Christ The Head

by J. Drain, Belfast | Category: General | Nov 1967

In the Scriptures we may trace many relationships in which Christ stands to created beings. Each of these relationships has its own particular significance in the general presentation of the excellencies of our Lord Jesus Christ. His headship, emphasizing as it does truths relating to His supremacy, demands careful consideration.

Headship speaks of exaltation and authority. The head is one to whom others are subordinate. Functions of the head may be seen in controlling, in co-ordinating, in cohering. One has said that in headship we have that which combines "exaltation with the vital union necessary to organism". As we examine the Scriptures we find in various contexts relevant emphasis on these meanings of headship.

When writing to the Colossians, the apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to refute certain heresies which were circulating at that time. In these heresies there was assigned to angels a place of importance and influence which was contrary to the purpose of God. One outstanding objective of this erroneous teaching was the dislodgment of Christ from His exclusive place in the divine purpose and revelation. In Colossians 2.9-10 we read, "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are made full, who is the Head of all principality and power." Our minds are directed to the vast angelic creation and arrangement.

Describing a scene in the heavenly vision which he received while on the Isle of Patmos, John writes, "And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands (Revelation 5.11). What a host of mighty and glorious creatures is presented in these words! As we examine more closely the angelic hierarchy we find such distinctions and gradations as thrones, dominions, principalities, powers (see Colossians 1.16). We read of the cherubim (Genesis 3.24), and of the seraphim (Isaiah 6.2). Daniel refers to two eminent and powerful angels, Gabriel and Michael. Gabriel could say concerning himself, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God" (Luke 1.19). Michael is one of the chief princes among the angels, and Jude calls him "the archangel" (Jude 9). As we thus contemplate this great company of angels, these superior beings of wondrous power and purity who are associated with the heavenly throne, we rejoice to know that Christ is the Head over all. All acknowledge His supreme authority. All are subject to Him. He controls and directs them all. The One who is the Image of the invisible God is the Firstborn of all creation. The One in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily is the Head of all principality and power.

In Matthew 21 there is brought before us a significant stage in the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. After riding into Jerusalem on an ass, in fulfilment of what was spoken by the prophet Zechariah, the Lord entered the Temple and taught and acted with such authority that a crisis in His relations with the leaders of the Israel nation was inevitable. Two important parables were spoken by Christ at that time. In the second one He told about a householder who planted a vineyard. After much disappointment because of the attitude of the husbandmen towards his servants, the householder finally decided to send his son. He said, "They will reverence my son." But the son, too, was rejected and was killed. With great skill the Lord was drawing for those leaders of the people an unmistakable picture of how the purposes of God had been resisted by the Israel people. In the crisis of those purposes God sent His Son into the world. The Head of all principality left heaven and came to this speck in the universe, to this abode of the human race. He was seen a Babe, a Youth, a Man. He is the great Mystery of God. But He came to earth to be rejected. Addressing the chief priests and the Pharisees, the Lord Jesus said, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures,

"The Stone which the builders rejected,

The same was made the Head of the corner:

This was from the Lord,

And it is marvellous in our eyes?" (Matthew 21.42).

This quotation from Psalm 118 shows very clearly that the One whom the leaders of the Israel nation refused and rejected has been received back by God to occupy in heaven the place of authority as the Head of the corner. This Stone was to become the Keystone in God's dealings with men and women. The Lord said, "He that falleth on this Stone shall be broken to pieces: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as dust." After Christ had been raised from the dead and had returned to heaven His servants, by His command and authority, witnessed for Him in Jerusalem. This led to the arrest of Peter and John and to their appearance before the leaders of the Israel nation for examination. It is worthy of notice that those same men who listened to the parable and to its application, as recorded in Matthew 21 heard once more, this time from the Spirit-filled servant of the Lord, those searching words, "He is the Stone which was set at nought of you the builders, which was made the Head of the corner." And Peter added, "And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved" (Acts 4.11,12). Thus the revelation of God directs us to a very important aspect of the Headship of Christ. He is the Head of the corner in heaven. Before He left His disciples to return to take His place at His Father's right hand the Lord said, "All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28.18). This authority may manifest itself in blessing or in judgement.

In his first epistle Peter deals with the purpose of God in having a house on earth. He shows that in that purpose it is the will of God that believers in Christ, those who have known what it is to be saved, to be redeemed, to be born again, as referred to in chapter 1, should be brought into a relationship with Himself through Christ the living Stone by reason of which as living stones they are built up to be a spiritual house. Pursuing his exposition, Peter says, "Because it is contained in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner Stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame. For you therefore which believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve,

The Stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the Head of the Corner;

and,

A Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed" (1 Peter 2.6-8).

