Jesus Christ is both the Lord who saves, and the Savior who is Lord. Both are His One state of being for all who are saved.
What it Means to Have Christ as Head
Ephesians 1:15-23
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Turn to Ephesians 1:15-23. Ephesians 1:15-23. This morning, I want us to think about our wonderful Savior. When Christ came into this world, He came humbly. How amazing it is to realize that the eternal Son, Who is, in fact, the third person of the One triune God, came into this world to dwell in a fertilized egg, in the womb of a virgin girl. Perhaps there were nine months of experience for God (maybe less; maybe more), where He expressed perfect patience, and perfect consciousness that is not only beyond what any developing baby is typically aware of, but is beyond what any of us would experience if we were to be able to put our own adult minds into that stage of infancy often called, zygote, fetus, embryo, baby. God manifested in the flesh; come in the great mystery of accomplishing perfect redemption for all whom He saves by maturing from a zygote, fetus, embryo, baby, into a young man predestined according to His own Sovereign will, to be sacrificed. Christ came into this world humbly, and He came with an intentional mission. His mission:
Save that which was lost.
He came as the great sacrificial Lamb, but He came as one having full authority as God. Christ is our Savior, and Christ is our Savior because He has full authority to be so as God manifesting all His fullness of deity dwelling in bodily form, as we read in Colossians 2:9. Christ in bodily form is our Savior--yes. Yet, Christ is also the Creator of our universe. Christ in bodily form is our great Lord; our great King. Christ is our head. He is our authority. This morning, we are continuing to go through Ephesians chapter 1, where we recognize the fulness of Christ in all His glory, in the sacred preaching of God's word. Please prepare yourself for this sermon titled,
"What it Means to Have Christ as Head"
[prayer]
The main translation I am using is the New American Standard, along with some clarifying transliterations. Reading from Ephesians 1, let's start with verse 15,
"For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, 16 I do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the set apart ones, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:15-23
Coming into our passage, we see that Paul recognizes the marks that identify us true Christians from the rest of the world. They are the marks of the body of Christ. Paul has heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that is among the Christians in Asia. Paul has heard of their love for all the other people God has set apart to be the body of Christ. This is our check and balance for our own selves--you believe in the Lord, but do you have love for all the people that God has set apart in the body of Christ? I don't think most Christians realize that in the great court of arbitration of personal witness, this is some of the most concrete evidence when it comes to "hard evidence" in demonstrating the reality of your salvation to others in the body of Christ, and to the world. When you look at a particular child, you can usually identify certain family traits that reflect characteristics of the parents. This is the way it is with us and our manifestation of God's grace and love for every single member of the body of Christ--no matter who they are. I am talking about that particular manifestation of love, and grace, where you look like you really do love all Christians everywhere. In this manner, you are proving your Christianity, whether you realize it or not. People are watching you and talking about you. They are talking about your manifestations of love, or they are not talking about them, because they don't see it. These are things, by which, people will usually gauge your spirituality. If you are a spiteful person, then people are going to wonder if you are a Christian. They aren't judging you. They are just believing God's word, and so they wonder whether you are really a student of Christ, as Jesus said concerning his original students,
"By this all men will know that you are My students, if you have love for one another." John 13:35
John, who recorded that particular statement of Christ, also urged in 1 John,
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7
It is because Paul knows that the Asian Christians have this love, that Paul prays for them. What Paul prays in Ephesians, goes on for many verses, and the gist of what Paul wants God to enlighten these people with is the real sense of being in the body of Christ. God wants us to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Being in the body of Christ means salvation, and it means safety. Our hope of God's effectual call of each and every one of us is that we actually do have eternal spiritual salvation in Christ. We dream, we philosophize, and we explore the scriptures to get a glimpse of our future. In our hope of eternity, we don't know if we are going to be walking on actual streets made out of gold metal, or if such descriptions are symbolic. It certainly seems like we will be walking on gold. We don't know what a dwelling place looks like in our eternal glory realm that we will inherit. Some say it is a mansion; others wish to minimize our heavenly domain as a kind of humble apartment at the intersection of cloud 9 and glory road. Maybe the size does not matter as much as we pretend it does. The main point, is that you have an eternal place. It is reserved for you because you are once saved in eternal spiritual salvation. People, this is beautiful riches for you that Paul explains in such a way as to get across the power that God uses in doing all these things toward us who believe.
