Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation | Page 4

above every name in the experiences of tense conflict
and sweeping victory it stands for. This threefold chording makes
music never to be broken nor forgotten.
"There is no name so sweet on earth, No name so sweet in heaven, The
name before His wondrous birth, To Christ the Saviour given."
Lord is a title, of course. It was used of one who was a proprietor, an
owner, or a master. It was commonly used as a title of honour for one
in superior position, as a leader or teacher. In speaking of Jesus it is
coupled with the title Christ as an interchangeable word,[10] as well as
an additional title. But peculiarly it is the personal title given Jesus by
one who takes Him as his own personal Master,[11] while it still retains
its broader meaning.
But Christ is peculiarly the official title of Jesus. There is only one
Christ. Lord is used of men. It is used of both the Father and the Holy
Spirit, as well as of Jesus. But the name Christ is used of only one
person, and can mean only that one. There could be only one Christ.
The word or its equivalent was used occasionally in the Old Testament
in a narrowed sense for the King of Israel, who is reverently spoken of
as "the Lord's anointed," that is, God's Messiah or Christ.[12]
But the one common thought of it among the Hebrew people, growing
ever intenser as the Old Testament period merges into the time of the
New, was that there was one coming, the Messiah, the Christ, God's
chosen, the one anointed and empowered, to be their Deliverer. The
one question that sets all hearts a-flutter about the rugged John of the
deserts was this: "Is he the Christ?"[13] In their thought there was only
one to whom the title belonged.
And even so it is. Christ is the official title of the One Chosen and
anointed by God to be ruler over His Hebrew people, and over all the

race, and the earth, and the universe,--God's King, to reign until all
have been brought into full allegiance to the great loving Father.[14]
The Christ is the Crowned One, God's Crowned One. The very word
Christ tells that Christ is crowned.
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.[15]
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.[16]
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.[17] 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 following 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,[18] and this in turn will mean much for men living on
the earth in the Kingdom time, and