Alexander MacLaren :: The Crown (James 1:12)

The Crown

'... The crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.'—James 1:12

My purpose is to bring out the elements of the blessed life here, by grouping together those New Testament passages which represent the future reward under the metaphor of the 'crown,' and so to gain, if not a complete, at all events a comprehensive view of the elements of the blessedness of the perfected life hereafter.

These passages are numerous. Paul speaks of 'the incorruptible crown,' the reward of the victorious athlete, and of 'the crown of righteousness,' the anticipation of which soothed and elevated his last solitary hours. Peter speaks of the 'crown of glory,' the reward of the faithful elders. James speaks in my text of the 'crown of life' which the man wins who is proved by trial and stands the proof. The martyr Church at Smyrna is encouraged to faithfulness 'unto death' by the promise of the 'crown of life' from the hands of the Lord of life. The angel of the Church at Philadelphia is stimulated to 'hold fast what thou hast, that no man take thy crown.' The elders 'cast their crowns before the throne.' If we throw all these passages together, and study their combined effect, we shall, I think, get some helpful and stimulating thoughts.

1. I ask you, then, first to look with me at the general idea conveyed by the symbol.

   Now the word which is employed in the passages to which we have referred is not that which usually denotes a kingly crown, but that which indicates the garland or wreath or chaplet of festivity and victory. A twist of myrtle or parsley or pine was twined round the brows of the athlete flushed with effort and victory. The laurel is the 'meed of mighty conquerors.' Roses, with violets or ivy, sat upon the brows of revellers. And it is thoughts of these rather than of the kingly tiara which is in the mind of the New Testament writers; though the latter, as we shall see, has also to be included.

   So we get three general ideals on which I touch very lightly, as conveyed by the emblem. The first is that of victory recognised and publicly honoured. So Paul uses the symbol in this sense in both the instances of its occurrence to which we have already referred, the reward of the racer or athlete in the paloestrum, and the 'crown of righteousness' which was to follow his having 'fought the good fight, and finished his course.' That implies that the present is the wrestling ground, and that the issues of the present lie beyond the present.

   We do not look for flowers on the hard-beaten soil of the arena; and the time of conflict is no time for seeking for delights. If the crown be yonder, then here must be the struggle; and it must be our task 'to scorn delights and live laborious days' if we are ever to find that blessed result and reward of life here. We have, then, the general idea of victory recognised and publicly honoured by the tumult of acclaim of the surrounding spectators. 'I will confess His name before the angels of God.'

   Then there is the other general idea of festal gladness. That, I suppose, is what was present particularly to Peter's mind when he talked about 'the wreath that fadeth not away.' I think that there is in his words a probable reference to a striking Old Testament passage, in which the prophet takes the drooping flowers on the foreheads of the drunkards of Samaria at their feast as an emblem of the swift fading of their delights, and of the impending destruction of their polity. But, says Peter, this wreath fades never. The flowers of heaven do not droop. It is an emblem of the calm and permanent delights which come to those behind whom is change with its sadness, and before whom stretches progress with its blessedness. Festal gladness, society, and the satisfaction of all desires are included in the meaning of the wreathed amaranthine flowers that twine round immortal brows.

   But the usage in the Book of the Apocalypse stands upon a somewhat different footing. There are no Gentile images there. We hear nothing about Grecian games and heathen wrestlings in that book; but all moves within the circle of Jewish thought. That the word which is employed for 'the crown,' though it usually meant the victors 'and the feasters' chaplet, sometimes also meant the king's crown of sovereignty, is obvious from one or two of its uses in Scripture. For the 'crown of thorns' was a mockery of royalty, and the 'golden crowns' which the elders wear in the vision are associated with the thrones upon which they sit, as emblems, not of festal gladness or of triumphant emergence from the struggles and toils of life, but as symbols of royalty and dominion. The characteristic note of the promises of the Revelation is that of Christ's servants' participation in the royalty of their Lord. So to the other two general ideas which I have deduced from the symbol we must add for completeness this third one, that it shadows, in some of the instances of its use at all events, though by no means in all, the royalty so mysterious, by which every one of Christ's 'brethren is like the children of a king,' and all are so closely united to Him that they participate in His dominion over all creatures and things. Dominion over self, dominion over the universe, a rule mysterious and ineffable which is also service, cheerful and continuous, are contained in the emblem.

   So these three general ideas, victory, festal gladness and abundance, royalty and sovereignty, are taught us by this symbol of the crown.

2. Now, secondly, note more particularly the constituent parts of that chaplet of blessedness.

   There are two phrases as to these, amongst the passages with which we are now concerned. St. James and the Book of Revelation speak of the 'crown of life,' and Peter speaks of the 'crown of glory.' That is to say, the material of which the garland is composed is no perishable pine or myrtle, but it is woven, as it were, of ' life' on the one hand, of glory on the other. Or, if we do not venture upon such a violent metaphor as that, we can at least say that the crown's life and glory.

