Reading: Acts 2:32; Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 1:5-9, 2:9,10; Eph.
1:22-25, 4:15, 5:23; Col. 1:18, 2:19; 1 Cor. 2:5.
We have been occupied with "That which is born of the Spirit"
or "the new creation in Christ". We firstly dwelt upon the
heavenliness of that which is born of the Spirit, that new
creation in Christ - its heavenly origin and heavenly life,
heavenly relationships, and heavenly resources, and its entire
heavenliness of nature and vocation. In other words, its complete
and absolute detachment and emancipation from all that is earthly.
Then we were occupied with the universality of this new creation,
this that is born of the Spirit. Seeing that it is a matter not of
time, but of eternity - from eternity past to eternity yet to be -
it is timeless and it is spaceless; that is, it is not bound by
any of the ordinary limitations of human life. It has a vocation
which is universal.
Now we are to consider the Headship and Sovereignty of the Lord
Jesus as Head of the new creation, Head of the church which is His
Body, and possessing absolute sovereignty in every realm.
This new creation is constituted under the complete Headship of
the Lord Jesus. That is clearly revealed in the Word of God as
being the original intention of God concerning Christ, that He
should be the Head over all things, universally Head, and that
everything should come under His Headship and Sovereignty. That
Headship and that Sovereignty is not recognised in the fallen Adam
creation. All the rights of God in Christ are repudiated there, or
ignored, but when God takes up His original purpose again and
makes all things new, and brings in a new creation (that which is
born of the Spirit as that which is differing from that which is
born of the flesh) He reconstitutes the whole of the new creation
under His original intention: the Headship and Sovereignty of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that in all things He might have the
pre-eminence.
If you have followed the line of representation which we have
been pursuing, you will have noted that our first note was related
to the birth of the Lord Jesus as being entirely heavenly, as
being a true representation of that which is born of the Spirit.
We have said as one of the first principles of our consideration
that the Lord Jesus has been set by God the Father to be a
representation of man according to the mind of God. And in all the
features and phases of His life He spiritually represents God's
mind concerning man. And in His birth (which is an entirely
heavenly thing) the supreme factor of which is spiritually and by
the Holy Spirit, we see the nature of every child of God as born
of the Holy Spirit.
Then in the previous chapter you will have noticed that we were
dealing with the person of the Lord Jesus in His humanity
according to God - humanity after the mind of God - and we saw how
in that humanity of the Lord Jesus, all the universal elements are
combined and how He reaches out into all realms, spheres, all
departments and comprises in Himself and becomes a universal Man
with a heavenly life. It was His humanity mainly in view, the Man
Christ Jesus in His manhood representing what God is seeking
spiritually to do by the operation and energy of the Holy Spirit
in every child of God to make for a glorified humanity. I am quite
aware of the danger of this interpretation, but it is understood
amongst us here that we are now dealing with the representative
side of the life and work of the Lord Jesus. We recognise as in a
place altogether apart, His Deity and that phase of His work of
vicarious atonement with which we have no connection whatever only
as beneficiaries. We enter into the good of that by faith, in
redemption and salvation, but not receiving it as a part of our
being. Deity is outside of us and always will be. One always feels
the necessity always of stressing that, lest people might let their
minds overlap into the thought that we are talking about the
deification of humanity. Now we are taking the Lord Jesus as Son
of Man, not as God, which verily He is, but as Son of Man as
representing God's thought for every man when man is constituted
according to God's mind: being born of the Spirit. So we have in
view the humanity of the Lord Jesus, which represents humanity
according to God. Now we carry forward the same principle of
representation into this realm of the Headship and Sovereignty of
the Lord Jesus.
We have touched birth and humanity; now we come to:-
Anointing.
This is another stage in the heavenly history of the Lord Jesus
which has a heavenly counterpart, as we shall see.
We come to the place of His anointing when He came up out of the
waters of Jordan, the heavens were open and the Holy Spirit in
bodily form as a dove came upon Him, and He was anointed of the
Holy Spirit symbolically, or typically, and that anointing meant
that God had involved Himself in the life of the Son of Man in a
new way. It does not mean, as certain schools teach, that Deity
came to the Lord Jesus at Jordan and left Him at Calvary. But
here, in an official way for purposes of service, purposes of
office, purposes of His great commission and life work and
vocation - where He stepped across the line which divided between
His private life in the thirty years in secret and His public life
in office in the three and a half years, at that point where He
took up His great representative redemptive work, God involved
Himself in a new way for the purpose of service and representation.