We can observe in these two quotations blessing and judgement. Blessing comes to those who believe. Judgement comes to those who disbelieve. Israel stumbled at the Stone of stumbling because they were unbelieving and disobedient. They were not appointed to be disobedient but as disobedient ones they were appointed to stumble.

It is important to notice the words, "Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner Stone, elect, precious." This is what God the Father did to His Son who was rejected on earth. He made Him the Head of the Corner; He is the chief corner Stone. God intends that what He has done in heaven should have practical consequences on earth. To the Son all authority has been given in heaven, and it

is God's purpose that this should be acknowledged on earth. Things will be right in so far as they are right with Him who is the Head and the chief corner Stone. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he referred to the church of God in Corinth as being God's building. Then, commenting on his own activities in relation to the establishment of this building, he said, "As a wise master-builder I laid a foundation." A building needs a foundation. Let it be emphasized that Paul did not lay a foundation of his own production. He wrote, "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." What Paul did in Corinth was to give to Christ in his preaching and teaching the place that God had given to Him in heaven. This same important truth is found in what Paul said concerning others, "Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner Stone" (Ephesians 2.20). The precious Saviour of sinners is the Lord of the universe, the One in whom divine authority is vested and through whom it is exercised. It is very important that those who know that Christ is their Saviour should know and acknowledge His Lordship.

When writing concerning the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, Paul said, "He [God the Father] put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1.22,23). When God was about to make the first man, Adam, God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Genesis 1.26). And so "the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2.7). Adam became God's overlord on earth, all things were put under his feet. Though he held such an exalted place in divine purpose, Adam was not complete according to the mind of God. "The Lo~ God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him." From the man the LORD God took a rib which He made a woman and brought her to the man. Hence, while it is true that in Eden's garden there were two distinct and separable personalities, Adam and Eve, it is also true that in woman man found his complement. By divine appointment, Adam was head over all things, and it was to one in a position so important as this that Eve was joined, not only to share his glory and honour but also to be his fulness.

In the revelation of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ we find precious truth which far transcends anything which we may discern in the instructive story of Adam. Adam's authority was defined and restricted, as we have noticed in Genesis 1. But in the blessed Lord Jesus we see One who sits at the 'right hand of the Father, "far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come" (Ephesians 1.21). Under His feet all created things, without reserve or restriction, have been put in subjection. It is in this high position and relationship as Head over all things that He has been given to the Church, which is His Body. The Church will share His glory and honour. The Body is the fulness of Him that filleth all things in all.

The One who is Head of the vast angelic creation, who is the Head of the corner in the heavenly arrangement of things, who is the Head over all things to the Church which is His Body is also "the Head of the Church" (Ephesians 5.22), "the Head of the Body" (Colossians 1.18). In the purposes of God affecting created beings there is the unique purpose of this dispensation of divine dealings which began on the day of Pentecost and which will terminate with the coming of the Lord to the air. This purpose is the mystery "which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things". Paul said to the Ephesians, "Ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the Body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Ephesians 3.4-6). In this wondrous purpose of God, Jews and Gentiles were to be united in the same Body. This Body is the Church which is His (Christ's) Body which, as we have seen, is "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all". Of this Body, Christ is the Head. The Church here is not merely an organization composed of men and women. It is an organism of divine conception and creation. It is something in which persons are seen as fellow-members, as members one of another, as members of Christ. They stand to each other in a relationship of intimacy and interdependence such as may be illustrated in the human body. When, therefore, we contemplate the Headship of Christ in relation to the Church which is His Body, we see emphasized not only the authority of the Head to whom the Church is subject but also "the vital union necessary to an organism".

In Ephesians 4, Paul deals with the important practical divine objective of saints in the Church the Body enjoying spiritual growth and development, and attaining maturity and stability. To this end gifts were given by the Lord, and the exercise of these gifts was to secure this perfecting of the saints. As the waves and spray of the sea may be tossed and carried about by the force of the wind, so may children of God be tossed to and fro and carried about by the winds of erroneous doctrine. Such an experience is a negation of the divine objective. Hence the exhortation, "Speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, which is the Head, even Christ." It is' of utmost importance to the believer in Christ that, in genuine realization of his own insufficiency, he is in daily, personal, vital contact with the living Head, Christ This is the experience of communion.

J. Drain, Belfast | Nov 1967
General