   Now, as to the first of these — what dim and great thoughts are taught us in it! 'Life,' in the New Testament, does not mean bare existence, but in its highest sense pure and blessed existence in union with God. And such life — full, perfect, continual — is regarded as being in itself the crown and reward of faithful Christian living here below. In our experience life is often a burden, a weariness, a care. If it be a crown, it is a crown of thorns. But yonder, to live will be blessedness; being will be well-being. The reward of heaven will simply be the fact of living in God. Here life comes painfully trickling, as it were, in single drops through a narrow rift in the rock; yonder it will spread a broad bosom, flashing beneath the sunshine. Here the plant grows strugglingly in some dusty cleft, amidst uncongenial surroundings, and with only occasional gleams of sunlight; its leaves are small, its stem feeble, its blossoms pallid; yonder it will be rooted in rich soil and shone upon by an unclouded sun, and will burst into flowers and forms of beauty that we know nothing of here. Life is the crown. Then it is a crown of glory. What is glory? The splendour of God's character manifested to His creatures and become the object of their admiration. That is the full meaning of glory in the Old and in the New Testament. And all that is transferred to those who cleave to Him here and are perfected yonder. There will be complete perfection of nature. 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' The inmost and deepest beauty of redeemed and perfected souls will then be capable of being manifested fully. Here it struggles for expression, and what we seem to be, though it is often better, is just as often much worse than we really are. But there we shall be able to show ourselves as what in our deepest hearts we are. For the servants who, girt with priestly vestments, do Him sacerdotal service in the highest temple, have His name blazing upon their foreheads, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The redeemed souls, transmuted into the likeness of the Lord, and made visible in the flashing splendour of their gentle radiance, shall be beheld with the wonder with which all other creatures gaze on Him who is the Lord and Source of their purity, and 'if so be that we suffer with Him, we shall be also glorified together.'

   But why speak of what we know as little about as the unborn child does of the world, or the caterpillar of its future life when winged and painted and basking in the sunshine? Let us bow before the ignorance which is the prophecy and pledge of the transcendent greatness that lies behind the veil, and say, 'It is enough for the servant that he be as his Lord.'

3. Now, thirdly, note the conditions of the crown.

   These are variously put with a rich variety. Paul speaks, as you remember, of 'the crown of righteousness,' by which he means to imply that on impure brows it can never sit, and that, if it could, it would be there a crown of poisoned thorns. None but the righteous can wear it. That is the first and prime indispensable condition. But then there are others stated in the other passages to which we have referred. The wrestler must 'strive lawfully,' according to the rules of the arena, if he is to be crowned. The man that is tried must 'endure his temptation,' and come out of it 'proved' thereby, as gold is tried by the fire. The martyr must be willing to die, if need be, for fidelity to his Master. We must' hold fast that which we have' if we are ever to win that which, as yet, we have not, even the crown that ought to be ours, and so is by anticipation called ours. But two of the passages to which I have referred add yet another kind of condition and requirement. Paul says, 'Not to me only, but to all them also that love His appearing'; and James here says that the man who is tried will receive the crown 'which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.' So it is not difficult to make out the sequence of these several conditions. Fundamental to all is love to Jesus Christ. That is the beginning of everything. Then, built upon that, for His dear sake, the manful wrestling with temptations and with difficulties, long-breathed running, and continual aspiration after the things that are before, fidelity, if need be, unto death, and a grim tenacity of grasp of the truth and the blessings already bestowed. These things are needed. And then as the result of the love that grasps Christ with hooks of flesh, which are stronger than hooks of steel, and will not let Him go, and as the result of the efforts and struggles and discipline which flow from that love to Him, there must be a righteousness which conforms to His image and is the gift of His indwelling Spirit. These are the conditions on which the crown may be ours.

   Such righteousness may be imperfect here upon earth, and when we look upon ourselves we may feel as if there were nothing in us that deserves, or that even can bear, the crown to be laid upon our brows. But if the process have been begun here by love and struggling, and reception of His grace, death will perfect it, But death will not begin it if it have not been commenced in life. We may hope that if we have our faces set towards the Lord, and our poor imperfect steps have been stumbling towards Him through all the confusions and mists of flesh and sense, our course will be wonderfully straightened and accelerated when we 'shuffle off this mortal coil.' But there is no sanctifying in death for a man who is not a Christian whilst he lives, and the crown will only come to those whose righteousness began with repentance, and was made complete by passing through the dark valley of death.

4. Lastly, note the giver of the crown.

   'Which the Lord hath promised,' 'which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that day.' 'I will give him a crown of life.' So Jesus Christ, as Judge, as Brother, as Distributer of the eternal conditions of men, as indwelling in us and making us sharers of all that is His, bestows upon His servants the crown. Yet, let us remember that He does not give it in such a fashion as that the gift may be taken once for all and worn thereafter, independent of Him. It must be a continual communication, all through eternal ages, and right on into the abysses of celestial glories — a continual communication from His ever-opened hand. The energy of a present Christ bestowing at the moment if there be moments in that dim future is the condition of the crown's continued gleaming on brows that have worn it for ages, to which geological periods are but as the beat of a pendulum. Like the rainbow that continues permanently above the cater-act, and yet at each moment is fed by new spray from the stream, so the crown upon our heads will be the consequence of the continual influx into redeemed souls of the very life of Christ Himself.

   So, dear brethren, all ends as all begins, with cleaving to Him, and drawing from His fulness grace whilst we need grace, and glory when we are fit for glory. Strength for the conflict and the reward of the victory come from the same hand, and are ours on the same conditions. He who covers our heads in the day of battle is He who wreathes the garland on the conqueror's brow and keeps its flowers unfading through eternal ages. 'On His head are many crowns,' which He bestows upon His followers, and all the heaven of His servants is their share in His heaven. If, then, we love Him, if for His dear sake we manfully strive in the conflict, patiently accept the ministry of trial, discipline ourselves as athletes are willing to do for a poor parsley wreath, hold fast that which we have, and by faith, effort, and prayer, receive of His righteousness here, then the grave will be but as the dressing-room where we shall put off our soiled raiment and on our white robe; and thus apparelled, even we, unworthy, shall hear from Him, 'I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'