Jesus is the sole and authoritative Head of the church. You wouldn’t know it sometimes by the way we Christians act, but it’s true. He brooks no rivals. There are no challengers. All claims to the contrary are illegitimate, including the claimants themselves. Popes, priest, pastors, and bishops all fail. Every corpuscle of Christ’s body belongs to Christ.
Jesus is the loving Head who rules and leads His body well. But how does Jesus exercise His headship in His church? It’s one thing to say that He is Head, it’s another to understand and recognize that headship as it’s implemented.
The most definitive way Jesus exercises His sole Headship is through His word. To say that Jesus is the sole and authoritative Head of the church is to say that the church lives and acts under and by the word of the Lord.
The Word Commands
We might put it this way, using the words of Jesus himself: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46) The church is built upon the Rock, who is Christ Jesus the Lord. To be built upon the Rock means then obedience or submission to the Lordship of Jesus. It is to be ruled by the word of Christ. His word comes to us not in the mumbling uncertain tones of a beggar but in the booming edict of the King. We live under that edict, under that word, not alongside it or above it.
As we hear and obey the commands of the word, the church lives under the Savior’s headship.
The Word Limits
Or, we may see the headship of Christ exercised through His word in a warning like that the apostle Paul gives to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 4:6. “Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, ‘Do not go beyond what is written.’ Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.” The apostle understands that Jesus places certain limits on His people through His word. So, we are not to transgress that bound.
Interestingly, Paul’s injunction makes clear that the way to avoid party spirit and divisions in the church–I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos–is for the leaders to teach the church not to transgress the bounds of the word. How often have we heard it said “This is Rev. So-and-so’s church”? We know what’s generally meant by that. But how often have we seen pastors who really think the church belongs to them? Even one example is one example too many. Christ exercises His headship by placing limitations on the body through His word.
The Word Tests
Finally, Christ exercises His authoritative headship through His word by testing the teaching and teachers in the church. The Berean example is classic: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Every church should follow the Berean example. They were kept safely under Jesus’ rule because they turned constantly to Jesus’ word–even when the apostle was their teacher! And God memorializes them as “noble” for both receiving the message and examining the Scripture to test what they heard.
Or, consider the apostle John’s caution to his readers in 1 John 4:1. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” The word exhorts us to test or try every prophecy against the testimony of Christ, the gospel (vv. 2-3). The Lord Jesus keeps His sheep in His fold and maintains His rule over them through the inerrant word of God which tries every form of teaching.
Conclusion
So, are you attending a church where Jesus is the sole and authoritative head of the church? Is His headship demonstrable in the congregation’s adherence to His word–it’s commands, limits, and tests? Is the word of God the plumb line in the life of the church?
