Fulfillment and Federal HeadshipBy C. Paige Marshall

April 5, 2010   |   Category: Fulfillment 101

Some time ago, I began to inquire as to the validity of Adamic headship being in existence today. What spurred me to even question a long-held traditional view was the working out of the fulfilled view and it's implications to my theology. If all things have been fulfilled, what impact does this make on traditional Christian theology as taught for centuries by the church? This quest has brought much unrest to many as these issues are being discussed here and elsewhere. On a personal level, before I could even embrace the notion that all things were fulfilled within 40 years of Christ's earthly ministry, I had to be willing to let go of everything I thought I already knew, and enter into uncharted territory. I write this article holding to the idea that my audience has had to go through the same struggles as I, and has also willingly entered the same uncharted territory. With that in mind, I would like to present some of the findings from my personal study.

I begin with what I understand of federal headship.The bible speaks in 1 Cor. 15:22, of people “in Adam”, and “in Christ”. Rom. 5 contrasts the “death” experienced in Adam with the “life”that would come through Christ. In vs.14 we are told that Adam was a type of Him who was to come. I would like to quote from an article written by Marcus Booker that I believe lays out some very clear teaching on the issue of federal headship:

Christ as Federal Head
Ephesians speaks of two estranged parties being formed into one "new man." This man, as the context demonstrates, is Christ, who put to death the enmity in the flesh. The two parties are Jews and Gentiles who are united together into this "new covenant." Paul here embodies the covenant itself in the personhood of Jesus. John likewise describes Jesus as "the word made flesh." This "word" is the covenant of God in a person; it is the law incarnate. It's as the Psalms say, "His word he gave unto Jacob, His law to Israel." Christ is the fulfillment of the law. The law is contained in him. His body is the temple. In this very context, John contrasts two covenants: "the law through Moses" and "the grace and truth through Jesus Christ." This "grace and truth" is a new law. And John, affirming that the law is contained in Jesus, states that Jesus is "full of grace and truth."

Adam as Federal Head
Adam too represents the covenant. From the account in Genesis (delivered unto Jacob as they received their law), it is evident that he is a representative figure for national Israel. In Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth. Isaiah speaks similarly and explicitly of a creation of heavens and earth in proclaiming the establishment of a covenant. Also, Moses calls the "heavens and earth" to witness against Israel. [Note: Hosea suggests a covenant with Adam (sometimes translated generically as man)]. Moreover, Adam sees a glimpse of the holy days of the covenant. God makes the sun, moon, and stars for "signs, seasons, days, and years." He hereby establishes the days of observation, an integral part of the covenant. Paul, in writing the Galatians, calls them "days, months, seasons, and years," which the Galatians need not observe (released from the law as they were). Also, the sabbath is apparent in the Genesis account. Furthermore, like Jabob's race, God blessed Adam and gave him a law, consisting of blessings and curses. The blessing was long life in the land (Eden). The curse was death and exile from the land.

And like Adam, Israel had made void the covenant. It is in this way that Adam is a figure for Israel. After Adam made void the covenant and is cast from his land, God clothes him in animal skins (which demonstrated grace and required a bloody sacrifice of another for the sake of a sinner).

Christ as national Israel
Christ too is a figure for national Israel, as a redeemed people (hence, "out of Egypt I called my son," Christ's 40 day temptation in the wilderness, "a kingdom, priests," "a people for his own possession," etc.).

He is the federal head, called the "new nature," "new creature," "new life," which causes the old to pass away.