God was implied in that coming of the Holy Spirit at Jordan and
it represented Godward the absolute Headship of God over Christ.
The Head of Christ is God we have read, and inasmuch as the Holy
Spirit came upon His Head, as the anointing oil was always upon
the head of the one anointed, be he prophet, priest or king, so
the Holy Spirit coming upon His Head represented that the Lord
Jesus in this official way, came under the sovereign Headship of
the Father. And from that moment the Lord Jesus, in a new way, was
coming to recognise that now nothing was out from Himself, but
everything was out from the Father and that He had to confer with and
consult the Father on every detail of His life for the rest of His
work here on earth.
So the Headship of the Father became recognised in that
anointing; it came upon Him and it was for ever after "Not My will
but Thine"; "I delight to do Thy will"; "I come to do Thy will O
God". That was the significance of the anointing: that had
excluded all that was of man as man and involved all that was of
God as God in human life, so that God became the ruling, sovereign
factor in the life of that Man constituted by the Holy Spirit
according to God. That is the first primary factor in the
anointing which came upon Him: the Headship of God over the Son.
But it also implied, although there was to be a later realisation
of it literally, that the Lord Jesus was also made Head over the
new creation. It gave Headship to the Lord Jesus; it put Him in a
place under the Father, but over the new creation, and constituted
Him the authority for the rest of His time. And it was that
authority which spiritually registered its impact upon the
consciousness of everything round Him during the days of His
flesh. Demons recognised that authority and cried "What have we in
common with Thee; depart from us, torment us not" and the common
people said, "He spoke as one having authority and not as the
scribes", and rulers cowed beneath that secret operation of
authority so that even Pilate realised he was at a discount in the
presence of this One.
There was an ascendency about Him that was not merely the
ascendency of His human life, but there was something implied
which was above the kings of the earth, which made them feel small
in His presence. There, all the time, He was put in that spiritual
and moral position as Head over all things in the creation; its
true fulfillment later on was implied in the anointing. Wherever
God has anointed a chosen vessel, that vessel has taken ascendency
over everything else. If God has chosen Abraham, then Abraham
rebukes kings. Remember the great word of the Psalmist "He rebuked
kings for their sakes, saying, touch not mine Anointed, do my
prophets no harm"; kings of the earth are made subject to the
anointed of the Lord. So that the anointing represents Headship,
ascendency, elevation spiritually. In the case of the Lord Jesus,
the larger fulfillment of that took place at His ascension. When
God raised Him from the dead the thing became literal which was
largely typical at Jordan.
We have read, "God raised Him from the dead, this Jesus, and He
being by the right hand of God exalted and having received the
promise of the Father hath poured forth this". What was the
promise of the Father? The Holy Spirit. Being exalted at the right
hand of God the Father, and having received the promise of the
Spirit, the promise of the Father, He received the Holy Spirit in
this full way literally, actually, when raised really from the
dead - not typically - and exalted to the right hand of the
Majesty on high. So that then He was fully anointed as Head over
the new creation, over the church which is His Body, over every
man; placed in the position of absolute sovereignty and authority
by the anointing which He received in the presence of the Father
in His resurrection, ascension and exaltation. That again is very
clear. So that the Lord Jesus, having received the Holy Spirit,
has been constituted absolutely pre-eminent, Sovereign Lord over
the whole of God's new creation, over every member of that
creation. It is not only a universal acceptance, but it is an
individual obligation. It is important to get that in order to see
the meaning of God's dealings with us individually.
Christ is the Head of every man and for specific vocational
purposes over all things to the church which is His Body, the
fulness of Him that fills all in all. The differences we make in
those departments we may see later, but we are stating the fact
for the moment, to get the background of this whole thing. Now,
having recognised that, and from our hearts declared that Jesus
Christ is Lord, having received of the Father the promise of the
Spirit by which He has been constituted an anointed Head over all
things, we are able to get on with the practical applications and
significances of that great truth. And yet, there is always a
danger of believing and assenting to a truth like that and in a
day of challenge beginning to wonder if after all the Lord Jesus
is Lord when the devil seems to have all his own way and things
are all going wrong and all your Divine expectations seem to be
upset; to have doubts as to whether the sovereignty and authority
is in the hands of the Lord Jesus after all.
