Jesus Christ Is Our Head—to Him We Must Turn for All Direction
Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What god is great like God? — Psalms 77:13
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. — Colossians 1:18
Author
Dr. Roberto Miranda
Summary: Jesus Christ is the head of the Church: he directs it, gives it coherence, and must also be the head of our lives. Although the Holy Spirit guides, instructs, and reveals the truth, Jesus also leads the decisions, missions, and initiatives of God’s people. Therefore, like a body that depends on the brain, we must turn to Christ for all direction and remain in him, for apart from him we can do nothing. Our life and service must be Christ-centered: looking to Jesus, giving him glory, imitating him, praying, reflecting his character, and entrusting ourselves to him each day. This intimate dependence enables us to bear fruit and receive power, strength, and vitality to serve the Kingdom effectively.
The Apostle Paul is here assigning another essential function to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not only the very image of the Father, not only the Creator of everything that exists, not only the Sustainer of all creation, but Jesus Christ is also the head of the Church.
Here Paul is moving into language that is more spiritual and more human, and closer to us and to our identity as children of God and as members of the Church of Jesus Christ.
He is saying that the Father has appointed Jesus as the head, meaning that Jesus Christ is the one who directs the Church, Jesus Christ is the brain of the Church, Jesus Christ is the one who issues His directives and His instructions to the Church, and that the Church must look to Him to receive from Him all His directions, His plans, and His projects. He is the guide of the Church.
It is interesting that this also invites us to think about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as having a very interesting relationship, because you will remember that the Lord appoints the Holy Spirit in the Gospel according to Saint John, especially in chapters 15 and 16, and around chapter 14, where He speaks of God sending a Comforter and says that this Comforter would guide us into all truth, that this Comforter would be our instructor, would be our encourager, would be the one who would give us daily instructions on how to administer the affairs of the Church. He is the source of all revelation, and the Holy Spirit fulfills all these functions.
But here it is being suggested to us that, as the head of the Church, Jesus Christ also plays that same role of directing, leading, guiding, and giving His directions to the Church. Thus, the Holy Spirit and Jesus have a very similar function in giving instructions and leading the daily processes and decisions, the programs, the missions, the initiatives, and the administration of the Church here in history.
Jesus Christ is our head. We must go to Him for all direction. The Lord said that if we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit; that apart from Him we can do nothing; that just as He has an intimate, unbreakable relationship with the Father and is always looking to the Father to give Him His instructions—He says that He does nothing unless the Father first tells Him what to do and that He seeks only the glory of the Father—in that same way, we must relate to Jesus Christ.
Everything we do, everything we aspire to do, the initiatives we undertake on behalf of the Kingdom of God, the messages we preach when we evangelize—whenever we are going to do anything in our lives, we must go to the head, like the body, which can do nothing without the brain, without the mind, because the brain is what directs all the parts of the body and gives coherence to all the parts of the body. In the same way, the Church finds its center in Jesus Christ.
That is why we must always look to Him, always give Him the glory, point to Him, and make Him the center of our meditations. Paul is said to have been Christ-centered, meaning that the word Jesus was never far from the lips of the Apostle Paul, and he always gave Him the glory.
And we too must cultivate that total dependence on Jesus, and to the extent that we remain close to Him, give Him all the glory, imitate Him, pray to Him, and reflect His character and His qualities, to that same extent we will have power in our lives and will be effective. We should never begin a single day without first committing our lives to Jesus, thinking about Him, cultivating His image in our minds, giving Him glory, and exalting Him, because in continually exalting Jesus, moving in Him, and living in Him, there is a source of great power and great vitality for the children of God.
Let us always look to Jesus. The Bible says that we must fix our eyes—keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Continually fixing our eyes on Jesus and remembering who He is is tremendously powerful and gives us vigor; it is a tremendous source of vitality.
May God bless us, and may we never forget that Jesus Christ is the head of the body, which is the Church, and He is also the head of our own lives, amen.