To confirm what all Paul is saying for you and me, Paul points out one of the most important things that demonstrates, confirms, and expresses the wonder working saving power of God. It is the resurrection of Christ from the dead. The wisdom of God for you is to know the hope of God's calling in election and what the riches of your inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of His power toward you who believe. This is foolishness to many of the people we work with, and it is foolishness to some of our neighbors, but it is pure wisdom concerning the fact that they are the ones, according to scripture, who are the fools. They smugly think that they either have all the answers, or in the deception of post modernism, they think that no one can really have any sure answers. One thing that they think with surety, though, is that you and I can not possibly be sure of the hope of our calling. We are not surprised; we all know how it is to think this way. The empty philosophies that they have are the same ones you and I had once;
Eat, drink, and try your hardest to be merry for tomorrow we die.
It is the fading battle cry of spiritual losers in spiritual lostness. But, everyday lost humanity repeats the mantra. It is an attempt at temporarily managing the short time on earth. The answers we get from the world, are fading answers, like for example,
Let us make heaven on earth for a short period of time by instituting governments that try to guarantee heaven on earth.
It is the futile generational game of a lost and dying world that is always seeking for a New World Order, but never coming up with anything new, or anything that is true order. Authority in a lost and dying world of people who are enslaved to eating, drinking, and being merry because tomorrow they die, is the same old authority humans without God have always had. It is the authority of humanism, which reflects serpentism (serpentism is the ancient government coup of the garden of Eden); it is the mishmash of satanic ideas that keep the sinful human condition glued, patched, and tacked together to go on another day until we die. But sin is everywhere, and so we are naive when we act surprised when selfish despotic authorities rise up to power to control us. It is the expected condition, that reflects what Henry Kissinger said once,
"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."--Kissinger
Power may be the ultimate aphrodisiac, but worshipping false gods is the ultimate glue in the great patch job attempt to rally lost humanity together to go on another day in some kind of hope, but, it is a false hope--as false as the millions of gods invented by sinful, weak, creative minds to cope with another day. Nevertheless, folks, the One true God of the universe has given us the One true hope, and it is in accordance with His authority, and blessing upon us whom He loves, and so Paul says that all of it is,
"in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:19-23
OK, you know you have all this wonderful hope, and you know you have it all in this wonderful Savior. It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God according to 2:8. So now let us contemplate what it means for Christ to be seated at God's right hand, and to be head over all things, where all things are in subjection to Him. First, we must understand that things didn't start out this way from the beginning of humanity. They started this way in the infinite mind of God, but they had to be implemented, and that is where the hard work came in. It all sounds like foolishness to the sin filled blinded authorities, experts, and rulers of this world. What I am talking about, is that first came the humbleness part that Jesus intentionally subjected Himself to, as we read in Philippians,
"6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Philippians 2:6-8
This is pure humbleness that Christ experienced for you and me. This is the hope of our calling, but next Paul explains the other end of the big picture. It is the opposite of being emptied, and humbled. It is the part where Christ is made head, and all things are in subjection to Him,
"9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:6-11
