{"id":29167,"date":"2022-09-24T13:09:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T18:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-ephesians-122\/"},"modified":"2022-09-24T13:09:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T18:09:37","slug":"exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-ephesians-122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-ephesians-122\/","title":{"rendered":"Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 1:22"},"content":{"rendered":"

And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church, <\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

22<\/strong>. and hath put<\/em> ] Lit. and did put<\/strong>; at the great act of Enthronement after Resurrection. Cp. 1Co 15:27<\/span> &c., where we have explicit reference to Psa 110:1<\/span>, and in a way which suggests here the interpretation that the subjection of all things was then accomplished in the earnest<\/em>, but is not to be accomplished in final act<\/em> till the “destruction of death.” The phrase here carries the thought of Christ’s Lordship on from His relations to angels as their King to His attitude towards all opposition as its Conqueror.<\/p>\n

and gave him<\/em> ] “Him” is emphatic by position; He and no other<\/em> is the Head.<\/p>\n

head<\/em> ] A word combining the idea of exaltation with that of the vital union necessary to an organism. The ascended Lord presides over His Church, but more He is to it the constant Cause and mighty Source of spiritual vitality. “Because He lives, it lives also.” Its organization grows from Him, and refers to Him. Cp. 1Co 11:3<\/span>; Col 1:18<\/span>; Col 2:10<\/span>; Col 2:19<\/span>; and below, Eph 4:15<\/span>, Eph 5:23<\/span>. The idea, it will be seen, appears in this precise form (the Headship of the Body<\/em>) only in Eph. and Col.; unless 1Co 12:21<\/span> is to be added.<\/p>\n

over all<\/em> things] I.e., immeasurably beyond<\/em> anything else that can seem to claim headship; any fancied Power of quasi-philosophic systems.<\/p>\n

the church<\/em> ] This great word appears here in its highest reference, the Company of human beings “called out” (as the word Ecclsia<\/em> implies) from the fallen world into vital union with the glorified Christ. The word occurs nine times in this Epistle (here, Eph 3:10<\/span>; Eph 3:21<\/span> Eph 5:23-25<\/span>; Eph 5:27<\/span>; Eph 5:29<\/span>; Eph 5:32<\/span>) and always in the same high connexion. Cp. for parallels Col 1:18<\/span>; Col 1:24<\/span>; Heb 12:23<\/span>; and, in a measure, Act 20:28<\/span>; 1Co 15:9<\/span>. As it stands here, the word rises above the level of visibility and external organization, and has to do supremely with direct spiritual relations between the Lord and the believing Company. In is, in fact, (see ch. 5), “the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife,” of the Revelation, only not as yet manifested in bridal splendour. It is “the called, justified, and glorified,” of Romans 8<\/span>; “the Church of the Firstborn,” of Hebrews 12<\/span>; “the royal priesthood, the people of possession,” of 1 Peter. All other meanings of the word Church are derived and modified from this, but this must not be modified by them. “The Church of Christ, which we properly term His body mystical, can be but one a body mystical, because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and saving mercy which God sheweth to His Church, the only proper subject thereof is this Church. Concerning this flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised, ‘I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.’ They who are of this Society have such marks and notes of distinction from all others as are not objects unto our sense; only unto God who seeth their hearts they are clear and manifest” (Hooker, Eccles. Polity<\/em>, III. 1.) See further Appendix B.<\/p>\n

which is his body<\/em> ] A metaphor which suggests not only vital union with the Head, but that the will of the Head is exercised through the members. They are His instruments<\/em>. A kindred but not identical use of the metaphor appears Rom 12:5<\/span>; “members one of another;<\/em> ” and 1Co 10:17<\/span>. For closer parallels cp. Col 1:24<\/span>; Col 2:19<\/span>; and below, Eph 2:16<\/span>, Eph 4:4<\/span>; Eph 4:12<\/span>; Eph 4:16<\/span>, Eph 5:23<\/span>; Eph 5:30<\/span>.<\/p>\n

the fulness of him<\/em>, &c.] This mysterious phrase has been much discussed. On the whole the inferences have taken one or other of two main lines. The word “fulness” ( plerma<\/em>), has been (1) explained to mean the receptacle of fulness<\/em>, or filled receptacle;<\/em> the vehicle, so to speak, in which the resources of the grace of Christ manifest their greatness, and which is filled by them. Among other pleas for this view is the fact that in some schools of the Gnosticism which so soon followed the apostolic age the Plerma<\/em> was the recognized term for the home<\/em>, or sphere<\/em>, of the great Emanations ( ons<\/em>) of the Absolute Being ( Bythus<\/em>), and in one theory, of the Absolute Being Itself also. The word has been (2) held to mean, in all doctrinal passages of the N. T., substantially, the ideal fulness, or totality, of Divine attributes or graces; as certainly in Col 2:9<\/span>. Bp Lightfoot ( Colossians<\/em>, pp. 323 339) discusses the word in an exhaustive essay. He shews that Plerma<\/em> cannot naturally mean (as it has been taken to mean in some passages) the thing which fills a void<\/em>. It is the filled condition of a thing<\/em>, whether the thing be a rent to be mended, an idea to be realized, or a prophetic plan to be “fulfilled.” He shews further that the word had acquired a technical theological meaning in St Paul’s time, probably in the Palestinian schools of Jewish thought; a meaning connected especially with the eternally realized Ideal of Godhead; the Divine Fulness. This Fulness resides (by the Father’s will, yet necessarily,) in the Eternal Son (Col 1:19<\/span>); and the Son, Incarnate, Sacrificed, and Risen, is so conjoined in spiritual Union to His regenerate Church that what is true of Him is true, within sacred limits, of her. As He without measure is the Fulfilment, or Ideal, of Divine Attributes, so she in measure is the Fulfilment, or Ideal, of Divine Graces; which are, we may venture to say, the Attributes in their reception and manifestation by the regenerate Church. She is the Body through which is realized the Will of the Head, the Fulfilment in which is realized the Grace of the Head. It will be observed that the two interpretations of the word indicated in this note have an underlying connexion. See this curiously illustrated by Bp. Lightfoot ( Colossians<\/em>, pp. 331, &c.), from the history of Gnostic theories.<\/p>\n

that filleth all in all<\/em> ] The reference is to the Son, Who is in view through the immediate context. His vital connexion with His true Church is such that it not only is the Receptacle of His Divine grace, but is actually pervaded everywhere by His spiritual omnipresence. The form (middle) of the verb suggests intensity and richness of action; a power which is indeed living and life-giving.<\/p>\n

“ All in all:<\/em> ” in other words, He is the Cause of all the holiness that is in all His members; whatever in them is filled with grace, He fills it. It seems needless to seek a remoter meaning, as, “filleth all things ( the universe<\/em>) with all things” (Alford).<\/p>\n

The true Church, in its glorious Ideal, which is meanwhile its proper Reality, only not yet fully manifested, is thus presented in spiritual and eternal union with its exalted Head. The Apostle is now about to descend to the special instance of the bringing into it of its Ephesian members. Cp. Col 1:21<\/span>, &c.<\/p>\n

B. ST AUGUSTINE ON THE CHURCH. (Ch. Eph 1:22<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

He is describing with general approval Tichonius’ Book of the Seven Rules<\/em> [42] (for the elucidation of Scripture mysteries), and writes thus ( De Doctrin Christian<\/em>, iii. 32): “The second Rule is that concerning the Lord’s twofold Body<\/em> ( de Domini corpore bipartito<\/em>). The phrase is unsuitable, for that is not really the Lord’s Body which will not be with Him eternally. He should have said, ‘concerning the Lord’s true and commingled Body,’ or ‘true and feigned Body,’ or the like; for not only eternally, but now, hypocrites are not to be described as being with Him, however they may seem ( quamvis videantur<\/em>) to be in His Church. This rule demands a watchful reader; for [often] the Scripture, turning from one party to speak to, or about, another, seems to be still speaking to, or about, the first, as if the two constituted one Body, by reason of their temporal commingling and their equal share in sacraments.”<\/p>\n

[42] This book is extant. See Migne’s Patrologia Latina<\/em>, Vol. xviii.<\/p>\n

In allusion to this passage Bp Ridley writes ( Works<\/em>, Parker Society Ed., pp. 126 127): “That Church, which is His Body, and of which Christ is the Head, standeth only of living stones and true Christians, not only outwardly in name and title, but inwardly in heart and in truth. But forasmuch as this Church as touching the outward fellowship, is contained within that great house [2Ti 2:20<\/span> ] and hath, with the same, outward society of the sacraments and ministry of the word, many things are spoken of that universal Church (which St Augustine calleth the mingled Church) which cannot truly be understood but only of that purer part of the Church. So that the rule of Tyconius concerning the mingled Church may here well take place, &c.”<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

And hath put all things under his feet – <\/B>See the notes at 1Co 15:27<\/span>.<\/P>

And gave him to be the head over all things – <\/B>Appointed him to be the supreme ruler.<\/P>

To the church – <\/B>With reference to the church, or for ira benefit and welfare: see the notes or, Joh 17:2<\/span>. The universe is under his control and direction for the welfare of his people.<\/P>

(1) All the elements – the physical works of God – the winds and waves – the seas and rivers – all are under him, and all are to be made tributary to the welfare of the church.<\/P>

(2) Earthly kings and rulers; kingdoms and nations are under his control. Thus far Christ has controlled all the wicked rulers of the earth, and they have not been able to destroy that church which he redeemed with his own blood.<\/P>

(3) Angels in heaven, with all their ranks and orders, are under his control with reference to the church; see the notes at Heb 1:14<\/span>; compare Mat 26:53<\/span>.<\/P>

(4) Fallen angels are under his control, and shall not be able to injure or destroy the church. See the notes at Mat 16:18<\/span>. The church, therefore, is safe. All the great powers of heaven, earth, and hell, are made subject to its Head and King; and no weapon that is formed against it shall prosper.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22<\/span><\/p>\n

And gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The kingly office of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this scripture let these four things be seriously regarded.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The dignity and authority committed to Christ. He hath put all things under His feet; which implies full, ample, and absolute dominion in Him, and subjection in them over whom He reigns. This power is delegated to Him by the Father: for besides the essential, native, ingenite power and dominion over all, which He hath as God, and is common to every person in the Godhead (Psa 22:28<\/span>), there is a mediatory dispensed authority, which is proper to Him as mediator, which He receives as the reward or fruit of His suffering (Php 2:8<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>The subject recipient of this authority, which is Christ, and Christ primarily and only. He is the first receptacle of all authority and power. Whatever authority any creature is clothed with, is but ministerial and derivative, whether it be political or ecclesiastical. Christ is the only Lord (Jud 1:4<\/span>). The fountain of all power.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>The object of this authority, the whole creation; all things are put under His feet. He rules from sea to sea, even to the utmost bounds of Gods creation; Thou hast given Him power over all flesh (Joh 17:2<\/span>). All creatures, rational and irrational, animate and inanimate, angels, devils, men, winds, seas, all obey Him.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>And especially, take notice of the end for which He governs and rules the universal Empire. It is for the Church, i.e., <\/em>for the advantage, comfort, and salvation of that; chosen remnant He died for. He purchased the Church; and that He might have the highest security that His blood should not be lost, God the Father hath put all things into His hand, to order and dispose all as He pleaseth. For the furtherance of that His design and end, as He bought the persons of some, so the services of all the rest; and that they might effectually serve the end they are designed to, Christ will order them all in a blessed subordination and subserviency thereunto. (J. Flavel.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christs sovereignty and its administration<\/strong><\/p>\n

That Jesus Christ hath a providential influence upon all the affairs of this world, is evident, both from Scripture assertions, and rational observations, made upon the actings of things here below. But my business, in this discourse, is not to prove that there is a providence, which none but atheists deny. I shall choose rather to show by what acts Jesus Christ administers this kingdom, and in what manner; and what use may be made thereof. First, He rules and orders the kingdom of providence, as follows.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>He supports the world and all creatures in it by His power.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>He permits and suffers the worst of creatures in His dominions to be and act as they do.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>He powerfully restrains creatures by the bridle of providence, from the commission of those things to which their hearts are propense enough.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Jesus Christ limits the creatures in their acting, assigning them their boundaries and lines of liberty; to which they may, but beyond it cannot go.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>The Lord Jesus providentially protects His people amidst a world of enemies and dangers.<\/p>\n

6. <\/strong>He punishes the evil doers, and repays by providence, into their own lap, the mischief they do, or but intend to do, unto them that fear Him.<\/p>\n

7. <\/strong>And lastly, He rewards by providence the services done to Him and His people. Out of this treasure of providence God repays oftentimes those that serve Him, and that with a hundredfold reward now in this life (Mat 19:29<\/span>). This active, vigilant providence hath its eye upon all the wants, straits, and troubles of the creatures; but especially upon such as religion brings us unto. What huge volumes of experiences might the people of God write upon this subject! Secondly, We shall next inquire how Jesus Christ administers this providential kingdom. And here I must take notice of the means by which, and the manner in which He doth it. The means, or instruments He uses in the governing the providential kingdom (for He is not personally present with us Himself), are either angels or men; the angels are ministering creatures sent forth by Him for the good of them that shall be the heirs of salvation (Heb 1:14<\/span>). Luther tells us they have two offices, to sing above, and watch beneath. These do us many invisible offices of love. They have dear and tender respects and love for the saints. To them, God, as it were, puts forth His children to nurse, and they are tenderly careful of them whilst they live, and bring them home in their arms to their Father when they die. And as angels, so men are the servants of providence; yea, bad men as well as good. Yea, there is not a creature in heaven, earth, or hell, but Jesus Christ can providentially use it, and serve His ends, and promote His designs by it.<\/p>\n

But whatever the instrument be, Christ uses, of this we may be certain, that His providential working is holy, judicious, sovereign, profound, irresistible, harmonious, and to the saints peculiar.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>It is holy. Though He permits, limits, orders, and overrules many unholy persons and actions, yet He still works like Himself, most holily and purely throughout.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Christs providential working is not only most pure and holy, but also most wise and judicious (Eze 1:20<\/span>), The wheels are full of eyes. They are not moved by a blind impetus, but in deep counsel and wisdom. The most wise providence looks beyond us. It eyes the end, and suits all things thereto, and not to our fond desires.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>The providence of Christ is most supreme and sovereign.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Providence is profound and inscrutable. The judgments of Christ are a great deep, and His footsteps are not known (Psa 36:6<\/span>). There are hard texts in the works, as well as in the words of Christ. The wisest heads have been at a loss in interpreting some providences, (Jer 12:1-2<\/span>; Job 21:7<\/span>). The angels had the hands of a man under their wings (Eze 1:8<\/span>), i.e., <\/em>they wrought secretly and mysteriously.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>Providence is irresistible in its design and motions; for all providences are but the fulfillings and accomplishments of Gods immutable decrees (Eph 1:11<\/span>).<\/p>\n

6. <\/strong>The providences of Christ are harmonious.<\/p>\n

7. <\/strong>The providences of Christ work in a special and peculiar way, for the good of the saints.<\/p>\n

Inferences:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>See to whom you are beholden for your lives, liberties, comforts, and all that you enjoy in this world. Is it not Christ that orders all for you? He is, indeed, in heaven, out of your sight; but though you see Him not, He sees you, and takes care of all your concerns. When one told Silentiarius of a plot laid to take away his life, he answered, Si Deus mei curam non habet, quid vivo<\/em>? If God take no care of me, how do I live? how have I escaped hitherto?<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Hath God left the government of the whole world in the hands of Christ, and trusted Him over all? Then do you also leave all your particular concerns in the hands of Christ too, and know that the Infinite Wisdom and Love, which rules the world, manages everything that relates to you. It is in a good hand, and infinitely better than if it were in your own.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>If Christ be Lord and King over the providential kingdom, and that for the good of His people, let none that are Christs henceforth stand in a slavish fear of creatures. It is a good note that Grotius hath upon my text; it is a marvellous consolation (saith he) that Christ hath so great an empire, and that He governs it for the good of His people, as a head consulting the good of the body. Our Head and Husband, is Lord general of all the hosts of heaven and earth; no creature can move hand or tongue without His leave or order; the power they have is given them from above (Joh 19:11-12<\/span>). The serious consideration of this truth will make the feeblest spirit cease trembling, and set it a singing (Psa 47:7<\/span>), The Lord is King of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding: that is, (as some well paraphrase it) every one that hath understanding of this comfortable truth.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>If the government of the world be in the hands of Christ, then our engaging and entitling of Christ to all our affairs and business, is the true and ready way to their success and prosperity.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>Lastly, eye Christ in all the events of providence; see His hand in all that befalls you, whether it be evil or good. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein (Psa 111:2<\/span>). (J. Flavel.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ Head over all things to the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>That the church is the object of preeminence in this world; its prosperity and completeness are the great purposes for which the world exists. The illustrious rank of this institution, the Church, may be judged of when you recollect that–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The Church is the realization of the highest Divine idea or thought respecting this world.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>And then, another element in the Churchs magnificence, arises from the fact that the Church was brought into existence by the most remarkable and interesting means. There was a vast preparation for it, as if to direct the minds of all to this as a nobler work–a creation which stood higher than all the rest. The great design of the Church had existed in the eternal counsels of God, and then when it was to be completed, He sent his only Son into our world, who took upon Him our nature, bled, suffered, agonized, and died, that justice might be satisfied, and sinners return to God. He gave His life for those who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, dear brethren, if you are to judge of the importance of an end by the means employed for its attainment, then what end can be so noble as this? Surely you must at once perceive that the Church takes a place of preeminence, which nothing can approach and nothing can rival. And then another fact which gives it so much interest is that–<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>It supplies a special manifestation of the Divine character and perfections. The unswerving rectitude of His government, the infinite purity of His character, the exhaustless fertility of His resources, the infinite wisdom of His mind, the exalted benevolence, the tender pity, the matchless mercy of Ills heart, are all illustrated. His moral attributes shine forth most conspicuously here. Still further, the Churchs preeminence consists in its being–<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>The source of the highest and purest blessing to the world. The Church is emphatically the light of the world. It is called the salt of the earth. It soars above everything else. It takes the highest position; and looking down in pity and love on all besides, seeks to raise them to a loftier elevation and to invest them with a holier character. It says to them, Come and join us, and in joining us you will be rendered pure and happy for time, and blessed to all eternity. This being the case, you cannot wonder at another feature in the Churchs elevation, and that is, that–<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>It is the object of special Divine love and complacency.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The subordination of all other things to the church. Christ is Head over all things to the Church evidently implying that these things are under the dominion of Christ for the good of the Church. Hence–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>All things have been and still are working in aid of the Church.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>The Church should use all things for its own progress and advantage. All inferior things are given for the use of man, and he is only required to employ them wisely and becomingly. So all things are intended to be subordinate to the service and welfare of the Church, and all that is demanded is, that the Church should use them in a prudent and Christian spirit.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>The guarantee that is furnished for the attainment of this high end, in the universal supremacy of the Redeemer. He is Head over all things to the Church, and hence we need not doubt. For–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>He has the ability and the authority to render all things subservient to the Church. When you remember what He has accomplished, you will feel that He is able also to accomplish this. Surely, you must conclude that the government is upon His shoulders, because He is Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>His love to the Church will secure this result. For His love to the Church was no common affection.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>That the Saviours position, as Head over all things to the Church, and its consequent elevation, are the reward of His mediatorial work. Therefore God hath highly exalted Him, and gave Him a name above every other name. And in the context it is implied that because of His work He is raised far above all principality and power, and might and dominion; all things are put under His feet, and He is appointed Head over all things to the Church. Then, be assured, He will secure His own triumph, and His own reward. The Churchs completeness will be His richest recompense. It was for this joy that was set before Him, that He endured the cross and despised the shame; and when He shall behold this, He will see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. As Christ, therefore, is Head over all things to His Church, all things shall work together for the Churchs good. (J. C. Harrison.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christs sovereignty<\/strong><\/p>\n

The <\/em>brow once crowned with thorns now wears the diadem of universal sovereignty; and that arm, once nailed to the cross, now holds in it the sceptre of unlimited dominion. He who lay in the tomb has ascended the throne of unbounded empire. Jesus, the Brother-Man, is Lord of all: He has had all things put under His feet. This is the true apotheosis of humanity. (John Eadie, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christs Headship<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under His over all Headship, everything that happens benefits His people–discoveries in science, inventions in art, and revolutions in government–all that is prosperous and all that is adverse. The history of the Church is a proof extending through eighteen centuries; a proof so often tested, and by such opposite processes, as to gather irresistible strength with its age, a proof varied, ramified, prolonged, and unique, that the exalted Jesus is Head over all things to the Church. (John Eadie, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The power of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sosomenes relates that when the Holy Family, in their flight into Egypt, reached the termination of their journey, and approached the city of Heliopolis, a tree which grew before the gates of the city, and was guarded with great veneration by the heathen citizens, as the seat of a god, bowed down its branches at the approach of the infant Christ. Likewise it is related (not in legends merely, but by grave religious authorities), that all the idols of the Egyptians fell with their faces to the earth. I have seen pictures of the flight into Egypt, in which broken idols lay by the wayside. (Mrs. Jameson.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Triumphs of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

A little prior to the death of Julian the apostate, Sibanius Julianus, it is said, a teacher of paganism, tauntingly asked a Christian instructor, What is the carpenters son doing? He is preparing a coffin for Julian, replied the Christian. (Baxendale<\/em>)<\/p>\n

.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus above all<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have seen in mountain lands one majestic peak soaring above all the rest of the hills which cut the azure of the horizon with their noble outline burning with hues of richest gold in the light of the morning sun; and so should the doctrine of Christ incarnate, crucified, risen, and reigning, be preeminent above the whole chain of fact, doctrine, and sentiment which make up the sublime landscape–the magnificent panorama–which the Christian preacher (or teacher) unfolds, and makes to pass in clear form and brilliant colour before the eye of his peoples faith.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Evangelical Magazine.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ essential to Christians<\/strong><\/p>\n

So <\/em>intimately connected are the head and the body, that one cannot exist without the other. In her freaks, no doubt, Nature does produce strange monsters, which, though deficient, some of this and some of that part, contrive to live; and it is marvellous to see what formidable lesions the body can suffer, of what valuable members it may be maimed, and yet survive. But the loss of the head is the loss of life. Death descends on the knife of the guillotine. A bullet whistles through the parting air, the lightning flashes, the sword of the headsman gleams in the sun, and–there is a corpse! before the eye has winked, the man is dead, stone dead. (T. Guthrie, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ is the Head of the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n

