"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 to me only, but
also to all them that have loved his appearing" (2
Tim. 4:7-8).
"Blessed is
the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been
approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the
Lord promised to them that love him" (James 1:12).
"Fear not the
things which thou art about to suffer: behold, the devil
is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be
tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of
life" (Rev. 2:10).
"And when the
chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the
crown of glory that fadeth not away" (1 Pet. 5:4).
"We behold him
who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even
Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with
glory and honour" (Heb. 2:9).
The above passages
bring into view and sum up practically all that we have
been dealing with in our earlier meditations. Three words
compass all - righteousness, life, glory. You will notice
that there are said to be three crowns at the end - the
crown of righteousness, the crown of life, the crown of
glory. Of course, what is meant by 'crown' is the sealing
of a course in triumph, with honour, with exaltation, the
crown being the symbol both of victory and victorious
honour.
Crowning
in Relation to an Ordeal
You will notice this
common feature in all the passages - in every case the
relationship was to an ordeal. The Apostle Paul said,
"I have fought the good fight. I have finished the
course, I have kept the faith"; an ordeal expressed
by three metaphors - a fight, a race, a trust - all
indicating that something very serious was at issue. The
other two passages, from James and from the Revelation,
suggest an ordeal, a time of severe trial and testing.
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation
(trial)." "Be thou faithful unto death."
And similarly also with Peter. You know that Peter's
writings can very largely be summed up in the words
"suffering" and "glory." It is he who
writes so much about the trial of faith, but he also
writes much about the glory after the trial. Here it is
in Peter - the crown of glory. "When the chief
Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown
of glory."
Now the point is that
there is something very serious on hand; and that is, of
course, the sum of all these meditations. From beginning
to end, the Lord has been seeking to make us aware of the
serious business that is on hand just now for the Church
- no less a thing than the fulfilment of its vocation,
the accomplishment of its course, the preserving intact
of its trust. Expressed in other terms, that is no less a
matter than proving the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ
in the realm of Satanic forces - forces which are so
evidently pressing in and seeking, with new, far-reaching
efforts and activities, to set the kingdom of God aside
and to rule out the Lord Jesus from this world. If I am
not mistaken, the Lord would rally His Church at this
end-time and make it aware of that for which it was
eternally chosen in Christ and for which it exists as the
instrument and vessel - the answering of that challenge
in this universe to the sovereign rights of the Lord
Jesus.
Are we
really alive to the fact of the tremendous challenge to
the kingdom of God that exists in the world today? We
hear of many disturbing things happening. I hope you are
not regarding them all simply on the earthly level and
becoming more or less paralysed by the outlook. Rather we
ought to look behind the events, and see the portent, the
significance of them. What we see and hear is only the
forefront of the situation, the earthly aspect, of
something more, something other; and that other is
Satan's bid - perhaps his last - for the kingdom.
We are
getting very near the last days. Spiritually discerning
people can surely see the drift of things today, and in
the light of that the people of God must know where they
stand, and it is not beside the point at all to quote
words like these - "The devil is about to cast some
of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall
have tribulation ten days." Do not take that
literally; ten is the number of responsibility. 'You are
going to be put into a position where the whole
responsibility for the testimony of Jesus will be worked
out in whether you stand or go under, and it will become
a matter of faithfulness unto death.' Now, whether there
be a literal prison or not, we can see that the people of
God are facing very serious prospects at this time. We
may not all be feeling the full force of the antagonism
just now, but such statements are very apropos to the
situation of many. The evil thing is creeping on; and the
Church is chosen to give the answer to it. And in our
measure we are all involved. Of course, how much you
really count spiritually depends entirely upon how much
you are going on with the Lord, what your spiritual
position is; but some of us, who have had time enough to
learn, do know that spiritual pressure is a thing more
intense today than ever we have known it in our lives.
The enemy did at one time seem to give us a certain
amount of respite, but he does not give us very much now.
One thing follows another. I may be talking into the air
for some of you, but sooner or later you will find that
this is true.
The
Crown of Righteousness
Now, you
see these three things. First of all, righteousness - the
crown of righteousness. What we have been saying in
earlier meditations is that righteousness is the
battleground of this great cosmic conflict between the
two kingdoms. And what is righteousness? Well, after all,
it is a matter of God having His rights. Those rights of
God to absolute lordship were disputed or challenged long
ago - before this present world creation was brought
about. Failing in heaven, the challenge followed in the
earth. A great betrayal of God by Adam put this world and
this race into the hands of Satan. Self in all its forms
of pride - self-interest, self-realisation, the Satanic
'Iwill' - reared itself up in Adam against God; and that
is unrighteousness. And righteousness, we have been
seeing, is just the reverse of that - no longer 'I' but
the Lord, the changing of the centre of things, from the
self-centre to the God-centre. That is the battleground,
and we know that that is not outside of ourselves but
inside; and when we are told that He was made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2
Cor. 5:21), we know that provision was thereby made for
us to enjoy a change of disposition. Righteousness is a
disposition that God shall be all in all, that everything
shall be centred in God and be unto Him. Unrighteousness
is a disposition that we shall be the centre, and
everything unto us; and that is Satanic.