We want this to be brought out of theory into experience; out of
the objective agreement to the subjective faith, so that it
becomes a reality. That means then that we must begin to break up
the meaning of this anointing and apply it. We have said that that
anointing meant the excluding of everything which is of man
according to nature, and that from the moment of the anointing,
everything was of and by the Spirit. That is a simple truth and
yet it carries a very great deal with it.
From that moment, "according to nature" is excluded. All man's
wisdom, ability, strength - everything of man according to nature
- is excluded when the Holy Spirit comes and takes up sovereignty.
And everything from that moment has to be by the Holy Spirit
alone, of God; old things are passed away.
What are the old things? I used to do it, or try to do it; I used
to plan it, scheme it, bring my judgment to bear upon it; I used
to run it... old things are passed away, behold all has become new
and all things are out from God. That is the difference. The old
things were out from myself; now all things are out from God.
There is a new creation and the supreme feature of the new
creation is that it is all of God, not a bit of man. Man by nature
has no standing in it at all. He and all his human ability are
excluded; it is God and God only in the new creation. It is God
coming in in authority, in spiritual ascendency and in dignity. It
is going to give to the weakest, the frailest, the most nervous, a
new dignity which is of God and not of man and give them a
position in Christ of spiritual ascendency and elevation.
It is a blessed thing beloved (and this is practical too) for the
weakest, humblest, nervous, retiring, reserved, shrinking
naturally, can now come to be by the Holy Spirit constituted
into one at whom demons tremble, the powers of darkness are
afraid, and there is registered the impact of God in sovereignty.
That is a dignity that comes in by anointing. It is God involving
Himself in the life of that one and all those who have come under
the absolute Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that is a thing that you and I need to understand and come
into, for all of us are far too spiritually feeble and we ought to
be mighty. We are far too easily set back by the enemy when the
enemy should be set back by the Lord through us. It is so
difficult today for the church to stand up against the flood of
evil forces and there is not the testimony to the absolute
sovereignty of the Lord Jesus. That ought not to be. There is far
too much depression and defeat written in the faces of the Lord's
people and in the very suggestion of their presence that to be a
Christian is an awfully difficult, hard business and it is like
carrying a tremendous burden and being people who have an awful
time on the earth and the worst of it all the time. But while it
is true we know sorrow, yet there is that "always rejoicing".
There is the other side where we know what it is to be
persecuted, pursued, but not left behind. Persecuted, but not
forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed; there is an ascendency all
the time which is not our optimism, not because we have such a
store of good spirits that we can stir ourselves up to be
cheerful; it is that mighty fact of the ascendency of the Holy
Spirit in the Name of the Lord Jesus in our hearts that we know
that even in the worst hour, the darkest hour, we are coming out
at length on top; it is not going to end in ignominy and shame and
there is a "hope which maketh not ashamed". The ascendency of
Christ by the Holy Spirit within: that which is born of the
Spirit. We should be men and women in places where the devil does
rampage, but with the Holy Spirit dwelling within in the sovereign
pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus and the Name, recognising that he
is not sovereign there, but Jesus Christ is, because we are there.
The testimony in every member of Christ to the fact that God has
anointed Jesus Christ as sovereign Head, and Christ is in us.
We are giving a very great deal away to the devil by our spirit
of defeat. The enemy is able to hold his ground and property far
too easily today because Christianity is making us such miserable
people, we used to be bright but now we are morose and seem to
have no joy, to be under things all the time. It is their
Christianity that has taken away the very joy of life from us -
God deliver us! That is giving the enemy ground, putting him in a
place of vantage. All who have intelligence are to be able to see
that there is in us something more than the best of this earth,
that we have a satisfaction and an ascendency which makes us
absolutely independent of all their so-called joys, with a joy
that is more than their best. Not to look at us and say they won't
go to this and do that because they must not; we have become
Christians and are afraid to and are just about as miserable as
can be. No, that is not the order. We should be those who are
really spoilt for the world, who have something far more than they
have! Well, that is the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus, the
ascendency of the anointing, God coming in in authority and in
dignity.
