glory, which is not the resurrection of judgment that John 5:29 assumes. The verse would prove too much.
The Decisive Argument
In my judgment, the strongest single argument is:
Verse 23 defines the “all” of verse 22 as “those who belong to Christ.”
Paul says:
πάντες … ζωοποιηθήσονται (v.22)
and then immediately explains:
ἔπειτα οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ (v.23)
Thus the flow of thought is:
- In Adam, all die.
- In Christ, all will be made alive.
- That is, those who belong to Christ will be raised at His coming.
For that reason, most non-universalist commentators understand 1 Corinthians 15:22 not as teaching universal salvation, but as teaching the certainty that every person united to Christ will share Christ’s resurrection life.
Here is the principle behind that judgment. When an author defines his own term in the next sentence, the definition wins. We do not set the explanatory clause aside in favor of an English word’s abstract range. Verse 22 raises the question of scope; verse 23 answers it.
Paul shows how he handles an “all” inside the same paragraph. In 15:27 he quotes the psalm about all things being put in subjection under Christ’s feet, then adds that the One who put all things in subjection is obviously excepted. He will qualify an “all” as soon as he has spoken it.
So nobody changed the meaning of “all.” The word never had a meaning apart from its context. “All” in a sentence about a cup is not “all” in a sentence about an ocean. Here the context is a resurrection chapter, and the two “alls” are bounded by the two men in whom they stand. In Adam, all die. In Christ, all will be made alive, that is, everyone who is Christ’s at His coming.