Jesus as Savior, is the hope of your calling, and Jesus as Lord is also the hope of your calling. We don't put our hope into the patchwork anymore of a dark society attempting to prop up a few years of existence on earth as the core value of their existence. Now we have the true eternal, bold, courageous, perfect, always right, leader to command us in our eternal lives forever, and ever. It is true nationalism, true patriotism, true headship that is our hope of glory. Have you ever thought about all the politics, governments, and all the earthly authorities in this world, and wondered about who the perfect leader would be? What kind of personality profile would the perfect leader have? What kind of IQ would the perfect leader have? What kind of political conviction would such a leader have? Some people think that political scientists would make the perfect leaders, because they study government and operate on principles of what they perceive as working. Some people think that talk show hosts would be the best leaders, because they are in touch with the voice of the people, so to speak. Some people think geniuses would make the perfect leaders--that somehow being really smart means that you will somehow rule really well. There are lists of names that most people could come up with. The problem is that no matter how perfect we think someone is leading, we can always find something that they are doing wrong. Have you ever contemplated how lacking any earthly government is, whether it be the American Republic of the united States, (Yes, we are a Republic. No, we are not a Democracy). Or have you ever contemplated how lacking a monarchy run by a ruler, or an Oligarchy, which is a government run by a board of directors, or whatever--they all ultimately fall short of the ideal that they espouse. I think about it all the time, but then, I think about how this world is not my home. I think about how sin tainted this temporal world is, and I realize that even the best government system falls short of the perfection that I long for. I want to put my allegiance in something higher. I want my leader to have perfect intelligence, and perfect control. I want to trust my leaders not to lie to me. I want to be assured that my leaders will legislate according to righteousness. I long for it. I crave it, but what I long for isn't here in the world of men who come into the world, tainted by sin, to create systems of control to spread their futile agendas on earth--agendas smothered in;
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
But, I am not anxious or depressed about my longing. God put the longing there. I found what I was looking for in Christ, when in my heart, God convicted me that Christ is much, much, more than my saving advocate that carried me off of the road to hell. Christ is my One perfect King, whom I can always trust as the right One to rule my life perfectly. Christ is, in fact, the great Lord and King who rules forever. Christ is the Head.
And so we see this principle that our Lord came in humbleness, but He is raised up in glory and honor. The wisdom of God was originally meant to be viewed as foolishness by men with hardened hearts. As God's elect, we understand the mystery; we know that Christ had to be rejected, but then, our great hero raised up to be the Head, and in His glory, He raised up to be received as Lord of His church, which is His body. This, folks, is the glorious second part of Colossians 2:9 that I quoted earlier. Remember,
"9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, [now the rest] 10 and in Him you have been made complete, [yes, you are special when it comes to this Leader] and He is the head over all rule and authority;" Colossians 2:9-10
Christ is, in fact, your great Lord and King who rules forever, and yet we also see that He is the sovereign head over any and all rule and authority that exists anywhere.
So, how does all of this relate to our Ephesians text?
Well, when we read Paul saying in Ephesians, that God raised Christ,
"from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all," Ephesians 1:20-23
we absolutely must recognize how blessed we are to be joint inheritors who serve under the highest leader of the universe, and beyond. But, there are two more questions we need to ask about all of this:
1) what does all this mean in its particular details?
2) what does this mean particularly for you?
To answer what all this mean in its particulars, we must recognize that the rulers and authorities that controlled everything in respect to the Old Covenant relationship with God, were the Jewish religious leaders of Jerusalem. They were the keepers of the Old Covenant Law. They were keepers of the Old Temple. They were the keepers of the Holy city. They were all of these things, but not one of those men was born to be the promised Messiah King pledged to their ancient king David, by God, to one day come and be seated on the ultimate throne, as the ultimate authority. God was always the ultimate authority. God has always been, and will always be the Master of the Universe. Further, the eternal Son, as one of the three person's of the Trinity, (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) as One God, was always Master of the universe. It is important that we understand this fact. Jesus, as God, was always the great Authority and Master of the universe. Jude even says of Jesus before He came down to dwell in bodily form as the promised Messiah, sacrificial Lamb, and risen King, that Jesus is the One who delivered Israelites out of the Land of Egypt. It is one of the clearest proclamations of the deity of Christ made in the New Testament as is seen in the very accurate English Standard Version, the New English Translation, Wycliffe's translation from 1382, and others, where Jude says,
"Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe." Jude 1:5 ESV
In Jude's point, Jude mentions that Jesus is the one who delivered all the Israelite tribes out of Egypt. Jesus has always been the great Head. When we read the Old Testament record out of Exodus, we also read about Who saved the Israelites out of the Land of Egypt; we read that it was Jehovah,
14 "And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' then you shall say to him, 'With a powerful hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery." Exodus 13:14
I ask you to really meditate upon this revelation that God is giving you concerning Himself. This is a reference to the fact that Jesus, the eternal Son, the head of the church, is Jesus Who is also Jehovah-God Who has always been Master of the universe. This is such a powerful revelation, that not everyone has been able to handle it. Through the following centuries after Jude wrote this fact about Jesus, scribes were uncomfortable with copying down such a clearly straightforward statement that Jesus was alive 1500 years earlier than when Jude was written, and that Jesus Himself is actually Jehovah who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. Scribes shouldn't have messed with the text, but they did. Evidently they couldn't come to grips with what Jude had written. To add to the problem, over the centuries the name "Jesus" was replaced in certain copied manuscripts with other words, such as, "Lord, or "God" or "God-Christ." Nevertheless, whether scribes, or interpretative translators approved of the theological implications or not, the early manuscripts record that it was Jesus in the fullness of His Godhead, Who delivered Israelites out of Egypt. So what this means in its particulars is that Jesus as God, has always been above all rule and authority as Master of the Universe. But, Jesus as God has not always been above all rule and authority (in a certain sense) as the humble man Jesus. For Jesus to rule as the God-man, He had to come at the proper time as the only begotten Son, as a fertilized egg, fetus, embryo, baby, boy, and adult human. Jesus came as God manifested in the flesh, where all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, Colossians 2:9. Now the promise to David is completed in Him. The most amazing King of kings and Lord of lords that can exist, exists in the God man Jesus who humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross; purchasing all those whom He elected to be His holy nation of followers forever as His body. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, Philippians 2:8-9. So, when we read all of this language of being raised above all rule and authority and power and dominion, in that present age that Paul and the apostles were living in, and also in the age that followed, we must recognize that Paul is saying that Messiah, the God-man King, is now reigning higher than any Jewish governing system, any Gentile governing system, or any other kind of governing system anywhere. So, in answering the first question concerning what all this mean in its particulars, Messiah's rule and reign at the right hand of the Father supplants the Old Covenant priestly system. There is no more stone temple; no more daily sacrifice of animals, no more Old Covenant Law. There are no more Herodians, no more Pharisees, no more Saducees, and no more high priests as rulers and authorities. There are no more earthly kings to look forward to, who would come to rule the remnant of true covenant Israel. It means, that Jesus fulfills the ancient prophecies to David of the anointed King to come; it demonstrates that Jesus has sovereign authority over all the earthly governing systems of fallen man, whether Gentile or Israelite. Further, it means that Jesus reigns and rules above all the forces of spiritual wickedness that hold men captive in the domain of darkness, which demonstrates that it shows that there is a spiritual aspect to all of this, where most importantly, Messiah rules over a particular people that have been elected for such a rule. One of those people is you my dear Christian.
This leads us to that second question:
What does this mean particularly for you?