Relationship between Adam and Christ
In Romans, Paul calls Adam a type of what was to come (a second Adam). Similarly, Paul, Hebrews, and much of the Scriptures speak in like manner of the law with respect to Christ (see Col 2 about the holy days being as shadow of what was to come). Again, Adam represents the law. Also, God made Adam in his image in much the same way as the law was the image or shadow of the heavenly originals in the new covenant. [Note: the God/man and spirit/flesh distinction is also used to contrast the two covenants and bears a relation to the Christ/Adam distinction]. Also, 1 Corinthians 15 makes the same first/second distinction that Hebrews characteristically employs in delineating between the two covenants. Yet Paul contrasts Adam and Christ as the "first man" and the "second man." He says, in Adam (i.e. under the law) all die but in Christ (i.e. under grace) all will be made alive. The broader context of 1 Cor 15 and the entire epistle and the vast body of Paul's writings, and the vast body of the Scriptures demonstrate that Paul employs the distinction between Adam and Christ to distinguish between and characterize the two covenants. The method is similar to related distinctions between Hagar and Sarah, Esau and Jacob, Sodom and Lot, and the flooded world and Noah. So, the Adam and Christ illustration is but one example of the many ways in which the Scriptures allegorize the two covenants.
“---Excerpt from the article, “Adam and Christ: Federal Heads”

I believe what Marcus Booker has provided here for us is some essential information that is important to understand in order to discuss further implication of federal headship in the fulfilled view. Adam and Christ are federal heads of the Old and New Covenants, respectively.

Now we come into the heart of the matter before us; does Adamic headship exist after all the enemies of Christ have been put under His feet, His enemies being made His footstool? The issue is made all the more clear to me when we see that a federal head is a ruler. A federal head reigns over what it has been made 'head' over. So, does Christ rule alongside another in the ages to come? Those puzzled as to the answer will have no trouble when the question is put this way: Do the two Covenants exist beside each other, or live in the same house eternally? Those of us who understand the fulfilled view of scripture will answer this question with an emphatic, “No!”

Many will attempt to understand this issue by saying that Adamic headship is dead for those who believe and have entered into the New Covenant. In other words, fulfillment is only a reality for those inside the church. Is this really so? Besides looking at the obvious, that the Old Covenant has completely 'passed' away and is no longer 'passing' away, lets see what was already a present reality for those who had entered into the New Covenant prior to Jerusalem's destruction.

As Marcus Booker so aptly put, Ephesians speaks of one new man being formed from two estranged parties. In speaking to the church, Paul says in Eph. 4:17 that they should not walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, but rather to walk as the new man (4:24) and walk in true righteousness and holiness. The new man was what one became upon entering the New Covenant. 2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” We see that the church was already that new man. Furthermore, we see in Gal. 3:28, that the NT church, through it's baptism into Christ, is already a new creation that is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. This new creation that has been made one in Christ is living among the old creation. They are surrounded by the Jew and the Greek, the slave and the free, the male and the female. Now, if we jump to Rev. 21:5, we see a bold pronouncement from “He who sat on the throne.” “Behold, I make all things new.” This comes after the former things have “passed away” in the preceding vs. What I'm seeing here is the NT church was the first to experience and take part in the new creation of which Christ, not Adam, is the federal head. The former things had already passed for those in Christ. ( 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 3:26-28; Col.2:11-15; Eph.2:1) The NT church was the new creation that existed side by side with the old, in the New Covenant that existed side by side with the Old, and under a new headship that existed side by side with an old headship. Fulfillment brings an end to the old. Fulfillment sees more than a fraction of creation being made new. If fulfillment means that the new creature exists forever among old creatures in the old creation, what exactly has changed from that former time?

May I suggest that the New Covenant, this new Man Christ, was what one entered in order to survive the end of the old creation and enter into the new one? Are we not today born into the “age that was to come”? The eternal age? If the headship of Christ is a headship that one still has to “get into”, then how does one get into it after the “fullness of the Gentiles” has already come in (Rom. 11:25)? How can I enter into that headship as a Gentile any longer? Do I enter as Jew? Hardly. Do I enter as a “new man”? If the old has passed away, then I would have to enter as a new man. Yet, to become a new man, one had to first enter into Christ during the transition of the ages. Did the Adamic headship survive the passing away of the Old Creation? Does it vie for authority and rulership alongside Christ after the end of the Old covenant's age? Does Adam, the old man, have eternal life? My answer is a resounding “No!” to these last three questions. My friends, it is imperative that a fuller understanding of the reconciliation and fulfillment of all things must be the order of the day, or what we come to at the end of the day is no fulfillment at all.