If, says Augustine, a man should come up to embrace thee, to kiss and honour thee upward, and beneath with a pair of shoes beaten full of nails, tread upon thy bare foot; the head shall despise the honour done unto it, and for the foot that smarteth, say, Why treadest thou upon me? So when feigned gospellers honour Christ our Head, sitting in heaven, and oppress His members on earth, the Head shall speak for the feet that smart, and say, Why treadest thou on Me? Paul had a zeal toward God, but he did tread upon Christs feet on earth, for whom the Head crieth forth of heaven, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Although Christ sitteth on the right hand of His Father, yet lieth He on earth; He suffereth all calamities here on earth, He is many times evil entreated here on earth. (Bernard Gilpin.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ the Head of the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. <\/em><\/strong>The term Head frequently conveys the idea of supreme dignity and preeminence. In this sense it is properly applicable to Christ.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>The Head is also frequently designed to express a state of supreme power and authority. In this sense of the term, Christ is the Head of the Church in opposition to all who sacrilegiously usurp the title.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>The title Head is sometimes more literally used, as expressing the relation which that part of the body sustains to the members with which it is vitally connected. Strong and expressive as this figure may appear, Christ is, in this sense, as to all the purposes of spiritual life, the Head of His body, the Church. This idea deserves our particular attention.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>It denotes the strict and intimate union that subsists between Christ and His people.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>It conveys an idea of the comprehensive and infinite fulness of Christ.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>It implies that the Lord Jesus Christ communicates or imparts from His fulness to every individual member of His mystical body.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>This relative character of Christ supposes the absolute need which He and His people have of each other, in order to the completeness of the body. (W. Roby.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Headship of Christ over believers<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. <\/em><\/strong>The closeness of Christs union with His members.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> He has taken our nature.<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> By His sufferings He has procured for us all things spiritual and temporal.<\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> He unites us to Himself more closely than the angels.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>He communicates to us the whole life of grace and glory which we have.<\/p>\n

(5)<\/strong> He directs and moves us<\/p>\n

(a) <\/strong>outwardly, by signifying His will;<\/p>\n

(b) <\/strong>inwardly, by sending His Spirit.<\/p>\n

(6)<\/strong> He strengthens us with aids outward and inward.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Christ, whom God hath given to be Head over believers, is also Head over all creatures.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> The necessity of this Could He not bind Satan and cause him to deliver up his prey, how should we be ever set at liberty? Could He not dissolve the works of Satan, and swallow up death, and create life in us, our case were lamentable.<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> A spur to thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> A ground of confidence. What need we fear any creature, when we have Him who is over every creature? If He be ours, who can hurt us? (Paul Bayne.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Head of the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>He hath placed all things under His feet. I believe it will be necessary to remark both the nature and the extensiveness of this dominion; for you will observe it is the effect of Divine appointment. He, that is, God the Father, hath put all things under His feet, therefore it is very different from that dominion which essentially belongs to His Divine nature. This He alway possessed; this, therefore, He could not obtain. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth; All things are delivered unto Me, etc. The question is, How He obtained it? that is, whether He obtained it by an actor bounty, or by an act of grace, or by an act of recompense? The angels obtained their preeminence by pure bounty; the saints obtained their preeminence by pure grace; but the Saviour obtained His as a recompense. And as it was thus obtained, so you will observe with regard to its extent that it is universal, it is boundless. He hath put all <\/em>things under His feet.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>He hath put all beings <\/em>under His feet. Angels, devils, men. Not a being in the universe but is either His servant or His slave.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>And God hath put all things <\/em>under His feet. The ordinances of nature; the heavenly bodies; the elements, etc. What a dignity does this attach to our Lord and Saviour! What an enemy must this render Him to those who are His adversaries!<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>God hath made Him to be the head over all things to His Church. His mediatorial power and dominion are peculiar, and principally for the sake of His own people. Let us explain. When God delivered Joseph from prison, He raised him also to a state of distinction; he was made governor, not of a mere village, or town, or province, but over all the land of Egypt, then the most renowned monarchy in the world; and without him, as the expression is, no man was to lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. But what was the end of this dispensation: Was it the mere aggrandisement of this youth? No; but the preservation, the welfare of one particular family, his own family; a family of little note in the world, living in obscurity, and now on the verge of famine, and yet a family of singular importance; a family attached to the worship of God, who were the depositories of His laws, heirs of the righteousness of faith, to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. To Joseph they all repaired for support: he had all the stores at his disposal, and all the command of them. By him they were preserved and nourished; and that his exaltation was peculiarly and principally for their sakes, appears undeniable, in that as soon as he was removed by death they were in bondage, and enslaved and in the lowest state of degradation, for there arose another king which knew not Joseph. Thus was Joseph a striking representation of the Messiah who was to come, and who came to give His life a ransom for us; who came not only that His people might have life, but that they might have it more abundantly. What would have become of them but for His exaltation on their behalf? But, says He, Because I live, ye shall live also.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>That this Church is His body. We shall observe four things; and–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The body has its progress as it passes from one state and condition to another; so it is with the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church, the apostle says, grows in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>There is another article of resemblance. Though the body is of one substance, yet it has various parts, and all these have a mutual relation, not only to the head, but to each other. So in the Church there is the intellectual eye, the active hand, the speaking tongue, etc.; all equally useful and necessary in their respective places.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>The body is united to the head. It is of the same flesh and blood and constitution as the head. So we are assured that Christians are joined to the Lord, and are of one spirit with Him.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>The members depend upon the head, so does the Church rely entirely upon Christ. Take away the head, and what becomes of the members? The head is the watching part, the guiding part, the governing part, and all the members yield to it and obey it. There are the eyes placed to see; there are the ears placed to hear; the tongue to speak, and the palate to taste; there all the senses have their residence. All the parts of the body are influenced and governed by the head: down from the head to the feet, animal life descends and flows through the whole frame of man by means of nerves and ligatures. Thus Jesus is the life of the Church, and holds communion therewith.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>This body is His fulness. How is this? There are only two conceivable ways: either because the Church fills Him, or because He fills the Church. It is true in both senses. We are the recipients of this fulness; therefore so far it may be called our fulness. But then He is the author and the source of it; therefore it must be called His fulness. What are we in ourselves spiritually considered?<\/p>\n


V. <\/strong>This fulness is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, which is designed to show us His greatness and the infinite degree of His fulness: that it is not the fulness of a stream, if it be as wide as the Nile or the Ganges, but the fulness of a fountain, which supplies the streams; not the fulness of a lighted candle, which fills only one room with light, but the fulness of the sun, which enlightens the world, so that nothing is hid from the heat thereof. He filleth all in all. He fills the universe with worlds. How many can the eye see: how many more does the telescope enable us to behold? He filleth all in all. He fills heaven with His glory, the earth with His goodness, and hell with His wrath. He fills all the Scriptures of truth: all its types, all its prophecies, and all its promises He fills all ordinances; without Him they are as clouds without water, or as wells that are dried up. He fills all creatures. The eyes of all wait upon Him, and He giveth them their meat in due season; He openeth His hand and satisfieth the desires of every living thing. He fills all His subjects; philosophers with wisdom, mechanics with skill; and there is no creature in heaven or in earth that is not under His control. The fulness of Him that filleth all in all. He has filled His people in all ages of the world. He filled the patriarchs with faith; the prophets with capacity to foretell future events; the apostles with the Holy Ghost. He fills all common believers; He fills their understanding with knowledge; their consciences with peace; their wills with holy desires; their affections with love to holiness; their lives with all the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. (W. Jay.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ the Lord of all<\/strong><\/p>\n

If a stream be a symbol of the multitude of the believers, Jesus is the fountain. If a tree be an image of the whole Church, Jesus is the root and the trunk. If a kingdom represent the disciples of this dispensation, Jesus is the prince. Or does the conjugal union in the person of the wife illustrate the relation of the Church to our Saviour? Then, as the husband is the head of the wife, so is Jesus the Head of the Church. Or, if the human body, in its parts, and as a whole, represent the Church and the Saviour, then Jesus is the Head of the body. We will briefly attempt to define the sovereignty of Jesus Christ as here declared, and then inquire into some of the circumstances which this headship involves–circumstances, the consideration of which may tend to produce confidence and repose of soul.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church. We must supply the antecedent, The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. The Father hath put all, and gave Him. Gave, here means, as you know, appointed, or constituted. The pronoun Him distinctly refers to Christ, Christ being the antecedent in the twentieth verse. And there can be no doubt as to the meaning of the word Head: it expresses the highest authority, and the supreme power. This explanation is confirmed by the words, and hath put all under His feet. Ancient conquerors sometimes trampled the vanquished Under the feet of their horses, and crushed them with their chariot wheels. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, now reigns supreme. His mind devises, His will determines, His lips decree, and His power executes. Jesus does not now serve; He ordains and exacts service. He does not now obey; He commands. He does not now submit; He rules. And Jesus asserts and maintains His sovereignty in every sphere with special relation to His Church. And it may help further to develop this topic if we remark, still briefly, that Christs Headship in His humiliation is distinct from His Headship in His exaltation. In His humiliation He was the Head in the sense of substitution and representation. That Headship was, however, mere representation; the Headship of which our text speaks is dominion. The former was temporary; this is forever. That was for man only; this is over all. That was in humiliation and sorrow; this is in a state of exaltation and joy. That was the foundation; this the beautiful and sublime superstructure. We must also remark that Christs Headship to His Church is distinct from His Headship over all. The two are one in design, but they are distinct in character and manifestation. As the Head of the Church, Jesus dwells in the highest and best affections of those who compose the Church. He rules them by conviction, and by persuasion, and in love.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>What does the headship of Jesus Christ involve? Universal government, then, is really in the hands of that Being whom you trust with yourself, and whom you trust as your Saviour. His authority is not nominal, but actual; and His power is not in word and in boast, but in deed and in truth. No hireling power supplants Him; no flattering sycophant blinds Him; no lawless opposition awes Him. And, brethren, the redemption of a countless multitude, glory for the redeemed, and honour to God, will be the result of Christs dominion. Not a slave among them; not a captive; not a prisoner; none widowed; none orphaned; none poor; not a sinner a sinner still; not sufferer a sufferer still; not a sinner nor a sufferer–no, not one! It was not always so. Time was when poverty, sickness, oppression, death, and evil of every kind, ran riot among the subjects of this very King; but the Head, Christ Jesus, shall then, from all these evils, have saved them; and having saved, glorified them. And God shall be glorified in them. As the maiden in the mirror sees what manner of person she is; and as the fisher in the clear lake beholds his full length image; so God in this glorified multitude shall see Himself–His power–His righteousness–His wisdom–His love–Himself. And in this glorified multitude, the angels, as in a crystal sea, shall behold their God. But, brethren, look at the process. The process is as remarkable as the consummation is glorious. The establishing of righteousness and blessedness among fallen men is an object of eternal purpose. The goings forth of the Head, Christ Jesus, are of old, from everlasting. The promise of this Headship relieved the expulsion from Eden of its dark and dense gloom. Abraham rejoiced to See the day of this King Jesus. As the Angel of the covenant He was with the Church in the wilderness, and with the Church upon Zion. From Adams fall until the incarnation of Jesus, the world was in a course of preparation for the founding of His empire. The world was allowed to grow weary under human dominion; and at the climax of its groaning this empire was born. The King Himself is a martyr King; and He passed through death to reach His throne. (S. Martin.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The second Incarnation<\/strong><\/p>\n

A <\/em>glowing prophecy of a second and yet more glorious Incarnation of Christ. There was a first coming, and there is to be a second coming, of the Saviour. He is supreme in heaven. He is also to be supreme on earth. Christ is to fill all with Himself–all governments; all laws; all policies under the government; all commercial and industrial organizations; all societies; all circles; all households; all individuals. All are to be filled with the mind, and will, and spirit of the Head; and Christ is to be the brain of the whole world. In other words, all physical economies and civil organizations, just as much as spiritual economies and religious organizations, are to be absolutely filled and dominated by Him. This is what I call the second Incarnation. It is the injection, as the first Incarnation was the lapse, as it were, into the human body, of the mind and will of Christ–the Divine Christ, subjecting Him to the law of matter, to its limitations and its infirmities, as we are controlled by the physical laws which surround us. So there is to be a more glorious Incarnation, by which the sum total of the globe itself, and all its members, are to be gloriously filled full of the mind, and feeling, and will, and disposition of Christ. As one little body bore about His spirit, so this greater body, the comprehensive race and the globe, is to bear about in it the mind and will of God; and everything is to move harmonious from pole to pole, and round and round the world. The whole world is to be as perfectly harmonious as the whole body is harmonious under the control of an intelligent, healthy, right minded man. This is poetry indeed, but it is the poetry of prophecy: It is the ideal of progress. It is that bright conception toward which, whether men know it or not, they are certainly drifting or steering. Will not that be the millennium? You may think it is fantasy. It is poetry now, but it will be fact yet. For there is to be a second great Incarnation; and as the Spirit Divine filled the body of Christ, and filled it full, so that great body which is the Church, which is the whole human race, is yet to be filled full of Him who filleth all things with all things. All the processes of society are to exhibit more of Christ; so that at last the day shall come when in all the earth, like a man without a pain from head to foot, mankind shall be without a sadness, or a sigh, or a sorrow; when the whole globe, in all its parts, shall be filled full of Him who filleth all things, who is the head and animating brain of the time and the world; and the globe, no longer singing a requiem, no longer singing of things gloomy and sad, clothed with light and inspired with joy, shall go chanting in its rounds, and the heaven and the earth shall sing together; and so the consolation shall come.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>If this be so, then, first, dismiss the unworthy conceptions of Christs saving which have sprung from a judgment formed upon the inchoate and undeveloped state of things that has existed hitherto. Many men seem to think that the gospel is sent into this world as a life boat, to pick off from the foundering wreck as many of the great population as they possibly can, and let the rest go down. But Christianity is not a mere wreckers boat. In saving men, we ought to do it with the feeling that we are aiming toward the final consummation–the salvation of mankind. I believe the world will come to its final state as my tulips will come to blossom next spring. They are in the winter now, but they are in the bulb, and will come forth. And the world is coming to blossom yet. Not in my day, and not in your day, but ere long in ages to come. As it takes a great many years to bring an orchard into full fruitfulness, but as at last the trees come to maturity and begin to bear fruit, so by and by men will begin to be fruitful unto God, and the whole globe will be a great tree of the Lord, filled with Divine fruit on every side and on every branch.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>This whole globe is my Lords; and when I speak about anything that concerns His kingdom, whether it be science, or art, or learning, or politics, or anything else, I am talking about my Fathers business. The earth is the Lords, and the fulness thereof.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>If these views be correct, then all those tendencies which now alarm and discourage Christian men, as, for instance, the insurrection of science against faith, have no real cause of fear in them. Now, as I have already said, the globe itself, that is, the realm of natural material laws, is to receive a second Incarnation of Christ. Science is now making the swaddling clothes of Christianity. If it takes from the world many ecclesiastical notions which men would not otherwise give up, very good. The world will be the wiser for it. If there be many superstitions which are supposed to be religion, but which are not religion, and they are taken away, very good. The world will be the better for it.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>If these views be correct, we shall not see the true glory of redemption here. We cannot imagine it. We shall not be in a condition to see it until we have passed from this mortal state. We are told that a man in the midst of a battle is the least able to describe the battle. The smoke and the noise, and the intensity of the conflict, prevent him from having a large view of the movements of the whole field. We are secluded. Each age is, as it were, but a note in the whole period of time. It cannot be that we rise so high, or stand at a period so late, that we see the whole disclosure. Then only shall we understand the nature of Christ, then only the comprehensive plan of His mercy, then only this second and greater Incarnation, by which He interjects the whole globe and its processes with His Spirit, when we reach the other world. Then and there only shall we be furnished with that vision by which we may see His grace, so that worthily we may worship Him, rejoicing that He is lifted above all kings, all princes, all principalities of every name. (H. W. Beecher.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ and His Church<\/strong><\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>In what respects Christ is the Head of the Church.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>For guidance.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>For strengthening and establishing all the dependencies.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>For reconciling the whole body to God.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>For the spiritual government of the body.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The character of the Church.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>In what sense the Church is the fulness of Christ.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The Church has the fulness of Christs love.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>The Church possesses the fulness of Christs redemption. (J. F. Crossman, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ the Head of the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now <\/em>in the Word of God the Church is compared to a variety of objects–to a vine, to a building, to a temple, and in our text to a human person, made up of two parts, the head and the body, the head representing Jesus, the body representing the collective members of the Church of Christ And gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body. Our subject presents us with several important ideas or principles.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>The idea of importance. The head is everything to the body–it sees for the body, it hears for the body, it smells for the body, it tastes for the body, it masticates food for the body, it thinks for the body, it schemes, it purposes, in one word, it does everything for the body. So Jesus Christ is everything to the Church.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The idea of indispensableness. Lop off this limb and then that–amputate one of your members and then another, the limbless trunk of your body will still be alive; but let that body be beheaded, and it dies in a moment. So it is with the Church of Christ.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>The idea of identity. The same fluid which courses through the body flows through the head, and the same food which is the nourishment of the body is the sustenance of the head. The component parts of the one are the component parts of the other. And just so it is between Christ and all believers. There is a sameness of nature. Christ and all Christians are alike in their desires, in their aims, in their pleasures, in their friendships, in their enmities, in their principles, in their motives, in their standard, in the one grand object ever before them–the glory of God.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>The idea of sympathy. If your foot be crushed the head will feel it; if any other member of the body, however distant from the head, be in pain, the head will feel it–and such is the sympathy between Christ and all His suffering people. Am I speaking to any who are heavy hearted and cast down? What is the cause of your sorrow? Is it the shading of your prospects? Is it the presence of disease in some beloved member of your family? Is it that you are going down the hill of adversity, and because your pride is being humbled at every step? Is it because you have just received some deep wounds from a quarter whence you least expected them? Or, is your grief some secret silent sorrow which your tongue refuses to divulge? It matters not what may be the sorrows, there is sympathy in the living head for the sorrows of all the suffering members of the mystical body. And oh, fellow Christians, what a sympathy is the sympathy of Christ! It is a sympathy which knows all our griefs, and all the particulars and details of all our sorrows. It is a sympathy which supports us under all our griefs, nay, it is a sympathy which makes use of those sorrows as a means of fetching us back from our wanderings; nay, more, which will make all our sorrows to work out for us a far more exceeding and as eternal weight of glory.<\/p>\n


V. <\/strong>The idea of glory. The glory of the head is always reflected upon the members of the body. Now just consider what the glory of Christ is (Joh 1:1<\/span>). Oh, what an honour to belong to the body of such a Head! Then consider the works of Christ–All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. What an honour to be a member of the body of such a Creator! Then consider the possessions of Christ. With mortal lips and with human tongue He said it–All things that the Father hath are Mine. Oh, the honour of being a member of the body of such a possessor! Then look at His immensity; our text speaks of it as the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. Oh, the honour of being a member of that body! That man can well afford to part with dust and ashes who is in possession of gems, and precious stones, and priceless rubies; nay, who can call kingdoms; nay, who can call the world; nay, who can call Jesus his own! That man can afford to trample under his feet all the pleasures of his fellow creatures, who can say, My beloved is mine, and I am His.<\/p>\n


VI. <\/strong>The idea of the resurrection of the body. For where lies the head, there will lie the body; and where reigns the head, there will reign the body too. As our Head, even Jesus, once lay in the sepulchre, so shall we His followers lie there too; and as Jesus our Head is now reigning in glory, so shall we reign in glory too. (Alfred Pope.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Headship of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>The text affirms the supreme political power and authority of Immanuel. Just as in Israel there was established a Theocracy, the Almighty claiming to be recognized as the Head of their civil and ecclesiastical polity, and just as all judges and rulers were expected to recognize their power as delegated to them from above; and just as the Divine right and title were not subverted nor destroyed when rulers and people sank into sin and idolatry; so now on earth there is established a larger civil and ecclesiastical government, of which Jesus is the Head, and of which the Theocracy was the symbol; and all rulers and all subjects are required to acknowledge their lawful Lord who sits upon the holy hill of Zion, the stability of whose government and the legitimacy of whose claims upon all are no more affected by the godlessness of the nations and the impiety of their rulers than were the claims of the Shepherd of Israel set aside by the wanderings of His flock, or the usurpations of her hirelings.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The power of Christ as King of Nations is subordinated to His purposes as King of saints. He is Head over all things to the Church, or for the Church–for her peace, her prosperity and perpetuity; so that He is now described as putting His honour on His people, even as the head puts honour on the body. Jesus is the Head of His new creation. But more particularly we remark–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>He is Head over all things, that He may bring together the materials, and build them up into a Church unto Himself. He is the head cornerstone, living, tried and precious, upon which there must be reared a blemishless, indestructible fabric, composed of living stones selected from the quarry of humanity, polished and prepared by the Spirit of all grace, and cemented together by the binding of undying love.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Christ is Head over all things for the beautifying of His Church; that is, He exerciseth His power over all things so as to promote and advance the beauty of His Church. The beauty of a Church is her purity in doctrine and her holiness in practice, her strict unbending conformity to the law and the order of her exalted Head; and the administration of her wise and her gracious Ruler is all ordered and arranged, so that at length she may be presented in the heavens a glorious Church, without spot and blemish or any such thing. In order to this she is tried with the storm and strengthened with the sunshine; the fire and the flood are brought to bear upon her goodly fabric, so as to purge out all that is polluted and profane, and hasten on the perfection of her coming state.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Jesus is Head over all things in order that He may perfect His body the Church. Of all those who are given unto Him, of them He can lose none. Time, with its thousand vicissitudes, must roll along whilst there remaineth one, whose name is written above, alive or unacquainted with the grace that is in Christ. Its plans and its purposes shall have existence until the completion of Christs body the Church; its discoveries in science and improvements in arts; its advances in civilization; its augmentations in commercial zeal; its treaties and its friendships; are all the secondary causes in His hand for finishing His plans, and for making one with Himself all His covenant children. (J. Macnaughton, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Headship of the God-Man<\/strong><\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>Let us meditate, first, upon the important statement, that God hath put all things under Christs feet, and made Him Head over all things.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>But the text tells us–and this is the second point–that it was for the sake of the Church that God put all things under Christs feet–that He was made Head over all things. Although exalted at Gods right hand, angels and principalities and powers being made subject to Him, He has not abandoned the designs which He entertained, or lost the feelings which He cherished, towards men, while He tabernacled with them upon earth. His exaltation has produced no change of feeling towards His former associates, as it too often occurs among the weak and depraved children of men. He has carried up with Him to the right hand of His Father and the throne of the Universe the same feelings of love and compassion towards His people His whole conduct upon earth so strongly expressed. Even now He entertains those very feelings which once prompted Him to leave the glory He had with His Father before the world began–to lead upon earth a life of poverty and ignominy and shame–and at last to endure the cruel and ignominious death of the cross. We may be assured, then, that He will not leave unfinished a work which He has already done, and suffered so much to effect, but that He will bring to bear upon its accomplishment all the power and authority with which He has been invested. Conclusion: Thus extensive and thus absolute is the power with which Christ has been invested, and which He is continually exercising, and this power is at all times directed to bear on the interests of the Church–to promote the conversion, the sanctification, and the everlasting redemption of all those whom the Father gave Him. In the scheme of Divine Providence, the establishment of general laws, and the arrangement of the most important transactions, does not prevent an equally careful attention to, and an equally certain provision for, the most minute. Christ does indeed direct and overrule for the good of His Church the councils of monarchs, and the conflicts of armies, and the fortunes of nations, but amid all these great events He does not neglect the least circumstance in the life and history of any of His chosen people–of any individual member of His body. While He is opening up channels for the extension of His Church and the spread of His gospel, by overthrowing dynasties, or by destroying systems of wide and commanding influence–He is at the same time providing the food with which the most obscure of His people is fed, and the raiment with which he is clothed. Christs kingdom not being of this world, the good of individuals, or the good of the whole, or of the many, can never come into collision, as is sometimes the case in matters which have a reference to this worlds business and this worlds interests. Everything connected with the sanctification and final happiness of each individual believer is as carefully attended to, and as effectually provided for, as if Christ had been made Head over all things for his sake alone. (W. Cunningham, D.D.)<\/p>\n