We may be amongst men nothing, accounted the off-scouring of all
things, whom men would not look at when they were looking for one
to do their big jobs, set at naught, and yet still there is that
which speaks of a dignity, strength, power, grip, calm. There's no
better word than ascendency; that which came out so
gloriously in the apostle.
Paul, at the end of a hard life, with a broken body, having
suffered intensely and been nigh unto death many times, yet when
the sea is raging so that well-seasoned, sea-faring men are at
their wits end, in despair and have not another line of resource
but to just stand paralysed to see how things would go, came and
took charge of the ship, carried the whole thing through and
recaptured the morale of the whole crew. That is not the force of
human personality; it is the ascendency of God in a man. "There
stood by me this night the angel of God... saying, Fear not Paul."
God had spoken in his heart and it was the Divine triumph over
everything else. And that is a secret thing with the Lord. When
others come to their wits end, the child of God is governed by
that which is above all the forces of nature, and is calm. It is
that to which the Lord would bring His children. That is really
the power, and virtue, and inheritance of the anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
It was always those anointed of God who, in the hour of
emergency, took charge. They were there in the position of
authority in the day of threatening disaster. Anointing then, must
mean spiritual dignity - not to make us important in our own eyes,
to give us a natural importance - it will make us feel very
nothing. That is very necessary; it is to give spiritual dignity.
It was always for that purpose. Anointing existed before Adam was
created. We read of the anointed cherub that covered, referring to
Lucifer in his unfallen state, in his high office in the glory
before this world was: How art thou fallen. The anointed and the
anointing constituted him a dignitary in the heavenly glories
before this world was, and anointing is always in relation to
spiritual and moral ascendency. We need to know that operation of
the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It is not official; not formal, not
ecclesiastical; it is spiritual, moral, in the highest sense of
that word. It gives an elevation above the highest natural
ability, and the highest natural dignity. The strong, and
powerful, and important in this world cannot rise to the height of
this sovereignty of the Lord Jesus in government and
administration and will have to bow to it sooner or later.
The Body of Christ - The Medium of the Display
of Christ's Headship
Now the next thing is this: that the Body of Christ (and every
member of the Body of Christ) is intended to be the medium of the
display of Christ's Headship. He has been "made Head over all
things to the church which is His Body, the fulness of Him that
fills all in all" so that the Body, and every member thereof, is
intended to be for the display of the glory of the Head. You
remember that the spiritual interpretation of the book of Esther
largely comes down upon that.
Vashti was deposed from her position as queen. Why? Because she
refused to hold herself at the disposal of the king for the
display of his glory. She preferred to have a private party of her
own and to reign in her own circle instead of going to the banquet
of the king to be displayed for his glory. Reading the story as a
bit of Eastern history, it might be a sordid story, but God is
taking hold of these things, however sordid, that they may
represent great spiritual realities.
The same is true of the story of the prophet Hosea and his wife:
a woman running off and selling herself and giving herself to the
most degrading course of moral or immoral life, and then the
prophet having to go, and when men have no more use for her, the
prophet having to buy her out of the public market. So degraded as
to be put up for sale for anyone who would make a bid for her; and
the prophet having to go and buy her back and restore her to the
place of highest affection and deepest respect, and act as if she
had never sinned. God loves that people Israel. That is me and
you, but He says, "I love you as if you had never sinned and will
restore you to a place as if nothing had ever happened". This is
taken hold of by God and lifted and given a spiritual significance
which carries you to the highest glories of New Testament
revelation. Vashti goes; she prefers a private banquet where she
could reign as queen on her own. She is is deposed, and the king
seeks someone who will live a life of selflessness for him and for
his glory; and Esther comes in to take that place. She is sought
for. All is for the king to display his glory, kingship and
sovereignty, and Esther is brought to the palace for that purpose.
Esther is the church, the Bride - the church is to be the
instrument for the display of the glory of the Head. All her glory
is His glory and of no one else.
When Rebecca was brought from the far country to Isaac, as they
drew near she lifted up her eyes and said, "Who is this man?" "My
Master's son; Isaac, your husband to be", and it says that she
immediately took a veil and put it over her face. Her beauty was
for no one else; it was reserved for him. That is it. The church
is for His glory.
"The Bride eyes not her garment,
but her dear
Bridegroom's face;
I will not gaze at glory,
but on my King of
Grace."
