CORONATION
By
D. M. Panton,
B.A.
Never
before in our lives was there a more urgent need to realize, vividly, what is
at hand - namely, the kingdoms of the whole world changed into an Empire of Christ,
and our own almost incredible possibility of sharing the throne with our
Lord. The world is plunging into deeper darkness and grosser wickedness:
it is for us to be radiant with the
A KING
The
central fact is that our Lord returns as a King. As the crown of thorns
was literal, and a studied mockery of the crown which
David and Solomon wore, and which Christ inherited - "Where is he that is born king of the Jews?"
(Matt 2: 2), asked the Wise Men from the
East - so Christ’s crowns - for He returns with many crowns, of
which the Papal Tiara (a triple crown) is an imitation - are as literal and
human and royal as the crowns of all ages. "His
eyes are as a flame of fire, and upon his head are many crowns;
and he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and
Lord of lords" (Rev. 19: 12, 16).
So the crowns of the Angels are equally literal, for we read: "They shall cast their crowns before the throne"
(Rev. 4: 10). We need to realize fully that while His birth as David’s heir involved
royalty, throughout His years on earth Jesus was not even remotely a king - all
His royalty was postponed: in His first advent everything centred on His
being a Saviour: in His second advent everything will centre on His being
a King.
A CROWN
A CROWN
is a wreath set upon a brow to distinguish that brow from others; and to confer
royal rank and power. It may or may not be of great value in
itself. The crown of the Sultan of Johore
is worth £2,000,000. The British crown, originally valued at a quarter of
a million, is now enormously richer by the addition of the Cullinan
diamond, far the largest diamond in the world. On the other hand, a crown
of small intrinsic value may be priceless for other reasons. In the Isthmian
Games, the ancient world’s mightiest athletics, the crown - sought by the
most accomplished athletes of the world - was merely a handful of bay-leaves or
olive. So its associations may make a crown wonderful. The writer
will not easily forget the thrill with which he saw the Crown of Charlemagne
in the Louvre in Paris: the oldest
and most royal crown in the world, yet plain and dimmed - a crown doubtless yet
to rest on the brow of Antichrist.
VICTORY
Now
we arrive at the extremely critical nature of our possible crown. Second Advent crowns are granted, not on the
ground of inheritance - that is, not on
the ground of our rebirth as sons of God - but solely on the ground
of achievement. The word which the Holy Spirit always
selects for our crown is not diadema, a
royal inheritance, but stephanos, a
wreath granted solely for personal
victory.* So Paul sums up once for all: "A man is not crowned, except he have contended
lawfully" (2 Tim. 2: 5).
While our Lord’s crowns are mainly ‘diadems’ (Rev. 19: 12), or crowns inherited, as both Son of
God and Son of David, His also is a ‘victory wreath’: "We behold him because of the suffering of death
crowned" (Heb. 2: 9).
Achievement sometimes also applies to modern crowns. When Roumania became a kingdom in 1881, King Charles, as there
was no crown, said: "Send to the arsenal, and
melt an iron crown out of captured cannon, in token that it was won upon the
field of battle, and bought and paid for with our lives."
Exactly so our Lord says to the Sardian Angel: "Be thou faithful unto
death" - to the point of death, that is, a martyr’s death - "and I
will give thee the crown of
life" (Rev. 2: 10).
[*
In the eternal state beyond the Millennium it would appear that, based as it is
on Grace alone, all believers are crowned; for of all whose names
are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life we read, "They shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 20: 4).]
MULTIPLE CROWNS
So
now we reach the extremely practical point of the achievements for which, and
for which alone, our crowns can be won. (1)The first crown is for shepherding
the flock of God. "Make yourselves
ensamples to the flock; and when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall
receive the crown of glory that fadeth not
away" (1 Pet. 5: 3). (2)
The second crown is for unceasing fidelity. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation [testing]: for when he
hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life"
(James 1: 12). Mere suffering, [for
Christ, righteousness, and for the truth's sake;] endured triumphantly, wins the
crown. This crown therefore is supremely granted to the martyr.