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Verse 22. And hath put all<\/B><\/I> things <\/B>under his feet<\/B><\/I>] All beings and things are subject to him, whether they be thrones, dominions,<\/I> principalities<\/I>, or powers<\/I>, 1Co 1:16-18<\/span>; 2Co 2:10<\/span>; for he, God the Father, has given him to be head<\/I>-chief, and supreme, over all, to<\/I> the Church<\/I>, the Church having no ruler but Jesus Christ; others may be officers<\/I> in his Church, but he alone is head<\/I> and supreme<\/I>.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

All things; <\/B>either all his enemies, as Psa 110:1<\/span>, all except the church, which is said to be his body; or all things more generally, of which he spake before, angels and men; all are made subject to Christ, 1Pe 3:22<\/span>. <\/P>

Hath put all things under his feet; <\/B>put them into a perfect and full subjection to him. <\/P>

Objection.<\/B> All things are not yet put under him. <\/P>

Answer.<\/B> <\/P>

1. All things are so put under him that he can do with them what he please, break all his enemies in pieces when he will, though for many reasons he yet doth it not. <\/P>

2. They are begun to be subjected to him, and by degrees shall be further subjected, till they be perfectly and absolutely subjected unto him, de facto, <\/I>as already they are de jure.<\/I> <\/P>

And gave him; <\/B>appointed, or constituted, or made him. <\/P>

To be head; <\/B>a mystical head; such a one not only as a king is to his subjects, to rule them externally by his laws, but such as a natural head is to the body, which it governs by way of influence, conveying spirits to it, and so causing and maintaining sense and motion in it, Eph 4:16<\/span>; Col 2:19<\/span>. <\/P>

Over all things; <\/B>either: <\/P>

1. God hath chiefly, and above all before mentioned, given Christ to be the Head of the church; q.d. Though he be King and Lord of all, yet God hath made him the only proper Head to the church only; God hath set him above principalities and powers, but especially hath appointed him to be the Head of the church. Or: <\/P>

2. Over all things<\/B> may be meant, for the communication of all good things to the church, and performing all offices of a Head to her; a Head to the church, with a power over all things for her good. <\/P>

To the church; <\/B>the catholic church, or whole collection of believers throughout the world, and in all ages of it. <\/P>

things under his feet; <\/B>put them into a perfect and full subjection to him. <\/P>

Objection.<\/B> All things are not yet put under him. <\/P>

Answer.<\/B> <\/P>

1. All things are so put under him that he can do with them what he please, break all his enemies in pieces when he will, though for many reasons he yet doth it not. <\/P>

2. They are begun to be subjected to him, and by degrees shall be further subjected, till they be perfectly and absolutely subjected unto him, de facto, <\/I>as already they are de jure.<\/I> <\/P>

And gave him; <\/B>appointed, or constituted, or made him. <\/P>

To be head; <\/B>a mystical head; such a one not only as a king is to his subjects, to rule them externally by his laws, but such as a natural head is to the body, which it governs by way of influence, conveying spirits to it, and so causing and maintaining sense and motion in it, Eph 4:16<\/span>; Col 2:19<\/span>. <\/P>

Over all things; <\/B>either: <\/P>

1. God hath chiefly, and above all before mentioned, given Christ to be the Head of the church; q.d. Though he be King and Lord of all, yet God hath made him the only proper Head to the church only; God hath set him above principalities and powers, but especially hath appointed him to be the Head of the church. Or: <\/P>

2. Over all things<\/B> may be meant, for the communication of all good things to the church, and performing all offices of a Head to her; a Head to the church, with a power over all things for her good. <\/P>

To the church; <\/B>the catholic church, or whole collection of believers throughout the world, and in all ages of it. <\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

22. put . . . under<\/B>Greek,<\/I>“put in subjection under” (Psa 8:6<\/span>;1Co 15:27<\/span>). <\/P>

gave . . . to the church<\/B>forher special advantage. The Greek<\/I> order is emphatic: “HIMHe gave as Head over all things to the Church.” Had it beenanyone save HIM, her Head,it would not have been the boon it is to the Church. But as He<\/I>is Head over all things who is also her Head (and she the body), allthings are hers (1Co3:21-23<\/span>). He is OVER(“far above”) all things; in contrast to the words, “TOthe Church,<\/I>” namely, for her advantage.<\/I> The formerare subject; the latter is joined with Him in His dominion over them.”Head” implies not only His dominion, but our union;therefore, while we look upon Him at the right hand of God, we seeourselves in heaven (Re 3:21<\/span>).For the Head and body are not severed by anything intervening, elsethe body would cease to be the body, and the Head cease to be theHead [PEARSON fromCHRYSOSTOM].<\/P><\/p>\n

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

And hath put all things under his feet<\/strong>,…. These words are taken out of Ps 8:6<\/span>.<\/p>\n

[See comments on 1Co 15:27]<\/span>.<\/p>\n

And gave him to be the head over all things to the church<\/strong>; the Vulgate Latin version reads, “and gave him to be the head over every church”, or “all the church”; the Ethiopic version, “the whole church”; which intends not barely professors of religion, or a family of faithful persons, or a particular congregation, in which sense the word is sometimes used; but the whole body of God’s elect, the church, which is built on Christ the rock, for which he gave himself, and which is the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven: Christ is an head to this church; in what sense he is so, [See comments on 1Co 11:3]<\/span>. And this headship of Christ is the gift of God; and it is an honourable gift to him, as Mediator; it is a glorifying of him, and a giving him in all things the pre-eminence; and it is a free grace gift to the church, and a very special, valuable, and excellent one, and of infinite benefit and advantage to it; and which is expressed in his being head “over all things” to it; to overrule all things for its good; to communicate all good things to it; and to perform all the good offices of an head for it: the Syriac version reads, “and him who is above all things, he gave to be the head to the church” even him who is God over all, blessed for evermore.<\/p>\n

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

He put all things in subjection <\/B> ( <\/SPAN><\/span>). First aorist active indicative of <\/SPAN><\/span>, quoted from Ps 8:7<\/span> as in 1Co 15:27<\/span>.<\/P>

Gave him to be head <\/B> ( <\/SPAN><\/span>).<\/P>

Gave <\/B> (<\/SPAN><\/span>, first aorist active indicative of <\/SPAN><\/span>) to the church (the universal spiritual church or kingdom as in Col 1:18<\/span>; Col 1:24<\/span>) Christ as Head (<\/SPAN><\/span>, predicate accusative). This conception of <\/SPAN><\/span> runs all through Ephesians (Eph 3:10<\/span>; Eph 3:21<\/span>; Eph 5:23<\/span>; Eph 5:24<\/span>; Eph 5:25<\/span>; Eph 5:27<\/span>; Eph 5:29<\/span>; Eph 5:32<\/span>). <\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Put all things in subjection. Compare Col 1:15 – 18<\/span>; Psa 8:5 – 8<\/span>. <\/P>

Gave Him. Him is emphatic : and Him He gave. Not merely set Him over the Church, but gave Him as a gift. See 2Co 9:15<\/span>. <\/P>

The Church [ ] <\/SPAN><\/span>. See on Mt 16:18<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) “And hath put all things under his feet”<\/strong> (kai panta hupetaksen hupo tous podas autou) “And he (God) subjected all things (by predestination) (to be) under His (Christ’s) feet” Satan, fallen angels, world governments, and powers have all been relegated to positions of subjection and inferiority in nature and position io Jesus Christ and the church which He has “purchased with His own blood,” which He loved, for which He gave Himself, Act 20:28<\/span>; Eph 5:25-27<\/span>.<\/p>\n

2) And gave him to be the head”<\/strong> (kai auton edoken kephalen) ‘”And gave (delivered over) to Him (Christ) (to be) head.” God the Father, whose wife was Israel, was pleased to give His Son to be head over the church, to be the Bridegroom to her, because His Son voluntarily gave Himself to save the world, Joh 3:16<\/span>; Jer 3:8<\/span>; Jer 3:14<\/span>; Joh 3:29<\/span>; 2Co 11:2<\/span>; Rev 19:7-9<\/span>.<\/p>\n

3) “Over all things to the church”<\/strong> (huper panta te ekklesia) Over all things to the church,” His custodial agency which He established while on earth and left on earth to carry on His program of worship and work until His return. At our Lord’s first post-resurrection appointment, which He made before His death, Mat 26:31-32<\/span>. He declared that all power (eksousia) and administrative authority had been given to Him “in heaven and in earth.” Based on this affirmation He then gave to this Galilean “church assembly” the seed-system and principal program that was to perpetuate His program of worship and service, world-wide and age-long, until His return, Mat 28:7<\/span>; Mat 28:10<\/span>; Mat 28:16-20<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

22. And gave him to be the head. He was made the head of the Church, on the condition that he should have the administration of all things. The apostle shews that it was not a mere honorary title, but was accompanied by the entire command and government of the universe. The metaphor of a head denotes the highest authority. I am unwilling to dispute about a name, but we are driven to it by the base conduct of those who flatter the Romish idol. Since Christ alone is called “the head,” all others, whether angels or men, must rank as members; so that he who holds the highest place among his fellows is still one of the members of the same body. And yet they are not ashamed to make an open avowal that the Church will be ἀκέφαλον, without a head, if it has not another head on earth besides Christ. So small is the respect which they pay to Christ, that, if he obtain undivided that honor which his Father has bestowed upon him, the Church is supposed to be disfigured. This is the basest sacrilege. But let us listen to the Apostle, who declares that the Church is His body, and, consequently, that those who refuse to submit to Him are unworthy of its communion; for on Him alone the unity of the Church depends. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

THE CHURCH, CHRISTS SOLE <\/span>AND SUFFICIENT BODY<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span>Eph 1:17<\/strong><\/span>; Eph 1:22-23<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

THERE are few subjects more often, or earnestly discussed, at the present time than the Church. Prophets of evil there are who declare its day is about done, and its destiny is substantially sealed. Professional optimists there are who take an exactly opposite view, namely, that the Church is just coming to herself, and that her glory is a thing of the future. Without at all attempting in this chapter to settle that discussion, or even to seriously engage in the same, we propose another direction for thought, namely, that suggested by our theme, The Church, Christs Sole and Sufficient Body.<\/p>\n

Paul writing to the Ephesians spoke of Jesus Christ (Eph 1:17<\/em><\/span><\/em>; Eph 1:22-23<\/em><\/span><\/em>)<\/em> the Head of all things to the Church which is His Body, and in that brief and defining statement, gave us good occasion to reflect upon the certain great facts involved in the very constitution of the Church itself; facts that might be stated as follows: It Is Formed by His Spirit; It Is the Lone Exhibit of His Life, and It Suffices for All Spiritual Expression.<\/p>\n

IT IS FORMED BY HIS SPIRIT<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span>The true Church is made up of His children. When He said to Nicodemus, Ye must be born again, He was not only stating a necessity for place in the Kingdom of God when it shall come, but also an experience that should precede Church fellowship. If the angels which kept their first estate constitute the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in Heaven, the ecclesia, or called-out ones of earth are the consequence of faith in Jesus Christ effecting a new creation in Him. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,<\/em> and whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.<\/em> A true Church, therefore, is constituted of regenerate ones. For one to experience saving grace and not to associate himself with believers in a church fellowship, is to fail equally in discovering the Divine will and in walking in the Divinely appointed way.<\/p>\n

Campbell Morgan thought when Paul cried out, Who art Thou, Lord? that the very use of the word, Lord, testified to the great change that had come, and he affirms, This man has joined the church at Damascus before he arrived there. Do you not see that he has taken the crown off his own life from his own head and put it on the head of Jesus? That is the way to become a member of a church, and of such THE Church is made.<\/p>\n

The churchs one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord,She is His new creation, by water and the Word,From Heaven He came and sought her, to be His holy bride, With His own Blood He bought her, and for her life He died.<\/p>\n

The Church inherits His nature. <\/strong>The biological law of life is not barred from the spiritual realm; to every seed it is given to bring forth after its kind obtains in the church. In spite of all the faults and deficiencies, schemings, and sins that belong to the human nature of man, into the true church member has come a new nature, destined to eventual and perfect triumph, namely, the nature of Christ. Of that the Apostle John was writing when he said, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him,<\/em> a remark that has a two-fold application, originally and perfectly to Christ, and in a secondary sense certainly to Christians, for the immediate context adds, In this the children of God are manifest.<\/em><\/p>\n

Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it;<\/em><\/p>\n

That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word,<\/p>\n

That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish (Eph 5:25-27<\/em><\/span>).<\/em><\/p>\n

Christ is the one and only Head of the Church. <\/strong>Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body.<\/em> Therefore the Church is subject unto Christ, and one might add, subject to Christ alone. Such Scripture anticipates the attempted autocracies and hierarchies destined to take place in her human history. Whether these had already manifested themselves as menacing powers in apostolic days, we are not in doubt. Peter, in his First Epistle (1Pe 5:2-3<\/em><\/span><\/em>) <\/em>exhorts the elders to feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over Gods heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.<\/em><\/p>\n

If that great Apostle were alive today, he would thunder against the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the century. Paul would join him in this. When he was writing to Timothy he declared, This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work,<\/em> and then he proceeds to tell what a bishop should be like, blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. <\/em>How strange to conclude a discourse like that and say not a word about his ruling the whole state of churches! He has reason, for the very simple fact is that no such bishop ever lived in New Testament times! The whole papal system, whether it exist with Rome or those who have partly come out of her, is lacking in a Biblical basis, and on that very account has been subjected to increasing abuses.<\/p>\n

How far we have departed from the New Testament ideal of a bishop who was the episcopas or overseer, the pastor of a single flock, one realizes when he compares some present-day ecclesiastical potentates with Pauls Letter to Titus. Here he tells that a bishop, among other things, should hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers,<\/em> but never once mentions the great hierarchical powers of administration. If therefore men rise up to exercise an overlordship of this sort, they not only do it without the authority of the Word, but in opposition to the sole headship of the Son of God.<\/p>\n

This brings us to our second remark concerning the Church:<\/p>\n

<\/span>IT IS THE LONE EXHIBIT OF HIS LIFE<\/strong><\/p>\n

He elects to live in it. The Head lives in the Body. Christ lives in the Church. It is true of the regenerated individual and it should also be true of the Church, that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.<\/em> The temple may be unworthy its tenant in fact, it always is, and often sadly so. That does not in any wise detract from the character or greatness of the Tenant, Himself. Diogenes is said to have lived in a tub, but in spite of that fact, he was a philosopher. When Christ decided to manifest Himself in the Church, He appreciated that, made up of mortal men as it would be, it would fall short at many points and fail to represent Him in many ways. He also knew, as men should understand, that its deficiencies would not detract from His perfection. On the other hand, His perfection would tend to correct its deficiencies and perfect its character.<\/p>\n

Recently, I read, in a Canadian magazine, a most charming story of Western prairie life, written by a young English woman. She was a university graduate and had married an officer in the army. When the war was over and she came with her husband to his own land in Canada, she shortly found herself called upon to go with him to the Western plains, and take possession of a ranch which had been deserted by its tenant. The plain log house was a strange contrast to her palatial English home. The weeds that ran even to the door were ugly looking things when she remembered the blooming flowers of her fathers country estate. The rough board floor and leaky roof caused her heart to sink, but she was a girl of spirit and set her deft hands to work. Getting her husband to plow up a portion of the prairie about the house, she used her landscape knowledge in laying out a lawn and garden. Securing from him roughly constructed boxes, she nailed them along the window sills, filled them with rich dirt and planted flower seeds there. Getting small round boulders from a nearby creek, she laid out paths, and whitewashed the stones. The husband patched the roof, and inside the house her fingers were busy daily, till every aspect pleased. In a few weeks her friends who visited her were ecstatic over the neatness and beauty of the whole scene. The entire premises had taken on the character of her tenancy.<\/p>\n

It was a most delapidated house into which our Lord consented to come, and yet the Church of God is today the worlds most beautiful body, due to one solitary circumstance, namely, that He elected to live in it.<\/p>\n

He deigns to be known by it.<\/strong> It is called, by the pen of inspiration, His Body, and again, The Body of Christ. It will never perfectly become Him until he takes it from earth, and in the translation, perfects the same. But the body is often sadly incomplete in its expression of the indwelling Spirit. Alexander H. Stephens was most diminutive and all his life long an invalid. His big wheel chair was a familiar object on the streets of Washington. Feeble, emaciated in body, racked with aches and pains, and yet in that little frame lodged a mind that was matchless. Thomas Dixon once said, Men knew that back of the pale face, shrivelled hand and dwarfed body that lay so lightly in that chair, there was the spirit of a lion, and his acquaintances either loved or feared him, while all respected. He mastered all circumstances by means of his mighty brain. One forgets a deficient body when a brain like that controls it, and consents to indwell it. So with the Church of God. The members of the body are far from perfect, but have a Head of perfection.<\/p>\n

The world has no other vision of Him.<\/strong> Our Lord once said, He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father,<\/em> and again the pen of inspiration speaks of Him as the express image of the Father. <\/em>It is not true that he that hath seen the Church hath seen Christ, but it is true that the Church is the only vision of Him that men get. We are His epistles and while we poorly express Him, we become, by our very relationship to Him, the manifestation of His person to most men. The discerning, however, will judge Him not by His Body, the Church, but rather by His Spirit which indwells it.<\/p>\n

Abraham Lincoln was to most people an ungainly and homely man, but to the woman whose son he had pardoned, he was the handsomest man she had ever seen.<\/p>\n

The illustration holds in the view men get of Christ. To the outside world, which looks only upon the Church, His Body, there is no beauty in Him that they should desire Him, but to the one who has come to know His saving grace, He becomes the Fairest among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely, and to such an one, even the Church, His physical manifestation, is attractive in the last degree. The greatest testimony of ones Christian experience is at this point: We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.<\/em> We do not forget the day when the two disciples walked to the village of Emmaus, from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.<\/em> However, when He took bread and blessed and gave it to them, their eyes were opened, and they knew Him.<\/em> Many a man comes into touch with Christ in the person of the church and does not recognize Him, but when for such a man the Bread of Life is broken and the cup of salvation is tasted, the vision clears. Ones eye must be enlightened, that he may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.<\/em> Blessed are your eyes if ye see.<\/p>\n

Finally,<\/p>\n

<\/span>THE CHURCH SUFFICES FOR ALL SPIRITUAL EXPRESSION<\/strong><\/p>\n

He provided no other means. It has always seemed to men a strange thing that Christ should have committed His cause absolutely to mans care, and yet such was His course from the beginning. Perhaps no illustration employed by a modern writer has been so often repeated as Gordons vision of Christ and Gabriel, walking in the heavenlies together and talking of His sacrifice on Calvary. Gabriel asked Him what plan He had for publishing the great good news that His death atoned for sin, and He responded by saying, I left that with James and Peter and John and Andrew and others, to make it known. Gabriel said, But suppose they should forget or fail, or that their successors in the far off twentieth century should cease to bear a testimony? Then what other provision have you for getting this good news to all the world? to which Christ answered, I have no other plan.<\/p>\n

That is a truth upon which we need to lay emphasis at this moment. The Church of God is the only institution definitely ordained unto the redemption of man. Men are great in organizing movements. Most of them are not formed after any pattern seen in the mount, and they follow one another in quick succession to the Movement Cemetery. We have had the Brotherhood Movement, the Laymens Forward Movement, The Men and Religion Movement, The Interchurch World Movement; we now have The New World Movement, and every denomination has a denominational movement. Not a one of them expects to survive the short term set for its course only a few months since. No man will have the hardihood to even suggest their continuance beyond a five year term. It is little wonder! The Spirit never patterned them, and God never appointed them. They are like the grass; in the morning they grow up and flourish; in the evening, they are cut down and withered.<\/p>\n

Not so the Church of Godthe gates of hell cannot prevail against it.<\/p>\n

It is reported that when physicians told Douglas Jerrold that he was dying, the old man started at the statement, and rising on his elbow, exclaimed, What, man; die and leave these little ones helpless! I cannot; I will not die! He lived, and three years more were added before the final call came. In other words, his indomitable will grasped death by the throat and held him at arms length for three seasons; but the Church is a thousandfold mightier than that. Again and again men have prophesied its death. The Unitarian philosophers are telling us, even now, it is perishing from the face of the earth. The Church can afford to laugh at such doleful prophecies. She is not 2,000 years old, but 2,000 years young! Dark days have swept over her; disasters have smitten her again and yet again. Persecutors have been determined to wipe her from the earth; false philosophies have sought to pervert her message and blind the minds of her members, but through it all she walks with increasing strength and her power waxes!<\/p>\n

He needs no other medium.<\/strong> As one looks back over the past, he realizes the folly of which men have been guilty in refusing to build after the pattern shown in the mount and in adopting plans all their own. Men have concluded they knew more about how to win the world to righteousness than God did, and they have started all sorts of organizations in order to accomplish it: Play-grounds, social settlements, Boy and Girl Scout movements, Outing Camps, Big Brother and Big Sister movements, the Y. M. and Y. W. C. As, Conferences, Colleges, Universities, Theological Seminaries, and on and on, and on, ad infinitum; and it begins to be increasingly evident that not a single one of them, nor all of them combined are accomplishing ought for a worlds redemption, save as some of them happen to clearly ally themselves with a true church and to be a medium of expression of the same. More and more, thoughtful men are finding that these multiplied agencies are in not a few instances setting themselves squarely against the interest of the Church of God, and are becoming its most menacing enemies.<\/p>\n

