(5) THE HEAD
([p. 406] 5) THE HEAD
Colossians 1: 13 - 18; Colossians 2: 16 - 19
The scriptures which I have read make evident that the subject before us at this time is Christ as Head, that is, of the assembly.
You must understand the limited sense in which I am speaking of Christ as Head, for the title Head is used as to Him in more than one connection. He is Head of every man, but that is not the same thought as Head of the body, the Church. Again, He is Head of all principality and power, but that is another thought from the headship of the body. And in presenting Christ as Head of the body, I want everyone to apprehend the bearing and import of the truth upon ourselves. In fact I fail to understand the force of truth except in that respect. God has given truth, the full setting forth of His mind, in order that we should be affected by every part of the truth. But the first point is, to understand what the truth is.
I understand truth as in itself one whole. It is so spoken of in Scripture. I should perhaps hesitate to give you a definition of truth, but truth may be described as that which God has been pleased to reveal of Himself and of His mind. All has been given in Christ, and hence Christ is the truth. In Him God is declared, and at the same time He is the unfolding of the mind and will of God. The Spirit is said also to be the truth, that is, subjectively, as the witness in the believer. There is nothing outside of the operation of the Spirit down here which can be spoken of as being truth in man. Truth in us is limited to the effect of the operation of the [p. 407] Spirit; and truth becomes an important thing to all of us, for by it we are enabled to judge of everything. We measure everything and apprehend it in its own proper proportion and relation, because our loins are girt about with truth.
Now it is evident that the Church has a very great part in the will of God. It is God’s will for this moment. There are other things in the will of God, but for the moment the Church is the expression of His will. Anyone who has no apprehension of the Church is but poorly instructed in the will of God, and consequently does not know how to act for God.
All intelligent activity down here on earth must be dependent upon our apprehension of the will of God. People often blunder about, doing what they think right, but are unintelligent and not instructed in the will of God. The great point in service is not in the volume of it, but in the character of it; not simply the amount of what you do, but the way in which you do it. No one can imagine that God is dependent upon man. He may use us, and if He uses us we should be in the line of His will, and intelligently so, that we may carry out His service intelligently.
Last time we had before us the thought of Christ as priest, and it is a most important link in the chain, for this reason: that the practical effect of priesthood is to engage your heart with Christ where He is. I spoke of this, and of the importance of the subject in the ways of God. It came before us that if God saw fit to take up a people, it was His will that that people should have a divinely appointed representative before Him.
I want now to point out that priesthood is not exclusive for the Church. It has its application to saints now, but is not exclusive to them. You get Christ as priest in Psalm 110, and this will have its application to Israel. Christ as High Priest at the right hand of God is representative, in a sense, of Israel at the present time. If the ways of God as to them are to be brought into [p. 408] effect, it will be through Christ at the right hand of God. He maintains Israel’s place in the night of their darkness. Priesthood is also of the greatest moment to us. The thought connected with the “Lord” is that of administration and discipline, but with the Priest there is sympathy. His heart is touched with our infirmities, and the end of this is, to attach our hearts to Himself where He is. He concerns Himself about us where we are, to attach us to Himself where He is. The same thing may apply in the future in regard of Israel. They may be made conscious of the intercession of Christ on their behalf, and their hearts by it attached to Christ.
There is another thought connected with the priesthood. The Priest is representative, but He is charged also with the service of the sanctuary. He is Minister of the holy places; that is not exclusive to the Church. In regard of the holy place, and for what is connected with Israel, the Minister will have His place. There is no Israel owned at the present time. Hence there is nothing but the holiest, and we have boldness to enter into the holiest.
The Church in connection with Christ fulfils the type of Aaron and his sons, the priestly family, in conjunction with the Head, and so we have boldness to enter the holiest. That is connected with the service of the sanctuary. That may ever go on, I suppose, for I cannot foresee the time when that place will be given up by Christ. Even in eternity He will be the Leader of every redeemed family; all the redeemed families will be held together in one by Christ. In heaven you will not need sympathy, nor the service of the High Priest; we shall not need to be represented in heaven when we are there, we are represented where we are not; but I do not think we shall fail to appreciate the service of the Minister of the holy places.