"Be thou faithful unto death" - a violent
death - "and I will give thee the crown of
life" (Rev. 2: 10).
(3) The third crown is for squaring all life to the Second Advent. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is
laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give to me at
that day: and not only to me, but" - to all believers? NO!
- "to all them that have loved his
appearing" (2 Tim. 4: 8).
THE KINGDOM
Thus
our ‘stephanos,’ or chaplet of victory, has a double
value: backward, it is a record of the achievement for which it
was granted; and forward, it is the passport to the Kingdom, a symbol of the
rank and power which it confers. A crown in all ages and among
all nations has ever been the signal of royalty: to
gain a crown is to gain a kingdom, and to lose a crown is to lose its kingdom:
we possess both, or we possess neither. Christians would be far more passionately
devoted if only they knew how enormous are the issues at
stake. How literal is the coming royalty our Lord
put beyond challenge in a word to the Apostles: "Verily
I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the
throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt.
19: 28). So at the opening of the Thousand Years’ reign we read:
"and I saw thrones, and they sat upon them; and they lived, and reigned
with Christ a thousand years" (Rev.
20: 4). At a British coronation the Archbishop of Canterbury says
to the King: "Receive the crown of glory, honour,
and joy"; but the glory, honour, and joy are the exercised royalty rather
than in the circlet of gold on the brow: it is merely the symbol of Empire.*
[* It is a royalty
that will never know an abdication, a crown "that fadeth not away" (1
Pet. 5: 3). "The bit of parsley, or
olive, or laurel - the crown in the Olympian Games - soon turned into faded
leaves. When yon sun grows pale, and yon
moon reddens into blood, then shall your crown be as resplendent as ever."
- C. H. Spurgeon.]
A UNIVERSAL OFFER
So
this prize of our high calling is
open to every runner in the race. Coronation
is possible to all: no sex is excluded, nor age, nor race, nor class, nor
temperament. And it is possible for a believer to win all the crowns, if
only he will be set over a
A LOST CROWN
Our
Lord’s negative warning therefore demands our whole soul. "I come quickly:
hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take
thy crown" (Rev. 3: 12);
or as Paul puts it: "Let no man rob you of
your prize" (Col. 2: 18).
The crown may be won today, and lost
tomorrow. No one warns of the lost crown more than Christ. "Not every one
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord" - however truly and vitally he may
say it - "shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will" - he who fulfils
the conditions of the crown - "of my
Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 7: 21);
and in the judgment He will say, "Take ye away
therefore the talent from him and give it unto him that hath ten talents; for
unto every one that hath" - he who has used his gifts -
"shall be given, and he shall have abundance"
- even multiple crowns; "but from him that hath
not" - who buried his talent - "even that which he hath shall be taken away" (Matt. 25: 28). As an old
writer puts it: "The history of Christ’s Church
is one long tale of gifts forfeited and
privileges transferred. The crown is not lost, but with a little
alteration is made to fit another’s brow.* There is no empty space either in the arena of
conflict below or in the palace of victory above."
[* Or, to put it another way: The history of Christ’s
church is one long tale of prizes forfeited; and God’s warnings
to the regenerate being ignored by some, but believed, and acted upon, by
others.]
HOLD FAST
So
we close on our Lord’s golden counsel. "HOLD
FAST THAT WHICH THOU HAST." The promise to the Philadelphian
Angel immediately preceding is extraordinary apt for us probably on the
threshold of the Advent. "Because thou
hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from
the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world."
The Angel’s squared life to the Advent had already won the crown: see to it,
says the Saviour that the first does not become the last. Our crown
can be costly, but it will be infinitely worth the cost. The crown worn
by the Prince of Wales at his father’s coronation in 1902 bears a tuft of
feathers from the periwan, the rarest species
of the birds of Paradise. The bird has to be caught and plucked alive,
for the feathers lose their lustre immediately after death; it frequents and
haunts the tigers, involving great danger; and the Prince of Wales’s crown took
twenty years to collect, and cost the lives of a dozen hunters. All that
you have already achieved grip for your very life.
