Introduction | Table of Contents | Chapter 4

An essential truth laid down in this first chapter, amplified in the course of the Epistle, and conveyed in the symbolism of the head and the body, is that the Church, instead of being an earthly organization built up and established in the world, is heavenly in its design, establishment and destiny. Its individual members necessarily become incorporated into it in this life, according as each one receives eternal life through faith in Christ and is born of God. Each one then becomes part of the Body and is inseparably united to the Head. At no period can all the believers living in the world at any given time have constituted the Church. They could not in that respect be spoken of as the Body of Christ and yet that is an alternative designation of the Church.⁶

⁶A local church, meeting in any particular place, is spoken of as a body in 1 Cor. 12:27, but in a different aspect: "To the church in Corinth," the Apostle says, "Ye are (the) body of Christ" (the definite article is absent in the original), but some of the members, in that application of the word, are themselves part of the head, being spoken of as an "eye," an "car" (see verse 16). Accordingly the symbol is not applied in that passage in the same way as in Ephesians, where Christ is the Head of the whole Church, the Body.

The Scripture View of the Church

Even at the time of Pentecost those who believed comprised only a small fraction of the whole Church, and if they, or all the truly regenerate in the world at the present time, or at any other time, were the Church, then that of which He is the Head (and there is no other) would be a body maimed and marred and lacking most of its parts. In the early part of the present era most of the Church had not come into being; in the closing part of the era most of the Church has, or will have, departed this life, such, while stiff part of the Body, being present with the Lord. The whole will not be completed till the gospel has fulfilled its object. After its number is complete, the Lord will "descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (I Thess. 4:16, 17, R.V.). The Church win then have its full membership as the Body of Christ, and only of that company can the term "the Church" be rightly used, apart from its application to a local company.

Many apply the term "the Church" to all those in the world who profess the faith. But such a view of the Church is not borne out by the teaching of Christ and His Apostles.' Believers⁷ are formed into local churches here, each being a separate spiritual temple of God, according to the Divine plan; as the Apostle says to the church at Corinth, "Ye are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (I Cor. 3:16, R.V.). But the churches were not externally organized into an ecclesiastical entity, in any district or country, or generally as a universal system. Neither is there any hint in apostolic teaching that such was Divinely intended to be the case. To such a system or combination the word "Church" is nowhere applied in Scripture, and any such organization is a contravention of apostolic testimony and therefore of the will and design of Christ.

⁷The view referred to has been explained by means of the illustration of a regiment in the British Army, which fought, for instance, at the battle of Waterloo, and still bears the same designation, though not a soldier who took part in that battle is alive today. But Scripture knows no such third definition of the Church as would provide ground for the illustration. Again, an attempt has been made to find some support for the view in the suggestion that the letters to the seven churches in the second and third Chapters of the Apocalypse speak of conditions which anticipatively represent successive periods in the history of the Christian churches, or of Christendom, throughout the present era. It is argued from this that since the condition prevailing in any one of the periods represents what is conveyed to a particular church in the actual letter, the term "church" way be said to stand for all the Christians in the world during the period intimated. This argument is precarious indeed. To begin with, it is based upon a mere inference, and then, whatever justification there may be for the successive period view, that view involves the teaching that the conditions which are represented by the last of the four letters are not distinctly successive since each of these four last continues from its beginning to the end of the age; so that there are four simultaneous conditions at the time represented by the letter to Laodicea, three represented by the letter to Philadelphia, two by the letter to Sardis, while that which is represented by the one to Thyatira continues through all four. In other words, if we hold the anticipative and prophetic view of these letters to the churches they cannot all be held to represent distinctly separate, successive periods. This itself runs counter to the idea that the Church consists of all believers in the world at any given time, and in any case it is unsafe to apply the word "Church," in a way in which it is not used in Scripture, to something which is simply based upon inference, and especially an inference which does not fit the view taken.

Christ's Design Abandoned

In times considerably subsequent to those of the Apostles, churches were externally combined, organized and centralized, as the result of ecclesiastical aims and efforts, and by such means something took shape quite different in character from the arrangements which were designed by Christ and carried out by the Apostles. It is true that then the term "Church" was applied to that organization, but in no way could its use in that respect be justified from the Divine point of view. The claim is made that such an organization was inevitable, and was developed and directed by the Spirit of God, but the claim is invalid. The ecclesiastical history of the third, fourth and fifth centuries is a witness against it. In those times the churches became partially paganized, and their organization was arranged under the influence and guidance of the Emperor Constantine, and modeled largely on the plan of State arrangements. The whole system thus became a travesty of the Divine institution and the term "the Church" was, and has been since, a, misnomer, when applied to it.

That local churches are themselves visible communities professing the same faith, partaking of the same holy privileges and spiritual blessings, governed by the same Lord, and indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, has never afforded any ground for their external amalgamation, with the establishment of a central ecclesiastical authority on earth, either for any particular district, or for the churches at large; neither has the fact that the Lord provides spiritual gifts in the several churches for the guidance and care therein of believers. We have already remarked that the record of what is regarded as a Council of the Church in Acts 15 affords no evidence of this. The incident there mentioned is, on the contrary, a testimony against such an institution rather than an evidence in favour of it.

The One and Only Head

That God the Father gave Christ to be Head over all things to the Church as His Body, is the crown of all the Divine counsels relating to the Church. There is no more glorious theme in all the plan of Redemption. That, no doubt, is the significance of the double title of God, "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" and "the Father of glory," with which this passage begins (Eph. 1:17), while it also resumed the threefold mention of the praise of His glory, in verses 6, 12 and 14. The Son wrought for the glory of the Father in His life on earth and His atoning death, and the Father, in response thereto, glorified His Son in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the place of universal authority and in Headship over the Church.