Take the famous Lake Geneva Conference: For recent years its teaching on Sunday School work has been of such a character as to make Sunday School work worthless and decapitate the Church altogether by denying the Deity of Jesus Christ and eviscerate the Church itself by striking at its very vitals.<\/p>\n

Take the Y. M. and Y. W. C. As of America and make the few exceptions to the rule the occasional ones that have remained loyal to our Lord, and the remaining portion of them today are the greatest single menace that the Church of God sees. The majority of their secretaries have been educated in rationalistic schools; evangelism has died out of their halls, and only Unitarian sentiment is any longer welcomed by most of those who are in places of power! It would be practically impossible at this moment for a conservative preacher to secure a hearing in the average Y. M. C. A., but those ministers who doubt the authority of the Word, question the Virgin Birth, rule the reported miracles out of the revelation, are not only welcomed there, but they are constantly bidden. Meetings are now being often held to encourage local ministers to take greater interest. It will accomplish it for liberal ministers, but conservative men will feel no interest until there is a reform. We know all moneys invested today in such Y. M. C. As are moneys not only lost to the Church of God, but set busy against the Church of God.<\/p>\n

These remarks apply with equal aptness to a multitude of colleges that have been founded by the Church. A writer to an Eastern paper recently said, The Congregationalists were pioneers in education in America. They sent a line of schools across the continent, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams and Oberlin. Certainly; and could you call another list of institutions in America that are as flagrantly opposing the faith once delivered as this same cross-continent line of colleges and universities? There is not a single one of them that stands four-square today for those fundamentals that have been the life force of the Church of God. There is not a single one of them into which one can send a young Christian, with any assured prospect of having him returned a Christian at the end of his college course. They are the enemies of the Cross of Christ, and the modernistic spirit, which has mastered in them, is more and more conquering in the colleges of all the denominations, until now the making of the list of schools loyal to the God of heaven and earth, to the Deity of Christ, to the Bible, the Text Book of the Church, is a task that sorrows one in that it is so shortly accomplished. Millions upon millions of dollars the churches have contributed to make these scholastic institutions possible, and when we have built them up to places of power, they have turned upon their creators to rend them, and by attacking the Bible, the Churchs only Text Book, they have sought either to so far befog the testimony of the Church that men through it may not find the way, or blot out that testimony altogether. And yet in spite of this piece of history, now perfectly understood by the unprejudiced, the appeal for more money for these extra-Biblical institutions is not subsiding but growing, and requests for donations are no longer depended upon for their development, but drives are instituted instead. Men who believe God and follow His Word are increasingly refusing to fall into line and perform their part at the crack of the whip of ecclesiastical masters.<\/p>\n

And yet for an example of all of this, or any evidence that such was ever Gods will or way, I search my Bible in vain. In the Old Testament and in the New, I find no play-grounds approved; no social settlements suggested; no Y. M. or Y. W. C. A.s organized; no Brotherhood Movements financed; no confederacies formulated. The Gospels are a record of how the Church was brought into being. The Book of the Acts is a history of the Church at work. The Epistles are, with few exceptions, addressed to the Churches of the living God, and the Book of Revelation opens with a series of seven such Letters to Churches and closes with a scene that translates the Church and turns it into the Kingdom of Heaven! In all this volume of literature, I find no single intimation or reference to even such institutions as Visiting Nurses Associations, none to hospitals, none to brotherhoods.<\/p>\n

Now, do not mistake me! I believe the Visiting Nurses Association to be an admirable institution and worthy of a citizens support. I believe the Red Cross Society to be the finest expression of humanitarianism. I believe that play-grounds for children are institutions worthy of approval. I believe hospitals and schools are necessities of the state, but my position is this: that the Church is the one and only institution through which God has called His elect to operate, and it is the profoundest pity, the most egregious blunder, that men have gone outside of her and organized extra institutions that have become inimical to her, to do the very work that was designated to her; that she is fitted to accomplish and upon the discharge of which her spiritual success absolutely depends.<\/p>\n

There isnt a social service, an ethical ideal that belongs within the realm of Christian obligation that cannot be better discharged by the hands of an active church than by any extra-organization ever conceived. If you would make a contribution to play-grounds, and I should be glad to see you do it, make it in the name of the Church of God. If the Church is to visit the sick, and surely that is her obligation, let her do it through her members only. The City Hospitals of every metropolis in America will welcome as cordially the Christian minister and Christian worker as any denominationally supported hospital born or grown big to this hour. Why then, will you tell me, should millions of dollars go into denominational hospitals to discover upon the completion and short time operation of the same that we are compelled to receive the children of the world, to employ ofttimes physicians and nurses of the world, who have no religious convictions whatever, who have no God, or Christ? Why take out of the hands of the state the offices that belong to it, instead of doing what the Church of God was set to do, save men and women?<\/p>\n

Why invest millions in great denominational universities, and present to the world institutions that are no whit different in religious atmosphere and opportunities for Christian service from the state taxed and supported schools? Will any well-instructed man now claim a spiritual superiority for them? I grant you, our forefathers when out of their poverty they founded these schools, did it with the certain expectation of making them Christian to the core, of permitting only Christian teachers to appear in them, and employing the Bible as the chief of all text books, but what one of them abides by this dream of the dear men now dead?<\/p>\n

The principal difficulty with all these institutions has been in the circumstance that they have been built apart from a church, conducted independently of a church, and in the process of time have departed from the faith that made the church. Spurgeons College remains faithful, but Spurgeons College remains linked indissolubly with Spurgeons Church. The work of man for man, the basal idea of the Y. M. C. A., is right, but in the name of the New Testament, why not let it be done in the church, by the church and for the church?<\/p>\n

I say the same concerning education of the highest and most Christian sort, and if I believed the day would come when the school I founded and superintend would be divorced from the church that gave it birth, I should entertain the gravest alarm as to whether it would remain loyal.<\/p>\n

If a man really wants to invest his Christian influence so that it will bring the largest fruit in return, employ his time and talents so that they will most honor God, no institution has ever been born or will ever be begotten that provides him such an opportunity as a church, and I had rather be the man who leaves as a monument to his labors a great, true Church of God, so ramified in its work as to reach the poor, and minister to them; the sick, and reveal to them the Great Physician; the discouraged, and impart to them the brightest of hopes; the sinful, and show them salvations way; than to contribute to any other institution that has ever been named among men. Give me a Church of God, modeled after the New Testament pattern, filled with His Spirit, and I will show you a Church of God that will serve society at every point, that will be a contributing agency to every element of permanence in the state, and that will be the exponent of the only righteousness that can bless, and make great a nation!<\/p>\n

Turn to the Book of the Acts and have the early Christians come back for a report and be impressed with the things upon which they speak. It is not upon play-grounds, though I hope at times they were playful men. It was not upon social settlements, though I trust they walked in the midst of the people as gracious ensamples of how to live. It was not upon hospitals and colleges, though their presence was healing and their speech educational. It was not upon Y. M. and Y. W. C. As, though they did effective work with young men and women. It was upon the power of the Gospel in the lives of the individuals and the growth of the Church of the living God, the Divinely ordained institution.<\/p>\n

And what inspiring reports they are! Thousands convicted and converted, and daily additions to the Church as they were being saved, contributions to the Church, care of the needy by the Church, healing through the Church, Letters to the Church, conferences between the Churches, officers for the Church, the Church commissioned to the end of the earth, and the promise of Christ with the Church to the end of the age! Thus the New Testament program, and God has not changed His appointment. If I had my way today I would let the state manage all affairs that belong to the state, and the Church of God assert her influence upon every phase of human life, seeking to control the affairs of her own organization only and accepting as great commission to the world the work of pointing men to Christ, the Inspirer of intellects and the Saviour of souls.<\/p>\n

I love Thy Church, O God; her walls before Thee stand, Dear as the apple of Thine eye and graven on Thy hand; For her my tears shall fall, for her my prayers ascend,To her my cares and toils be given, till toils and cares shall end.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

(22) And hath put all things under his feet.<\/strong>See 1Co. 15:25-28<\/span>, where St. Paul deals with the quotation from Psa. 8:6<\/span>, in application to our Lords Mediatorial kingdom. In this passage these words fill up the picture of our Lords transcendent dignity, by the declaration of the actual subjugation of all the powers of sin and death, rising up against Him, in the spiritual war which is to go on till the appointed end. They therefore form a natural link between the description of His lordship over all created being, and of His headship over the Church, militant on earth, as well as triumphant in heaven.<\/p>\n

And gave<\/strong> him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body.<\/strong>This is the first time that this celebrated phrase is used, describing Christ as the Head, and viewing the Church as a whole as His body. It is characteristic that in 1Co. 11:3<\/span>, Christ is called the Head of each man, as the man of the woman; whereas in this Epistle Christ is the Head of the whole Church, on occasion of the same comparison (see Eph. 5:23<\/span>). The consideration of all Christians as the body of Christ is indeed found in Rom. 12:4<\/span>; 1Co. 12:12-27<\/span> : but it is notable that in these passages the leading idea is, first, of the individuality of each member, and then, secondarily, of their union in one body; and in 1Co. 12:21<\/span>, the head and the foot, just as much as the eye and the hand, are simply looked upon as members. (Comp. also 1Co. 6:15<\/span>; 1Co. 10:17<\/span>.) Here, in accordance with the great doctrine of this Epistlethe unity of the whole of humanity and of the whole Church, ideally co-extensive with that humanity, with Christthe metaphor is changed. The body is looked upon as a whole, Christ as its Head. The idea is wrought out again and again (see Eph. 4:15-16<\/span>; Eph. 5:28<\/span>; Col. 1:18<\/span>; Col. 2:19<\/span>) in these Epistles of the Captivity. It is from these that it has become a household word in all Christian theology. With some variation it is expressed also in other metaphorsthe building and the corner-stone, the bride and the bridegroom. But under the title of the Head Christ is looked upon especially in His ruling, guiding, originating power over the Church. Probably the idea of His being the seat of its life, though not excluded, is secondary; whereas in His own figure of the vine and the branches (Joh. 16:6<\/span>) it is primary.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

22<\/strong>. <\/strong> The last previous verse declares the superiority of Christ’s rank; this declares that all inferiors are directly subjected to his rule. <\/p>\n

Put feet<\/strong> The words are evidently run in from Psa 8:6<\/span>, where they are spoken of man as the supreme of the earth. Christ is the supreme ideal man. And here is a peaceful supremacy different from the subjection of all things by conquest specified in 1Co 15:27<\/span>. <\/p>\n

Gave him to the Church<\/strong> But while this supremacy embraces all in its benign sway, there is one object over which and to which he is a special donation. He is ruler over all; but he is given head<\/strong>, even in his universal supremacy, to the Church<\/strong>. God gave him head<\/strong>, while over an things, to the Church<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

‘And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness (pleroma) of him who fills all in all.’<\/p>\n

‘He put all things in subjection under His feet.’ Compare Psa 8:6<\/span>. The picture is of the great and victorious King and Overlord before whom all His subjects and His enemies humble themselves, prostrating themselves at His feet and acknowledging His lordship. The highest place that Heaven affords is His, and His by sovereign right. And 1Co 15:26<\/span> tells us that the last of His enemies is death, which will also have its power destroyed. This phrase is the climax of verses Eph 1:20-21<\/span>, yet also leads in to Eph 1:22-23<\/span>.<\/p>\n

‘And gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body.’ As head (supreme ruler) over all things, which includes all heavenly powers and all earthly powers, He is given to His ‘church’, to those whom He has called out and redeemed so that He might uniquely be their Head. They are uniquely His, and while He is ‘Head over all things’, He is their Head in a unique way. Thus in the whole scenario of existence the people of God are depicted as unique and special. For while the remainder are seen as subjects, some even as rebellious subjects, the people of God are seen as in such close relation to Him that they are united with Him in His body.<\/p>\n

We can compare here the words of Paul elsewhere in Ephesians where he likens Christ’s Headship over the church to man’s headship over his wife (Eph 5:23<\/span>). Thus it depicts a position of loving authority and close unity without signifying total merger. They are united in one but do not actually become one. They are, as it were, along with Him, His body, sharing with Him in His bodily resurrection and exaltation, and in His rule, and responding to His direction and control. They are as His wife (Eph 5:25-27<\/span>) to be presented to Him without blemish. Note how in the case of the church as the wife Paul can immediately link it with Christ’s relationship with the church in terms of their being members of His body, gliding from the one illustration to the other (Eph 5:29-30<\/span>). This in the same way as the body of the husband and the body of the wife are united so that they become ‘one flesh’ (Eph 5:31<\/span>). Thus have we become ‘one flesh’ with His body (Eph 5:30<\/span>).<\/p>\n

‘Which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.’ Here being His body means being that which makes His own body complete. Thus His people are the ‘fullness of Him Who fills all in all”. This is, of course, a paradox. He Who fills all in all surely needs no completion. Indeed all things ‘hold together’ in Him (Col 1:17<\/span>). How then can His people be His fullness? The answer lies in the plan of redemption. Having become Man in order to redeem man He is incomplete until the redeemed are gathered in. As representative Man He must gather in those Whom He represented. They are the fullness which will make Him whole. He is their Head. He is also the Body, and they are united with His body, making His body full, and as such He ‘needs’ and requires them.<\/p>\n

We should note here especially that the idea of the Head is only applied to Him as the  risen<\/em>  Christ. In His body He suffered humiliation, but in His resurrection and exaltation He becomes both Head and Body. His Headship (divine rulership) was made patent over all, and especially over His people, and in His Body He was united with His people in one body. (We must not think of Him as the head and we as the body from the neck downwards. That is not the idea at all. He is both Head over all things and Body, and we united with Him in His body (see Appendix)). In His body He experienced resurrection and exaltation, and it is in His body, in which we accompany Him because He is both our representative and our substitute (Eph 2:1-10<\/span>), that we are one with Him (see 1Co 6:17<\/span>). Thus He Who is ‘the Firstborn of all creation’ (the source of all creation) is also ‘the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead’, so that He may have pre-eminence in all things (Col 1:15<\/span>; Col 1:18<\/span>). He it was Who began and is the source of that new creation, His people. Thus He is ‘the Firstborn among many brothers’ (Rom 8:29<\/span>). The word Firstborn means the One from Whom they had their new life, the One Who produced all that followed. They were the result of His life-giving activity.<\/p>\n

The same idea of Christ as the Head over His people, and His people as His body united with Him in His body is found in Col 1:18<\/span> where we read that He is over all things and controls all things, and then that also ‘He is the Head of the body, the church.’ In both contexts the Headship of Christ over all things is emphasised first and then applied to His Headship over the church, and the church is then likened to His body, because they have been made one with His body. They are one in Him. This is to bring out the closer and more tender relationship there is between Christ and His people. But the idea is not amplified in Colossians. It is allowed to express their unique relationship with Him but not applied in detail. The main emphasis is on the Headship (divine rulership) and on our union with Him.<\/p>\n

In Colossians the idea is expanded in Eph 2:19<\/span> where it speaks of those who do not ‘hold fast the Head, from Whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God’. This adds the thought that the body receives from its Head, its Lord, all it needs for growth. It is given life by His indwelling within each Christian (Eph 3:17<\/span>; Gal 2:20<\/span>) and by His presence in their midst (Mat 28:20<\/span>). This expansion also appears in Eph 4:15-16<\/span> (which see). Eph 2:15-16<\/span> will bring home that that body, which  is inclusive of Christ’s own body<\/em>, consists of both believing Jews and believing Gentiles made one in Christ. But this provision of what is needed is in fact also stated in another way, for the thought of the oneness of He Who is the Head with the body, which includes Himself, leads on to Eph 2:1-10<\/span> where our oneness with Christ means that we participate in all in which He participates (see Appendix below).<\/p>\n

In refinement of these ideas in Ephesians, however, we should note that he is more careful in his expressions. He is not just ‘the Head’ but ‘the Head over all things’ lest we make the mistake (that many make) that he is contrasting head with body. The church is the body of Christ because spiritually it is united with Christ’s own body, not because it alone is His body. ‘If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection’ (Rom 6:5<\/span>). Christ is the body with Whom we are united (1Co 12:12<\/span>).<\/p>\n

The fullness (pleroma).’ In the Gospels the word pleroma is used of the patch that fills up the hole in the old garment (Mar 2:21<\/span>) and the sufficiency of fragments which filled several baskets after the feeding (Mar 8:20<\/span>). The word denotes entirety of content and is applied by Philo to the animals housed in Noah’s ark. It is also used of a ship’s complement. It thus represents the full requirement, the whole body of Christians as chosen in Christ through redemption, so as to make complete ‘the crew’, the number of the redeemed, the filling full of the body.<\/p>\n

‘Of Him Who fills all in all.’ ‘Pleroumenou’ could be either middle or passive. The middle means ‘fills for oneself’, the passive ‘is being fulfilled’. The latter does not really fit the context for it does not fulfil the grandeur of the previous verses, and it partially turns the eyes away from the main participator, rather than focusing on Him. And grandeur about Christ Himself is what is required to complete this section. The previous verses have built up to the fact that He is all in all. Now it is stated. The thought is an intentional paradox. Christ is the One Who fills all in all, and yet, His people fill up what is lacking simply because of the working out of God’s plan and purpose and His redeeming work, which while potentially fulfilled awaits actual fulfilment.<\/p>\n

‘Fills all in all.’ He is the One Who is omnipresent, Who created all things, Who sums up within Himself all things (Eph 1:10<\/span>), in Whom all things hold together, having the pre-eminence in all things (Col 1:17-18<\/span>), Who is totally self-sufficing. In 1Co 15:28<\/span> we are told that in the consummation God will be all in all. The phrase means the totality of what is being spoken about (compare 1Co 12:6<\/span>) and when used of God and our Lord Jesus the totality of all things.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22<\/span> . While Paul has before been setting forth the exaltation of Christ over all things<\/em> , he now expresses the subjection<\/em> therewith accomplished of all things under Christ<\/em> : , with which consequently the same thing the installation into the highest (Phi 2:10<\/span> f.) is expressed, only from another point of view (from below, from the standpoint of the object subjected; previously from above, from the seat of the exalted Lord), in order to present it in a thoroughly exhaustive manner. Such a representation is not tautological, but emphatic<\/em> . Theodoret, with whom Harless agrees, makes the purpose: . But the words, while doubtless a reminiscence<\/em> of Psa 8:7<\/span> (6), in such wise that Paul makes the expression of the Psalm his own, are not a citation, since he does not in the least indicate this, as he has done at 1Co 15:27<\/span> by the following . Certainly, however, he recognised<\/em> that, which is said in Psa 8<\/span> . of man<\/em> as such, as receiving its antitypical fulfilment in the exalted Christ (see on 1 Cor. l.c.<\/em> , comp. also Heb 2:8<\/span> ), and thereby it was the more natural for him, when speaking here of the dominion of Christ. to appropriate the words of the Psalm.<\/p>\n

has the emphasis, like and before. All all that is created<\/p>\n

God has subjected to Christ If Paul had meant simply all that resists Christ<\/em> (Grotius, Rosenmller, Holzhausen, Olshausen), he must have said<\/em> so, since there is no mention of subjecting what is hostile either before or in the eighth Psalm.<\/p>\n

. . .] and Him<\/em> , the One thus exalted and ruling over all, Him<\/em> even He gave, etc.; observe the emphasis of the prefixed. What dignity<\/em> of the church in Him!<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

] is usually taken in the sense of (Harless: “and installed Him as Head over all things for the church;” comp. Hofmann, Schriftbew<\/em> . II. 2, p. 117); but here as arbitrarily as at Eph 4:11<\/span> . Grotius and Rckert rightly take it as: He gave Him to the church<\/em> . If Paul had conceived of . not as dependent on , but as attached to . , it would be difficult to see why he should not have written . [117] Comp. Col 1:18<\/span> .<\/p>\n

] exalted above all things<\/em> , is neither transposed<\/em> (Peshito, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Erasmus, Grotius, Estius, and others): “ipsum super omnia ( sc<\/em> . positum) dedit ecclesiae ut caput ejus,” Grot.; nor does it signify especially<\/em> ( , Eph 6:16<\/span> ), as Boyd and Baumgarten would have it; nor is it, in its true connection with ., to be taken as summum caput<\/em> (Beza, Morus, Koppe, Rckert, Holzhausen, Meier, Olshausen, Bleek, comp. Matthies); by which, according to Koppe and Olshausen, it is meant to be indicated that Christ is higher than the apostles, bishops, etc. In opposition to this interpretation, it may be decisively urged that only One Head to the church can at all be thought of, and that here calls for the same explanation as above in the case of . Hence rather: and Him He gave as Head over all things<\/em> (to which position, as just shown, He had exalted Him) to the church<\/em> (Christians as a whole). Since He, as Head over all things<\/em> , was given to the church, it is obvious that He was to belong to her in a very special sense as<\/em> her own Head<\/em> ; hence it is, in accordance with a well-known breviloquentia<\/em> (Matthiae, p. 1533; Khner, II. p. 602), unnecessary to supply again before .<\/p>\n

[117] Hofmann no doubt thinks that, if , were to be taken together, Paul would not have inserted . . But why not? The very position assigned to . . ., as placed apart from , is in keeping with the importance of this definition of quality, which at the same time, so placed, brings together with striking emphasis and . Christ has He given as Head over all things<\/em> to the church<\/em> . So high and august is His esteem for it!<\/p>\n

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

X<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH<\/p>\n

Eph 1:22-2:10<\/span><\/strong> .<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

We now come to that part of the analysis, item 5, Christ’s exaltation and its purpose toward the church (Eph 1:22-23<\/span> ). These two verses express the following thoughts: Christ exalted, first, to be the head of the church; second, to be head over all things to the church, which is a very different idea; third, that the church is the body; fourth, as his body the church expresses his fulness.<\/p>\n

Christ exalted to be the head of the church. “Head” expresses, first, sovereignty, or rulership. When we say the husband is the head of the family, we mean he is the ruler of the family. Head expresses in the next sense the source of vital connection. In this letter to the Ephesians, as we will find a little later, that vital connection between the head and every member of the body is greatly emphasized and elaborated.<\/p>\n

If Christ is the head of the church in the sense of sovereign or ruler, then it is impious to call anybody else the head of the church. Some claim to be the head of the church in the sense of vicegerent, or vicar. For example, the Pope claims to be the head of the church in that he is Christ’s vicar. The only vicar that Christ has is the Holy Spirit. When Jesus went up to heaven he did send a vicegerent to take his place; another Paraclete to abide with and to guide the church. It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit for a mere man to claim to be the head of the church.<\/p>\n

