The remarkable quotation of the Eighth Psalm by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:22, will be helpful to us in understanding this — read Ephesians 1:19-23: “The working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, and hath put all things under his feet (quotation from Psa. 8), and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.”* The Eighth Psalm speaks of a “Son of Man,” to whom dominion over all creation is given. If we consult Genesis 1:26, we find that God gave to Adam and his wife a joint headship over all creation; but this headship was sinned away and lost when man fell. The whole creation, now groaning and travailing, was made subject to vanity through the fall of man. (See Rom. 8:19-23). This headship is given, as Psalm 8 tells us, to a “Son of Man.” And we discover who this Son of Man is in Hebrews 2:6, &c., where the Apostle, quoting the Psalm, tells us that we do not yet see the grand result of all things being subject to Him. He says, “For in that he put all under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor: that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.” Thus we find who this “Son of Man” is. It is Jesus. This brings us back to Ephesians 1, where Paul quotes the Psalm. Christ, then, as Man glorified, has been taken up of God from the dead, and seated in the heavenlies, “Head over all things, to the Church, which is his body,” and is waiting there for the manifest assumption of this Headship, during which time the Body is here.
In Colossians 1:18, we find Him spoken of as “Head of the body, the Church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.” His headship is now connected with the fact of resurrection. It is as risen and ascended, that Christ is Head of the Church.
We have now the Head of the body in heaven, a glorified Man, as well as the difficulty removed. But this does not yet constitute the body; and before we look at it we must turn aside for a moment and see what Scripture says of union with Christ.