The phrase "Head over all things to the Church" is very comprehensive when viewed in the light of both the preceding and succeeding contexts. The latter speaks of the Church as the fulness of Him "that filleth all in all"⁸ that is to say, in regard to the Church as His Body, He fills all things' in all the members, all their activities being under His direction and fulfilled by His power. But this does not exhaust the meaning of the phrase. The preceding context directs our thoughts to the position which Christ occupies in His universal power and authority both in this age and that which is to come, a position in which all things are put in subjection under His feet. This is stated here anticipatively, as an accomplished fact; for, though as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, "we see not yet all things subjected to Him," yet its fulfillment is as certain as if it had already taken place.

⁸Here the presence of the definite article in the original refers apparently to what has preceded.

This opens out a wonderful vista. The One to whom all things are to be subjected has been given to the Church as its Head. The Church in this relation to Christ occupies the highest position in the Divine counsels for the future. All things in Heaven and on the earth are unitedly to own His authority, and the position of the Church as being "in Christ" determines its association with Him in the exercise of this universal control. We are to be "joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). The Father has in view for His Son "a dispensation (or administration, lit., economy) of the fulness of the times," wherein He will sum up all things in Christ, "the things in the heavens and the things on the earth" (Eph. 1:10); and inasmuch as the Church, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, is united to Him in the closest possible manner, it will, while being under His Headship as His Body, at the same time be associated with Him in His power and rule, and thus He is, in the fullest scope, "Head over all things to the Church."

Preparatory Antagonism

Against such a transcendent truth, affecting as it does the glory of God and the Person of Christ, it is not a matter of surprise that the arch-adversary should set himself with his utmost might and his most persistent and ingenious devices, both by opposition and imitation. Nor need we be surprised that, throughout an era when God is calling out from among the nations a company for His Name, to constitute the Church the Body of Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, and Heavenly in establishment and destiny, the adversary should seek to obscure and travesty the truths relating thereto. Satanic preparation had been made, in the long centuries before Christ came, for the paganizing of the apostate Christendom of the fourth century A.D., by the worldwide spread of Babylonish tents, customs and practices.

Ecclesiastical Presumi'tion

The doctrine relating to the Church as the Body of Christ has a most practical effect on the life of believers, and is strikingly counteractive of a tendency to regard Church truth as merely doctrinal and removed from the sphere of Christian activities. The dominating principle for all believers, in this figure under which the Church is set forth, is their entire subjection to Christ. The Body is for the Head. Human will of itself is ruled out. The glory of man as such has no place. For the believer the Cross of Christ is the death of human self-satisfaction, ambition and pride. The Cross has revealed in full measure man's alienation from God, his love of this world and his disinclination towards grace. But the Cross is at the same time the very basis upon which the relationship of the Church to Christ is established. Man's tendency is to exalt himself. He loves reputation. He likes to be somebody, to do something which will attract the esteem of people to himself, to be of importance in his own eyes as well as in the eyes of others. In the very discharge of spiritual functions in the Church, man is apt to forget that all that he is and does is to be surely and solely for the glory of Christ, that Christ is the one Head, controlling everything, and imparting everything of life and energy to the Body in all its members.

Nowhere is this innate tendency more dangerous than in spiritual things, and particularly in the exercise of the care and guidance of the people of God. Here one exposes himself especially to the wiles of the adversary, and a man may be deceived into thinking that he is serving God while really he is establishing the glory and power of his ecclesiastical position. The true glory of Christ is obscured when man's greatness is prominent. Ecclesiastical rivalry, and the resulting domination of the strongest men in the churches, served to produce such a condition, that control eventually was exercised from one religious centre, and man usurped the position of the authority of Christ.

That the Church is the Body of Christ strikes a blow at the idea of its establishment on earth as a universal ecclesiastical organization. Christ the Head is in Heaven, and His Body the Church is identified with Him in the Heavenly places. There the Church is "seated" with Him, and its establishment and destiny are there. Its very existence and condition depended, and ever will depend, upon His ascension and exaltation there as a result of His Incarnation, Death and Resurrection. There could be no Church without Christ as its Head, and it is because He is set at God's right hand that He holds that position. That the Church is His Body assumes, then, both His exaltation and the identification of the Church with Him in the heavenlies.

Growth of Clerical Domination

This is not according to the ideas and inclination of the natural mind; it clashes with man's carnal propensities. It is significant that, while this great truth relating to the Church as the Body of which Christ is the Head, was taught and maintained by apostolic testimony, there is the clearest evidence that in post-apostolic times it fell into neglect. The low spiritual condition into which the churches lapsed made this inevitable. The state of things against which Christ Himself remonstrates through the Apostle John in Revelation 2 and 3 was such as to induce a disregard of the doctrine concerning the true position and relation of the Church. Not only so, but, on the other hand, there were forces at work detrimental to it. The rapid and general advance of clerisy was against it. The un-apostolic assumption of human power and domination on the part of Church leaders practically obliterated it. How could it be apprehended when men "loved to have the pre-eminence," and when people gloried in man? The general development of the clerical system was antagonistic to that truth.

Those who have carefully studied the history of the first few centuries of this era, will perhaps have observed that the writings even of the early "Fathers" contain no testimony to this doctrine of the Headship of Christ over the Church as His Body. Whatever else was taught, that was allowed to lapse. Earthly aspirations, motives guided by natural ambition, aims that were concentrated on worldly ideas, superseded the truth of the Church as the Body of Christ. The confusion of the true character of the Church with that of earthly organization was a triumph for the adversary and shows how possible it was for the churches to be "corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ."

Introduction | Table of Contents | Chapter 4

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