Spurgeon in his many volumes of sermons has one polemical volume. One of the sermons in that polemical volume is the most excoriating denunciation of the claim that the sovereign of England is head of the church that I have ever seen. He read a proclamation: “I, Victoria Regina, by the grace of God head of the church.” Then immediately following that he quoted Paul’s words: “J suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority.” Everybody should read, particularly, that eighth volume of Spurgeon’s sermons. The greater part of Christendom today is under bondage to the thought that the Pope of Rome is the head of the church. They mean by that that he stands in the place of God, and that whatever he speaks, ex cathedra, is infallibly true, and that his authority is ultimate.<\/p>\n

In 1870 the capstone was put on the papacy by the Vatican Council, in servile obedience to the Pope, proclaiming his infallibility as head of the church. The head of the church also carries with it the idea of authority, which is called the key of power. Christ is the head of the church. There is no other. We see on earth a body, but the head is above the clouds; we cannot see it. The head of the church is in heaven, the body here on the earth. It is a vital and fundamental article of the Christian faith that we should accept no head of the church of Jesus Christ except the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The disciples of Pythagoras were accustomed to end a controversy by saying, “Ipse dixit et ipse Pythagoras.” But there should be no question of absolute deference to mere human authority.<\/p>\n

We will now take up the second thought: Christ the head over all things to the church. Not the head of the church; we have just discussed that, but the head over all things to the church, which is a very different thought. It means that by virtue of his sacrificial expiation here upon the earth, and the atonement made in heaven based upon that expiation on the cross, he received the name which is above every name, was made King of kings and Lord of lords, that he now holds in his hand the scepter of universal dominion, and that he is over all things to, or in behalf, of, the church.<\/p>\n

We see him express this thought when by anticipation he commands his church, assembled upon a mountain in Galilee, about 500 being present, to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. The statement, “And all authority in heaven and upon earth is given unto me,” means that he is the head of all things to the church; that he exercises the entire sovereignty of the universe in behalf of the church. Oftentimes when we get a little frightened or blue, become intimidated either by the formidable adversaries with whom we have to cope or by the insuperable obstacles that block our pathway, we are prone to forget that the Saviour is head over all things in our behalf; that there is nothing hard for him; that when it comes to exercising his power in behalf of the church there are no limitations; that we can draw on him to the last possibility.<\/p>\n

That is why I have said that the Texas Baptist Convention once foolishly got scared over a little financial flurry, forgot that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. They ought to have gone on serenely laying out their work, having faith in God, who is able to raise the dead.<\/p>\n

Surely if God could in the wilderness for forty years feed so many families, and see to it that their clothes did not wear out, that there was a shade over them every day so that the sun did not smite them, and that their camp was illumined by night a light brighter than the most luminous display of electric lights in the cities of our time if he could call rocks to open and send forth waters, and the quail to come at his bidding, and angel’s food to fall at his will, what are we, Christ’s people in New Testament days, that we should hesitate on account of difficulties in the way of discharging duties incumbent upon us?<\/p>\n

For illustration, I recall the first mission rally held in Johnson County. I prepared the program. That county was in danger of Antinomianism. Some of the noblest pastors in “hat association purposed to get together and sound a higher note. The program compared missions to a suspension bridge across a mighty river, not a prop under that bridge where the waters rolled, but on each shore there was the basis for the support of the bridge. The first pedestal was “All authority in heaven and earth is given unto me;” on the other shore, the pedestal, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” That is, if he had authority and power, we his people have no right to hesitate at any time in the discharge of his plain commandments. That is what is meant by Christ’s being the head over all things to the church. Consider carefully what that means. Every attribute of God is made contributory to the church infinite love, infinite justice, infinite compassion, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, all engaged to help the church in the accomplishment of its mission. Note carefully that this headship is headship of an organization. But we come next to a new thought that the church is his body. Wherever that expression occurs it implies not so much an organization as an organism. An organism is a living thing. John the Baptist, after he was beheaded, had no life. There was a vital relation between the body of John the Baptist and his head. When his head was severed his body died. In the letter to the Romans, again in the first letter to the Corinthians, again in the letter to the Colossians, and preeminently in this letter to the Ephesians, the church is called the body of Christ, which means that whatever sense of the word be employed, then Christ is the head.<\/p>\n

Some people unnecessarily” trouble themselves in trying to apply the double sense of headship to the triple sense of the church. That is, the word church is used in the New Testament in three distinct senses:<\/p>\n

1. Abstractly as an institution (Mat 16:18<\/span> ).<\/p>\n

2. A particular congregation at one place ( 1Co 1:2<\/span> ).<\/p>\n

3. All the redeemed conceived of as a unit and glorified as a bride or city (Eph 5:25-27<\/span> and Rev 21:9-10<\/span> ). In applying this headship we say that Christ is the head of the church and head over all things to the church as an institution, or as a particular congregation, or as the general assembly of the redeemed in glory.<\/p>\n

We now come to the last thought in that paragraph, “The fulness of him that filleth all in all.” The church is the fulness. If I want a true conception of God the Father, I look at Jesus: “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the express image of the person of God.” If I want a true conception of Jesus Christ, I look at the church, which is the fulness of Christ, the fulness of authority, the fulness of power, the fulness of divine love, and the fulness of glory, as it ultimately will be. The fulness of Christ in the church is very much like the thought expressed in “The glory of his inheritance in the saints.” We have already noted the distinction between our inheritance in Christ and his inheritance in us.<\/p>\n

To see the fulness of Christ in the church, turn to the last chapter of Revelation, “And I saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God; and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.”<\/p>\n

Again the angel asked John if he would like to see the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, and there is given a picture of the redeemed in the fulness of their redemption. If when that time comes one should ask, “Where shall I look to see the fulness of the Father?” Look at Christ. “Where shall I look to see the fulness of Christ?” Look at that church in glory. Behold how many nations are represented in it! See the ends of the earth come together in it. Behold how many varieties of men, some very great men intellectually, and some very simple folk; some very wicked, others just as wicked by nature, who were not so wicked by practice, but now all are redeemed. We have the fulness of Christ presented in this, that all peoples, regardless of distinguishing nationalities and distinguishing castes, are there. As the Genesis creation was an expression of God, so that “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork,” so the re-creation, or redemption, will more manifest his glory. Not one of them but has arrived through regeneration and glorification. Not one of them but connects back with the eternal foreknowledge, election, and predestination of God. That is the fulness of Christ.<\/p>\n

The next item of our analysis is salvation by grace (Eph 2:1-10<\/span> ). That is the text upon which Jerry Clark, in some respects the greatest preacher in Texas, preached his famous sermon before the General Association of Texas in Waco when I was a young pastor there. I had heard a great deal about Clark; that he was the greatest preacher living, if one could only get him to preach. His extreme modesty made him an expert dodger. One of his friends said, “If you want Clark to preach you must challenge him on the doctrines of grace. That will stir him.” So I had him assigned to my house and set a trap for him. In a private conversation I said to him that I had heard of preachers who were willing enough to preach salvation by grace in the backwoods, but would shirk if called upon to preach it before a cultured city audience. His eye flashed fire and he said, “I am not afraid to preach it anywhere.” “Very well, then, you are appointed to preach Sunday night from Eph 2:8-10<\/span> .” He preached from it and made the stars fairly sparkle. It was the greatest pulpit classic I ever read. It stirred all the dry bones in the valley!<\/p>\n

Salvation by grace! The first thought is, “And you did he make alive when you were dead.” There is the sinner, spiritually as dead as a door nail. Has a dead man power m himself, or is he able to call from any source whatever the power to start to be alive? That is the question. The declaration is: “When you were dead God made you alive.” That is what old theologians called regeneration. I do not think that is what the New Testament calls regeneration, because it stops short of a full idea of regeneration as expressed in many scriptures, yet it is that power of the Holy Spirit which makes the soul sensitive. It is a new creation and is antecedent to any manifestation of life. That is perfectly clear in the teaching of the Scriptures.<\/p>\n

Of course, with that kind of a start, spiritually dead, if a man is saved at all he is saved by grace. It is impossible for a dead man to make himself alive. Notice how that deadness is expressed in this paragraph: “And were by nature children of wrath.” That knocks the bottom out of the thought that sin consists in the wilful transgression of a known commandment, as the Arminians say. Sin is lawlessness, first of all lawlessness in nature before there have been any external manifestations in overt actions.<\/p>\n

We may take a baby rattlesnake, carry him home, feed him on milk, never let him see his father or mother, pet him and try to educate him out of his nature. As that snake grows the poison secretes, the fangs form, and the rattles come, and if we were to put him in heaven he would throw himself into a coil, sound his alarm and strike at the angels passing by. Why? Because the snake is a snake.<\/p>\n

This sin of nature of depravity digs up by the root any idea of salvation by external ordinances. I recall an illustration before a Sunday school by Harvey Chamberlain, who desired to impress the lesson in Joh 3:7<\/span> , “Ye must he born again.” He had provided a basin of water with soap and a sealed bottle of ink, and called on the little fellows to come up and wash the black off of that bottle. The outside washing only revealed the blackness yet more. The “”Lowest sham ever imposed upon the credulity and gullibility of exceedingly simple folk is the doctrine of literally washing away sins in baptism. Grace finds us by nature the children of wrath that is the original sin. Then it found us dead in trespasses and sins that is practice. From that basis it starts by making alive, or making sensitive, which is the initial touch of the Holy Spirit, superinducing in us contrition, or Godly sorrow for sin, repentance, or a change of mind toward God on account of sin, conversion, or turning from sin, and faith in Christ. So we are born anew.<\/p>\n

The second thought is, “dead in trespasses and sins.” These are expressions of the inward nature, and sustain the relation of fruit to the tree. They are symptomatic of the inward state. Our Lord declares that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, evil speech, and evil deeds. Notice the third thought. Dead by nature, dead by actual trespasses and sins, and now “walking according to the course of this world.” By the “course of this world” is meant its spiritual trend expressed in its maxims of business, pleasure and every form of selfishness. It erects its own shifting standard of right and wrong. It leaves God out. Yea, it is in its spirit and mind the enemy of God. But the course of the world is not the result of chance.<\/p>\n

This leads to the fourth thought that Satan is by usurpation the de facto prince and ruler of this world. There is a guiding intelligence, the directing will of a master. So our text adds: “According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” What a succession of thought, and what a climax I Dead by nature, dead by practice, swept along on the tide of the world spirit, under the domination of Satan! What a hopeless outlook for salvation by human merit! What a predicate for salvation by grace! What a reinforcement of the thought in Paul’s commission, Act 26:17-18<\/span> : “Delivering thee from the [Jewish] people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me.” He is to “turn them from darkness to light”; so they are in darkness. He is to “turn them from the power of Satan unto God”; so they are under the power of Satan. “That they may receive remission of sins”; so they are unpardoned. “That they may receive an inheritance”; so they are bankrupt. “An inheritance among them that are sanctified”; so they are now unholy. “An inheritance among them that are sanctified through faith in Christ”; so they are without faith. Think of a preacher going out relying on himself to undertake a job like that I<\/p>\n

We are not through yet. “Among whom we also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” Those whom we found dead by nature, dead by practice) bound up in the chains of the world, under the power of the devil, are also found to be under the dominion of the desires of the flesh. As John puts it: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof” (1Jn 2:15-17<\/span> ). Or, as James puts it: “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” (Jas 4:4<\/span> ).<\/p>\n

The reader will note particularly the relation of good works to salvation, expressed both negatively and positively: Not of works” but created and saved “unto good works.” They do not cause or even contribute to salvation, but flow from it as a result. As our Lord puts it: “First make a tree good and then the fruit will be good.” Or, as Paul later expresses it: “For we also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God, our Saviour, and his love toward man appeared, not by the works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Faithful is the saying and concerning these things I desire that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works” (Tit 3:3-8<\/span> ). The relation of good works to salvation is here expressed very clearly.<\/p>\n

While good works before salvation are impossible, yet it is the instruction of saving grace that they follow salvation. So Paul again says: “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who” gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works” (Tit 2:11-14<\/span> ).<\/p>\n

Lest we might, by attributing some merit to faith, place it among good works antecedent to salvation, our text is careful to say, “and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” True, it is fairly questioned that the “gift” here is grammatically limited to faith. This matters nothing, since it includes faith; elsewhere most unequivocally faith itself is reckoned as a grace, a gift. Like repentance (Act 11:18<\/span> ) faith is a gift of grace before it is a human exercise, being a fruit of the regenerating Spirit (Phi 1:29<\/span> ; 2Pe 2:1<\/span> ; Act 13:48<\/span> ).<\/p>\n

Moreover, as the essence of faith is merely to receive an offered gift, its exercise cannot be classed as a work. The old hymn holds good:<\/p>\n

Grace first contrived the way To save rebellious man; And all the steps that grace display Which drew the wondrous plan.<\/p>\n

Grace led my roving feet To tread the heavenly road; And new supplies each hour I meet While pressing on to God.<\/p>\n

Grace all the work shall crown, Through everlasting days; It lays in heaven the topmost stone, And well deserves the praise.<\/p>\n

Let us note particularly that the whole paragraph on salvation by grace is clothed with the imagery of creation, with an evident comparative reference to the Genesis creation, Creation is the bringing into being without the use of pre-existing material, so that “what is seen hath not been made out of the things which appear,” and so “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” This imagery absolutely excludes and forbids the idea of any antecedent good or merit in the subjects of grace. Indeed, redemption is a much higher order of creation than the Genesis creation and deserves and obtains another memorial, as we will later learn from the letter to the Hebrews, which shows that when God had finished the original creation he sanctified the seventh day to commemorate it; but when Jesus finished the creation of redemption, he also rested from his work, as God had done from his, and so “there remaineth a sabbath-keeping for the children of God” a first day of the week to commemorate the new creation, after Christ had nailed to his cross and blotted out the whole cycle of Jewish sabbaths. (Heb 4:9-10<\/span> ; Col 2:14-17<\/span> ).<\/p>\n

The creative idea in salvation is according to the power put forth when Jesus was raised from the dead and exalted to the throne of the universe. This power is infinitely superhuman. Regeneration is a spiritual resurrection from the dead (Eze 37:1-14<\/span> ; Joh 5:25-26<\/span> ). The bones in the valley were very dry. There was no life power in them. Only after the divine breath was breathed on these bones did they live.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the sinners dead by nature, dead by practice, borne as dead, nonresisting leaves on the tidal course of this world, a course impelled by Satan, until like a frail boat in the suction of Niagara whose fall just ahead is like the doom of eternity pointing, I say, to such sinners, we may re-echo the words of Jehovah to Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?” The only possible answer is, “Not of themselves only by God’s creative power of grace.”<\/p>\n

The reader will notice the distinction in idea between the salvation in Eph 2:1-10<\/span> , and the salvation arising from redemption, justification, and adoption in Galatians and Romans. Here the salvation is in us; there it is for us. There the salvation is in relation to its legal aspects; here, to its spiritual effects. Redemption is Christ’s work justification and adoption, the Father’s work on account of Christ’s work. Regeneration, sanctification, and glorification are the Spirit’s work applying the benefits of Christ’s work. It is not meant that Romans and Galatians leave out the Spirit’s work, but that the prison letters change the emphasis and stress the internal salvation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. What are the four thoughts in Eph 1:22-23<\/span> ?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2. What two ideas involved in “The head of the church?”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

3. Where now is “the Head of the church?”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

4. How, then, does “the head” in heaven rule the church on earth?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

5. What impious claims have been made as to a human, vicar, or vice-regent?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

6. When and by what act was the capstone put on the Roman papacy?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

7. What is meant by “Christ head over all things to the church?” Illustrate by the Great Commission.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

8. Comparing the Great Commission to a suspension bridge, what is the anchorage on either shore?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

9. What idea is involved when the church is called the body of Christ, the head, and what the distinction between this idea and the idea of headship in regard to the execution of the Great Commission just considered.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

10. In what three senses does the New Testament use the word “church” and how do you apply the double idea of headship to the triple idea of the church?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

11. On whom must I look to find the fulness of God, the Father?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

12. Where must I look to find the fulness of Christ? Illustrate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

13. In the paragraph Eph 2:1-10<\/span> , what the first thought?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

14. What is the first way ill which the sinner’s deadness is expressed? Illustrate by the snake and ink bottle. What the bearing of this deadness on the dogmas of salvation by external ordinances?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

15. What is the second thought of the deadness and its relations to the first? Illustrate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

16. What is the third thought of the deadness, and what the appropriate scriptures?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

17. What is the fourth thought, and what the appropriate scriptures from other books of the New Testament? Illustrate by Paul’s commission.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

18. What is the relation of “good works” to this salvation, and what the proof texts?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

19. What is the imagery of this whole passage, and how does this support the teaching so far?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

20. What sabbath commemorated the material creation?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

21. What is the additional idea underlies the Jewish sabbath?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

22. What scriptures prove the abrogation of the Jewish sabbath?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

23. What sabbath supersedes and commemorates the greater work of redemption?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

24. Cite passages to prove the creative idea in the Spirit’s application of our Lord’s redemption.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

25. What distinction in the idea of salvation in Eph 2:1-10<\/span> from the idea in Galatians and Romans arising from redemption, justification, and adoption?<\/p>\n

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

22<\/strong> .] and subjected all things under His feet<\/strong> (from the Messianic Psa 8<\/span> ; not without an allusion also in , &c. above to Psa 110:1<\/span> : not merely cited, as Thdrt., . , but interwoven into the context, being a summing up of all mentioned before), and gave<\/strong> (‘ presented<\/em> ;’ keep the literal sense: not ‘ appointed<\/em> ;’ see below) HIM (emphatic, from its position: HIM, thus exalted, thus glorified, the Father not only raised to this supereminence, but gave Him to His redeemed as their Head, &c.) as Head over all things to the Church<\/strong> (not as Chrys., in either of his alternatives: . (which would be ., or ), , , which is beside the context, in which no comparison is made between the gift of Christ and other blessings: nor as Beng., ‘Ecclesia, super omnia, super imperia, &c., quorum caput (?) Christus est, potest dicere, Christus est caput meum: ego sum corpus ejus,’ for this sense cannot possibly be extracted out of the words themselves : nor as Baumgarten, = , prcipue, potius quam cteris<\/em> , for, not to mention other objections, must surely be the same in meaning as before: nor can be masculine, as Jer., Anselm, al., and Wahl: nor, as Calv., ‘quia simul<\/em> plena rerum omnium potestas et administratio illi sit commissa:’ nor, with Harl., does find its limitation within the Church, so as not to apply to other things without it: nor is to be taken with ., summum caput<\/em> , as Olsh., all.: nor as Meyer, Stier, and Ellicott (edn. 1: in edn. 2, he interprets nearly as below), is another to be supplied before ., ‘gave Him, as Head over all things, as Head to the Church:’ nor is the dative a dat. commodi, as De W.: but the meaning is thus to be gained, from what follows: CHRIST is Head over all things: the Church is the BODY of Christ, and as such is the fulness of Him who fills all with all: the Head of such a Body, is Head over all things; therefore when God gives Christ as Head<\/em> to the church, He gives Him as Head over all things<\/em> to the church, from the necessity of the case. Thus what follows is epexegetical of this), which same<\/strong> (Church, ‘ qu quidem<\/em> ;’ hardly ‘ ut qu<\/em> ,’ “in virtue of her being,” as Meyer) is His BODY<\/strong> (not in a figure merely: it is veritably His Body: not that which in our glorified humanity He personally bears, but that in which He, as the Christ of God, is manifested and glorified by spiritual organization. He is its Head; from Him comes its life; in Him, it is exalted: in it, He is lived forth and witnessed to; He possesses nothing for Himself, neither His communion with the Father, nor His fulness of the Spirit, nor His glorified humanity, but all for His Church, which is in the innermost reality, HIMSELF; His flesh and His bones and therefore) the fulness<\/strong> ( <\/strong> .<\/strong> is in apposition with ., and is a fresh description of . It would pass my limits, even to notice summarily what has been written on <\/strong> . I will endeavour to give an account of the word itself. Like other derivatives in – from the perfect passive, it would appear primarily to designate either (1) concrete, that thing on which the action denoted by the verb has passed: e.g. , the thing made, , the thing done, , the thing sown, , the thing filled<\/em> : or (2) abstract, that occurrence whereby the action denoted has been exemplified: e.g. , the effect of , not the thing wounded, but the wound inflicted: so , , and the like; , the fulness<\/em> . From this latter, the transition is very easy to the meaning the thing whereby<\/em> the effect is produced, as where is used for the crew of a ship (see also Mat 9:16<\/span> [5] ; Mar 6:43<\/span> ; 1Co 10:26<\/span> ; Gal 4:4<\/span> ; Eph 1:10 ), for a bridge or yoke, &c. Hence arises the so-called active<\/em> sense of such nouns, which is not in fact an active sense at all, but a logical transference from the effect to that which exemplifies the effect. Here, the simple and primary meaning is by far the best, ‘ the thing filled<\/em> ,’ “ the filled up receptacle<\/em> ” (cf. , ch. Eph 2:22 ), as Eadie expresses it (see also Ellicott), the meaning being, that the church, being the Body of Christ, is dwelt in and filled by God: it is His in an especial manner His fulness abides in it, and is exemplified by it. The nearest approach to any one word in English which may express it, is made by fulness<\/strong> , though it, as well as ., requires explaining, as importing not the inherent plenitude of God Himself, but that communicated plenitude of gifts and graces wherein He infuses Himself into His Church. I would refer those who wish to enter more fully into this matter, to the long and laboured notes of Harless, and Stier: and to Fritzsche on Rom. vol. ii. pp. 469 ff.) of Him who filleth<\/strong> (it is doubted whether <\/strong> is passive, or middle in an active sense. Those who take above, actively, “ the filling up<\/em> ,” generally (Harless is an exception) defend the passive sense here, “of Him who is (being) filled, &c.” So Chrys: , . , , . . Jer.: “Sicut adimpletur imperator, si quotidie ejus augeatur exercitus, et fiant nov provinci, et populorum multitudo succrescat, ita et Christus, in eo, quod sibi credunt omnia, ipse adimpletur in omnibus;” and Estius: “Qui secundum omnia, sive quoad omnia in omnibus sui corporis membris adimpletur. Nisi enim essent hic quidem pes ejus, ille vero manus, alius autem aliud membrum non perficeretur Christus secundum rationem capitis.” But to this it is difficult to assign any satisfactory sense, especially on account of . It certainly cannot be said that Christ awaits His completion, in any such meaning as this, by the completion of his Church. And it is not probable that if such had been the meaning, would have thus barely and emphatically preceded the participle which itself conveyed so new and startling an idea. We should have had some such arrangement as this ( .) . If now we take in an active reflective sense, both meaning and arrangement will be satisfactory ‘ the fulness<\/em> (receptacle, filled and possessed) of Him who filleth<\/em> ’ . But are we justified in thus taking it? It seems so, from Xen. Hell. vi. 2. 14, . . See likewise Plato, Gorg. 106; Xen. Hell. v. 4. 56; vi. 2. 35: Demosth. p. 1208. 14: Plut. Alcib. 35: Pollux i. 99: in all of which the 1 aor. middle is thus used. Having then this authority as far as grammatical usage is concerned, we are further inclined to this rendering by ch. Eph 4:10<\/span> , where it is said of Christ, , <\/strong> , and the Apostle proceeds to enumerate the various gifts bestowed by Him on His Church. See further in note there) all things<\/strong> (the whole universe: not to be restricted in meaning. The Church is the special receptacle and abiding place the , of Him who fills all things) with all things<\/strong> (i.e. who is the bestower of all, wherever found. has been rendered ‘ every where<\/em> ’ (B.-Crus.): ‘ in every way<\/em> ’ (De W.): ‘ in every case<\/em> ’ (Harl.): and al.: but the Apostle’s own usage is our best guide, , ch. Eph 5:18<\/span> , and other reff., and directs us to the instrumental<\/em> or elemental meaning the thing with, or by, or in which as an element, the filling takes place. So that the expression will mean, with all<\/em> , not only gifts, not only blessings, but things<\/em> : who fills all creation with whatever it possesses who is the Author and Giver of all things. The reference is, I think, to the Father, not to Christ. The latter has been imagined (see especially Ellicott), principally from strictly parallelizing the two clauses, | [6] , | . . . [7] . But this is by no means conclusive: the second definitive clause may assert more than the first; may be, not subordinate to the first, but inclusive of it. In ch. Eph 4:10<\/span> , where Christ’s filling all things is spoken of, we have the active voice, denoting the bare objective fact: whereas here the reciprocal middle implies a filling for Himself, which can hardly be predicated of any but the Father, for whom are all things, even the Son himself).<\/p>\n

