"Christ: Our Head" Series

As we come to the close of this amazing first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we note once again, Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired propensity for mentioning his Lord’s name as often as possible; for exalting and magnifying His Lordship over all things.

All things are under His feet ~ He is head over all things to the church.

Therefore I too, wish to end this portion of our study of Ephesians exalting and glorifying the Name of Christ; our Head.

“And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.”

Let’s just take these two verses and discuss them one portion at a time, to get the fuller picture.

HE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET

We cannot just jump into the middle of this phrase and do it justice, unless we take a look at our back trail and remember some of the things we’ve seen over the last few weeks. Look at this thought in it’s entirety, starting at verse 18:

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 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, which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 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. And He put all things in subjection under His feet...”

Can this theme be addressed too often? Can it be given too high a priority in our study and in our thinking?

I would have to answer those questions with the assertion that since our puny minds of flesh cannot begin to fathom the true depths of what we’re being presented with here, then no, it cannot be addressed too much or too often.

Paul returns to this theme often in his own writings. We see it in Philippians 2, and again in Colossians 1:18. And he broaches this issue again to the Corinthians, where he says,

“For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, ‘All things are put in subjection’, it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.” (15:27)

The main point there being that when it says ‘all things are put in subjection under His feet’, the ‘all things’ does not include God the Father. That is another study.

Our focus today, is to ask ‘why is this message so central? So pressing in the mind of the Apostle?’

To find our answer, I think we have to take our minds for a moment away from visions of a throne room, and a risen and glorified Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father, and hosts of angels and heavenly glory, and go in just the opposite direction to see once more what He was raised from.

Here was the Prince of Glory, who came to His own creation by the lowest, humblest means. Even from the beginning, fully entrusting Himself and His safety to the hands of the Father, in being conceived in a woman, going through development in the womb, enduring the birth process, and entering this world in a place for livestock.

“Since then the children share in flesh and blood“, says the writer to the Hebrews, “He Himself likewise also partook of the same...”

Then He went through the growth process into adulthood; subjecting Himself to the authority of parents, and no doubt, other elders of the community as He was taught from the Law and the Torah.

He subjected Himself.

Then He subjected Himself to the scrutiny of the Scribes and Pharisees. He subjected Himself to the daily trials and discomforts of 1st century life in Middle Eastern terrain, with no home to call His own.

He subjected Himself finally to blasphemy, and physical torture ~ first at the hands of merciless soldiers, then the scourging, then the thorns, then the nails, then the hours...

But it goes far deeper than that.

In Galatians 3:13 Paul quotes the Old Testament when he says,

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, ‘CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE’.”

He was quoting Deuteronomy 21:23. Listen to verses 22 and 23 of that chapter: