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Our Crowning Glory
By Brian Hennessy
You could say this teaching was birthed from my previous article on
resurrection (“It’s Not About Going to Heaven”). I say “birthed”
because one of the ways I know I have gotten a firmer gasp on the
truth of a matter is when it quickly leads to greater harmonization
with and understanding of other Scriptures.
Therefore, when I realized that the only afterlife promised to us in
the Bible was a resurrection on earth, not an ascension to heaven, it
soon led me to an understanding of Paul’s “crown of righteousness” and
Peter’s “crown of glory,” the subject of this article
I pray this teaching blesses and enlightens you in your understanding
so that we might all be better prepared for the Lord’s return.
Paul’s crown
In his second letter to Timothy Paul discloses that his “departure”
from life is immanent, probably to be martyred. He then informs his
disciple about a mysterious “crown of righteousness” that the Lord
would present to him in the afterlife.
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of
my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished
the course, I have kept the faith; in the future is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who
have loved his appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:6-8)
Now for years I was never quite sure if this “crown of righteousness’
was an actual crown or not. But whatever it was I just assumed God’s
superstar apostle would receive it the “day” he crossed the finish
line into heaven. I appreciated that Paul had graciously included “all
those who love his appearing” in the promise of this award, but I was
certain my crown, if it was a crown, would be a lot smaller and less
shinier than his.
But after I became convinced that we had NOT been promised a trip to
heaven it made me reconsider what this crown business was all about.
And when we would receive it. Especially since I now understood any
reward gained during our lifetime wouldn’t be received until after
Jesus returned and we were resurrected. For Jesus had told us:
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with
his angels, and will then repay every man according to his deed.”
(Matt16:27)
“Behold I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to
every man according to what he has done.” (Rev 22:12)
With heaven as our reward off the table I could see clearly that
when Paul said the Lord would award him the crown on that “day”
he was not speaking of the day of his death. But that “future day”
when Jesus would return to earth. That’s why he referred to the rest
of us as “all those who loved his appearing.” Because that’s when we
would receive our crown as well.
Peter’s crown
If there was any lingering doubt about the timing of the crowning
ceremony it is dispelled by Peter when he spoke of us being awarded
another crown, which he calls a “crown of glory.”
“And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading
crown of glory.”
(1 Peter 5:4)
So now we know for sure the crowning ceremony will take place when
Jesus returns (see also 2 Thess. 1:9,10). But what of the crowns
themselves. What are they? And is Peter’s “crown of glory” different
from Paul’s “crown of righteousness?” Do we get two crowns? Or are
they just two names for the same award?
I am convinced Peter’s “crown” is the same one Paul was speaking
about. And that neither are referring to an actual crown, but are just
emphasizing different aspects of our reward in Christ. Let me explain.
We know that when Jesus ascended into heaven following his
resurrection he was “crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:9) by the
Father. He was raised up to sit at the right hand of the Father for
having given his life for the world. But what’s especially exciting
for us to learn is that Jesus desires to share his glory with all
those who believed in him. As part of his body we will partake of all
that was given to him.
“It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thess.2:14).
“When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be
revealed with him in glory.” (Col. 3:4)
“The glory which You have given me I have given to them, that they may
be one, just as we are one.” (John 17:22)
Therefore, I believe Peter’s “unfading crown of glory” is just another
way of describing the incorruptible glory that will shine forth from
our new body when he returns and we are changed into his likeness.
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet
what we will be. We know that when he [Jesus] appears, we will be like
him, because we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). And when he
appears (in us, his body), it will be our crowning glory.
“It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it
is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.” (1 Cor. 15:42,43)
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a
savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our
humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, by the
exertion of the power that he has to subject all things to himself.”
(Phil. 3:21)
“Arise shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has
risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep
darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory
will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to
the brightness of your rising.” (Isa. 60: 1-3)
This glorious new body will be the ultimate manifestation of God’s
presence in Jesus within us and will finally allow us to participate
in the intimacy God and Jesus now share together. It will be the
answer to the prayer Jesus’ prayed to the Father “that they may be
one, just as we are one...[and that] they may be perfected in unity,
so that the world may know that You sent me, and loved them even as
You have loved me” (John 17:21,22). It will be a unity of believers
that 2000 years of church division has shown is unachievable while we
dwell in these flesh and blood bodies. (Some teachers, notably George
Warnock, believe we will yet experience this glorious unity manifested
while we are still in our current bodies. At present I do not see a
physical glorification happening before resurrection, but I don’t rule
it out.)
Righteousness revealed
Returning to Paul’s “crown of righteousness,” what does that signify?
As I already stated, I believe this is referring to the same crown but
emphasizing another key aspect of our redemption, namely our
righteousness. Right now our righteousness is invisible. The only way
we know we have it is because the Bible tells us that God has reckoned
it to us by our faith, just as He did Abraham.
“Therefore ‘it [Abraham’s faith] was also credited to him as
righteousness.’ Now not for his sake only was it written that it was
credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be
credited, as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord
from the dead.” (Rom. 4:22,23)
“I count all things to be loss of all things, and count them all
rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having
a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on
the basis of faith, that I may attain to the resurrection from the
dead.” (Phil 3: 8-11)
So when we receive our new glorious immortal bodies when Jesus returns
our righteousness then will be revealed. For the glory that will
radiate forth from us will be the proof of our righteousness so that
the whole world will know that the gospel is true. It will show
conclusively that Jesus was the son of God sent to redeem the world,
and that by our faith we have been declared righteous in him.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteousness man shall live by
faith.” (Rom. 11:16,17)
In effect, our glorification is God’s way of demonstrating His
standard of righteousness before the whole world.