[5] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25<\/span> , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place<\/em> in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note<\/em> on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified<\/em> , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others<\/em> .<\/p>\n

[6] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25<\/span> , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place<\/em> in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note<\/em> on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified<\/em> , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others<\/em> .<\/p>\n

[7] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25<\/span> , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place<\/em> in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note<\/em> on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified<\/em> , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others<\/em> .<\/p>\n

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22<\/span> . : and He put all things under His feet<\/em> . The is coordinate with the previous . These two things God did: He wrought His mighty power in raising and exalting Christ and He subjected all things to Him. The idea expressed by the here is not the limited idea of a subjection of opposing objects, which we have in 1Co 15:27<\/span> , but the wider idea of placing all created things under the sovereignty of Christ. The words recall those of Psa 8:7<\/span> , but do not give these in the form of a quotation. That Psalm speaks of Man as he was meant by God to be, with dominion over all the creatures. Here that ideal is presented as made real in Christ, the exalted, sovereign Christ. The act referred to, therefore, by the aor. may be the definite gift of absolute dominion consequent on the exaltation. The raising of Christ to God’s right hand was followed by the placing of all things under His feet and making Him, de facto<\/em> , sovereign over all. : and gave Him as head over all things to the Church<\/em> . The RV agrees with the AV and the Bishops’ Bible in rendering it “and gave Him to be<\/em> head”. Tynd. and Cran. have “hath made Him above all things the head”; the Rhemish, “hath made Him head over all the Church”. The two ideas of Christ’s Headship over all things and His Headship over the Church appear to be in the statement. The question is how they are related, and what is the precise idea attaching to each of the significant terms. The is not to be taken in the technical sense of appointed, installed<\/em> (as expressed by , ), but, as is indicated by the simple dat. , in its ordinary sense of gave<\/em> . Christ in the capacity or position here ascribed to Him is presented as a gift<\/em> of God to the Church. Having exalted Him to the highest and invested Him with supreme dominion, God gives<\/em> Him to the Church. The in must have the sense it has in , not “all authorities<\/em> ,” but “all things<\/em> ”. The , therefore, must express an absolute headship over all the created world, visible and invisible, not a particular, higher headship over other subordinate headships, Apostles, Bishops, etc., in the Church. Further, as the subsequent statement about the shows, it must have the full sense of head<\/em> , organic head, and neither that of sum<\/em> nor that of highest dignity<\/em> only. The term , again, obviously has here its widest Christian sense. Used by the Greeks to designate an assembly of the people called for deliberation<\/em> ( cf.<\/em> Act 19:39<\/span> ), and by the LXX as the equivalent of the Hebrew , the congregation of Israel<\/em> , especially when called in religious convention (Deu 31:30<\/span> , etc.), it expresses in the NT the idea of the fellowship or assembly of believers meeting for worship or for administration. And it expresses this in various degrees of extension, ranging from the small company gathering for worship in one’s house (the , Rom 16:5<\/span> ; 1Co 16:19<\/span> , etc.), or the single congregation of village or city (Act 5:11<\/span> ; Act 8:3 ; 1Co 4:17<\/span> , etc.), to the larger Christian communities of provinces and countries ( , , , 1Co 16:1 ; 1Co 16:19<\/span> ; 2Co 8:1<\/span> ; Gal 1:2<\/span> ; Gal 1:22<\/span> ), and finally to the Church universal, the Church collectively, the whole fellowship of believers throughout the world ( Mat 16:18 ; 1Co 12:28<\/span> ; Phi 3:6<\/span> ; Col 1:18<\/span> ; Col 1:24<\/span> , etc.). Here and in the other occurrences in this Epistle the word has this largest extension of meaning, with the further mystical idea of a unity vitally related to Christ, incorporated in Him, and having His life in it. If the terms then are to be so understood, how is their connection in the sentence to be construed? The is immediately dependent on , and cannot well be taken as a dat. commodi<\/em> =“for the good of the Church” (De Wette), as if it were attached immediately to the . The may then be taken either as in apposition<\/em> to “gave Him, head over all things, to the Church,” i.e.<\/em> , gave Him, this<\/em> head over all things, to the Church (Chrys., Stier, etc.); or as having a predicative force “gave Him as head overall things” (Ell., etc.). The latter is to be preferred both as the easier construction and as more congruous with the anarthrous . Thus the purport of the clause is that God, in giving Christ to the Church, gave Him in the capacity<\/em> of Head over all things. There is no distinction or comparison, therefore, between two headships, as if one were over the world or over the state, and the other over the Church. Christ’s Headship over the Church, so far as this clause is concerned, is rather implied than expressed. The idea of the Headship over the Church is more distinctly conveyed by the sentence which follows, with the further description of the Church as the . Here the great idea is still that of the Headship of Christ over all things. Having that supremacy He is given by God to the Church, and as given in the capacity of universal Head He is given to the Church as her Head also.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

hath. Omit. <\/p>\n

put, &c. Compare 1Co 15:27. <\/p>\n

under. App-104. <\/p>\n

the. Omit. <\/p>\n

over. App-104. <\/p>\n

church. App-186. Here, the “church” of the Mystery. In these verses: note the sevenfold (App-10) Headship of the Lord, above (1) all principality, (2) power, (3) might, (4) dominion, (5) every name, (6) all things, (7) the church. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

22.] and subjected all things under His feet (from the Messianic Psalms 8; not without an allusion also in , &c. above to Psa 110:1 : not merely cited, as Thdrt., . , but interwoven into the context, being a summing up of all mentioned before), and gave (presented; keep the literal sense: not appointed; see below) HIM (emphatic, from its position: HIM, thus exalted, thus glorified, the Father not only raised to this supereminence, but gave Him to His redeemed as their Head, &c.) as Head over all things to the Church (not as Chrys.,-in either of his alternatives: . (which would be ., or ), , ,-which is beside the context, in which no comparison is made between the gift of Christ and other blessings: nor as Beng., Ecclesia, super omnia, super imperia, &c., quorum caput (?) Christus est, potest dicere, Christus est caput meum: ego sum corpus ejus,-for this sense cannot possibly be extracted out of the words themselves : nor as Baumgarten, = , prcipue, potius quam cteris,-for, not to mention other objections, must surely be the same in meaning as before: nor can be masculine, as Jer., Anselm, al., and Wahl: nor, as Calv., quia simul plena rerum omnium potestas et administratio illi sit commissa: nor, with Harl., does find its limitation within the Church, so as not to apply to other things without it: nor is to be taken with ., summum caput, as Olsh., all.: nor as Meyer, Stier, and Ellicott (edn. 1: in edn. 2, he interprets nearly as below), is another to be supplied before ., gave Him, as Head over all things, as Head to the Church: nor is the dative a dat. commodi, as De W.: but the meaning is thus to be gained, from what follows: CHRIST is Head over all things: the Church is the BODY of Christ, and as such is the fulness of Him who fills all with all: the Head of such a Body, is Head over all things; therefore when God gives Christ as Head to the church, He gives Him as Head over all things to the church, from the necessity of the case. Thus what follows is epexegetical of this), which same (Church, qu quidem; hardly ut qu, in virtue of her being, as Meyer) is His BODY (not in a figure merely: it is veritably His Body: not that which in our glorified humanity He personally bears, but that in which He, as the Christ of God, is manifested and glorified by spiritual organization. He is its Head; from Him comes its life; in Him, it is exalted: in it, He is lived forth and witnessed to; He possesses nothing for Himself,-neither His communion with the Father, nor His fulness of the Spirit, nor His glorified humanity,-but all for His Church, which is in the innermost reality, HIMSELF; His flesh and His bones-and therefore) the fulness (. is in apposition with ., and is a fresh description of . It would pass my limits, even to notice summarily what has been written on . I will endeavour to give an account of the word itself. Like other derivatives in – from the perfect passive, it would appear primarily to designate either (1) concrete, that thing on which the action denoted by the verb has passed: e.g. , the thing made, , the thing done, , the thing sown, , the thing filled: or (2) abstract, that occurrence whereby the action denoted has been exemplified: e.g. , the effect of , not the thing wounded, but the wound inflicted: so , , and the like; , the fulness. From this latter, the transition is very easy to the meaning the thing whereby the effect is produced, as where is used for the crew of a ship (see also Mat 9:16 [5]; Mar 6:43; 1Co 10:26; Gal 4:4; Eph 1:10), for a bridge or yoke, &c. Hence arises the so-called active sense of such nouns, which is not in fact an active sense at all, but a logical transference from the effect to that which exemplifies the effect. Here, the simple and primary meaning is by far the best,-the thing filled,-the filled up receptacle (cf. , ch. Eph 2:22), as Eadie expresses it (see also Ellicott), the meaning being, that the church, being the Body of Christ, is dwelt in and filled by God: it is His in an especial manner-His fulness abides in it, and is exemplified by it. The nearest approach to any one word in English which may express it, is made by fulness, though it, as well as ., requires explaining, as importing not the inherent plenitude of God Himself, but that communicated plenitude of gifts and graces wherein He infuses Himself into His Church. I would refer those who wish to enter more fully into this matter, to the long and laboured notes of Harless, and Stier: and to Fritzsche on Rom. vol. ii. pp. 469 ff.) of Him who filleth (it is doubted whether is passive, or middle in an active sense. Those who take above, actively, the filling up, generally (Harless is an exception) defend the passive sense here, of Him who is (being) filled, &c. So Chrys: , . , , . . Jer.: Sicut adimpletur imperator, si quotidie ejus augeatur exercitus, et fiant nov provinci, et populorum multitudo succrescat, ita et Christus, in eo, quod sibi credunt omnia, ipse adimpletur in omnibus; and Estius: Qui secundum omnia, sive quoad omnia in omnibus sui corporis membris adimpletur. Nisi enim essent hic quidem pes ejus, ille vero manus, alius autem aliud membrum non perficeretur Christus secundum rationem capitis. But to this it is difficult to assign any satisfactory sense, especially on account of . It certainly cannot be said that Christ awaits His completion, in any such meaning as this, by the completion of his Church. And it is not probable that if such had been the meaning, would have thus barely and emphatically preceded the participle which itself conveyed so new and startling an idea. We should have had some such arrangement as this- (.) . If now we take in an active reflective sense, both meaning and arrangement will be satisfactory-the fulness (receptacle, filled and possessed) of Him who filleth . But are we justified in thus taking it? It seems so, from Xen. Hell. vi. 2. 14, . . See likewise Plato, Gorg. 106; Xen. Hell. v. 4. 56; vi. 2. 35: Demosth. p. 1208. 14: Plut. Alcib. 35: Pollux i. 99: in all of which the 1 aor. middle is thus used. Having then this authority as far as grammatical usage is concerned, we are further inclined to this rendering by ch. Eph 4:10, where it is said of Christ, , , and the Apostle proceeds to enumerate the various gifts bestowed by Him on His Church. See further in note there) all things (the whole universe: not to be restricted in meaning. The Church is the special receptacle and abiding place-the , of Him who fills all things) with all things (i.e. who is the bestower of all, wherever found. has been rendered every where (B.-Crus.): in every way (De W.): in every case (Harl.): and al.: but the Apostles own usage is our best guide,- , ch. Eph 5:18, and other reff., and directs us to the instrumental or elemental meaning-the thing with, or by, or in which as an element, the filling takes place. So that the expression will mean, with all, not only gifts, not only blessings, but things: who fills all creation with whatever it possesses-who is the Author and Giver of all things. The reference is, I think, to the Father, not to Christ. The latter has been imagined (see especially Ellicott), principally from strictly parallelizing the two clauses,- | [6], | . . . [7]. But this is by no means conclusive: the second definitive clause may assert more than the first;-may be, not subordinate to the first, but inclusive of it. In ch. Eph 4:10, where Christs filling all things is spoken of, we have the active voice, denoting the bare objective fact: whereas here the reciprocal middle implies a filling for Himself, which can hardly be predicated of any but the Father, for whom are all things, even the Son himself).<\/p>\n

[5] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.<\/p>\n

[6] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.<\/p>\n

[7] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Greek Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22. , hath put all things under His feet) 1Co 15:27.-) gave. Not, however, that Christ was not formerly Head of the Church, ch. Eph 5:25; Joh 3:29.- , above [over] all things) The Church, as being above all things, above authorities, etc., the Head of which [Eph 1:10, –, together under one Head, etc.] is Christ, Col 2:10, may say, Christ is my Head: I am His body. The dative of advantage to the Church is in contradistinction to the over, or above [all things].<\/p>\n

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22-23<\/p>\n

Eph 1:22-23<\/p>\n

and he put all things in subjection under his feet,-That same power had put all things pertaining to the church under the authority and rule of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body.-The church is the body of Christ on earth of which Christ is the head. Among animals the head is the center and source of life. Jesus stands as the head of the body, whence it receives instruction and life and vigor. The bodies of men controlled by the Spirit of God are the only manifestations of the church visible to men in the flesh. This relation of the church to Christ, represented by the body to the head, is a spiritual one and is regulated by the Spirit of the head permeating all the members of the body. But the Spirit does this through the word of truth he presents. Spiritual influences are directed to the spirit of man that thinks, considers, wills, purposes, and acts in accordance with that will.<\/p>\n

the fulness of him that filleth all in all.-In Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. In him is manifested to the world the fullness of the power, the wisdom, and the love of God. Of him the apostle says: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. (1Co 1:30). Jesus filled with all the fullness of God bestows the fullness of his blessings on his body, the church.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The Church<\/p>\n

The church, which is his body.Eph 1:22-23.<\/p>\n

1. Every article of the Creed is the subject of controversy. There are those who challenge the existence of God; there are those who dispute the Divinity of our Lord; there are those who deny the personality and presence of the Holy Ghost. But those who make such denials are for the most part outside the Christian Church. They are men who disbelieve in revealed religion altogether. When, however, we come to discuss the subject of the Church, we are entering upon what is a matter of angry debate amongst Christians themselves.<\/p>\n

Of all wars, the most bitter and disastrous are civil wars. The Church is an occasion of civil war amongst Christian folk; it stirs up internecine strife; it splits up Christian people into antagonistic and hostile camps. Right away from the days of the Donatist controversy to these days of ours, it has been the fruitful cause of division and conflict. Its disastrous effects are only too manifest; it has inflicted upon Christs cause infinitely more damage than all the attacks of critics and sceptics from Celsus down to Robert Blatchford; it has weakened the efforts of Christian people and paralysed their energies. The strength that ought to have been employed in fighting the world, the flesh and the devil, is frittered and wasted in mutual recrimination and strife. The swords that ought to be turned against a common enemy we turn against one another. Look at the Christian people of England at this time, rent and torn and divided as they are, suspicious of one another and often fiercely hostile to one another. Think of that miserable education controversy which has been, for all these years, embittering and poisoning the very springs of our social and national life. The quarrelto our shame be it saidis a quarrel amongst Christian people. If Christian people would only compose their differences, the quarrel would be settled in a week; but the quarrel drags its ugly length along, the interests of the child are sacrificed and the interests of religious instruction itself are jeopardized, all because Christian people cannot live together in peace and concord. This bitter strife, these fierce and incessant quarrels of oursthey give the devil his opportunity, but they must make the angels weep.<\/p>\n

Tell Mr. Horne, said the Bishop of London not very long ago, referring to some joint action he and Mr. Silvester Horne had taken for the moral welfare of the metropolis, and in which they had been brilliantly successfulTell Mr. Horne we can always win when we are united. Yes, united we could always win. In every great fight for liberty and righteousness and truth and purity, we could always win. We are baffled and beaten because, instead of being united, we are split up into a number of warring sects. Divide et impera! was the cynical advice of the Roman statesman; Divide and rule! Split up your opponents and so retain the supreme authority. Looking abroad over the religious condition of England, one is almost tempted to say that that has been the devils policy. He has sown seeds of dissension amongst the Christian people, and while they have been quarrelling, he has kept his power; he has split up our forces and beaten us in detail.1 [Note: J. D. Jones, Things Most Surely Believed, 147.] <\/p>\n

2. Unity will never be secured by banishing the question of the Church from our public speech; unity is to be gained only by arriving at right views about the Church. It is difference of view that keeps us apart at present; it is only a true understanding of the Church that will ever bring us together.<\/p>\n

Behind all the divisions and antagonisms I detect a real spiritual unity. And as I gaze at all these sects at war amongst themselves, I seem to behold them melt into a glorious and blessed fellowship. Behind these manifold and differing churches, I believe there is a Holy Catholic Church. Turn to your hymn-book, and you will see what I mean. Men who belonged to different churches, and who were separated from one another by ecclesiastical party walls, meet in our hymn-books; Roman Catholic, Anglican, Non-conformistthey jostle one another in its pages. When we want to sing the praises of Jesus, this is what we sing:<\/p>\n

Jesus, the very thought of Thee,<\/p>\n

With sweetness fills my breast;<\/p>\n

and it is the monk, Bernard, that leads our song. When we want to offer a prayer for guidance we cry:<\/p>\n

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,<\/p>\n

Lead Thou me on;<\/p>\n

and it is Cardinal Newman that leads our song. When we want to sing of our duty to foreign lands and heathen people, this is the hymn we sing:<\/p>\n

From Greenlands icy mountains,<\/p>\n

From Indias coral strand;<\/p>\n

and it is the Anglican Bishop Heber who leads our song. And when we want to sing of the sweet wonders of the Cross we say:<\/p>\n

In the Cross of Christ I glory,<\/p>\n

Towering oer the wrecks of time;<\/p>\n

and it is actually the Unitarian, Sir John Bowring, who leads our song. There is a Catholic Church. Even the most exclusive churches are constrained to acknowledge it. Isaac Watts never was allowed to preach in Westminster Abbey, but scarcely any great function takes place there but they sing Isaac Wattss hymn:<\/p>\n

O God, our help in ages past,<\/p>\n

Our hope for years to come.<\/p>\n

There is a Catholic Church. Behind all our divisions there is a great and blessed unity.1 [Note: J. D. Jones, Things Most Surely Believed, 159.] <\/p>\n

3. The doctrine of the Church reaches its completest statement in the Epistle to the Ephesians, and perhaps the words of the text sum up the Apostles teaching. We do not sufficiently recognize the ardour of faith which glows in St. Pauls language. Christianity was then a very small thing in the world; it had behind it no famous history, rich in heroic and saintly memories; it had not expressed itself in a vast and various literature, including the masterpieces of the human mind; it did not preside over the worlds proudest civilization. Christianity was the creed of a few obscure communities scattered thinly over the Roman Empire, and composed mostly of the humblest members of societyslaves, freed-men, poor artisans. The Apostle could be under no delusions on the subject; and, as a matter of fact, he was now in prison at Rome, in a position well calculated to chasten enthusiasm. Yet he writes in these sublime terms of the Church. The little Christian congregations become transformed by his ardent faith. He sees them inspired with Divine energies, commissioned for eternal destinies, crowned with heavenly beauty. All the world is petty in comparison with them; they are marked out for universal sway. All history leads up to them, and in their fortunes is bound up the welfare of the nations. They enshrine the hopes of the human race, for they carry the graces of the Redemption. The historic triumph of Christ finds in them its visible expression; they are the instrument of His conquests.<\/p>\n

The work which Christ came to do on earth was not completed when He passed from the sight of men: He, the Head, needed a body of members for its full working out through the ages: part by part He was, as St. Paul says, to be fulfilled in the community of His disciples, whose office in the world was the outflow of His own. And on the other hand His disciples had no intelligible unity apart from their ascended Head, who was also to them the present central fountain of life and power.1 [Note: F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, 148.] <\/p>\n

The subject is the Church as the Body of Christ. We may consider<\/p>\n

I.The Use of the Words Church and Body.<\/p>\n

II.The Ideal Church.<\/p>\n

III.The Ideal made Actual.<\/p>\n

I<\/p>\n

The Words Church and Body.<\/p>\n

1. Church.The word Church is used in the New Testament upwards of one hundred and ten times; and the fact that it occurs so frequently, and that it is used in the most solemn and important connexions, is sufficient proof of its pre-eminent importance, and sufficient reason why our ideas of its significance should be consistent and luminous.<\/p>\n

(1) In not one single instance is the word used to describe a building, whether of stone or of other material, of imposing splendour or of humble pretensions. When the places in which we meet for the worship of God are called by this sacred name, it is by that common figure of speech by which ideas are transferred from the thing itself to the principal instrument, or means, by which it is embodied, or represented. Thus, when we speak of the power of the press, we mean not the mere iron or steel of which it is constructed, but the thoughts and ideas and information that are by its means multiplied and spread abroad.<\/p>\n

(2) Fundamentally, the word is an assembly; not ecclesiastical, but civil. Nor is it used exclusively in the ecclesiastical sense in the New Testament. The town clerk of Ephesus dismissed the assembly. The word used by St. Luke would bear the interpretation that he set free the Church. But there is no confusion in the use of the term; there is no doubt in which cases it means the Church, and in which cases it means something else.<\/p>\n

(3) But even when the meaning is a Christian one, it is not always the same. There is more than a shade of difference between one case and another, and the difference is important. For example, we have mention of the church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila, and of the church in the house of Philemon; and of Lydia being baptized, and her household. In these cases it may imply the family, and a few surrounding neighbours who were in the habit of meeting for common prayer.<\/p>\n

