God’s eternal intention is to head up all things in Christ, who has been appointed to be the universal Head. The first step God takes to accomplish this is to head up His chosen ones in Him. One by one, God rescues His people from the heap caused by the universal collapse. Most Christians, however, do not realize that this is what God is doing and do not pray about it. Instead, they have the natural concept that man is fallen and needs to be rescued from hell. According to the Bible, God’s salvation is not primarily to save us from hell; it is to save us from the heap of collapse. God has brought us out of the universal collapse and has placed us under the unique Head, Christ. Because of the angelic rebellion and the human rebellion, none of the created beings is under any head. There is simply no headship in the universe. But Ephesians 1:10 says that all things are to be headed up in Christ. Most of today’s government leaders do not care for Christ; they are not under the headship of Christ. Since this is the situation, how can Christ be the Head over all things? God is endeavoring to head up all things in Christ. He is working to bring every item in the universal collapse back to the headship of Christ.
As we have seen, the first step is for God to bring His chosen ones, His sons, out of the collapse and to place them under the headship of Christ. Here, under the headship of Christ, we are outside of the heap of the universal collapse, and we are over all things. Thus, the church life must be a life of being headed up. In the church life it is God’s chosen ones, not the world leaders, the unbelievers, or the animals, that are being headed up. God is heading up all His chosen ones to be the Body of Christ with Christ as the Head. Eventually, this Body with Christ as the Head will be the universal Head over all things. Today we in the church are taking the lead to be headed up in Christ. If we are not willing to be headed up in the church life, we shall delay the heading up of all things. In fact, God will not have a way to accomplish the heading up of all things in Christ if we, the chosen ones, are not willing to be headed up. But if we are willing for this, God will say with joy, “These are the pioneers who are taking the lead to be headed up. They are pioneering the way for Me to head up all things in Christ.” When the church takes the lead to be headed up in Christ, God has a way to head up all other things.
We have seen that because of the two rebellions, everything in God’s creation is in a heap of collapse. There is no proper headship. For example, there is no headship in the animal kingdom. Instead, the animals fight against one another. There is not even harmony in the plant kingdom. The same is true of the human life: nations fight against nations, people against people, and race against race. But the Bible clearly reveals that when the millennium comes, all nations will cease fighting. Today there is a great deal of negotiation about the limitation of weapons, but in the millennium there will be no weapons at all. Speaking of the millennium, Isaiah 2:4 says, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Regarding the situation in the animal kingdom during the millennium, Isaiah 11:6 says, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together.” This indicates that all the animals will be headed up and live together peaceably. Furthermore, Isaiah 55:12 says, “All the trees of the field shall clap their hands,” singing together in harmony in praise to God. Psalm 96:12 and 13 declare, “Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord.” This is a description of the situation when everything is headed up in Christ. When this takes place, there will be absolute peace and harmony in the human kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the plant kingdom because everything will have been fully rescued out of the heap of collapse. This rescue out of the collapse is called “the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21, Gk.). This restoration begins with our being headed up in the church life.