Now if you
look at it, you will see that that is just what Paul was
referring to. He is the great Apostle of righteousness.
That goes without saying. When we look to see what Paul
meant by righteousness, and what it meant to him, how
constantly are we confronted with the Cross, and the
Cross in relation to the man! We are so familiar with
those chapters in his letter to the Romans, notably
chapter 6. We know Gal. 2:20, and many other passages
like it, such as 2 Cor. 5:14 - "One died for all,
therefore all died." He did not regard righteousness
as something abstract. Righteousness with him was a
matter of one man being displaced by another - of Adam
altogether put out of court and Christ put in his place.
That is what the Apostle meant by righteousness. It was
focused and centred in the Cross, where not only the
secondary effects of the fall - sins - are dealt with,
but also the primary effect - sin. Sin is the dethroning
of God from His true place. Righteousness is the bringing
of God back into His place, His rights and His rightful
position; and the Cross did that. Paul was the great
champion of the righteousness which is established by the
death and burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and
it is to that fight he refers. In effect, he is saying,
'I became committed to the great fight that God should
have His place utterly and absolutely. I became involved
in a course, the end of which was that God should be all
in all. That was the trust deposited with me - to secure
for God His rights through the Cross of the Lord Jesus.
My life has been poured out for that; that has been the
fight.'
And that
fight was very often an inward one with Paul as well as
an outward one. He could speak of fighting with wild
beasts at Ephesus; he knew about the objective aspect of
that fight. But oh, how much he tells about his own
fight, about what is going on inside! And it was for Paul
no easy thing to maintain that position of utter
self-denial, self-refusal, and maintain a course with and
for God. 'That,' he would say in effect, 'is the way in
which answer is given to this challenge to God's place in
this universe. It is centred, it is fought out, on this
battlefield of righteousness, and that is a personal and
inward matter.' And he is so personal. You remember these
words written to the Philippians - "That I may... be
found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own...
but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God by faith: that I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings" (3:8-10). He is
thinking of the battle on this matter of righteousness,
which in the end is the dethroning of the enemy.
So far as
we are concerned, the first aspect of this thing comes
right home to us as a challenge; how far are we going to
let go our personal interests - all that is personal in
our lives here in this world - that God should have His
place? That is very simple in words, but a tremendous
thing in experience; it is a real battle. It comes to
this; is the Lord, at all costs, really going to have His
place? Paul said, "...for whom I suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but refuse...", and
that is how it must be. In so far as we have any
self-ward direction, any personal interests to serve, and
are not utterly abandoned to the Lord's having His way,
to that extent the kingdom of Satan is upheld, is intact.
It has always been by means of the people who had no
interest in life or in death but that the Lord should
have His place and His end, that the kingdom of Satan has
been broken into and overthrown. And that is
righteousness; there is the battleground. That is the
thing which draws us out and is the test of our real
interest in life.
The
Apostle says there is a crown of righteousness at the end
of that course. He is not saying that it is the crown
called righteousness. It is the battle of righteousness
fought through, the course of righteousness completed,
the deposit of righteousness preserved intact, and God
crowns that at the end; He gives the seal and the mark of
approval, the crown of righteousness.
The
Crown of Life
The crown
of life. Of course, this is also in the setting of
difficulty, suffering and adversity. "The man that
endureth temptation." But life is not the
battleground; life is the object at stake. From the
beginning it has been that - the battle for life. Satan
at the beginning schemed and worked in order that he
should capture the race for himself and defeat God's ends
in the race. Wherever he has succeeded, he has done so in
this way - that he has hindered men from having Divine
life: because Divine life is not only continuity of life,
it is a nature, a kind of life. It is the issue over
which all the battle is raging. Life is the mark of
victory now as well as afterward. Whenever we triumph on
this battlefield of God having His place, His rights,
there is a new release of life. Whenever in some
controversy with the Lord as to His place, as to His
will, there is victory gained and He is given what is His
right, we know life rises up at once. Until that is
settled, there is arrest. When we get to the Lord and
face the matter out and get through about it with Him,
then the hold-up goes and life springs up again and we
are released. It is just that thing which is the object
of all the activities of the enemy - to try to quench
that life. Life is the issue.