Now I judge that it is a very easy transition from the Minister of the sanctuary to the Head of the body. The [p. 409] latter is simple if we apprehend Christ as Minister of the sanctuary. We learn the truth of “the body” a long time before we learn the truth of “the Head”. The truth of “the body” is, in a sense, simple. It is involved in the presence of the Spirit. The first evidence of the presence of the Spirit was in the manifestations of the Spirit. Although Christ was Himself at the right hand of God, He intended to have a voice down here, and miracles, tongues, etc., were the voice of Christ here by the Spirit. Though He has been rejected from earth He will have a voice on earth. The Lord said in John 5: 25, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live”. Do you think that voice has ceased to be heard? I do not. It is a great thing that there should still be that voice in the scene where Christ is disallowed, by the Holy Spirit in the saints. Christ will make His voice to be heard still, and in that way you can understand the importance of gifts: they are the expression of Christ on the earth. Every kind of ministry carried out here by Christ personally is to be carried out now by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was the Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher; and now these are distributed in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no diminution, but an enormous expansion. Whatever may be the influences at work here, superstition, infidelity, scepticism, or rationalism, Christ will have His voice to be heard, and that is what I understand by the manifestations of the Spirit.
Now, behind these manifestations the truth comes out that the Spirit has a vessel, and the saints are that vessel. The Spirit has not become incarnate, but dwells in the saints. “By one Spirit we are all baptised into one body”. If there be one Spirit there must be one body. You could not have the fact of the Spirit indwelling without its involving the fact of one body. That is simple to understand, as being the necessary consequence [p. 410] of the presence of the Spirit here; just as the manifestations of the Spirit are the consequence of the Spirit’s presence. So one body is the consequence of His abiding here.
The apostle taught that to the Corinthians, though they knew little or nothing about the Head. It is a long time before believers understand much about the Head, but the apostle does not hesitate to bring before them the truth of the one body, for this is so simple, hanging on the presence of one Spirit; and further, that Spirit being the Spirit of Christ, the body must be the body of Christ. The one follows the other.
In connection with Christ as Head, I want to point out a distinction between the way in which He is regarded in Colossians and in Ephesians. No position in which Christ is seen in Colossians is taken up there as a question of exaltation as regards man, but as that which properly belongs to Christ. In Ephesians, when the same positions are spoken of, they are viewed as conferred upon Him as Man. The distinction is of great importance in order that you may understand the greatness of the Head.
I will turn to a few passages to point out this distinction. In Colossians 1: 17, we have “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist”. In Ephesians 1: 9, 10, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him”. In Ephesians, God gathers together all in one in Christ. In Colossians it is simply “He is before all things”. And, again, “Who is the Head of all principality and power”. The clue to this is found in the earlier verses in chapter 1, in which we have reference to the Son of the Father’s love. It is true that everything is gathered up in Him as Man, but as the Son of the Father’s love He is before all things [p. 411] and naturally the Head of all. He is the moral necessity to everything being held together. Again, in Colossians 1: 18, we have “he is the head of the body”, while in Ephesians 1: 22, it says, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church”. In Colossians, He is the Head, but in Ephesians God gave Him to be Head. He is seen in the latter as Man in whom God is carrying out the purpose of His will.
Again, in Colossians 1: 18 we have the clause: “Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;” while in Ephesians 1: 20 it speaks of the power which wrought in Christ “when he raised him from the dead”. In Colossians He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; whereas in Ephesians God raised Him from the dead.
