according to the flesh, both son of Abraham and son of David, yet Abraham himself is

never called a king.

Abraham not only built an altar at the beginning of his pilgrimage upon which the

only sacrifices permitted would have been those taken from the herd or the flock. He

came nearer to the heart of all true sacrifice when he was called upon to offer his only

begotten son Isaac, yet Abraham is never called a priest. Like Adam and Noah, Abraham

is more than king, more than priest, he is the father of Israel, to which he stands without

contradiction as head. Even when we leave the chosen people, and turn our attention to

the first great king whose reign commenced the times of the Gentiles--Nebuchadnezzar,

he too is spoken of by Daniel as "This head of gold" (Dan. 2: 38). Each one of the great

outstanding figures that have foreshadowed the pleroma, or fullness, were `heads' and in

this they foreshadowed more than the office of King, Priest or Prophet alone, or together,

could set forth. Even though Christ be never called either Prophet, Priest or King in the

epistles of the Mystery, the church of the One Body loses nothing if Christ is its Head.

He is more than King and Priest and Prophet to the church, for headship covers all.

With this preparation, let us turn to the Epistles of the Fullness, the prison epistles of

Paul, and observe the way in which this title is employed. The Greek word kephale is

used here seven times, and the verb anakephalaioomai once. Let us look at the usage of

this verb, which means `to head up'. It occurs in Eph. 1: 10 where it is translated `to

gather together in one' in the A.V., `to sum up' in the R.V., and in Weymouth's

translation "of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ", and by

J. N. Darby, `to head up all things in Christ'. It is in connection with the pleroma of the

seasons that the figure of `heading up' is used, no other term being so appropriate or so

complete. When that `fullness' arrives, Christ will be infinitely more than King or Priest,

He will be "Head". The references to Christ as `Head' in the prison epistles are limited to

Ephesians and Colossians (Eph. 1: 22; 4: 15; 5: 23; Col. 1: 18; 2: 10; 2: 19).

These six references to kephale, expand the promise of Eph. 1: 10, the church of the

present dispensation being the most complete foreshadowing of the goal of the ages that

the Scriptures contain. To turn back to the types and shadows employed in earlier

Scriptures is to turn by comparison from substance to shadow, although the substance

here must necessarily be but in its turn a shadow of the reality yet to come. The first

passage brings us back from the day when all things in heaven and earth shall be headed

up in Christ, to the present period when in a day of rejection, confusion and darkness, an

elect company acknowledge that Christ is to them, what He will be universally in the

"And gave Him to be Head over all things TO THE CHURCH" (Eph. 1: 22). Christ is

not yet recognized as `Head over all things'. The day is future when `every knee shall

bow and every tongue confess', but what will be true then in its widest sense is true

now `to the church which is His Body'. In the glorious future God will be all in all

(I Cor. 15: 28), but that day has not yet come.  Today "Christ is all and in all"

(Col. 3: 11). In the glorious future `all things' are put under His feet (I Cor. 15: 27) but

as in Hebrews, even though we say today "we see not yet all things put under Him"