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What is the meaning of the spiritual body whose Head is Jesus Christ? (Ephesians 1:22-23)
Ephesians 1:22
1:22 “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23).
When Saul fell to the ground from his frightened horse, when the glorious light of Jesus appeared to him before Damascus, the question of His Lord pierced him through: “Why are you persecuting Me?” Saul was not persecuting Jesus, for he imagined him to be long dead and decayed away. However, the young Torah student was persecuting the church of the Risen One with complete hatred and brutality. He wanted to force this church back into the covenant order of the Old Testament.
The question of Jesus opened the eyes of the mind of this young upstart. He grasped: The Crucified One lives! He personally has felt the pain I have caused His followers. He is closely connected to them. He and His church are an absolute unity. He suffers when His church suffers. Jesus and His church are one!
This recognition shaped and moulded the thinking of Saul, who became Paul. He concluded: Christ is the head of a spiritual body. A head cannot exist without its body, and vice-versa, the body cannot live without its head. The nerves that connect head and body immediately telephone every pain to the head. The head permits the pain on the wounded or beaten site to sting or burn. Body and head are closely connected to each other.
There is another reality of equal importance to this fact: if the head has a wish and conveys to the feet: “Go forward or to the side”, the foot cannot then go backwards. That would not be normal or even unhealthy. In like manner, the hand cannot strike out or lie limp at the side if the head says to “write a letter!” Head and body are an inseparable unity.
Spiritually seen, a church leader or a bishop is not the head of a church, for the risen Christ is alone the head. Likewise, no church member should by himself begin to spread or try to realize strange ideas if they are not positively inspired from Jesus, his head. All declarations of assemblies and the goals of a church are “nonsense” if they are not submitted under the living Christ, who is their spiritual head and coordinator. Social work, political influence or well-intentioned rest and relaxation programs are inappropriate and resemble a flu virus in the body if they do not line up with the texts of the gospels. Jesus, our head, speaks to us through the Scriptures of the New Testament. We need to discuss and plan every area of our lives and our thoughts in constant dependence on Jesus.
Paul, while under guard in prison, went still further in his testimony and described the churches in and around Ephesus as the fullness of the living God. In his letter to the Colossians he wrote from his imprisonment: “For in Him (in Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:9-10). These statements were not written in the singular and are not directed toward individual church members, but encompass, as a plural, all born-again believers. The reality of this keeps us from pride and, at the same time, urges us to go to our neighbour in church, for only together can we participate in the fullness of God. We need each other, like the eye needs the feet and like the fingers are useless without the heart. Paul explained this pragmatic mystery in detail in his letters (1 Cor. 12:4-31; Eph. 4:15-16).
The concept of “fullness” moved Paul in his innermost being. Jesus had already revealed: “For God does not give the Spirit by measure” (John 3:34b). Jesus Himself was full of the Holy Spirit; He was the incarnation of the Spirit of His Father (Is. 9:5; John 14:5-11). He and His Father come and take up residence in those who truly love Jesus: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). And wherever Jesus and the Father dwell together in a person, there the fullness of God has entered. This truth again transcends the mind of each and every seeker after truth. Yet the one who has been anointed with the Spirit of God truly sees, hears and understands that the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is a result of grace alone.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, we worship You, for in You the Father became man. In You the fullness of deity became incarnate. We worship You, for You baptized us with His Holy Spirit, so that we might have a share of life in the fullness of God. We are nobodies and You are everything. Help, so that many who are without hope will be made to see, as a result of Your light shining in them. Amen.
Questions:
- How is the Lord Jesus the head of His church?
- What is the significance of the indwelling of the fullness of God in the church of Jesus Christ?