If you turn further to Colossians 3: 1, you read, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. Here we simply have the fact of Christ sitting at the right hand of God, but in Ephesians, “God set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places”. He is put there. These are important points of contrast between the epistles, which help us to apprehend the headship of Christ. They are of very great interest. In saying He is the Head of the body, “who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead”, we have His qualification to be the Head, “That in all things he might have the pre-eminence”. That He might have the first place. Everything starts from Christ as the beginning. It is a principle in John’s writings that Christ is the starting-point of everything. There is no recognition of anything that went before Christ. He is the beginning, as the living bread come down from heaven, the beginning of all that is of God’s purpose and grace.
In connection with the headship of Christ I may refer for a moment to the subject of gifts. I do not [p. 412] think that gifts are in Scripture directly connected with the body, though for its edification. I connect them with the exalted Man. Christ has ascended up far above all heavens to fill all things, and He has given gifts unto men. Gifts are given that there may be the expression of Christ — the exalted Man — down here: that He may have a voice. And they are given in a power that is superior to every power and influence here, whether it be infidelity, scepticism, rationalism or any other. When Christ was here He overcame the world in every form and shape; and now at God’s right hand He has given gifts to men in a power superior to everything. But the idea of gifts is not limited in Psalm 68 to the Church. Christ received gifts for men, and at the present time they come to the Church. Hereafter they will be for rebellious Israel also, that the Lord God may dwell among them. I think that one who entered into the power of the gift would be able to stand in the presence of any and everything. Many gifted people are timid in the present day. They have gift, but they do not realise the power in which it is given.
I come now to the Head of the body. Christ is Head, and that brings Him very close to us, and at the same time it brings us close to Him. You apprehend Him as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; and this gives you an idea of the Head. The hindrance to understanding the Head is I think the lack of understanding of reconciliation. You must apprehend Christ as the firstborn from the dead. He was the alone corn of wheat, but He died in order that He might bring forth much fruit. He is the beginning. The essential character of the corn of wheat was not altered by death. In resurrection He was apart from the outward condition of flesh on which He had entered, but morally there was no change whatever; that you find in the close of the gospels. In John 20, Jesus calls Mary by name. There you find the Lord unchanged,
[p. 413] though He was now the Firstborn from the dead. Then afterwards He is seen with a company about Him, and the company recognise Him as the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead. They see Jesus only — there is no other man in view. Having one Man, and one only, before you, the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, you can appreciate Him as Head.
But I will say a little also about the body. We read in Colossians 2: 19: “And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God”. There are two thoughts in the verse: (1) the holding the Head, from which all the body increases with the increase of God — that is the connection of thought; (2) joints and bands are brought in, by which nourishment is ministered and the body knit together, and that is going on down here. Joints and bands are not exactly gift, but they are for the ministering of nourishment to the body, and it is thus knit together. We might each covet to have the place of a joint and band. It is a point of much moment in connection with the working of the body. But we have the thought also of all the body making increase from the Head with the increase of God. The thought of that is, I suppose, that the Head gives impulse or movement to the whole body. It is not the ministering of nourishment, but, as it were, the setting in activity the whole body, and it is thus a great point for every member to hold the Head. If you hold the Head, there is an answer on your part to Christ. He gives the impulse in every heart, and that affects the whole body: that is the idea of the body in relation to the Head. The practical link between the Head and the members is affection. The members are conscious of the affection of the Head, and they have affection towards the Head.
I want you to apprehend Christ’s true title of headship, that is, as the beginning, the Firstborn from the [p. 414] dead. We too are quickened together with Christ, we have come out of death. Then there are joints and bands. That is an important position to occupy here in relation to the saints. Joints and bands are of great importance in the natural body, and so too in the body of Christ; but the point is that we should be holding the Head, and thus we should understand how the Head sets the whole body in activity. If you do not apprehend the truth of the assembly, and Christ’s place in the midst, I do not think that you will know very much about the matter.
May God be pleased to lead us to the truth of Christ’s headship. It is a blessed thing to see that He sets the whole body in movement in the activity of affection, so that there is the self-edifying in love. It is the function of the Head to give impulse to the body, so that it increases with the increase of God.
May God give us to understand it better in His great grace.