The previous two chapters concerned two basic truths—the church being Christ and the genuine oneness of the church. This chapter concerns a third basic truth in the New Testament that is somewhat deeper—the headship of Christ and the constitution of the church. The constitution of the church is the way in which the church is arranged. The headship of Christ is closely related to the constitution of the church.
First, we need to see that the headship of Christ was not fully established in the Old Testament. Ephesians 1:20-22 states that when Christ ascended to the heavens, God gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. This proves that before Christ’s ascension, in the Old Testament time, the headship of Christ was not fully established. Of course, with God there is no element of time, but in God’s administration there is the element of time. Before the New Testament age the headship of Christ was not complete, not fully established. It was in Christ’s ascension that God inaugurated Him into the full headship.
The headship of Christ was not fully established in the Old Testament because Christ was not yet incarnated. In the Old Testament times Christ was only the Son of God, not yet the Son of Man. This is very significant. For Christ to have the full headship, He needs two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. Being God alone is not adequate for Him to be the Head. To be the Head, He needs to be both God and man. This matter is neglected by most Christian teachers. According to the human concept, being God is adequate for Christ to be the Head of the universe. However, according to God’s economy, God will not exercise His judgment in His administration as God alone. Acts 17:31 says, “He has set a day in which He is to judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has designated, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
God needs a man to exercise His judgment in His administration because His administration is very much related to dealing with Satan. The government, the police, and the law courts are established not for good men but for criminals. In a sense, if the subtle one, Satan, and all the evil spirits and demons did not exist, there would be no need for God to set up a governmental administration. God has a governmental administration in the universe mainly for two reasons. On the positive side, God needs an administration in order to carry out His eternal purpose. On the negative side, God needs a government to deal with His enemy and all the evil powers. Without man, God’s eternal purpose could never be fulfilled, and His enemy could not be dealt with. Because God is the Creator and Satan is a creature, God would never lower His status to deal directly with Satan. Therefore, God needs man, another creature, to deal with Satan. In summary, man is needed to carry out God’s eternal purpose and to deal with God’s enemy. Hence, before Christ became a man, His headship could not be fully completed, fully established.
Christ as the Son of God alone was not qualified to be the Head over all things in God’s governmental administration. He needed to be incarnated, to put on humanity. In incarnation Christ became no longer only the Son of God but also the Son of Man. He now has two elements, the divine element and the human element. In order to be the Head over all things in God’s government, Christ needed to have divinity and humanity, and He needed to accomplish two things. To take care of God’s two needs, Christ needed to carry out God’s eternal purpose and defeat God’s enemy. By dying on the cross, on the one hand, Christ accomplished God’s purpose, and on the other hand, He also defeated Satan and destroyed the power of death on the cross (Heb. 2:14). Therefore, Christ has accomplished everything. By incarnation He picked up the human element, and by being crucified He accomplished God’s purpose and defeated and destroyed God’s enemy. Because Christ gained the human element in His incarnation and accomplished God’s purpose and defeated God’s enemy in His crucifixion, He is now fully qualified to be the Head of the universe in God’s administration.
After Christ’s crucifixion He rested for three days. A person rests after accomplishing something. After resting in the tomb for three days, Christ resurrected and then ascended into the heavens. In His ascension He was inaugurated into the full headship of the entire universe. In the third heavens Christ was given to be Head over all things to the church. Christ is also the head of every man (1 Cor. 11:3a). Thus, in His ascension Christ’s headship was fully established.
All these truths are buried in the Bible. Many Christians today read the Bible but do not see the truth. No book sold in Christian bookstores today contains the truth that Christ’s headship was not fully established until His ascension, because He needed to become a man and be crucified in order to accomplish God’s eternal purpose and to defeat and destroy God’s enemy. This truth is in the Bible, yet if we do not have the light, we will not be able to see it. Because the human mentality can only know doctrine, we need heavenly light, vision, and revelation in order to see a vision of the truth. We need to repeat this truth again and again until our inner eyes are opened and we see it. Once Christ picked up humanity through incarnation and was crucified to accomplish God’s eternal purpose and defeat and destroy God’s enemy, He was qualified both in element and in achievement to be the Head over all things. Thus, in His ascension God inaugurated Him into the universal headship over all things for God’s administration. Today the headship of Christ is fully established.
The first preaching of the gospel by Peter in Acts 2 indicates the establishment of the headship of Christ. At the conclusion of his message Peter said, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified” (v. 36). This means that God has inaugurated Christ. Jesus was not a great man outwardly; rather, He was an unknown man from Nazareth, a small town in the despised region of Galilee. Such a lowly man was inaugurated into the universal headship over all things by God. We need to declare, “There is a man in glory! There is a man on the throne in the third heaven! This man, Jesus, has been inaugurated as the Head over all things!”