Christ’s Headship Over the Church: The Doctrine that Must Shape Sola 5

The New Testament clearly teaches Christ’s headship over the church. This foundational doctrine can be seen in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

Paul here was dealing with the relationship of wives to husbands. He used the doctrine of the church’s submission to Christ to establish the fact and the nature of a wife’s submission to her husband. My brief task today is to look at the doctrine that Paul uses and limit its application to the context of the churches that are uniting together under the banner of sola 5 on this joyful occasion.

Firstly, Paul stated unequivocally that Christ is the head of the church. He was not proposing it or saying that it was a good idea worth thinking about. He was stating it as a fact. “The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.”

By “head,” Paul meant that Christ was ruler over his church. This was a favourite imagery of the apostle Paul and in this epistle alone he uses it no less than three times (1:22, 4:15 and in our text). Yet the idea of Christ ruling his church will be found right across the New Testament (e.g. John 10:14–16, 27–30).

Also, notice that Paul speaks about Christ being ruler of “the church,” not “the churches.” This suggests that it is primarily an organic and spiritual headship that transcends our local church boundaries. Yet, having said that, this headship finds expression at local church level (as was evident in the letters Jesus dictated to John in Revelation 2 and 3).

Having stated Christ’s headship over the church, Paul proceeded to establish Christ’s right to be head. He writes (literally) of “his body, he himself being its Saviour.” Every human body has but one head that governs the whole body. To move someone’s body without passing through his head is to manipulate and abuse him!

Jesus also is the only Saviour of the church. He purchased the church with his own blood and on this basis God the Father gave him the legal right as head of the church (see the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, chapter 26, paragraph 4). Through his word and his Spirit, Jesus also gathers the elect at the point of their personal salvation and sanctifies them through the rest of their lives (see Ephesians 5:26 and Revelation 2:11). These facts argue eloquently for Christ right as head over the church!

Finally, Paul turns to the duty of the church in the light of the foregoing. He tells us that, as a result of all this, “the church submits to Christ.” Where the true church of Jesus Christ is, there you will find a deliberate, voluntary, whole-hearted and sincere desire to follow the mind of Christ in all things.

Any church that deliberately and continuously goes against Christ’s will in its life and ministry is not a church even if its building is thus designated. This submission to Christ must obviously be through its qualified leaders (i.e. its pastors/elders). The duty of elders is simply that of enacting and enforcing the laws of Christ in the church. It is not that of coming up with their own laws according to their whims and fancies. (See Owen on this, in The Works of John Owen, Vol 16, pp. 33–34). The church submits to Christ.

One hymn-writer has captured the spirit of this text very well by saying,

We must respect this even as we commence Sola 5. So, here are a few “uses” (to use an old Puritan expression) of this doctrine that Sola 5 should jealously guard as it takes off.

Use 1: The Sola 5 leadership must not take on themselves the role of stewards of Christ’s headship over the churches. This role belongs solely to the pastors/elders of local churches. Sola 5 must remain but an association of churches that want to organise themselves after the New Testament pattern under Christ’s headship.

Use 2: Sola 5 must guard its doors so that churches that are not interested in submitting themselves to the headship of Christ do not highjack the association. We must remain a fellowship of God-centred and not man-centred evangelicals. Part of that God-centredness is in terms of respecting Christ’s headship over his church. Any church that clearly exhibits rebellion against this must be exhorted to amend its ways in a brotherly way. Where these exhortations are falling on deaf ears, they must be removed from the fellowship.

Use 3: Sola 5 must remain but a channel through which the organic unity of the church under the headship of Christ finds expression for the purpose of fellowship and joint projects.