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I
will not keep still, until her righteousness goes forth like
brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning. The
nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. And you
will be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will
designate.” (Isa. 62:1,2)
And then listen to these next words by Isaiah:
“You will be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.” (Isa. 62:3)
So we see, that we - the Israel of God, the chosen remnant, God’s
ecclesia - will finally be justified before all the world as a shining
example of His righteousness. It will be the equivalent of today’s
proud parents sporting a bumper sticker that says, “My son is an honor
student.” It will be our finest moment. And His, too.
“For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me
with a robe of righteousness.” (Isa 61:10)
“And they will call them, ‘The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord’;
And you will be called, ‘Sought out, a city not forsaken.’” (Isa
62:12).
“Whereas you have been forsaken and hated with no one passing through,
I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from generation to
generation. You will suck the milk of nations and the breast of kings;
Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer,
the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Isa. 60:15,16)
Playing by the rules
The question we have to ask now is, “do all Christians automatically
receive this glorious crown of righteousness, or will some Christians
fail to qualify?” Paul gives us a huge insight into the gaining of our
crown when he likens our walk with Christ to that of an athletic
competition.
“If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize [crown]
unless he competes according to the rules.” (2 Tim 2:5)
By likening the Christian life to a competitive event Paul is telling
us that there are winners and losers. Which means that some Christians
will gain the crown – but, sadly, others will not. Why will some fail?
Will they be beaten out by other believers who are more gifted, more
diligent, more prayerful, more loving, or more self-sacrificing? No,
the only one who can keep us from claiming the prize is we ourselves.
How? As Paul says, we can disqualify ourselves by not competing
according to the rules of the “game” as established by God. And what
are those rules exactly?
Well the number one rule is to realize that this is not about
following the rules. Sounds contradictory, but its not. Following
rules is called ‘law-keeping’ (or religion), and it doesn’t count for
anything in our race to come into God’s kingdom. In fact, it is the
kiss of death. In this New Covenant “competition” you have to run by
faith alone from start to finish, because “without faith it is
impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). And since we know “the Law is
not of faith” (Gal. 3:12) it will surely disqualify us if we try to
compete by incorporating it into our faith-walk. And it doesn’t matter
if the law we are trying to keep is Jewish law or Christian law - law
is law.
The problem with law-keeping is it causes us to trust in what we do
rather than in what Jesus has done for us. It makes us self-focused
and self--righteous. Worse, by doing so we appoint the law with its
stern justice to be our judge in place of the mercy of Jesus. And
because we will always fail to keep the law, we will always be judged
to be a law-breaker. So ironically, the one who tries to be the
law-keeper becomes the law-breaker and is automatically disqualified
from winning the crown. Go back to what Paul said:
“In the future a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, will award to me on that day.” (2 Tim. 4:8)
Jesus is a righteous judge who awards the crown of righteousness to
those who walk by faith. If we receive Jesus as our savior by faith
and then switch back to saving ourselves by our own religious program
he cannot help us. “You have been severed from Christ, you who are
seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal.
5:4).
If you are not clear on this you should read prayerfully the “rule” of
faith righteousness as Paul explains it so painstaking in Romans and
Galatians. If we intend to wind up in the winner’s circle when Jesus
appears we had better not be counting on our religious works to win
the day. That’s how most of the Jews missed out when he came the fist
time.
But there is another important “rule” we need to pay close attention
to also.
Rule #2
Coach Paul gives us this second winning tip in a pep talk to the
Corinthians:
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one
receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who
competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then
do it to receive a perishable wreathe but we an imperishable.
Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a
way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my
slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself might not be
disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:24-27)
Now we all know about dying to self and not allowing our bodily
appetites to dominate us. But knowing about something and actually
doing it are two different things. As Jesus told us, “If you know
these things, you are blessed if you do them” (John 17:13). Therefore,
if we think we can live our lives in the same old sloppy worldly way
we did before coming to Christ we are in for a shock. Jesus told us
that, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way
is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter
through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to
life, and there are few who find it (Matt 7:13,14).
When we receive Jesus as our savior, we are no longer our own: “For he
died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for
themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2
Cor. 5:15). Dying to self is largely the work of God’s Spirit who
arranges the circumstances of our lives to help us put to death the
deeds of the body. But clearly there is a part for our will to play.
And although this can be a very discomforting process, it is also very
liberating as we are set free by the power of God from all the sinful
habits and religious thinking we inherited from our fathers. And when
it seems to be too much at times, Paul reminds us, “the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is
to be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18).
So let us pay close attention to the wise apostle and be certain we
know the rules and are “playing” by them. We must trust completely
that our righteousness is secured by exercising faith in what God has
done through Jesus, and not on anything we are doing to earn it. And
at the same time we must walk in that righteousness by allowing the
Spirit to lead us and guide us and help us keep a tight reign on the
appetites of our flesh. “For the flesh sets its desire against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Gal 5:17). If we do these
things we will be certain to finish the race and receive our crown
with great applause from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus.
I’ll conclude with Paul’s words to the Philippians.
“[Therefore] I press on toward the goal for the prize [the crown] of
the upward call of God in Christ Jesus...
“Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk
according to the pattern you have in us.
“For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is
their destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is
their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a
savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our
humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, by the
exertion of the power that he has to subject all things to himself.”
(Phil. 3:7-21)
Let us walk in righteousness so that when Jesus comes back we will be
ready to rejoice at his appearing. For a great reward awaits us.
“In that day the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown, and a
glorious diadem to the remnant of his people.” (Isa. 28:5)
July, 2011
www.bhennessy.com
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