(2) THE HEAD OVER ALL THINGS
([p. 216] 2) THE HEAD OVER ALL THINGS
I sought to make plain last time the line on which God had been working from the beginning, that is, gathering a company for heaven. I noticed the distinction between things at this present time, and what had been. The first point was, that, in contrast to saints of old, we have a Forerunner who has entered in, and we are linked with the Forerunner — that is peculiar to the present time. But while there is that distinction, which is very marked, yet all the saints in heaven form one company. They do not form one church, but they form one company; all are in perfect unity in heaven. The company is presented to us in the Revelation under the figure of the twenty-four elders. They surround the throne, and form, so to speak, a complete company — they have that part.
At the end of the Revelation, however, we get the church distinctively: it is spoken of as the bride, the Lamb’s wife — that is distinctive, and the bride is presented under the figure of the holy city, Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God. There are thus two thoughts in the Revelation — the entire heavenly company, and the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Now I come to another point very intimately connected with what I have said, that is, the truth of the Head, the One that God had in view in all His dealings; even anterior to the world God had the Head in view; the thought of eternal life is connected with the Head. God had, as we find in the early part of this chapter, certain purposes connected with the Head, and He has “abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will”. There were thus not only the public and outward dealings of God in the world, but the mystery of His will, and it is the mystery of His will still, and will be until everything becomes manifest. When all things are made manifest, they are evidently no longer mysteries; meanwhile the apostle’s labour was to make manifest the mystery of the gospel, as he was bound to do, and God “has made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself for the dispensation of the fulness of times, to head up in one all things in Christ”. The mystery of God’s will underlay all the outward and public dealings of God; and you see how different is our position with regard to those that went before. God did not make known the mystery of His will before, for saints would not have understood it; I do not think Abraham and David really knew what God was going to effect. But now the Head has come in, and the Holy Ghost has been given, in order that He might make known to us the “mystery of his will”. That is the thought in regard to us (before the dispensation of the fulness of times), on which I want to touch, as well as on our place in connection with the “good pleasure of his will”.
There are three points that come out here (I do not touch on the first six verses) in regard to saints — first, redemption; then inheritance; then the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance. It has struck me that you get redemption and inheritance coming together in Scripture. When the commission was given by the Lord to the apostle Paul, to go to the Gentiles to “open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God”, it was that they might receive “[p. 218] forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ”. You get the same thought here — “By whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” — then “In whom we have obtained an inheritance”. Therefore these things are common to every Christian, they are not the peculiar possession of any select company. All have forgiveness of sins, inheritance in Christ, and finally, the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance.
I shall touch on these points, but will first say a little with regard to the mystery of God’s will. And to that end I am going to trace in a few words the course of things in the world. I have thought over the expression “the world” in Scripture — and judge that there is often a peculiar force in the use of the term.
As to the public dealings of God, things were allowed to go on much as they might before the flood, and then God brought in the judgment. Man had revolted from God, and was pretty much given up; the earth was filled with violence and corruption, so that God had to bring in the flood, and there was an end to all that course of things. It was the era of licence; men were unrestrained, liable to direct Satanic influences — a state which God could not allow to continue. Then after the flood there was a new departure, and it began with the principle of government. But things were not morally changed. Man began to show his hand again, he had a thought that does not seem to have come out before — he was going to make a name for himself, to build a city (it was a Babylonish idea) and a tower to reach to heaven, and that led to the formation of nations; but as yet there was hardly the “world”.
In course of time, after giving promises to the fathers, God took up a particular people, the seed of [p. 219] the fathers. They were in bondage for four hundred years or more; and then God interfered to accomplish His purpose, to bring them into the land promised to the fathers. But before bringing them in, God established in their midst a religious system, He gave them His law, and a system of worship was ordained; and when they came into the land, they were not simply a nation, but in a sense, though separate, were the centre of a system, and that system is the “world” as I judge Scripture often speaks of it. There was eventually a city, and in the city a throne and a temple — there was an organised system, not consisting of one nation, but of a number of nations connected with one nation, of which system this was the centre. I have thought that we have hardly always got the scriptural idea of the “world”; I think “world” implies an organised system with a centre, and an order of worship; you get that thought implied in the Hebrews.
