p. 3 | The Old-New Gospel

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

The Old-New Gospel

The Headship of Christ

The relation which Christ, the eternal Son of God, sustains to the church as its living Head was not established by arbitrary appointment, but is the outworking of the fundamental principles of the divine government. In the very nature of his being, as the only begotten of the Father, is found the reason for the place which he occupied in the universe, which was brought into existence through him. “The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in his work of beneficence. He had an associate,—a coworker who could appreciate his purposes, and could share his joy in giving happiness to created beings. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father,—one in nature, in character, in purpose,—the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. ‘His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ His ‘goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ And the Son of God declares concerning himself: ‘The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . When he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with him [as a master workman, R. V.]; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.’”

“The Father wrought by his Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. ‘By him were all things created, . . . whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.’ Angels are God’s ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from his presence, and speeding on rapid wing to execute his will. But the Son, the anointed of God, the ‘express image of his person,’ the ‘brightness of his glory,’ ‘upholding all things by the word of his power,’ holds supremacy over them all. ‘A glorious high throne from the beginning’ was the place of his sanctuary; ‘a scepter of righteousness,’ the scepter of his kingdom. ‘Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.’ Mercy and truth go before his face.”

Thus it was that the eternal Son was the Head of the original creation. “All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.” “Whatever else we may concede to men of science, we must insist on retaining these [creative fiats] for God, and ascribing them to our Lord. And whenever God is said to speak, we must listen for the well-known accents of a voice we love. It was the voice of Jesus that said, ‘Let there be light,’ and the new ethereal substance spread like a haze of glory through space. It was the hand of Jesus that made the expanse between cloud and sea, in which the birds fly. It was the bidding of Jesus that drove the turbulent waters from the land into the ocean-bed which he had scooped. It was the thought of Jesus to splinter the mountain peaks; to thrust the frozen glacier down into the valley by inches; to pour forth the rivers; and to shake down over the hills the falling foam of the cataract. It was Jesus that carpeted the earth with flowers, and devised the innumerable sorts of plants, and planted the noble forest trees. It was Jesus that rolled the stars in their orbits, to tell forth the glory of God, and to keep time on nature’s dial. It was Jesus that made the fish to flash in the deep; the reptile to creep in the brake; the fire-fly to glance through the forest; the birds to sing in the woods; flocks to browse on the hills; and herds to traverse the prairies. . . .”

“The hand of Inspiration writes the name of Jesus where artists put theirs, beneath all things in heaven and on earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. “‘Not a flower But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, Or stain, Of his unrivaled pencil.’”

So long as the position which belonged to the Son and which was inherent in the very nature of his being, was recognized, there was perfect harmony in the universe of God, and happiness reigned supreme. Love was not poisoned by jealousy or alloyed by unholy ambition. Law was spelled l-o-v-e, and love was spelled l-a-w. But when Lucifer began to sow seeds of disaffection and rebellion, it became necessary that the position of the Son and his relation to all created things and beings should be defined. “The King of the universe summoned the heavenly hosts before him, that in their presence he might set forth the true position of the Son, and show the relation he sustained to all created beings. The Son of God shared the Father’s throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One encircled both. About the throne gathered the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered throng—‘ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,’ the most exalted angels, as ministers and subjects, rejoicing in the light that fell upon them from the presence of the Deity. Before the assembled inhabitants of heaven, the King declared that none but Christ, the only begotten of God, could fully enter into his purposes, and to him it was committed to execute the mighty counsels of his will. The Son of God had wrought the Father’s will in the creation of all the hosts of heaven; and to him, as well as to God, their homage and allegiance were due.”

When treason bore its fruit, and there

was war in heaven, and the controversy was transferred to this earth, and man sinned and lost the glory and the dominion which were given to him through the work of the Son, then God the Father put into execution the plan devised in the counsels of eternity, even “the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and made known “the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.” Sin means a refusal to be in harmony with the divine purpose that the eternal Son should have the supremacy over all things and all beings. It involves the loss of power to enthrone the Son as supreme in the heart. The gospel is the provision through which the mystery of the divine will “to reunite for himself under one head the all things in the Christ” is revealed and wrought out, and the allegiance of created beings is again secured. And so the original purpose of the Father concerning the headship of his Son is carried out.

As the result of the consideration of these fundamental truths, we may read in a clearer light and with a fuller sense of the meaning some statements concerning the relation which Christ the Son sustains to the church: “Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the . . . exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 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 fulness of him that filleth all in all.” He who was one with the Father, and to whom worship was due equally with the Father, “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;” after he had died for our sins on the cross, and had been “raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,” he was again given a place at the right hand of the Majesty on high, “far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion,” and he who by original right was the Head of the old creation became by gift the Head of the new creation, “head over all things to the church.”

Again we read: “Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.”

He through whom all things were first created is the one in whom all things consist, and in the very nature of things is the only one through whom the new creation, or redemption, could be accomplished. He therefore, and not by arbitrary appointment, “is the head of the body, the church,” and the divine purpose is fulfilled that “in all things he might have the pre-eminence,” even after he had in all things been made “like unto his brethren.”

It is clear, then, that the headship of Christ in the church is the necessary outgrowth of the principles of the divine government, based upon the eternity of the being of the only begotten Son and his relationship to the Father of all. By accepting him as our living Head we are restored in character, and become again the loyal subjects of the kingdom of God, “who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory.”