The Voice of The Spirit

Christ, Head Of The Church

This illustration of Christ as the head of the church ¹ is precisely accurate in describing His relationship with the church. The church is sometimes referred to as the “mystic body of Christ.” For the sake of comparison, Christ might also be referred to as the “mystic head of the church.” The idea of a “mystic” relationship between Christ and His church could cause confusion, however. Even if the expression “mystic” is used in the sense of “symbolic,” Christ’s relationship to His church is really much more than that: it is practical and real. As head, Christ originates, sets the agenda, and plans the objectives and purposes for the church. He hears and listens to its needs. He is moved by its victories and suffers with its defeats. Mainly, however, He desires to communicate regularly with it to guide and direct it. VOTS 9.3

To accept Christ as head of the church means to accept His plans and purposes for it. It also means to accept the way He has chosen to direct it. In His capacity as leader and head of the church, Jesus Christ is sovereign. This sovereignty is manifested both in the selection of the human instruments He uses to communicate with His people and in the form in which He communicates. We may sometimes be tempted to question the Lord regarding His selection of “messengers,” who are all too similar to ourselves: human, imperfect, weak, and even sinful, as we ourselves are. Had we been doing the selecting, we would have probably chosen the angels to communicate God’s message. We would undoubtedly have felt their authority to be superior to that of those human beings who speak to us in God’s name as His representatives. Nevertheless, the election of human instruments is an act of divine sovereignty. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). VOTS 10.1

Divine sovereignty is also shown in the selection of the way in which the message is communicated. God did not choose a “grand superhuman language” ² but common language in which men can communicate and understand each other. In reading and analyzing the text of the divine message, we may again be tempted to question the Lord for having chosen a means of communication as commonplace as human language, instead of a thunderous voice from heaven, or through a miraculous intervention, directly to our minds. A literary critic may find the divine message so similar to human communication that he refuses to believe it to be divinely inspired. But divine Sovereignty has made the selection, and it remains for human beings to accept it or reject it, but not to change it, modify it, or try to improve on it. Again the Scriptures remind us: “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). VOTS 11.1