Well, in looking at the text, at the end of verse 22, we see one of the first things to notice about yourself. We notice that you, as a saved person, are part of His church. We also see that the church is the body of Christ;
"22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, ..." Ephesians 1:22-23
The elect who are called out and separated in adoption, are the church. When you gather with other Christians, then you are part of the called out and gathered ones, which is also the church. You are part of Christ's body. Looking at the last part of verse 22, Christ the God-man, as the great triumphant resurrected ruler, was given to the church. This right here is what this means to you, because this means that Christ is your Head specifically, in a specific manner, and for a specific purpose. He is your Lord in a special, and endearing way. But there is more. I want us to look at the last two verses of Paul's prayer request for the Asian Christians one more time, and as I read, I want you to notice something that is absolutely amazing. It is something that often gets overlooked. I want you to notice the word, "fullness" that Paul uses in his statement to you,
"22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23
Folks, we need to take a moment to drink this in. This whole sermon this morning has been building up to this point, where we recognize something about ourselves that Paul prays that the saints need to know. We, as the church, which is Christ body, are "the fullness of Him." At the fundamental level, we are the fullness of Him because He fills all of us in all of us. Christ is in us as our hope of glory. The Holy Spirit is in us. This is fundamental, but Paul is talking about something else here that is related but different;
"22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23
In much the same way that Christ first experienced humbleness and then glorification, we as "the fullness of Him" who fills all of us in all of us, are a humble, earth bound, group who experience this less than perfect world on a daily basis. We get persecuted just like Christ got persecuted. We get sick, just like Christ's body got sick with grief to the point of death in the Garden of Gethsemene. Right now we are living in humbleness, but we wait in expectation for something better. Christ got something better--we get something better. We are looking to our glorification of a more perfect existence in the afterlife. Our bodies are sown in dishonor, and raised in honor. Right now in our mortal bodies, we have a dual nature; one is the corrupt remnant of sinful dirty Adam; the other is the nature of Christ where our spirit is made alive in Him, with Christ being in us, filling all of us, in all of us,
"10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness." Romans 8:10
It is here in our mortal bodies, where we are all made alive in Christ, that we exist as Christ's church, which is His body. It is here that the Holy Spirit says that we are the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Now listen, all of this has to do with your great privilege, and as we have been learning, it has to do with God blessing Himself with the fruit of His eternal plan in us, in His Son. This is why you must always remember that your salvation, with all of its blessing that you receive, is primarily God's plan to bring Himself glory. In other words, we always think of our salvation as being for ourselves, but our salvation is for God; it is for the Head. Quickly let us look again at the things Paul has been saying up to this point; he says:
1:4; "He elected us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world,
[and why is that]
that we would be set apart and blameless before Him"
Now verse 5,
"5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
[and why is that]
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace"
Now verses 11-12,
"11 we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His determination,
[and why is that]
12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory."
Now verses 13 and 14,
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance,
[and why is that]
with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory."
So, when Paul gets to the last part of chapter 1 in his outburst of praise to God, and His prayer for what he wants Christians to know, we recognize that we are the body of Christ on earth. We are the fullness of Him who fills all in all. What is happening is that you and I really are the fullness of him, and so--now pay special attention--what God is doing is showcasing you in your dirty, sinful, mistake prone humility, as glorifying Christ, because Christ's righteousness is appropriated to you while you are in your dirty, sinful, mistake prone humble existence, and so what happens?:
Only Christ, His work, His grace, and His beauty, gets all the glory!
Now, this is what I have been working toward and is what I want to leave with you this morning. This is what it means to have Christ as your Head. Christ has always been the Master of the Universe; He has always been the great Head in eternity past; But Christ became the Head of the church in His humility of being rejected crucified and resurrected. It was the mystery of Messiah. It was the mystery of the Davidic throne. Christ reigns now far above all rule and authority at the Father's right hand. You and I are seated with Him in the heavenlies, Ephesians 2:6. We are His body, we are His church of set apart and gathered ones who are the fulness of Him right now in our culture, as He fills all of us, in all of us, and so, in the same way that we typically think of our salvation as being for ourselves, but our salvation is really for God, we are actually God's representatives of Christ on earth. Your very existence, is meant