CHRIST is the Head of the Church

By Robb Brunansky

Published May 15, 2025

“For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.” Ephesians 5:23

This profound truth—that Christ reigns as head of the church—carries immense weight. Countless martyrs have sacrificed their lives to defend it. In 17th-century Scotland, Covenanters huddled in misty glens, clutching tattered Bibles. Hunted for rejecting the king’s claim over the church, they sang psalms defiantly, their voices echoing across the moors. A mother, shielding her child, whispered of Christ’s sole headship before facing exile.

Charles Spurgeon wrote, “To know this truth is to hold a most weighty trust, with which we must not trifle. Martyrs have bled for this truth. Scotland’s heather has been stained in ten thousand places, and her waters have been dyed crimson for the defense of this weighty doctrine.”

For the polity and government of the church, there is no greater or more important statement than this: Christ is the head of the church.

The Authority of Christ’s Headship

One of the important facets to Christ’s headship over the church is His authority.

This meaning is, unsurprisingly, immediately disputed by feminists and liberal theologians, who say that headin this context does not mean authority but source. They assert that much like the head of a river supplies the source of water for a river, so Christ is the source of the church. We cannot deny, of course, that Christ supplies what the church needs to grow. However, the issue in this passage is not one of source.

Thomas Schreiner aptly writes, “It is difficult to understand what it would mean for husbands to be the source of their wives since husbands are neither the source of their wives’ spiritual lives nor the source of their physical lives.”

The meaning that prevails in this context is not source but authority, which is a much more common use of the word head. For example, in Ephesians 1:22, we read that God the Father put all things in subjection under [Christ’s] feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church. The context there is very clear, that Christ being head over all things means that all things are in subjection to Him. He has authority over everything.

Yet it’s not just that He has authority over the church, but that He has authority over everything, which Jesus said as much in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18). Christ has all authority, which is another way of saying that He is the head of all things because all things are in subjection to Him. When it comes to the church, He has all authority, and He has all authority in this unique way because the church is also His body.

When we say that Christ has authority over the church, we must realize that this is an exclusive claim. That claim means no one else has authority over the church. Christ alone has authority over His church.

The Reformers’ Defense of Christ’s Headship

This statement was a central passage in the Reformers’ protest against the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope claimed to be the authority over the church. He claimed to be the one who stood in the place of Christ on earth and was the head of the church. That persists today in Roman Catholicism, as the modern Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Pope as the successor of Peter and “the church’s supreme pastor” (or shepherd) – a term reserved to Christ alone in Scripture (1 Peter 5:4).

There’s only one supreme pastor of the church, and it isn’t some guy living at the Vatican. It’s the God-man enthroned at the right hand of God the Father who lives forever and ever to make intercession for us!

Martin Luther wrote, “So the pope, too, wants to be a very wise man, indeed, the wisest of the wise, simply because he has a high position and claims to be the head of the church; whereupon the devil so puffs him up that he imagines that whatever he says and does is pure divine wisdom and everybody must accept and obey it, and nobody should ask whether it’s God’s Word or not.”

The Reformers understood that when the Roman church said that the Pope was the head or supreme pastor of the church, they replaced Christ with the Pope. That is why the Reformers would refer to the Pope consistently as the antichrist, which means the one who replaces or stands falsely in the place of Christ. What better description could there be even today of the Pope, who claims for himself the very position that Christ alone holds, as head of the church?

This statement, however, disallows that any earthly magistrate should be head over the church. This reality was also a significant problem during the time of the Reformation because of what was taking place in England with King Henry VIII. The king wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon, but the Pope would not sanction his divorce. So, in 1534, King Henry VIII declared himself head of the church of England. Martin Luther commented on that turn of events as well, writing, “I’m glad we’re rid of that blasphemer. He wants to be head of the church in England directly after Christ, a title that isn’t appropriate for any bishop or prelate, to say nothing of a king. It won’t do. There’s only one bridegroom and head of the church, Christ.”

And to that we say, “Amen!” The church has only one head, the Lord Jesus Christ; and He alone possesses authority over the church!

So, when any government, or any magistrate, or ruler, or religious figure wants to come and rule the church and tell her what she can and cannot preach, and what she can and cannot sing, and whether she can or cannot worship and meet, or if the people have to wear this or that thing to worship, we stand up against such blasphemy and resolutely declare that the church has one head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are subject to Him alone.

Christ’s Headship and the Church’s Salvation

Ultimately, Christ’s headship of the church is defined by the salvation of the church.

In this passage in Ephesians, Paul does not say the “Lord of the body,” which is what we might think He would write in this context. Rather, he says the “Savior of the body.” Christ’s headship of the church is marked and defined by the fact that He saved us. He is our Savior. He rescued us, and He delivered us from sin, which means that His headship of the church and our submission to Him as His body is defined by redeeming love.

It also means that the church belongs to Christ because He shed His blood for her.

Conclusion: Submitting to Christ Alone

Do you know why the church doesn’t belong to me or any one of us? Because we didn’t shed our blood to save her. Scripture tells us that Christ purchased the church with His blood (Acts 20:28). That’s a serious thing, and before we ever tamper with Christ’s church, before we ever arrogate to ourselves some level of authority we think we might have over Christ’s church, we should remember that He purchased the church with His own blood.

No pastor is the head of the church. The Pope is not the head of the church. Christ alone is head of the church. He purchased the church with His own blood, so the church is His church. The church submits solely to Christ, living in obedient reverence to this truth.