But the nation which was the centre of this system became perverse and idolatrous. They were this really from the start, in the wilderness they worshipped the golden calf, and when they came into the land of promise they did worse than the nations round about them. In the meantime God allowed to spring up in the world what I may call a rival system, which settled finally in Babylon. Babylon became the beginning of a series of empires, and God allowed the “world”, which He had established, to be swallowed up by Babylon. Babylon had its throne and its system of worship, and was the centre, not of a world that God had formed but of man’s world. This did not come to pass in a moment: I do not think it was thoroughly effected until Christ had been rejected. Long before Christ came the Jews had been under the power of Babylon; but when Christ was rejected, the divinely-appointed [p. 220] system was wholly swallowed up by Babylon, in its successor Rome.
Then what came to pass was, that the succession of empires, which began with Babylon and ended with Rome, was in its turn set aside. A deadly wound, largely attributable to Christianity, was inflicted on the Gentile system — on man’s world. The Gentile empires are spoken of as “beasts” — wild beasts — and we are told that the beast received a “deadly wound”. But now we have in the world, not the system that God appointed, nor the Roman empire exactly, but a corrupted Christianity; but in result this empire, this system of man, will be reconstituted, the deadly wound will be healed, and this great “beast” will be revived — though in a new form.
Now amid all this God has brought in the Man of His right hand, the Man in whom He purposed to head everything up. The mystery of His will from the beginning was bound up with the Man of His purpose. We get very many hints and allusions to this in the Old Testament; but now God has brought to light the Son of man, whom He has made strong for Himself, and that Man has in God’s grace “tasted death for everything”. It is on that ground that He is the Head of the world to come. The world to come is in contrast with the world which began with Israel (the world which has been), and is brought into view in the One whom God has made “Head over all things”; and the mystery of God’s will is made known.
The mystery of God’s will has reference to the dispensation of the “fulness of times”. Now I do not want you to defer that thought wholly to the future. You see many things which in the way of their public application are future; but the “fulness of times” in a certain sense is already brought in, for the reason that the One is brought in,
[p. 221] in whom everything is headed up. At the close of the chapter we read that Christ is given to be Head over all things. Whatever God has instituted, God has purposed to gather up in Him: whether in heaven in the way of power, or on earth in the way of thrones, they are all headed up in Christ, and in order that Christ may give character to them all.
It is a great point to get hold of the truth of the Head, because you get then the system of things which centres in the Head, and you are entitled to know it, because God “has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence” to make it known to us. I think one end in view is, that we might be delivered from the influence of things down here, that we might not be captivated and allured by them, for if we are in the light of God’s will, we see also the One in whom that will is centred. God has seen fit to gather up in one all things in Christ; and one purpose that will be served in it is, that in all there will be brought about perfect unity, not Israel bent on one thing and the nations on another, not heaven bent on one thing and earth on another, but unity prevailing throughout. I judge that to be one great reason for everything being headed up in one Man, and we need to have that before us. The fact is, that the greatest man of the world, the greatest politician, is not a head — he does not really influence the course of things in this world — he follows it rather than directs it. Things in general take their course, and man cannot help it. The politician in a kind of way seeks to moderate things, and if possible to avoid complications, but the politician does not direct the course of the world; the course of the world has been much more ordered by military success than by the politician. The world takes its course, but where are we in regard to it all.
As far as I can tell, the place of interest to the Christian is the right hand of God, and the point [p. 222] of interest, the One who is there, and the mystery of God’s will. I wish to point out the interest that we have in the One who is at the right hand of God. That is much more important to us than even the principalities and powers and thrones and dominions over which He is Head. We read “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace”. The thing spoken of here is redemption, and the form which redemption now takes with regard to us is the forgiveness of sins. Redemption will yet have a fuller application in regard to the people of God, that is, as to the body. God has not yet released the body, but we have forgiveness of sins. The believer does not come into judgment, and has the forgiveness of sins that he may have a purged conscience, so as to approach God. If we had not forgiveness of sins, we could never be apart from the man who had sinned; but God has given forgiveness to us that we might be apart from that man, and thus it is that we have no more conscience of sins. The point is, that the believer is born of God. If I can take account of myself in that way as formed by the Spirit of God in the divine nature, then I can say: “No more I, but sin that dwelleth in me”. It is a very important point to take account of the inward man. The man who is formed in the divine nature is, it is evident, morally new. When a man has believed and received forgiveness of sins, the next thing that happens is that he is buried with Christ by baptism unto death. This ends his history as a man in the flesh, and he can “account himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus”.