It is for the Lord. The display of His glory. So the Body
in all its members is to be the display of the sovereignty, glory
and supremacy of the Head, the Lord Jesus. What a calling, what a
vocation, what an honour!
But, you see, this is vocational. We so
often take this angle, pleading with the Lord to display His
sovereign power - that is just the very thing for which He has related us to
Himself. There is no need for us to plead for Him to do it, but we
should be in a position and condition for Him to do it. He has
joined us to Himself for that purpose. When we hold fast the Head
it is the sovereignty of the Head that is displayed. At Pentecost
that is what happened. The Holy Spirit brought them into a right
relationship to the Exalted Head and His sovereignty was instantly
displayed, and the difficulty is not in our persuading the Lord to
act sovereignly and mightily, but getting us to a place of
selflessness where we will take none of the glory to ourselves. He
is straitened in this fallen nature of ours. He begins to use us
and we begin to be something and strut about like a farmyard
bantam - taking God's glory, a name and reputation, and
giving it to man. God is not able to use men today because of
that. He will display His sovereignty when He gets us broken and
empty enough to do it. He has anointed us with Himself for that
very purpose; for the display of His Headship.
We have received the anointing in Him in order that the purpose
of His being anointed as Head should be expressed through us. He
has not received the anointing to Himself as Head; while He
remains Head supremely, He has poured forth this, and the
anointing oil has come down on us as born of the Spirit in order
that the sovereignty might come down and be administered through
the church which is His Body. This leads us to say that the matter
of Headship is also a matter of subjection. Those illustrative
passages come in here. "I would have you to know," says the
apostle, "that the head of every woman is the man even as Christ
is Head of the church". The head of every woman is the man. The
very strength and very safety of the woman is in submitting in a
right way to the headship of the man. You are not to take that
merely as formal or legal. That has to be regarded in its
spiritual and moral meaning. God has so constituted His creation
that He intended man to be the protection and strength of woman,
and that woman was to find her protection and safety under the
shelter of the man. But that thought was intended by God to be an
illustration of a heavenly law: that the church finds Her strength
and safety in Her subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Headship is not legal or formal, or ecclesiastical. Headship is
spiritual and moral. That headship has fallen upon women
sometimes. Someone has got to take that position over a family and
if the man fails and the woman is spiritually and morally fitted
to do it, she must; but it is not the right order and there will
be a weakness while that lasts. The headship is not merely because
there is a male person there. Headship is that there is spiritual
and moral headship there.
When poor Barak refused to come up and take charge of the armies
of the Lord, Deborah had to do it, but the Lord upheld the
principle in that He did not mention Deborah in Hebrews 11, but
Barak. But if Barak does not do it, then the spiritual and moral
headship will fall upon Deborah. She will not act in independence,
but seek to stimulate him and say "up Barak", try and get him to
his place, but the principle of this is that Headship is not
formal, legal or ecclesiastical appointment; it is spiritual, it
is moral. And subjection to the Lord Jesus is not subjection on a
legal or formal basis; it is the recognition of His absolute
spiritual and moral right to be Head and it is in that the church
finds Her safety and strength. Philippians 2:5: "Wherefore God
hath highly exalted Him". His high exaltation, with the Name above
every Name in which every knee shall bow, is in virtue of
something - not formal or just legal - it is in virtue of a
tremendous thing that He has done spiritually, of a great triumph,
firstly by subjecting Himself to the will of the Father, and then
being exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high. He
subjected Himself to the will of God and you and I will never know
salvation until we have known what it is to become absolutely
subject to Christ. Note that that brings us back to the Cross -
the Cross and the Headship of Christ, the Cross and spiritual
ascendency.
We have had the Cross brought home to us in these messages
tremendously, so that many of us have reeled under its impact and
felt the terrific force of its application to this old man. Why is
that necessary? Why is it essential that the Cross should be laid
with such devastating force upon this old creation? For two
reasons which are two sides of one. It is because the old creation
is under the authority of darkness and not under the authority of
Christ in the spiritual and moral sense. The absolute sovereignty
of the Lord Jesus as a thing established in the life of man does
not hold in the old creation. There is a sovereignty, as it were,
upon Him of the universe which governs all things from the throne,
but that is not what I am thinking of. I am thinking of the
display of the glory of the Lord Jesus in and through His own; and
over the old creation there is an authority of darkness. There is
the "prince of the power of the air", the "spirit that now works
in the children of disobedience", and the only way in which that
authority can be shattered and broken, the only way in which we
can be delivered from the authority of darkness, is by Christ's
work in His Cross where He met that authority to break it so that
there might be the new creation without that authority governing
it or having any power over it.
