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| "A crown more beautiful than this is what the King of Kings shall freely bestow upon us" |
One great part of God’s eternal purpose in creation was to rule His universe by a MAN. “Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak; but one in a certain place testifieth, What is MAN, that Thou art mindful of him, or the SON OF MAN that Thou visitest him?” (Heb. 2:5,6).
To Adam therefore He said, “have dominion,” or “rule.” After the words of blessing, conveying fruitfulness to man, “be fruitful and multiply,” there are three words added, conveying earth over to man as his possession and his kingdom, so that he might exercise authority in it by “divine right.” 1. Replenish or fill. 2. Subdue. 3. Rule.
Adam’s unfaithfulness, by which dominion was forfeited, did not make the great purpose of none effect. That purpose has stood and shall stand for ever. Instead of the first Adam God brings in the “last Adam,” the “second Man,” the Lord from heaven, as His King, and He introduces His offspring as kings under Him, to fill, subdue, and rule the earth.
He has found His King, and has put all things under His feet: placing on His head the many crowns, and setting Him on the throne of universal dominion,—though as yet we see not all things actually put under Him. He says, “Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion”: and He gives Him the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost ends of the earth for His possession. He is the great Melchizedek,—the priestly King,—into whose hands all things have been put.
But under Him, or associated with Him, are other kings. These are the redeemed from among men,—the chosen according to the good pleasure of His will: by nature, sons of the first Adam, but created anew and made sons of the second.
From the ranks of fallen men God is selecting His kings. He has sent His Son to deliver them from their death and curse. He has sent His Spirit to quicken them and to transform them, not merely into obedient loving subjects, but into kings, heirs of the great throne. “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make PRINCES in all the earth” (Ps. 45:16).
These kings, though by nature mortal men, become heirs of immortality, and at the resurrection of the just, put on all that is to fit them for their everlasting reign. Everything connected with them is of God.
1. God elects them. It is by His will that they are what they are. He finds the race of Adam in the horrible pit, and out of that ruined mass He chooses some,—not only to salvation but to glory and dominion. These kings are the chosen of God.
2. He redeems them. They are found in the low dungeon, captives and prisoners in the hands of the great oppressor. God sends redemption to them,—redemption through Him who takes their captivity upon Him, that they may be set free; who enters their prison-house, and takes their bonds upon Him that they may be unbound. In Him they have redemption through His blood.
3. He consecrates them. Their consecration is by blood. It is the blood of the covenant that sets them apart for their future work and honour. Sprinkled with the precious blood they are “sanctified” for dominion;—for that holy royalty to which they have been chosen.
4. He anoints them. With that same anointing with which Christ was anointed, they are anointed too,—anointed for royal rule,—priestly-royal rule. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in them, as in their Head, coming down on them, as on their Head, fits them for the exercise of dominion. The wisdom needed for government is a holy wisdom, and this holy wisdom they receive by means of the unction from the Holy One.
5. He crowns them. They are, as yet, only kings-elect. Their coronation-day is yet to come. Yet the crown is already theirs by right; and He who chose them to the throne will before long put the crown upon their head.
Not out of the ranks of angels is He seeking kings. This would not suit His purpose, nor magnify the riches of His grace. Fallen man must furnish Him with the rulers of His universe. Human hands must wield the scepter, and human heads must wear the crown.
To this honour He is calling us. He is sending out His ambassadors for this end; and the gospel with which they are entrusted is the glad tidings of a kingdom. And this in a double sense. There is a kingdom into which they are to enter and be partakers of its glory: and yet, in the same kingdom, they are to be God’s anointed kings. It is a kingdom doubly theirs. They not only “see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3); they not only “enter into the kingdom of God”; but they occupy its thrones. “The kingdom, and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, is given to the people of the saints of the Most High, and they possess the kingdom” (Dan. 7:22,27). “1 appoint unto you a kingdom,” says our Lord, “that ye may sit on thrones” (Luke 22:28). “To him that overcometh will I give to sit on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on His throne” (Rev. 3:21). Hence they sing the song, “Thou art worthy, for Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:9). Not to be reigned over, but to reign, is the honour to which they are called. “They shall REIGN forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5).
O sons of men! This is the honour to which God is calling you. It is for the end of making you His kings that He is seeking you. To deliver you from wrath is the beginning of His purpose concerning you; to set you on His throne is the end. Nothing short of this. Think what the riches of His grace must be, and His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus our Lord! Where sin has abounded grace has abounded more. Herein is love! Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should not only be called sons but kings; that we should not only be lifted to a place in His family, but to a seat upon His throne! To make us in any way or in any sense partakers of His glory and sharers in His dominion is much but to make us “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ,” is unspeakably more. A throne such as man can give and take away seems to many a worthy object of ambition; how much more the kingdom which God gives, the kingdom which cannot be moved.
And if anyone asks, how may I share this royalty and win this crown? we answer in the well-known words, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power (right) to become the sons of God”; for what is true of the sonship is true of the kingship too. We obtain it by receiving the Son of God. He that takes Christ receives a kingdom, and becomes a king. His connection with the King of kings is His security for a throne.
Thus very simply and beautifully does Bunyan put the manner of our obtaining the glory. Some would call this too free. Some would say, here is the way made far too easy, without any preparatory alarms and repentance. But there stands John Bunyan’s idea of the way of a sinner’s entrance into the kingdom; and let him who can improve or correct it do so. “The Lord, the Governor of the country, hath recorded that in this book; the substance of which is, if we be truly willing to have it, He will bestow it upon us freely.”
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