(4) It is used next of the Churches or assemblies of Christians in particular localities, as when we read of the Church of Jerusalem, or the Churches of Asia or Galatia, or the Church that is in Corinth.<\/p>\n

(5) Lastly, it is used of the whole body of believers in all times and in all places, as when our Lord said, Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; or, as when St. Paul describes it as the pillar and ground of the truth.<\/p>\n

It is this last and widest use of the word that is characteristic of the great Epistle to the Ephesians. When St. Paul talks about Christ being Head of all things to the Church, when he talks about Christ loving the Church and giving Himself for it, it is not simply the Church at Ephesus he is thinking of, but that greater Church, that universal Church, which embraces and includes the holy and the loving and the good everywhere.<\/p>\n

2. Body.The only point about the use of the word body to be observed at present is the distinction between Christs body which He took of Mary and His body which is the Church. Christs body which He took of Mary He wears in Heaven. He is manifested there in it, as the Lamb as it had been slain, i.e. with the wound-prints upon Him. He wears for ever the robe of our nature, the glorified yet real human form; the angels see it. But He is manifested on earth in His mystical or spiritual body, which in some way expresses and manifests Him. He is clothed in a body here, He is still incarnate here in the Church, He still acts and speaks among men. So He said again and again, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. The world seeth me no more; but ye see meye, the disciples; i.e. those who in every age have eyes to see.<\/p>\n

Why did our Lord institute the Church in the world? What is the one great doctrine? It is summed up in words the most exact that human speech could findthe Church, the immortal Body of Christ. That body which was mortal here, and was so marvellously changed, has gone up yonder, but the immortal body of Christ is here; the body in which He lives, still to speak the truth of God, to work the works of God, with these folded hands to plead as intercessors. Oh! for the Church, the body of our Lord, that it might wear on earth the beauty of the Lord, and be His representative on earth until He come!1 [Note: Life of J. B. Paton, 287.] <\/p>\n

II<\/p>\n

The Ideal Church<\/p>\n

1. The Church doctrine of this Epistle is inestimably precious. The word Church occurs frequently. We have it here, in a connexion high as the heavens, and full of the very deepest spiritual suggestions. We have it in chapter Eph 3:10, where the Church is beheld as the scene in which, even now, the governments and the authorities in the celestial regions get informed of the variegated wisdom of God, according to His purpose of the ages. We have it again in Eph 3:21, where glory is given to the Eternal Father, in the Church, in Christ Jesus, throughout eternity. And in the fifth chapter (23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 32) we have it set fully before us as the Bride and Spouse of the Lord Himself. He is the Churchs Head, the Saviour of the Body; it is subject to Him, with wifely reverence; He loved it, He gave Himself for it, to hallow it, to cleanse it by the bathing of the water attended by an utterance, to present it to Himself glorified, spotless, holy. He nourishes it and cherishes it. He and His Spouse are one.<\/p>\n

Here is on the one hand an Ecclesia which is lifted for our view far above mere terrestrial and visible limitations. The one allusion to the external is the reference to the water, but even this is at once so connected with the utterance () of the everlasting Covenant as to point us straight through the ordinance to the heavenly blessing which it seals. The whole conception soars in the high air of direct spiritual relations between the Lord and a redeemed Company, whose units are all joined in an ineffable reality of faith and love to Him, and so member to member. We may call it the Ideal Church. We may call it the Invisible, in the sense of invisibility which points to an Organism seen in its true limits and relations by God alone. Yet it is a something which refuses to be really identified with any one organization, or aggregate of organizations, officered and tabulated by human ministers. It is related more nearly, may we not say, to heaven than to earth. It is, in its essence, with Christ where He is. It is the wonder of angels. It is the sphere within which glory is given to God as much in eternity (Eph 3:21) as in time. It (not parts of it, but it) is to be presented to its Lord at last in the heavenly light. Let us beware of lowering the radiant sublimity of the conception by definitions of the Church essentially conditioned by time.<\/p>\n

There is a particular conception of the nature of the Church to which I desire to give prominence and distinctness, believing that in this conception is to be found the key which will reduce into order the various notions which the word Church sets floating in our minds. In our Collect for All Saints Day the term mystical is associated with the Church, or we should say that the Collect is describing the Church when it speaks of knitting together Thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of Thy Son Christ our Lord. To many, perhaps, the word mystical is nearly the same as mysterious: others would explain it as meaning spiritual. I would suggest that the nearest modern equivalent to it in this place would be ideal. The mystical body of Christ is a body which exists in idea. The Church is primarily an idea of the living Godan idea, not as we should speak of your idea or mine or any other mans, but, what is a very different thing, an idea of God, and of a God who lives and works, and in the creative mind a foreordained purpose which God is working out by degrees in the world of His creatures.1 [Note: J. Ll. Davies.] <\/p>\n

2. Is there any better way out of our difficulties than to lay hold of that conception of the Church as an ideal body which St. Paul suggests to us? In thinking thus of the Church we start from God and Christ, and not from visible organizations. We find the substance and reality of the Church, not in the forms with which it clothes itself in the development of the ages, but in the purposes of God which He is revealing to us in history. We may gain some help by thinking of the design of a picture or a group of sculpture which exists in the artists mind. The work has reached a certain stage, but we cannot say that this, as it stands, is the picture or the sculpture. We have received perhaps some notion of what is in the artists mind, but we do not think of the incomplete material representation as the work of art, as the artists creation. The Apostles have given us the conception of a body of Christ, which they themselves derive, not so much from verbal instruction as from the ardent contemplation of Christ Himself. They saw that Christ raised and exalted was a Head who must have a body; they looked round on the societies which they had been impelled to form, and this helped them to conceive what a perfect body of Christ might be. They beheld an immeasurable number of human beings all attached by spiritual apprehension to Christ, fulfilling the most various functions, in the happiest harmony with each other, and so leading to the growth and perfection of the whole body; they believed in this design of God as working creatively in the formation of Christian societies, in a Divine power, the same as that which brought in the exaltation of Christ, continually urging design into outward, living fulfilment. If ever the question arose, What is fundamentally and distinctively the Church? the inquirer would be referred to the Divine pattern, that heavenly conception of Christ with associated men into which actual Christian life, with its manifold imperfections, was by Divine energy being built up. The Church of God was both visible and invisible, but it was the invisible form that was satisfactory, permanent, unifying, complete.<\/p>\n

If in our own time, seeking for the true Church, we can look through visible societies and members to the real pattern of God, we should not allow our faith to be too much disturbed by the scene which Christendom presents to our view. It is in many respects a shocking scene, with its divisions and corruptions, its faithlessness and its strife, contradicting, one might be tempted to say, the elementary conception of a Catholic Church. But the Divine energy in its marvellous condescension is content to work with the materials of human weakness and perversity, and our joy must be to recognize an institution of apostolic authority, a living expression, revealing the Divine idea of humanity and tending towards visible fulfilment of it.1 [Note: J. Ll. Davies.] <\/p>\n

This is the difficulty of all the highest service of life, namely, that the spiritual is invisible, and yet omnipotent; public attention is fixed upon the human agent, and professions of spiritual inspiration and impulse are treated with distrust, if not with contempt, by the most of mankind. It is the invisible Christ who is with the Church. Were He present manifestly, it is supposed that greater results would accrue from Christian service; but the supposition must be mistaken, inasmuch as He to whom such service is infinitely dearer than it ever can be to ourselves has determined the manner of Christian evangelization. What, then, is the great duty and privilege of the Church? It is to realize the presence and influence of the Invisible. The Church is actually to see the Unseen.2 [Note: J. Parker.] <\/p>\n

3. Except as an ideal, except as a vision, the perfect outward symmetry and beauty have never yet been seen, because the professing Church and the true Church have never yet been coextensive. The magnificent conception of the perfect spiritual temple in all its majestic proportions has never been realized. You can see the great outline, you can admire the grand simplicity and the marvellous harmony of the design, as you may in some great Cathedral on whose glorious beauty Time has laid his defacing hand; but as in that there may be the crushed and defaced pillar, and the ugly rents and fissures and gaps even in the central tower, so the visible Church of Christ has been torn by heresies and schisms, her very safety threatened, her very central tower shaken and ready to fall, had not the hand of God stayed up her pillars and repaired her ruins.<\/p>\n

The situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yet, here in this miserable, despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest,here or nowhere is thy Ideal! Work it out therefrom!1 [Note: Carlyle.] <\/p>\n

Remember, it is the Ideal that rules the world, that moves the world; and the true Church of Christ is ever an ideal, a dream, a prophecy, a vision, an aspiration; but a dream, a prophecy, a vision of the future, in seeking after which is ever found the best hope for the practical life of the present. For it is the idealists, the seers of the race, who are ever the reformers; it is the men who see visions and dream dreams of possible progress and happiness, and not the pessimistic and social agnostics, who make the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.2 [Note: C. W. Stubbs.] <\/p>\n

The intense enthusiasm with which Mr. Gladstone entered into the subject and the object of the moment was apt to dim, if not obliterate, the little loves and affections which crowd the life of smaller men. The execution of his great work was the one thing in his eyes, and the instruments and tools he used were dearer to him than anything else; and the men associated with him at the moment were always greater than the men who had passed away. He became absorbed in the task, whatever it might be, which he had set himself to do; he was not one of those who, having put their hand to the plough, knew what it was to turn back.3 [Note: Algernon West, Recollections, ii. 33.] <\/p>\n

Have we not all, amid lifes petty strife,<\/p>\n

Some pure ideal of a noble life<\/p>\n

That once seemed possible? Did we not hear<\/p>\n

The flutter of its wings, and feel it near,<\/p>\n

And just within our reach? It was. And yet<\/p>\n

We lost it in this daily jar and fret,<\/p>\n

And now live idle in a vague regret.<\/p>\n

But still our place is kept, and it will wait,<\/p>\n

Ready for us to fill it, soon or late:<\/p>\n

No star is ever lost we once have seen,<\/p>\n

We always may be what we might have been.<\/p>\n

Since Good, though only thought, has life and breath,<\/p>\n

Gods lifecan always be redeemed from death;<\/p>\n

And evil, in its nature, is decay,<\/p>\n

And any hour can blot it all away;<\/p>\n

The hopes that lost in some far distance seem,<\/p>\n

May be the truer life, and this the dream.1 [Note: Adelaide Procter.] <\/p>\n

III<\/p>\n

The Ideal made Actual<\/p>\n

How is this ideal Church to be made the Church that we see and know? How is the Church to fulfil its office as the Body of Christ? How is it to be the Body of Christ in deed and in truth? That is the great question which when answered answers all other questions concerning the Church.<\/p>\n

1. The Church must establish a living relationship with the risen Lord.And gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body. The figure used by the Apostle shows what kind of relationship exists between Christ and His Church. In this relationship we see the fundamental truth, the central truth, the truth which contains every other truth, concerning the Church. One of the Old Testament prophetsIsaiahpoetically describes Gods constant remembrance of His own, Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. This poetic imagery has become a glorious fact in Jesus Christ. Through His Incarnation and Crucifixion and Resurrection, we can say that God now has the marks of the nails upon His hands which always make Him mindful of His own. As King and Head of the mediatory kingdom, Christ must have His people even as a sovereign must have his subjects. And they need not only His rule but also His Divine strength in them. The Church can never succeed without Christ. The risen Lord made the Church, the risen Lord keeps the Church, the risen Lord fills the Church all in all. That ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.<\/p>\n

The communion which the members of His body have with the Head is threefold. (1) It is a communion of mind. We have the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. (2) It is a communion of heart. Fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. The fellowship of his sufferings. (3) It is a communion of power. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. This threefold communion with the risen Lord is finely expressed in F. W. H. Myers Saint Paul:<\/p>\n

Then thro the mid complaint of my confession,<\/p>\n

Then thro the pang and passion of my prayer,<\/p>\n

Leaps with a start the shock of His possession,<\/p>\n

Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there.<\/p>\n

Scarcely I catch the words of His revealing,<\/p>\n

Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand,<\/p>\n

Only the Power that is within me pealing<\/p>\n

Lives on my lips and beckons to my hand.<\/p>\n

Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest<\/p>\n

Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny:<\/p>\n

Yea with one voice, O world, tho thou deniest,<\/p>\n

Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.<\/p>\n

2. The Church must recognize a real brotherhood among its members.We shall be helped to understand the meaning of the Apostles doctrine concerning the Church as a brotherhood if we see what he has written in other portions of his Epistles. In the text he declares that the Church is the body of Christ. He uses the same figure of speech many times. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members each in his part. Nothing can be clearer, in the light of these words, than that the Church of Jesus Christ means a real brotherhood among the members.<\/p>\n

A comparatively new method of Christian work is what is known as the Brotherhood Movement. The meetings of this movement are held mostly on Sunday afternoons, and they give a pleasant hour to thousands who never otherwise attend any place of worship. Doubtless the movement has been a boon and a blessing. The president of the movement recently said: We are part of organized Christianity, and we must ally our forces with other parts of Gods great army, and present to the world a united front, and together attack the forces of evil. In the same address he presented some of the perils of the movement, and sounded, not without reason, the note of warning. The Sunday school can speak of its losses through the pleasant enticements of the Brotherhood meetings. Experience will teach us how to avoid the perils, and to secure the best service and most helpful work in the one and the other. The gleams of Gods glory shine in buoyant hope wherever the truth of brotherhood is declared. The Church of Christ, which is His body, meets all human needs. The claims of brotherhood are recognized as being far-reaching. These claims are founded upon the relationship which exists between each member and the risen Lord. In Christ we are all brethren.1 [Note: J. C. Owen.] <\/p>\n

The name of brother carries with it a sweet and delectable sound, and is in itself an argument for peace. It is true that the complication of interests strangely relaxes the fraternal tie; brethren pursuing their fortune by the same path often jostle and hinder one another; but a common faith originates a true and perfect brotherhood, which nothing should ever be allowed to disturb. The beautiful ideal of brotherly kindness is always a reason for peace. Fraternal discord is an odious spectacle. Strife between those who should be friends is more grievous than an outbreak of plague. Quarrels among brethren are always unnatural, and in the presence of unbelieversthe Canaanite and the Perizzite in the landunspeakably mischievous. There is always a common foe around us, within earshot of our brawling and controversy, rejoicing in our internecine warfare, and watching for our fall. On the other hand, it is beautiful and impressive when men who are united by a common faith and hope live in love and peace. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!<\/p>\n

Religion should extinguish strife,<\/p>\n

And make a calm of human life.1 [Note: J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, i. 47.] <\/p>\n

3. The Church must fulfil its mission to the world.Through the Church, which is His body, Christ carries on the work of salvation. Thought cannot express itself apart from the body, even so Christ cannot carry on His work without His Church. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Over the waves of the ages sound the marching orders, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.<\/p>\n

It is as the Church realizes and expresses the mind and purpose of Christ, that He finds in it the reward of His great sufferings, the satisfaction of His beneficent desires. The stars obedient in their courses, and the flowers lovely in their season, are emblematic of a higher and an enduring perfection in the moral world, where men are won to Christ and choose His will as their highest good. His wisdom, and purity, and grace, and love will then become their abiding possessions, they will be transformed into His nature, and be filled with His disinterested affection, and be moved with a benevolence from whose all-comprehensive sweep nothing can escape.2 [Note: G. Packer.] <\/p>\n

By holding fast at home Christs truth in greater purity; by growth in love; by devotion deepened and increased; by more frequent and earnest communion; by a wider, more enduring, more steadfast unity; by being more filled with the Spirit; by being transfigured into Christs likeness; by sitting always beneath His Cross; by bearing His burden; by learning to do common things in a higher spirit of self-sacrifice and grateful love to Him;by those, beyond all other ways, shall we become able as a Church to cast abroad a brighter light of truth and to gather in more largely the fulness of the heathen to our Saviours fold.3 [Note: Bishop S. Wilberforce.] <\/p>\n

People think we missionaries go out to those parts of the world, and from morning to night do nothing but preach sermons. It is quite a mistake. It is not the preaching of a sermon so much as the living the life that tells on the native heart. It is by living a Divine life, by striving to follow in the footsteps of Him who came to express the Fathers love, that we win the heart of the savage, and raise him up to become a true man in Jesus Christ.1 [Note: James Chalmers; Autobiography and Letters, 274.] <\/p>\n

One holy Church of God appears<\/p>\n

Through every age and race,<\/p>\n

Unwasted by the lapse of years,<\/p>\n

Unchanged by changing place.<\/p>\n

From oldest time, on farthest shores,<\/p>\n

Beneath the pine or palm,<\/p>\n

One Unseen Presence she adores,<\/p>\n

With silence, or with psalm.<\/p>\n

Her priests are all Gods faithful sons,<\/p>\n

To serve the world raised up;<\/p>\n

The pure in heart, her baptized ones,<\/p>\n

Love her communion-cup.<\/p>\n

The truth is her prophetic gift,<\/p>\n

The soul her sacred page;<\/p>\n

And feet on mercys errand swift,<\/p>\n

Do make her pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

O living Church, thine errand speed,<\/p>\n

Fulfil thy task sublime;<\/p>\n

With bread of life earths hunger feed;<\/p>\n

Redeem the evil time!2 [Note: Samuel Longfellow.] <\/p>\n

The Church<\/p>\n

Literature<\/p>\n

Davies (J. Ll.), The Gospel and Modern Life, 1.<\/p>\n

Eyton (R.), The Apostles Creed, 143.<\/p>\n

Fyffe (D.), The Essentials of Christian Belief, 206.<\/p>\n

Goodman (J. H.), The Lordship of Christ, 1.<\/p>\n

Grant (W.), Christ our Hope, 303.<\/p>\n

Henson (H. H.), Ad Rem, 143.<\/p>\n

Howard (H.), The Conning Tower of the Soul, 45.<\/p>\n

Jones (J. D.), Things Most Surely Believed, 145.<\/p>\n

McConnell (S. D.), Sons of God, 27.<\/p>\n

Rainsford (M.), The Mystery of His Will, 149.<\/p>\n

Sampson (E. F.), Christ Church Sermons, 78.<\/p>\n

Smith (D.), Christian Counsel, 31.<\/p>\n

Varley (H.), Some Main Questions, 131.<\/p>\n

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xv. No. 1058.<\/p>\n

Westcott (B. F.), The Historic Faith, 113.<\/p>\n

Christian World Pulpit, xxxi. 155 (Perowne); xxv. 353 (Davies); xlix. 392 (Packer); lx. 211 (Stubbs); lxxix. 229 (Owen).<\/p>\n

Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., x. 257 (Goodwin).<\/p>\n

Homiletic Review, xxi. 143 (Davis).<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

put: Gen 3:15, Psa 8:6-8, Psa 91:13, 1Co 15:25-27, Heb 2:8 <\/p>\n

gave: Eph 4:15, Eph 4:16, 1Co 11:3, Col 1:8, Col 2:10, Col 2:19 <\/p>\n

to the: Eph 3:21, Mat 16:18, Act 20:28, 1Ti 3:15, Heb 12:22-24 <\/p>\n

Reciprocal: Exo 26:6 – one tabernacle 1Ki 5:3 – put Psa 2:6 – Yet Psa 18:39 – subdued Psa 18:43 – made Psa 69:29 – let thy Psa 103:19 – his kingdom Son 5:11 – head Son 7:5 – head Isa 9:6 – the government Jer 1:5 – and I ordained Eze 1:26 – over Eze 34:24 – a prince Mat 2:6 – a Governor Mar 2:28 – General Joh 3:35 – and Joh 13:3 – knowing Joh 17:26 – that Act 2:34 – The Lord 1Co 6:15 – your 1Co 10:17 – we being Eph 1:10 – he Eph 4:17 – that ye Eph 5:23 – even Col 1:18 – he is 1Ti 3:5 – the church Heb 12:23 – the general<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

THE CHURCH<\/p>\n

And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.<\/p>\n

Eph 1:22-23<\/p>\n

This phrase conveys to us a most startling thought, for it suggests to us this supreme truth that the idea of the Christ is incomplete without the idea of the Church, that the Church is the fullness, or, as we should render it, the completeness of the Christ. Our Blessed Lord is the second Adam. He is the elder among many brethren, and His Church completes the idea of the Christ or the Messiah. You could not have any higher conception of what the Church really is than this.<\/p>\n

I. The idea of the Church is absolutely vital.The Church of God is no mere convenient machinery for spreading the truth; the Church of God is no mere creation of a later agethe dream of some ecclesiastical minds in the Middle Ages. The Church of Christ is part of the Gospel. The Christian conception of salvation is not that of a series of isolated units, each purchasing its own individual safety, but it is salvation in the body; it is salvation under the limitations of the sacred fellowship; it is salvation in the Divine society; it is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

II. This idea of the Church is threatened in our own day and generation from at least three separate quarters.<\/p>\n

(a) It is threatened, first of all, by all that wealth of idea, for much of which we can heartily give thanks to God, that is associated with the rebound of thought from the materialism which dominated the middle period of the Victorian era. Now we have rushed into the opposite extreme of spiritualism, or into the extreme of the spiritual view of things. There has grown up along with this, quite logically, a kind of depreciation of the material; and even in certain Christian circles there has been developed an almost morbid hatred of outward form or organisation. One of the great leaders of modern thought in this connection has told us that we are to look for the Christ outside the Churches. Can you imagine St. Paul speaking in that way? Looking for the Christ outside the Churches! Why, the Church is the body, the fullness of Him Who all in all is being fulfilled. And the message of our Blessed Lord to the material world emphatically is not the depreciation of the body, not the depreciation of the outward, not the depreciation of the material. Wherever you find that idea, you can almost certainly trace the note of heresy.<\/p>\n

(b) It is threatened from the point of view of those who dream that the religion of the Early Christians approached in character the simplicity of the Quaker. But here in this Epistle from which I have quoted is clear evidence of what the early Christians believed. While certainly not earlier than a.d. 59, it is also certainly not later than a.d. 70. In it we have clearly revealed the whole idea, the majestic, the stupendous idea of the Church of Christ as present to the mind of the Apostle St. Paul.<\/p>\n

(c) It is also threatened from a third point of view, which is peculiar to our own day, and which has been largely evolved through the disunion of Christians in England. Statesmen, instead of frankly recognising the denominational principle as a good thing in itself, have attempted to create what is called a common Christianitythat is, the thinly attenuated residuum of religion after everything has been removed distinctive of any denomination; so we get that which Mr. Gladstone called a moral monster; we get the spectre of undenominationalism. We Churchmen are bound to maintain that there shall be no kind or sort of acceptance of a common Christianity which eliminates the idea of the Church or the idea of the Sacraments. To us emphatically this is not Christianity. That which to us is vital is left out.<\/p>\n

