p. 9 | The Fulness of Christ

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 4, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 9.

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The Fulness of Christ

Chapter I, Verses 21-23, A.R.V.

Questioning the Text

1. To what position was Christ raised from the dead?

God “made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places.” Verse 20.

2. How exalted was this position?

“Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named.” Verse 21. Note 1.

3. Did that include powers and dominions only in this world?

“Not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” Verse 21. Note 2.

4. What follows, then, concerning all things else?

“And He put all things in subjection under His feet.” Verse 22. Note 3.

5. Of what has He made Him the head?

“And gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.” Verse 22. Note 4.

6. What is the relationship of this church to Him?

“Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Verse 23. Note 5.

Notes

1. “Far above all rule.”—Lucifer sought position. He aimed to take the very place of God Himself. “I will be like the Most High,” he said. See Isa. 14:12-14. Not so with our Lord. When He saw man’s dire need, He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Infinite love moved Him, and therefore that infinite love made Him worthy of the exaltation that was given Him. “Wherefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave Him the name which is above every name.” See Phil. 2:5-9. While in this world He was subject to authority; He was in a physical sense given into the power of Satan, and into the power of the authority and rule of this world. Through the instigation of Satan He was put to death and locked in the rock tomb, sealed with the Roman seal; but eternal right is eternal might: the grave could not hold Him,—God raised Him from the dead, and exalted Him above every name that is named.

2. “Not only in this world.”—Literally, “not only in this age,” not only in this time which we now see. Sometimes Satan would lead us to doubt regarding Christ’s cause, still the Master rules, and by and by He is going to rule even more fully still, when all sin is put away forever in that glorious age to come, the eternal age of the ages, when He shall reign forever and ever.

3. “All things in subjection.”—When Jesus had arisen from the dead, He said to His disciples, “All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” Matt. 28:18. Not “all power,” in the sense of energy, or might, but all authority. It embraces more than mere energy, or strength. It is authority to use all these. He is worthy of the authority. He who would rule others must learn to rule himself; and our Lord Jesus Christ won the absolute and eternal victory over self, meeting every temptation which the enemy of souls could devise, and coming off more than triumphant in them all.

4. “Head over all things to the church.”—There is no other head than Christ Jesus our Lord. Elsewhere the apostle brings it down to an individual application: “The Head of every man is Christ!” (1 Cor. 11:3), and because the Head of every man is Christ, the Head of every combination of men is Christ. The church of Christ is not a gross material thing; its members are here upon the earth while they live, from age to age, and from generation to generation; but these members, tho dwelling upon the earth, are of heavenly birth; they are born from above, and there their Head, the Lord Jesus, is. To set aside the eternal, all-embracing headship of Christ, and to put in its place an earthly head, is to usurp His authority; for He assures us not only as a church, but also as individuals, “Lo, I am with you alway.” Christ has His representative here, but that representative is not a visible man, nor is it any set of men. That representative is the Holy Spirit. “I will not leave you desolate,” He tells us as He departed from us, “I will come unto you.” John 14:18. And then, that we may understand what He means, He says: “These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.” Verse 26. Again: “He [the Spirit] abideth with you, and shall be in you.” Verse 17. And there are many other scriptures which state the same great truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, has but one true Representative in this world with full complement of power and authority, and that is the Holy Spirit of truth. He has other representatives, He has here His own children; but He has no vicar of Christ upon earth save the Spirit of God, and that Spirit and the teachings of that Spirit we are to know because the teachings of that Spirit are in harmony with the Word which the Spirit has before inspired, with the law given by the voice of God at Sinai. Therefore God has given us the twofold witness of the Spirit and the Word,—the Spirit in the church and the Spirit in the Word, for the body which He has left. Christ is “Head over all things to the church,” and “the Head of every man is Christ;” therefore every man can come directly to the Head without anything coming between. This does not mean that His own people will work at cross purposes. There can be no stronger bond of union between the hands and their proper cooperation than the bond which guides them both, and so it is with the various members of His body.

5. “Which is His body.”—The human body, the members of the human frame, are common figures with the apostle. He uses these in great detail in 1 Corinthians 12, in which he likens the various members in the church and the various gifts in the church, to the various members of the body—Christ the Head, these members composing the body. The life of Christ, the thought of Christ, the teaching of Christ, the obedience of Christ, to be manifest in all the actions of the body. And, too, God has made this church of His, His means of revealing the Lord Jesus to the world. Christ revealed the Father when He was upon the earth. He declares, “As My Father hath sent Me [into the world], even so send I you.” Christians are to reveal Christ. They are to show forth His wisdom, His life, His power.

The Lord in various ways reveals Himself to His children, sometimes by vision, sometimes by angels, always, continually, by His Word. But He does not come directly in that way to those who are outside of the church,—He reveals Himself to the outside through His church. Cornelius could be stirred by an angel to seek after God, but the Lord directs him to send for one Simon, whose surname is Peter, and he will tell him what to do. (Acts 10.) The apostle Paul is stricken down with conviction as to his course, and he inquires what God would have him do, and the Lord sends him to Ananias. (See Acts 9.) And so it ever is: God uses the human agent to speak to those who are without. But He doesn’t make this human agent the lord over those who hear, or listen, or reject. Even Jesus Himself did not condemn those who did not listen, and His followers can do no more than did He. He said, “If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” That is the mission of His followers, to save; and the bond between them is no arbitrary authority of church, or council, or conference, or synod, or presbytery, but the one bond of love and life in the Lord Jesus Christ, bound together for a better carrying forward of His work, and the strengthening of each other in that work. This is the object of His church militant; and in that church He has placed His wonderful graces, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. He who recognizes that will not make of the church a deity, nor will he regard it lightly. He will find there all the imperfections of humanity, but he will also find there all the fulness of the Master working to bring all things “to the praise of the glory of His grace.”