Now, says
the Word here, you are in the battle for life. Satan is
out to quench you, to destroy you. As the Lord's child,
the issue is with you. Just how much you will lay hold on
the Lord's life, how much you will stand upon that Divine
ground, how much in faith you will resist that working of
death, in that degree you will know life. Oh, how that
works out in so many ways, in so many details! Almost any
day in our lives that issue arises - whether we are going
to let death have its way. You know what I mean by death.
I am not talking about being put in your coffin, but
about spiritual death - those stifling, numbing,
darkening forces that come upon your body, mind and
spirit, and wrap you around. You get up in the morning
wondering what is the matter with you. For no apparent
reason you feel depressed, 'dead.' What are you going to
do about it? Are you going to give in and say, 'Well, I
am not feeling too good, I think I will give up for a
bit'? Are you going to yield to it? Well, if you do, you
will not be able to get yourself free again until there
is a real fight put up in prayer. You will find that
there is something more than just a passing bad feeling,
it is the battle for life that you are in. We are all in
that, and from those simple, personal forms the battle is
intensifying and enlarging just now, and it is becoming
the battle of the Church - that is the point -
in an inward way. Is the Church really going to rise up
and overcome this terrible wave of death that is
spreading over the earth? It is a matter that is left
with us; but that is the issue. Why do we not more
quickly recognize what the issue is? We look at the
secondary causes, we think at once that the explanation
is this or that, but the real trouble has come from
somewhere else, from behind; and that sort of thing is
increasing. We are in the battle for life; it is the
great issue from the beginning to the end.
Now then,
in the presence of it, what are we going to do?
"Blessed is the man that endureth trial; for when he
hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of
life." How are we going to be approved? You have
never seen a scholar approved who threw aside his test
paper and said, 'I can never do anything with that! No
use trying!'; or who got so far, and said, 'I cannot do
any more, I give it up!' "Be thou faithful unto
death"; go right through to the end with this thing.
That is what the Apostle is saying. Is it a battle? Well,
do not give in. Is it a course? Do not drop out. Is it a
trust? Do not surrender it. Go through with it, and you
shall receive a crown of life.
The
Crown of Glory
"When
the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive
the crown of glory." What is the crown of glory?
Well, it is simply the nature of righteousness and life
manifesting itself; for righteousness is glory hidden,
glory is righteousness manifested. Glory? It may be that
somehow or other it will be perceivable glory in the
sense of some radiance about us personally. Sometimes you
can almost see that in people - those in whom there is
such an utterness of devotion to the Lord and such a
complete selflessness of life. In such people you
sometimes see something of a radiance about them, even
physically. At any rate, looking at it the other way
round, it is true to say that in people who are always
occupied with themselves, and taken up with their own
troubles and the difficulties of their way, you do not
see very much that is other than a dark shadow, even over
their faces. They bring nothing of light and brightness
and glory with them. Well, it may be that actual, literal
glory will break out through these glorified bodies at
last; but I believe the source of it and the seat of it
is spiritual. It is that life of the Lord manifesting
itself in fulness. It is that nature of the Lord -
righteousness - breaking out and showing exactly what it
is. It is the outbreaking of the triumph over sin and
death that is glory.
It is very significant
to notice the setting of Peter's words. He has just been
talking to the under-shepherds, and telling them to feed
the flock - not for filthy lucre, not for praise, not
that they should get something for themselves, and not
because they are under an obligation to do it; but to do
it selflessly, disinterestedly, abandoned to the Lord's
interests, denying themselves. It may be costly to do
this work for the Lord, but if you do it like that, with
no other motive or object than the satisfaction of the
Lord, "when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested,
ye shall receive the crown of glory." Well, it is,
in the end, the result of this self-life having been
completely set aside and of the Lord alone filling our
vision and governing our hearts and being our motive.
Righteousness - God
having His place; and because of that there is release,
there is life, there is victory; and when God has His
place and the life of God is regnant in us, then there is
glory at the end. These three crowns, these three seals,
these three marks that we have triumphed, that the Lord
has got what He set His heart upon - with these He
attests in the end those who have been with Him in the
battle. The battleground, righteousness; the object of
the battle, life; the outcome of the battle, glory.
May the Lord find us
all in the running for the three crowns; but it is a
battle, a deadly battle, and an inward battle. I
sometimes think it would be so much easier if we were
only in an outward battle; if only we could strike out
against something objective. When the thing to be
overcome is inside, when it is myself that must be slain,
it is not so easy. May we be faithful unto death.