III. Two reflections in conclusion.<\/p>\n

(a) As we reflect upon the idea of the Church of Christ, we cannot but remember that in history the idea of the Church is anterior to the idea of the sacred writings. That is true of the Old Testament; but it is pre-eminently true of the New Testament. So we come back to first principles, and we realise that our Lord Jesus Christ did not design to spread His religion in the first instance by means of a book. No; He founded a Kingdoma Church. It was the Church that produced the book, and those early Christians, although they had not the Biblewe ought to be better than they, because God has given us this wonderful Bookthose early Christians had quite enough for salvation in the Creed, in the Church, in the Sacraments, in the proclamation of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

(b) The idea of the Church should teach us to enlarge our horizon. Death is a beginning, not an end. Death is the going away from this outlying colony back to the home country, where is the King, and where are the myriad members of the Empire of Jesus. As we fight on, let us always remember we are surrounded by the cloud of witnesses. Let us think of that greater Church beyond the veil.<\/p>\n

Rev. G. F. Holden.<\/p>\n

Illustration<\/p>\n

I always think that in some respects the most magnificent episode in the history of England is the spectacle of that little handful of Englishmen holding India at the time of the Mutiny. Everything seemed to be against them. Many people thought it was quite impossible that they could prevail, or that India could be saved. How did they prevail? They prevailed by what we call prestige; they prevailed because they realised Englands greatness; because over the seas they knew the ships of England were bringing the forces of England to the succour of her distressed sons in India; because they knew the power of the Old Country and her readiness to help, and so they were content to fight on against overwhelming odds until they won.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

(Eph 1:22.) -And put all things under His feet. The allusion is clearly to the language of the 8th Psalm. In the 110th Psalm the enemies of Messiah are specially referred to, and their subjugation is pictured out by their being declared to be His footstool. The allusion is not, however, in this clause, to enemies defeated and humbled, as Grotius, Rosenmller, Holzhausen, and Olshausen, to some extent, suppose. The apostle is describing the authority of the Saviour by this peculiar figure. It is no repetition of the idea in the preceding verse. That exhibits His honour, but this proclaims His imperial prerogative. Heb 2:8. The not only contains what has been specified, but leaves nothing excluded. The brow once crowned with thorns now wears the diadem of universal sovereignty; and that hand, once nailed to the cross, now holds in it the sceptre of unlimited dominion. He who lay in the tomb has ascended the throne of unbounded empire. Jesus, the brother-man, is Lord of all: He has had all things put under His feet-the true apotheosis of humanity. This quotation from the Psalms Theodoret names , for this old Hebrew ode plainly refers to man’s original dignity and supremacy – to the race viewed in unfallen Adam (Gen 1:26-28); but it also, as interpreted in Heb 2:6-7, as plainly refers to the Second Adam, or to humanity restored and elevated in Him-in Christ as its Representative and Crown. <\/p>\n

-and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. There is no reason for changing the ordinary meaning of , and rendering it appointed–as is suggested by Calvin, Beza, Harless, Meier, and Olshausen. In chap. Eph 4:11 we have the same verb. His occupancy of this exalted position is a Divine benefaction to the church; His appointment is the result of love, which gives with wise and willing generosity. Nay more, and with emphasis- -and Him He gave. The natural meaning of is thus sustained by the prefixing of the pronoun, and it governs the dative, , after it. This repetition of the pronoun intensifies the idea, and its position in this clause is emphatic-and Him, so exalted and invested, so rich in glory and power-even Him and none other, has He given as Head. <\/p>\n

The most difficult phrase is . The Vulgate merely evades the difficulty by its translation-supra omnem ecclesiam. The Syriac rendering is preferable:-Him who is over all hath He given to be Head, transposing the order of the words, a rendering followed by Chrysostom- ; and the same idea is adopted by Erasmus, Camerarius, Estius, and a-Lapide. The position of the words shows that qualifies . But in what sense? Not- <\/p>\n

1. In the vague sense of special. -in preference to all, as it is explained by Bodius and Baumgarten. Bodius thus paraphrases-Super omnia, nempe caetera superius enumerata, hoc est, prae aliis omnibus creaturis. Nor- <\/p>\n

2. In the general sense of Supreme Head, as is advocated by Beza, Rckert, Meier, Baumgarten-Crusius, Olshausen, Conybeare, Bisping, and de Wette. This exegesis gives the sense of above, as the highest head is the Head above all other heads. Koppe resolves it by -overtopping all; but no comparison of this nature seems to be in the apostle’s mind. Olshausen says, the apostles and prophets were also in a certain sense heads of the church, while Christ was- . But the has no such implied contrast in itself, and it naturally turns our attention to the previous verses, where the principalities and powers are not only pronounced to be inferior to Christ, but are affirmed to be under His special jurisdiction. <\/p>\n

3. The words may mean-He gave Him as Head over all things to the church, or He gave Him who is Head over all things to be Head to the church. The former of these renderings is expressed by Harless, Alford, and Ellicott in his second edition, the latter by Stier and Meyer. The difference is not very material. Meyer supposes that by a figure of speech called Brachyology, a second is understood. Matthiae, 634; Khner, 852; Jelf, 893. But there is no need of this shift-and the first exegesis is preferable (Madvig, 24, a); the noun being a species of what Donaldson calls tertiary predicates- 489. New Cratylus, 302. Christ is already declared by the apostle to be above all in position and power, ; but besides, He is by the Father’s gift to the church. The are not connected with Him as their , their relation to Him being merely denoted by ; but the church claims Him as its Head, yea, claims as its Head Him who is over all. Were the to be taken in the active sense of superintendence, the genitive would be employed, as Harless intimates; but it denotes here, above or beyond all in honour and prerogative, for in the New Testament with the accusative, has always this tropical meaning. Mat 10:24; Luk 16:8; Act 26:13; Php 2:9; Phm 1:16. The signification, therefore, is-This glorious Being, above all angelic essences, and having the universe at His feet, is, by Divine generosity, Head to the church, for the refers not to members of the church, as Jerome and Wahl argue and as Harless favours, but to things beyond the church, being equivalent to in the preceding clauses; nor is the word to be restricted to good angels, as Theophylact and OEcumenius seem to suppose. <\/p>\n

The noun is the name of the holy and believing community under the New Testament. Its meaning is obvious-the one company-, H7736, who have been called or summoned together to salvation. The church here spoken of is specially the church on earth, which stands in need of protection, though the church in heaven be equally related to Jesus, and equally enjoy the blessings of His Headship. Jerome, Nsselt, Koppe, and Rosenmller extend it to all good beings-an extension not warranted by the name or the context. The dative is not, as de Wette takes it, a dativus commodi, nor is it connected with the immediately preceding as its complement, but it belongs naturally to the verb . The relation of Christ to the church is not that of austere government, or lofty and distant patronage. He is not to it merely -a glorious being to contemplate and worship, but He is its Head, in a near, tender, necessary, and indissoluble relation. And that Head is at the same time Head over all. His intelligence, His love, and His power, therefore, secure to the church that the will work together for good. Under His over all Headship, everything that happens benefits His people – discoveries in science, inventions in art, and revolutions in government-all that is prosperous and all that is adverse. The history of the church is a proof extending through eighteen centuries; a proof so often tested, and by such opposite processes, as to gather irresistible strength with its age; a proof varied, ramified, prolonged, and unique, that the exalted Jesus is Head over all things to the church. And the idea contained in this appellation is carried out to its correlative complement in the following verse, and in these remarkable words- <\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22. This verse is virtually a repetition (in different words) of the thoughts expressed in the preceding verse. All things under his feet means that Christ was made superior to all things. The original word for head is used both for fleshly and spiritual things. When used for the latter, Thayer defines it, “supreme, chief, prominent, master, lord.” All things is from one Greek word that is equivalent in meaning to “everything.” All things that rightfully is connected with the church is subject to or is regulated by Him. Any movement or work or organization that cannot be shown to be directed by Jesus, has no scriptural relation to His church.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22. And he subjected all things. Here the construction changes, although logically this verse continues the description of the working of the might of His strength (Eph 1:19). The unlimited Sovereignty of the exalted Christ is now set forth: all things sums up what has been detailed in Eph 1:21. The language seems to have been suggested by Psa 8:6. It may be regarded as a reminiscence, i.e., a form of words adopted by one familiar with the Psalms, but without any direct design of explaining the meaning of the original passage. (In Eph 1:20 there seems to be such a reminiscence of Psa 110:1.) Or, as seems more probable, it is a citation due to a direct reference under the guidance of the Spirit to a passage in the O. T., which in its primary application to man involves a secondary and more profound application to Christ. In the grant of terrestrial sovereignty the Psalmist saw and felt the antitypical mystery of mans future exaltation in Christ (Ellicott). Comp. the citations of the same passage in 1Co 15:27; Heb 2:6-8.<\/p>\n

And gave him to be head over all things to the church, or, gave Him as Head over all things to the Church. In the original the emphasis rests on Him, Him they exalted, etc. The passage plainly says that Christ is given to the Church, and the next verse as plainly indicates that He is Head of the Church. What, then, is His relation to all things? Evidently that of Head also. Any other view is grammatically inadmissible. There is, however, another interpretation which amounts to the same as this: gave Him, the Head over all things (to be the Head) to the Church. The common version seems to imply this view of the construction. The other view does not obscure the great fact that Christ is Head of the Church; the Apostle gathers up all that he has said of Christs sovereignty, in order to emphasize the gift of such a One, Head over all things to the Church, of which He is necessarily (and in a peculiar sense) the Head.<\/p>\n

The Greek word rendered Church means an assembly called out. It had a technical sense in Attic Greek, but was used to translate the Hebrew word Kahal, congregation. In the N. T. it is most frequently applied to a local assembly of believers, usually with some organization. But in Mat 16:18, and throughout this Epistle, as well as in Col 1:24, and probably a few other passages, it refers to the entire body of real Christians throughout the world, and in every age. The word itself suggests two ideas: that the members are called out, and that they form one assembly. The definition of the next verse justifies the saying, Ubi Christus, ibi ecclesia (wherever Christ is, there is the Church). Of the external form of this Church this Epistle says very little, nor is it anywhere hinted that it was to be a temporal power. Moreover, while outward form is necessary to prevent anarchy, it does not appear that uniformity is essential. Visible unity is the end, and will come from within rather than from without. Probably the truest unity is to be reached through the freest divergencies in externals. The essential matter is that Christ be recognized as Sovereign, as the only Head of the Church, and that vital union with Him be maintained, not only as a doctrine, but as a fact in daily experience. The preservation of the Church throughout eighteen centuries is the accumulating proof that Christ is Head over all things to that Church.<\/p>\n

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

St. Paul having spoken of Christ’s sovereignty in general, over all created beings, both in heaven and in earth, in the foregoing verses, doth in the words before us declare, that as he is an head of dominion and authority to the whole creation in general, so he is an head of influence to his church in particular. <\/p>\n

Note, Christ was given by the Father to be the church’s head. Now, this metaphor of an head implies several things; as,<\/p>\n

1. Eminency above the church; as the head is above the members.<\/p>\n

2. Authority over the church: the head governs all the members.<\/p>\n

3. Oneness of nature betwixt him and his church to see an head of one nature, and members of another, is monstrous.<\/p>\n

4. It implies a strict, intimate,and close union betwixt him and his church, as betwixt head and members; which union as to the members of the visible church, is a political union; but as to the invisible members, (real believers,) the union betwixt Christ and them is mystical, spiritual, supernatural, and indissoluble.<\/p>\n

Lastly, this metaphor of an head, given here to Christ, implies a communication of influences from himself unto all his members; an influence of common gifts to the visible members of his body, and an influence of spiritual life and motion to the invisible members, true believers.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Christ is the head of angels as well as saints, but in different respects; to angels, he is an head of dominion and government, an head of authority and superiority; but to his church, he is an head of dominion and direction also; not only an head of authority, but an head of vital influence too. The angels are Christ’s honourable subjects, but saints are the mystical members of his body, the former are as then nobles in his kingdom, that attend upon his person, but the latter are the endeared spouse that lies in his bosom.<\/p>\n

O glorious dignity of the meanest believer above the highest angel! For as the nobles in a prince’s court think it a preferment and honour to wait upon his queen, so the glorious angels account it no dishonour to them to serve and administer to the saints, to which honourable office they are appointed, Heb 1:14 namely, to be ministering, or servicible spirits, for the good of them that are the heirs of salvation. As the chiefest servants disdain not to serve the heir, so the angels delight to serve the saints.<\/p>\n

Observe, 2. As the character here given of Christ, The head of his church; so the honourable title put upon the church, she is his body: The head over all the church, which is his body; not his natural, but his mystical body.<\/p>\n

This implies, 1. The church’s union with Christ, and her relation to him.<\/p>\n

2. The church’s receiving influences from him, life, motion, and strength; all which the members of the body receive by virtue of union with their head.<\/p>\n

3. It implies the duty of subjection and obedience due from the church to Christ, as from the members to the head.<\/p>\n

4. It implies the union and order among the members themselves: that as all the members of the natural body sympathize with, and are subservient to, each other; so should all the members of the church, Christ’s mystical body, employ their gifts, and improve their functions and offices, for the general good of the whole, and the mutual benefit and advantage of each other, as becomes the body of Christ, and members in particular.<\/p>\n

But especially the church is said here to be the body of Christ, and He her head;<\/p>\n

1. With respect to a communication of influences: Christ our head is our fountain of life; our head is our heart also, out of it are the issues of life: from him we live, by him we move, and our spiritual being is derived from him, strengthened and sustained by him; the whole church receives spiritual life, motion, and strength from Christ, as the body doth from the animating and enlivening soul.<\/p>\n

2. Christ is called here the head of the church his body, with respect to a complication of interest, as well as a communication of influences. As the head and the body, as the husband and the wife, so Christ and his church are mutually concerned for each other: they stand and fall, live and die, together; whatsoever he has is theirs; they have nothing but through him, they have all things in him, and by him; his God is their God, his Father is their Father; his blood, his bowels, his merit, his Spirit, his life, his death, is theirs; and as all that he has is his church’s, so all that he did is for his church, called here his body. He obeyed as his church’s head; he died as her head; and hath in his church’s name taken possession of heaven, as a purchased inheritance for her. How fitly then may Christ be called the head of the church, and the church be called the body of Christ?<\/p>\n

Observe, 3. How Christ came to be the head of his church: God the Father gave him this authority, Eph 1:22, And gave him to be head over all things to the church; that dignity and superiority, that dominion and power, which Christ has over his church, is given to him by God the Father; none else was fit for it but himself: and although it was given him, what bold presumption is it, and will it be, in any person upon earth to assume any power over, or to exercise any office in, the church, when never called to it, nor authorized by Christ to undertake it!<\/p>\n

We may demand of such confident undertakers, as the Pharisees demanded of the holy and humble Jesus, By what authority dost thou do these things? and who gave thee this authority?<\/p>\n

Observe, 4. The high honour which is put upon the church by being Christ’s body; by this she becomes Christ’s fulness: The church which is his body, the fulness of him.<\/p>\n

Yet note, The church is not the fulness of Christ personal, but of Christ mystical; not of his natural, but mystical, body: every saint, and every degree of grace in a saint, is part of Christ’s fulness. The work of the ministry then is the best and noblest work in the world, because it is an adding to the fulness of Christ. God had but one Son in the world; and he made him a minister.<\/p>\n

And if increasing the number of converts, and adding to persons’ growth in grace, be an addition to Christ’s fulness, then how glorious a sight will the great day afford when Christ shall have all his fulness; when there shall not be one saint wanting; nor one degree of grace in any saint wanting; when head and members shall be both full, full of grace, full of joy, full of glory: when Christ shall be fully glorified in his saints, and they everlastingly filled with the fulness of him that filleth all in all?<\/p>\n

Observe, 5. The glorious title here given to our Lord Jesus Christ, as head of his church. He filleth all in all; he filleth all persons, both angels and men; he filleth all places, heaven with glory, earth with grace, hell with horror; he filleth all ordinances, prayer with prevalency, preaching with efficacy, & c. he filleth all relations, fathers with paternal affections, mothers with maternal bowels; he fills all conditions, riches with thankfulness, poverty with contentment.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Eph 1:22-23. And hath put Greek, , hath subjected; all things under his feet This is said in allusion to Psa 110:1, Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. The psalm is a prophecy, not only of Christs exaltation to universal dominion in the human nature, (1Co 15:27,) but also of the entire subjection of all his enemies, 1Co 15:25. For in ancient times conquerors put their feet on the necks of their enemies in token of their subjection, Jos 10:23-24. And gave him to be head over all things to the church As it is here declared that Christ is raised to universal dominion for the sake of his church, that is, for the noble purpose of erecting and establishing it, and uniting the angels who are in heaven, and all the good men, who have lived and are to live on earth, in one harmonious society, that they may worship and serve God together, and be happy in one anothers society to all eternity, it was necessary for accomplishing this grand purpose, that the evil angels should be subjected to him; and even that the material fabric of the world, with every thing it contains, should be under his direction, that he might order all the events befalling his people, in such a manner as to promote their holiness, and prepare them for heaven. Add to this, he is in such a sense made head over all things to his church, as to cause even its enemies, however undesignedly by them and unwillingly, to serve its interests; and all events, whether apparently prosperous or adverse, and all persons and things, to work together for the good of its members. To these he is a head, not merely of government, but likewise of guidance, life, and influence, as is implied in the next clause. Which is his body The church is called the body of Christ, to signify that the true and living members thereof are united to, and animated by him; that they are under his direction, and the objects of his care, and that they are united to one another in love, after the manner of the members of the human body, which are governed by the head, and united to one another by various joints, ligaments, nerves, arteries, veins, and other vessels of communication and intercourse. The fulness of him that filleth all in all This expression may mean that his church, that is, the spiritual part of it, is completed, or completely filled by him, namely, with all sorts of gifts and graces. So Locke understands it. Thus believers are said to receive out of Christs fulness, grace for, or upon grace. Macknight, however, takes the clause in a different sense, observing, that by calling the church , the fulness of Christ, the apostle intimates, that he who is universal Lord would want a principal part of his subjects, if the church among men on earth were not united and subjected to him as its head. Who filleth all in all That is, who filleth all his members with all their spiritual gifts and graces, according to the place and office in his body which he hath assigned them. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

ARGUMENT 5<\/p>\n

THE CHURCH THE CLIMAX OF CREATION<\/p>\n

22,23. And He hath subordinated all things beneath his feet, and gave him head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who filleth all in all.<\/p>\n

We learn in the Pauline epistles that the personal Son created all the worlds throughout the celestial universe, as well as all the angels, archangels, cherubim, and seraphim. Hence, we find that Omnipotence becomes creative in the person of the Son. Ekklesia, from ek, out, and kaleo, to call, means Church throughout the Greek Testament. If you do not remember that definition, you will fall into utter bewilderment on the Church idea, led astray by the Churchism of the present day, which is utterly variant from, and antagonistical to the New Testament ekklesia, which consisted only of the souls called out of the world, and separated unto God. Hence all worldly Churches are simply Satans counterfeits. This Divine Ekklesia, the New Testament Church, is here affirmed to be the climax of all creation, the highest conception of the Divine mind, and the grandest culmination of all the stupendous works wrought by Omnipotence throughout the celestial universe, towering transcendently in the Divine estimation, not only above all the stupendous worlds that speed their precipitate flight through the void immense, chasing each other around the effulgent Throne, but actually transcending all the heavenly hierarchies, that flame and radiate through millions of immortal worlds. O the unutterable glory which God has in reservation for the Church of the First-born! The infinite possibilities in reservation for redeemed humanity beggar the flight of the most stalwart imagination! Glory to God in the highest!<\/p>\n

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. <\/p>\n

And we come to that which has been mentioned, that Christ is the head of the church and we are part of His body. We also see that ALL things are placed under His feet and He is head over ALL things to the church, not just the figurehead – He is over all transactions, all plans, all conflicts, all everything in the church and He should not be left out of any of those items nor any other item related to the church. <\/p>\n

Note that this is a past occurrence and it is finished, He is the Head, He is over all and it is not open for discussion. <\/p>\n

The term translated “head” has an interesting explanation in the lexicon. It explains that the loss of the head stops life in the body. It is said that when they used the guillotine, the person’s mind kept functioning for a few seconds after the head was removed from the body. This illustrates the importance of a connected head. Relate that now to the church. A church without Christ as the head may be full of activities, but it is dead and no amount of rationalization or argument can change that fact. There can be no real direction, there can be no real leading, and there can be no real life. <\/p>\n

A church run by the people with no interest in checking with Christ is dead. <\/p>\n

The term translated church is “ekklesia” meaning a gathering of people; in this context the gathering of God’s people. Not the building, but the people. I doubt that Christ is interested in being the head of bricks and mortar, even though He is the chief cornerstone. He would definitely opt for the living church, His people. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

1:22 {21} And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the {b} head over all [things] to the church,<\/p>\n

(21) So that we should not think that the excellent glory of Christ is a thing with which we have nothing to do, he witnesses that Christ was appointed by God the Father as head over all the Church, and therefore the body must be joined to this head, which otherwise would be a maimed thing, without the members. However, this is not because of necessity (seeing that it is rather the Church which is made alive and sustained by the holy power of Christ, so it is far from being true that he needs the fulness of it), but because of the infinite goodwill and pleasure of God, who condescends to join us to his Son.<\/p>\n

(b) Insomuch that there is nothing that is not subject to him.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The second manifestation of God’s power in Christ was the Father’s subjection of all things to Christ. Adam lost his lordship over creation when he sinned, but Jesus gained lordship over creation by His obedience (Eph 1:10; Rom 5:12-21). His lordship over creation will be obvious in the future when He reigns during the Millennium (Psa 8:6; 1Co 15:27; Heb 2:6-8). [Note: See Donald R. Glenn, "Psalms 8 and Hebrews 2 : A Case Study in Biblical Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology," in Walvoord: A Tribute, p. 45.] <\/span><\/p>\n

The third manifestation of God’s power in Christ is the Son’s appointment as Head over the church (cf. Eph 4:15; Eph 5:23; Col 1:18). This aspect of His lordship is evident now.<\/p>\n

"There is given to the Church, and for the Church’s benefit, a Head who is also Head over all things. The church has authority and power to overcome all opposition because her Leader and Head is Lord of all." [Note: Foulkes, p. 65. See also Stephen Bedale, "The Meaning of kephale in the Pauline Epistles," Journal of Theological Studies NS5 (1954):211-15.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Morris, however, took "the head" here, and in Eph 4:15, as "the beginning." [Note: Morris, p. 36.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church, 22. and hath put ] Lit. and did put; at the great act of Enthronement after Resurrection. Cp. 1Co 15:27 &c., where we have explicit reference to Psa 110:1, and in a way which … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 1:22”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}