15

15

“HOLDING FAST THE HEAD”

F. C. Mutton

Colossians 2: 8–10, 18, 19; Ephesians 4: 14–16; Psalm 133:

1–3; Matthew 9: 20–22

We have been speaking of the body and these scriptures we

have read engage us with the glorious Person who is the Head

of the body. The greatness, glory and distinction of the body

are shown above all by the One who is its Head. To use an

illustration, you can tell that a human organization has great

distinction by the fact that the Queen herself is its patron. Now

the body is marked out as distinct from every other body or

organism by the fact that its Head is none other than Christ

Himself. His headship is listed among the glories of Christ in

Colossians 1: 15—He is “image of the invisible God, firstborn

of all creation; because by him were created all things, the

things in heaven and upon the earth, the visible and the

invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, principalities, or

authorities—all things have been created by him and for him.

And he is before all, and all things subsist together by him.

And he is the head of the body”—no less a Person than the

Creator, the Firstborn of all creation, is the Head of the body,

the assembly. I was struck by the verse we sang—

‘In peaceful wonder we adore

The thoughts of love divine,

Which in that world, for evermore,

Unite our lot with Thine’.

The assembly is inseparable from Christ. What a wonderful

position we are brought into!

What a position of immense, immeasurable privilege and

advantage—like Ruth, brought out of the plains of Moab and