And the Cross represents for us our deliverance out of the
authority of darkness, but that authority is established in our
very nature by nature, and it has got to be broken. The devil has
a grip upon the whole creation - "the whole world lieth in the
wicked one", "the spirit that works in the children of
disobedience", "the god of this age has blinded the eyes of them
which believe not". He has an authority in that realm, and that
authority works in every being, in the very best of them. And to
be unconscious of that fact is probably the greatest proof of its
existence because it is always true that the greatest advantage of
the devil is to work unseen, and to leave no trace whatever of his
operations. We are entirely deceived into a position where we do
not believe that there is such a devil. That is the supreme
evidence of the devil's work. He does not want to display himself
as the devil. He wants to insinuate his non-existence if he can.
"The god of this age hath blinded."
I always remember Bunyan's "Holy War" when Appolyon would capture
Mansoul, the first thing he would do would be to get hold of the
Lord Mayor Mr. Understanding and put him in a dark dungeon where
he could not see what was going on. "Having the understanding
darkened, alienated from the life of God". This is a grip
that has got to be shattered. In the Cross the Lord Jesus did that
for every son whom He brings to glory and the Cross has to be laid
strongly and mightily upon our old man in that connection.
But there is the other side. The will of the flesh. The will of
the flesh is the will of the devil. It is the will of him who
said, "I will exalt my throne; I will be equal with the
Most High". The will which confronted the will of God and captured
the will of Adam and installed itself in the race of Adam; another
will that is not the will of God, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, going about to establish their own, etc. - another
will not subject to God. And we know only too well that we never
get into a clear place of spiritual ascendency, never know
anything about spiritual victory, or have a clear knowledge of the
will of God, until our will has been put absolutely aside, and we
have no will in the matter at all. Until then we are tossed to and
fro and go round in a circle and are in chaos until that will has
been put away ready for the will of God and the Lord can lift us
up and put us in the place where we are above things, whereas we
have been beneath them. The Cross has to come in and break the
will of the flesh; the self-will, anything that wills other than
the will of God. So the Cross must break this nature in order to
get us to the place of the absolute sovereignty and supremacy of
the Lord Jesus.
Pride
And of course, one of the strongest features of the self-will is
pride. Lucifer said "I will be equal with the Most High" and the
prophet is made to say, "Pride was found in thee". Pride
takes many forms. Pride can be a most humble thing in its pose.
Pride can be a very sorry-for-itself thing. Pride can be a very
hurt thing, but it is still pride. We can be those who are feeling
very broken, but it is not we who are broken, it is our
pride which has been wounded. If we knew the history of every
rupture of fellowship amongst God's people, of every dissemblance
which has come into the things of God, of every advantage that the
devil has gained, I believe we should find pride in some form or
another - someone having a personal interest, personally
concerned, like or dislike, want or not want, a preference -
somehow pride coming in through the "I". That is the thing the devil
always uses to destroy; and it has to be smashed. Calvary sees the
emptying right down to the last degree where there is nothing left
of self and then there can be the lifting up, the exaltation into
the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord has to break before He can elevate, empty before He can
fill. The Cross must be applied to bring us to the absolute
supremacy of the Lord Jesus. What we need is the complete
assurance that Jesus Christ is Lord. We cannot serve in the gospel
unless we are perfectly assured that the government is in His
Hands. If we have any doubt about that, we are paralysed and
crippled in service and in life. We must strongly grasp the fact
that all authority in heaven and in earth is in the hands of the
Lord Jesus, not in the hands of Satan. If we do not rest in that,
we shall be altogether spoilt, we shall not be able to go through.
It is a fact. Oh, to come into spiritual enjoyment of that fact;
we have now seen the way.
May the Lord make it very real to our hearts that the new
creation, that which is born of the Spirit, is constituted now
under the complete supremacy and sovereign Headship of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is to be Lord over us in every detail. He is Lord
by the appointment of the Father, and when we are subject to
Christ, there is nothing impossible. His sovereignty operates. May
we know more of it for His Name's sake.