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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 04. Our Great Kinsman
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Our Great Kinsman
There is an intensely interesting question that crowds its way in here, and it proves an immensely practical question, too. Why was Christ crowned? We can say at once that this was His due. He was given that which belonged to Him in good right. He was reinstated in His former position, with all the power and glory that were His before His errand to the earth. [Note: Joh_17:5; Joh_1:1-3; Col_1:15-17.]
Then too this was His vindication after the shameful treatment of earth. Before the eyes of all the upper world, both loyal and disloyal eyes, this man whom earth hounded so shamelessly is vindicated; He is set right by the Father. [Note: Mat_26:64; Act_2:22-24; Act_2:32-36; Php_2:9-11; Heb_2:9.]
But there is yet more than this. It is a more of a sort that concerns us very closely, and it sets one's heart a-beating a bit faster. This crowning was part of a plan, a plan of which our earth is the centre. It was the second great part of a plan of which the suffering and dying were the first great part. Both were for the sake of us men and our earth-home, and the lower creation.
This is the thing being emphasized in the second great paragraph of the Hebrews. [Note: Heb_2:5-18.] Man was made the under-master of the earth and of the lower creation, but lost, weakly surrendered, his place of mastery. The new Man came to recover for man what had been lost and to realize this original lost plan.
And so He became our brother, sharer of our flesh and blood, tempted like as we, perfected in His human character by the experiences He went through, then tasted to the bitter dregs the death that belongs to our sin. And then follow ing that, He was crowned with glory and honour. And so He rises to the place of mastery over all that belongs to perfect man. So He brings all creation into the glad subjection which is its natural happy state. It is for earth's sake, for the race's sake, and for the sake of our faithful companions and servants, the whole lower creation, that Christ has been crowned.
We think more about the personal meaning to ourselves of His having died and risen again. We need to remember, too, this broader meaning. The dying and rising secures our salvation personally. The crowning and the reigning will work out the redemption of all nature and of the lower creation, [Note: Rom_7:19-22; Jer_9:10; Jer_12:4; Jer_12:11; Jer_23:10; Gen_3:17-19; Act_3:21.] and this in turn will mean much for men living on the earth in the Kingdom time, and for the race as a race.
This leads at once to another question that presses in. What is the domain of the crowned Christ? If we take the crowning in the common meaning of that word, it means that there is some domain that Christ rules over. What is it that He is crowned over?
And the answer is so sweeping as to seem far-away and dreamy to us who are living on this sin-hurt earth. He is the crowned Ruler of the whole created universe and all intelligent beings in it. He has been placed over absolutely every "rule and authority and power and dominion, and not only in this present age but in the com ing age." [Note: Eph_1:20-22; Heb_2:6-8.] There is simply no limit in extent to His domain. Everything has been placed in subjection to Him and is now subject to His word, and His alone.
There is a striking passage in Philippians that fits in here. [Note: Php_2:9-11.] In speaking of the exaltation of Jesus Christ, Paul is careful to explain particularly that every knee would bow, in the heavens, and, on the earth, and under the earth or in the world below.
This threefold division is very striking. The heaven things are understood at once, and things of the earth sphere. But there is a third world to be taken into account, that strange uncanny world of evil spirit beings in rebellion against God's authority. It is spoken of repeatedly as principalities and powers, indicating numbers and organization, dignity, and power. [Note: Eph_6:12; Col_2:15.] All of this is included in what has been placed under Christ's authority. [Note: Col_2:10; Eph_3:10; Eph_4:8-10; 1Co_15:24.]