THE LORD OF LIFE AND GLORY

"And on His head were many crowns." -Revelation 19:12 [KJV]

Every view of Jesus is blessed. But there are some views which the heart of a believer finds a peculiar gratification in contemplating. The Holy Ghost hath in this scripture given a very interesting representation of Jesus. Heaven is opened; Jesus appears in His well-known characters, "faithful and true." A "white horse" He rides on, to manifest His equity and justice. His vesture is "dipped in blood," to intimate that by blood He hath purchased His kingdom. And His glorious name, "the Word of God," is also mentioned to testify the greatness and almightiness of His person. But amidst these distinguishing characteristics, the coronation of the Lord Jesus is particularly striking. "On His head were many crowns." The crown of Godhead is His by right, in common with the Father. And the crown of God-man mediator is His also, being His by gift, by purchase, and by conquest. Having conquered death, hell, and the grave, God the Father hath set "a crown of pure gold upon His head." "For His honour is great in His salvation; glory and majesty hath He laid upon Him."  

But there is another crown put upon the head of our Jesus, and which every poor believing soul delighteth to see, amidst the many crowns on the head of Jesus; namely, the very crown which that poor precious believer puts by faith upon the glorious head of Jesus, I when ascribing his own personal salvation to the alone merits of His blood and righteousness. This is a coronation day indeed of the Lord Jesus; and ever after, most blessed to the review of every believer. And as the Son of God was crowned "Lord of all," in the day when He ascended to the right hand of His Father in heaven, having finished redemption's work, when the whole assembly of heaven cast their crowns at His feet; so is the adorable Redeemer again crowned, when, descending in the power of His Spirit, He takes the throne of a poor sinners heart, and rules and reigns there, the Lord of life and glory.  

My soul! pause and ask thine heart what knowest thou of this coronation? Amidst the many crowns discoverable upon the head of the blessed Jesus, canst thou with rapture discern the one, the very one, He wears as thy Redeemer and Lord? It is very easy to discover it, if thine hand of faith hath placed it there. Art thou His subject? "Know ye not," saith the apostle, "to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." Hast thou been translated out of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son?  

Is Jesus thy King, as the acknowledged and adored Head of the church, which is His body? And art thou living upon Him, and from Him, as this glorious Head, from whence is conveyed to thee, in common with all His members, life, light, grace, strength, and every thing in a way of communion, by which thou provest that thou art among the members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones; and be the glorious source and fulness that filleth all in all?  

These are precious views and soul-comforting evidences to this grand truth. And if these be found in thy experience, then art thou so beholding Him, on whose Head are, many crowns, as to venture all thy salvation wholly upon Him, and every renewed act of faith is but a renewal of thy coronation of the Lord Jesus: for in every one thou bowest the knee of thine heart before Him, and confessest that "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)