to express the glory and splendor of Christ in His rule and reign over His body. The world does not have this relationship, but--and this is the big point--the world witnesses this relationship in you, and so your relationship with the Head brings praise to Christ in God's grace. The glory of Christ in us on earth; His humble church, is advertised to the world as we represent Him in grace as sinners who are saved in our imperfect selves, and then further, the way we represent Him in obedience to Him as our Head. This folks is our primary purpose in relationship to our blessing of God giving Christ to us as our Head. God showcases us as those who trust God to forgive us, and God showcases us as those who obey God, in Christ. We are the ones who know God's will, and so He showcases you to the world as one who knows God's will. In other words, you have that perfect government that everyone else is looking for. This is the point--We are the ones who have that perfect Ruler ruling us each and every day. We eat spiritual food, we drink spiritual drink. We are merry in Christ because we are saved in the true sense of the word. We demonstrate to our neighbors, bosses, friends, and families, that we are the fullness of Him who fills all, because we are the ones who believe His Bible. We demonstrate that we are the fullness of Him who fills all of us in all of us, because we are the ones who obey our commander who tells us to love one another, looking at each other as being better than ourselves. We demonstrate to the world that we are the fullness of Him who fills all of us in all of us because when we are persecuted, attacked, and maligned for our faith in our Leader, because our Leader is persecuted, attacked, and maligned. Every single day the world rages about Christians and their beliefs, but in the midst of the rage, God is glorified. What is happening is that the world is seeing the perfect rule and reign of the perfect Head, of the perfect kingdom manifested in us. When you are at work, or at school, and you are tempted to cheat, like on a test, or a paper that is due, or you are tempted to alter some figures here and there, and you don't cheat, and you don't alter the truth, and other students, and other people in your sphere of business don't understand why you are not being dishonest, other than the fact that you are a Christian, then you are demonstrating that you are the fullness of Him. He fills you, and He is the Head of the body. The body is you; His church. OK, we are talking about the fullness--right? So, when you get tempted, and you do cheat, and you do sin--in other words, you fail--then being the fullness of Christ, you demonstrate the fullness of God's grace because you demonstrate that He is not throwing you away. No, you do not sin so that grace may abound. But, grace does abound when you sin. You are a living demonstration of God's grace through the Head in every respect. When you are having problems with your spouse, you demonstrate that you are the fullness of Christ by expressing the love of Christ to your spouse, as Christ expresses His grace for you as your head. When you, as a husband, treat your wife with love, grace, and patience, as a weaker vessel, as Christ treats the church, you demonstrate that you are the fullness of Christ, and He is the head. When you submit to your husband, (wives), you do so, as unto the Lord--the Head. Your husband is not perfect, but Christ is, and that is the point. You are fulfilling the fullness of Christ in you, when you submit to your husband as the church submits to Christ. This principle applies to every single area of our lives. Christ is the Head of the body. The body is the fullness of Him, so, Christ is about His business of evangelizing His plan to the world through us, so that He gets all the glory. The question we need to ask is, How does the head do that while sitting at the right hand of the Father? Well, spiritually in positional identification with Him you are seated there too, but you are here right now. So, we are the ones who preach the gospel right here right now. We are the ones who are like museum pieces that demonstrate the fruit, reality, and beauty of the gospel right here, right now. The sooner you recognize that your salvation is not primarily about you, but is about the Head who fills all of us in all of us, then you will consciously start to seek out ways to express the fullness of Christ to this lost world as His body. The lost world does not know that Christ is far above all rule and authority, but this lost world knows whether you believe that Christ is your ruler and authority--at least the lost world should know this. Your fame should be what your fullness is in Christ. The Lost world does not know Christ as Savior; but through you, His body, the lost world sees whether you believe that Christ is your Savior.
I ask you, are you acting like you are the fullness of Christ? Is this your predominant characteristic? Or, do you predominantly act like you are full of yourself? Are you controlled by the temporary; by shallow pursuits of this world? We all eat, we all drink, and we all die. But, the question you need to ask yourself is whether your consuming passion is to live right now according to what you are. You are the fullness of Christ folks, where His Lordship is expected of you, and is demonstrated in you to the whole world for His glory. Don't forget that you are the fullness of Him. Don't take what God has given you according to the kind intention of His will, and hide it under a bed. I strongly urge you not to steal God's glory away from Him in your sphere of influence, (in your generation), by diminishing the importance of your Christianity, and by diminishing the importance of His church which He bought with His blood.
