Ⅰ
God is the supreme authority; He has all authority—Rom. 9:21-22:
A
God’s authority is actually God Himself; authority issues out from God’s own being—Rev. 22:1.
B
All authority—spiritual, positional, and governmental—derives from God—2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10; John 19:10-11; Gen. 9:6.
C
Knowing authority is an inward revelation rather than an outward teaching—Acts 22:6-16.
D
The Lord Jesus was a man under authority; He humbled Himself, did the Father’s will, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross—Matt. 8:9; John 4:34; 6:38; Phil. 2:7-8.
E
In His divinity, as the only begotten Son of God, the Lord had authority over all, but in His humanity, as the Son of Man and the King of the heavenly kingdom, all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him after His resurrection—Matt. 28:18.
F
Now as the Ruler of the kings of the earth, the God-exalted Jesus is the Ruler over all the ones who are in power; He is the chief Ruler in the divine government for the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan—Acts 2:23, 36; 5:31; Rev. 1:5.
G
In Christ’s ascension God made Him the unique Head of the Body, the church, and inaugurated Him into the headship of the universe; the Head of the whole universe is Jesus—Col. 1:18; Acts 2:36; Eph. 1:22-23.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.Eph. 1:22 And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.
The headship of Christ was not fully established in the Old Testament because Christ was not yet incarnated. In the Old Testament times Christ was only the Son of God, not yet the Son of Man. This is very significant. For Christ to have the full headship, He needs two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. Being God alone is not adequate for Him to be the Head. To be the Head, He needs to be both God and man…. According to the human concept, being God is adequate for Christ to be the Head of the universe. However, according to God’s economy, God will not exercise His judgment in His administration as God alone. Acts 17:31 says, “He has set a day in which He is to judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has designated, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.” (CWWL, 1978, vol. 2, “Crucial Principles for the Christian Life and the Church Life,” pp. 597-598)
Today’s Reading
On the positive side, God needs an administration in order to carry out His eternal purpose. On the negative side, God needs a government to deal with His enemy and all the evil powers…. Because God is the Creator and Satan is a creature, God would never lower His status to deal directly with Satan. Therefore, God needs man, another creature, to deal with Satan…. Man is needed to carry out God’s eternal purpose and to deal with God’s enemy. Hence, before Christ became a man, His headship could not be fully completed, fully established.In incarnation Christ became no longer only the Son of God but also the Son of Man. He now has two elements, the divine element and the human element. In order to be the Head over all things in God’s government, Christ needed to have divinity and humanity, and He needed to accomplish two things. To take care of God’s two needs, Christ needed to carry out God’s eternal purpose and defeat God’s enemy. By dying on the cross, on the one hand, Christ accomplished God’s purpose, and on the other hand, He also defeated Satan and destroyed the power of death on the cross (Heb. 2:14). Therefore, Christ has accomplished everything. By incarnation He picked up the human element, and by being crucified He accomplished God’s purpose and defeated and destroyed God’s enemy.
After resting in the tomb for three days, Christ resurrected and then ascended into the heavens. In His ascension He was inaugurated into the full headship of the entire universe. In the third heaven Christ was given to be Head over all things to the church. Christ is also the head of every man (1 Cor. 11:3a).
Christ’s headship was not fully established until His ascension, because He needed to become a man and be crucified in order to accomplish God’s eternal purpose and to defeat and destroy God’s enemy. This truth is in the Bible, yet if we do not have the light, we will not be able to see it. Because the human mentality can only know doctrine, we need heavenly light, vision, and revelation in order to see a vision of the truth. We need to repeat this truth again and again until our inner eyes are opened and we see it. Once Christ picked up humanity through incarnation and was crucified to accomplish God’s eternal purpose and defeat and destroy God’s enemy, He was qualified both in element and in achievement to be the Head over all things. Thus, in His ascension God inaugurated Him into the universal headship over all things for God’s administration. Today the headship of Christ is fully established. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 2, “Crucial Principles for the Christian Life and the Church Life,” pp. 598-599)
Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” chs. 9-10, 12-20; Life-study of Matthew, msg. 72