The person of Christ is the loftiest theme, the most thrilling subject that the human heart can contemplate. The words of Thomas Kelly, the great Irish hymn writer, come readily to mind: “No subject’s so glorious as He, no theme so affecting to us.”
We cannot exaggerate His greatness; we cannot know too much about Him. There are many things in this corrupt world that we could (and should) know less about, but the knowledge of Christ is a vast reservoir of delight, an ocean of fathomless beauty and truth. And so we take up these wonderful titles that tell us of our exalted Savior and Lord.
The Greatness of the Head
“The working of his mighty power, which [God] wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph 1:19-23).1
Ephesians opens with the incredible blessings of the child of God. We have been redeemed and forgiven by the work of Christ, we have an inheritance personally guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and, finally, we have the Father of Glory revealing the wealth of His grace in His kindness toward us.
As Paul unfolds this great plan, he moves from our great blessings to the One who has graciously bestowed them. He points to the Lord Jesus, and shows that the ultimate and final exaltation of Christ began with His resurrection. The downward trajectory of His self-humbling incarnation and the unplumbed depths of His death on a cross were powerfully reversed. Christ then rose, step by step, in glorious exaltation. He arose, He ascended, He was seated, and now He reigns in incomparable glory with all things under His feet. His triumph is complete; no person, no power is now His rival. He is “far above all,” now and for eternal ages.
All things, that is, with one extraordinary exception. All believers in this present age, from Pentecost to the Rapture, comprise the Church which is His body, and are seen, not under His feet but under His headship. God has given Christ to the Church, the great dispensational assembly, as its glorious Head! Joined to Him in perfect union, associated with Him in His glory and universal dominion, we are seen to be His fulness. Just as a physical head requires a body to complete it, so now we complement and complete Him in His role as Head of the body, the One who “fills all in all.”
The Growth of the Body
“Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph 2:19-22).
While God, in His infinite wisdom, eternally envisioned the completed body, He accommodates our time-based perspective by likening it to a building project. Christ and the cross were its secure and solid ground (see Mat 16:18); the teaching of the apostles and prophets (preserved for us now in the New Testament) provided its first-century inauguration. And for the balance of this dispensation, Paul points to its ongoing construction and growth by the Spirit. One by one, as souls are saved, they are added to the body. More than that, in wondrous grace, Jews and Gentiles are equally incorporated into this growing structure. It is not an organization, formed by human hands, but rather an organism, animated and increased by the Holy Spirit.
The blueprint points to the final goal: that the Church, the body of Christ, is to be a “holy temple,” the inner shrine where God Himself resides through, or “in the Spirit.” Each Person of the Godhead exercises a role in this amazing structure; every part of the body unites and coordinates to increasingly display the glory of God and the beauty of His lovely Son.
The Glory of the Foundation
“You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame’” (1Pe 2:5-6 ESV).
Long before the advent of Christ, Isaiah wrote about this “tried” and “precious” and “sure foundation” (Isa 28:16 ESV). Paul and Peter now unitedly reveal that the fulfillment of this Scripture has come; God’s eternal purpose rests securely on this foundation – “Jesus Christ himself” (Eph 2:20).
Every normal foundation, with its cornerstone, is inanimate. But this building rests on an amazing footing – the risen, living Christ. Its base is not the dead dogma of human religion, or the dried remains of human leaders, but God’s chosen Stone. And from Him rises a living house, a holy temple, with Himself as its glorious Head. Earthly cornerstones with ornate carvings may be costly, but this one is of infinite value, not in some abstract way, but to redeemed hearts, priceless beyond compare. Like the bridegroom of Solomon’s song, Christ and His body, from head to toe, are “altogether lovely.” Without “spot or wrinkle,” this body, this building, will endlessly proclaim – to the ages of the ages – the eternal glory of God’s grace.
To God all glory, praise, and love,
Be now and ever given;
By saints below and saints above,
The Church in earth and heaven.2
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.
2 Charles Wesley