That is a great point to have come to; but the thought of God is not only forgiveness but inheritance,
[p. 223] and the basis of that is, that Christ has died. Christ has died to secure forgiveness as the expression of divine love; and if God has been pleased to give expression thus to His love, you can understand that there is nothing which He will withhold. All that Christ is as man is given in the grace of God. If the love of God were such that He would give His Son to die for us, you can understand that “with him” God would “give us all things”. Divine love would give all that Christ is as Man; and God has thus given us that greatest privilege that God could give, that is, sonship. With sonship, which is the gift of God, you naturally come to inheritance. The apostle Paul went among the Gentiles preaching the “unsearchable riches of Christ”. The fact is, that you can only measure what is given in the grace of God by Christ Himself; if you get an apprehension of what Christ is as man, and what belongs to Him as man, you can understand the “unsearchable riches of Christ”. And if God has seen fit in grace to give us redemption (that is, forgiveness of sins), that must carry everything else with it, for the simple reason that the forgiveness of sins is the consequence of the death of Christ; and if God gave up His Son to death, the love which thus gave up His Son must give everything else with it. Thus we have two great things which belong to the Christian: first, redemption, and then inheritance. Inheritance involves companionship with Christ; it hangs on sonship.
But a further point is, that we have the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance — for nothing is displayed yet. The Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance, because it is by the Spirit that we are brought into the life of Christ. If you want to get the present enjoyment of the inheritance, you must find it in the life of Christ. It is connected in my mind with the thought that “your life is hid with Christ in God”. The Lord refers to this in John 14: “A little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also”. It is a very wonderful thing that we live because Christ lives. Speaking in a moral sense, we do not live because we have been begotten by our parents into this world, but because Christ lives. The fact of a Christian living is really a witness of Christ being at the right hand of God. Every Christian ought to know that he is living because Christ lives: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. And if the Christian lives because Christ lives, the life of a Christian is a witness that Christ is alive at the right hand of God. The great mass of people in the world live because the world goes on; and if the system of the world could come to an end, in a way man’s life would come to an end, for he would have nothing to live for — man’s life would be nothing to him if it were not for the system of the world. But the Christian lives because Christ lives. Well, how has that been brought about? Simply by the Spirit. The Spirit has brought us into the reality of the love of God. The Spirit (being the Spirit of God’s Son) has enabled us to cry “Abba, Father”, that is the expression of affection towards God; He has brought us effectually into that circle, and hence it is that we live because Christ lives.
But if you live where Christ lives and because He lives, you can understand that the inheritance is assured to you. If we could be all brought to that point by the Spirit of God — that we live because Christ lives — the effect would be that we should get the assurance of the inheritance. That is what I understand by the expression, “He has given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. We need to cease from resting on terms. I do not think Scripture [p. 225] intends that we should rest simply on texts. Scripture tells us what is for us, but it really gives us nothing; all is given to you effectually by the power of the Spirit, and I am not content to rest simply on the statement that the Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance, but I would go a step further, and understand how it is that the Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance.
It is a great thing if we can in mind detach ourselves from the course and interests of this world, and be kept by the Spirit in the sense that we live because Christ lives. But if we live because Christ lives, in the day of His manifestation we shall come into the inheritance, and the apostle prays in the end of the chapter: “That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead”. Meantime we have the seal of the Spirit, and the Spirit is an effectual seal and earnest, for by the Spirit we are conscious that we live because Christ lives.
I pray that our attention may be fixed upon the One who is at God’s right hand, that we may get into the good of all that God intends for us, and be divinely instructed in the mystery of God’s will. It is a great thing to know the portion that belongs to us in the One who is the centre and the Head of all things; and we have a very large portion in Christ, for the death of Christ is the expression of divine love that will hold nothing back.