VISION OF THE KING
Dr. Wilbur Chapman writes: "I was sitting one day beside
an old English soldier who had been in the Crimean service, and while we were
talking he put his hand in his pocket. He told me about one of his
friends who was in the same battle. A cannon-ball came and took off his
leg, but, springing up, he balanced himself on one
leg, ready to fight to the death. Then came another ball and took off his
second leg. They carried him into hospital, but he did not die. ‘When the
day came for us to get our medals,’ he said, ‘they took us into the presence of
the Queen. Other people gave me my medal, but when her Majesty saw my
friend carried in on the stretcher, with his face so thin, and both his legs
gone, she took his medal in her hands and pinned it on his breast, and as she
bent over him her tears dropped on his upturned face. He opened his eyes,
and she said, ‘My brave soldier! My brave soldier!’
'Do you know, sir,’ said he ‘that to the end of his days my friend never
mentioned his reward or his medal, but when we old soldiers would get together,
he would say, ‘I saw the Queen! I saw the Queen!’
That is the reward. Oh to see Him, just to see Him! See that YE
receive a full reward. The Lord help you. Amen."
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FOOTNOTE
"Our crown can be costly, but it will be infinitely worth the
cost."
It
is one thing to suffer from the ungodly for the sake of Christ; it is quite
another, to suffer from those whom we love: the following short note is by
R. J. Cambbell, D.D.
Be Thou Faithful Unto
Death
Well
did the Master say "a man’s foes shall be those
of his own household." If the warfare we
had to wage were only with the un-disguisedly wicked, we could enter upon it
without misgivings: but the sharpest pains we suffer, the deepest wounds we
bear, are seldom those inflicted by the open enemies of our Lord and Saviour. It is those we respect, honour, and love whose
thrusts are most deadly and whom in return we are at times compelled to hurt by
doing what we feel to be right. To a sensitive spirit it is a fearful
thing to encounter the coldness, the aloofness, or the outspoken censure of the
circle in which we move, and the temptation is great to win its approval when
we can. No true Christian can go right through life without sooner or
later, on a small scale or a great, finding himself misunderstood and
opposed by fellow-Christians, some of whom we may be personally dear to
him. Faithfulness to one’s vision is sure to involve a trial of this
kind, and it is no light one. Sweet friendships are often
sundered thereby, tender affections wounded to the quick; it is a
heart-piercing thing to see a beloved face turned from you, to perceive cordial
trust alienated at the very moment when you are in greatest need of it; it is
hard to keep silence on the subject that is first in your thoughts, because it
happens to be just the one subject that has divided you from your circle or
your closest friend. Seldom are such breaches thoroughly healed in this
world.
Be vigilant therefore lest you be seduced to betray your soul or be
less than true to what the Spirit of all truth requires of you. Neither by silence nor by
speech seek to win commendation by seeming to agree
where you do not agree or to admire what you conscientiously feel to be wrong.
The temptation may be sore to win an advantage by concealing your true
convictions when the temper of your company is hostile to them, but to yield
to it is to be guilty of the sin of quenching the Spirit, which none can do
without harming others as well as himself.
To
speak the truth in love is often hard, but grace is afforded to him who
makes the effort in faith and humility. It is hard to blame when
you long to praise, to point out a shortcoming or wound a proud man’s
self-esteem; but when it has to be done, do it without fear of falsity as
though you stood before the judgment seat of Christ, and leave the
outcome to Him. Be gentle, modest, and strong, and your Lord will
sustain you. Let there be no similar trace of self-seeking or
self-righteousness in any difficult thing that you have to say or do in the
name of Jesus, and you will have no cause to regret the stand you take whatever
you have to suffer for it. For in the long run it is better to
hold the respect of Jesus than that of fallible man, and even in
the sadness of a lonely hour His whispered word of peace is worth more
than all the adulation of the world.