Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

ass'salvation,'congregation'man'Jesus Crowned and EnthronedBy the Rev. A. M. Stibbs, M.A.(Courtesy of The Christian GraduateWhen the angel Gabriel announced to Mary thatshe was to give birth to a Son and to call Him Jesus,he also said, 'And the Lord God shall give unto himthe throne of his father David: and he shall reignover the house of Jacob for ever ; and of his kingdomthere shall be no end.'1 The wise men from the eastwere right, therefore, when, after His birth, theycame to Jerusalem asking, 'Where is he that is bornKing of the Jews?'2 Jesus was certainly born to beKing.Jesus also claimed to be King. On the occasion ofHis last approach to Jerusalem He deliberately 'foundand 'sat thereon,' so 'that it might bea youngfulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy Kingass.'3cometh unto thee, meek, and riding upon anThis claim was openly ridiculed, each in their ownway, by the Roman soldiers, by Pilate, by the Jewishreligious leaders. The soldiers 'put on him a scarletrobe. And they plaited a crown of thorns, andput it upon his head, and a reed in his righthand; and they kneeled down before him, andmocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews !'4 Pilatesaith unto the Jews, Behold, your King! . . . ShallI crucify your King?' 'And Pilate wrote a title also,and put it on the cross. And there was written,JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THEJEWS.'5Finally, while Jesus hung dying on thecross, 'the chief priests mocking him, with the scribesand elders ...said, He is the King of Israel ; let himnow come down from the cross, and we will believeon him.'6The claim of Jesus to be King, which men thusridiculed, God vindicated. This same Jesus, whommen crucified, God exalted to His right hand inheaven. There He was crowned and enthroned. Therethe sceptre of universal dominion was, so to speak,put into His hand. It is the significant and far-reaching character of these wonderful truths that we arehere to consider.The Crowned ManThe inspired Word of God tells us plainly thatGod's purpose for man is that he should be what wehim,'might call the king of creation. 'Thou madestsays the psalmist, 'to have dominion over the worksof thy hands; thou hast put all things underhis feet.'7 Commenting on this the writer of theEpistle to the Hebrews says that this purpose isnot yet realized. 'But now we see not yet all thingssubjected to him.'8 It is, he says, something ordainedof God to be true not of this world but of 'the worldto come.'9 For in this world there is temporary humiliation. Man is made here 'for a little while lowerthan the angels.'10 Man's exaltation to sovereignty isyet to be. Still worse, man has, through falling intobecome subject to bondage and death.sin,The situation has, however, been transformedthrough the incarnation and death of the Son of God.He shared in man's humiliation, and partook of fleshand blood, in order by dying to bring to nought the180devil and the power of death.11 We can now by faithsee Him as Man (note the significant use of Hisunqualified human name 'Jesus') 'because of thesuffering of death crowned with glory and honour.'12So we see Jesus crowned. He already occupies theplace of dominion divinely intended for man. AsDaniel foresaw, 'one like unto a son of has appeared before God, 'and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.'13 Not only so,because He has reached this place of exaltationthrough suffering (suffering in which He tastedthe death due to every one of the race of sinfulmen) He has opened the way, as 'the captain of theirto bring a great company to share withHim the full glory of perfected humanity.14 So Jesuscrowned is the Head of a great companyof brethren(called, in a significant quotation from Psalm xxii.22, 'theor 'the church,'15 Greek ecclesia),who are with Him to share the glory and thedominion. As it was put to Daniel, when his visionwas interpreted, 'the saints of the Most High shallreceive the kingdom.'16 The crowning of Jesus withglory and honour is, therefore,and a pattern of the glorypeople are to share.The Enthroned Priesta pledge and a proofwhich all His redeemedIt is the task of a high priest to make propitiation for the sins of the people on whose behalf heacts, to win access for them to the presence of God,to make it possible for them to draw near to God.This is something which the Levitical priests of theJewish tabernacle or temple were always strivingto do, but were never able fully to accomplish. Fortheir sacrifices of bulls and goats could never takeaway sins. So the separating veil still remained, shutting men out from the Holy of holies, the Holy Ghostthus signifying that the desired way in had not yetbeen made manifest.17When, however, Jesus the Son of God offeredHimself in sacrifice to put away sin, the deed wasdone. The veil was rent. Explicit confirmation of Hissuccessful achievement is to be found in the fact thatHe was immediately told by God to sit on God's righthand till God made His enemies the footstool of Hisfeet; and He was forthwith hailed and proclaimedas 'a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.'18For Melchizedek was king as well as priest; and,according to the way in which he is represented inScripture, he is said to be 'made like unto the Sonof God' because he 'abideth a priest continually.'19This means that our high priest, Jesus the Sonof God, is enthroned. He is our King as well as ourPriest. Also, He now lives for ever. He will not, andcannot, die again. So the day will never dawn whenHe is no longer alive and on the throne to functionas our high priest, and to minister to us all the endless benefits of His finished work of sacrifice.This is the great truth which in the Epistle tothe Hebrews we are particularly exhorted to remember ; that the eternal Son, 'when he had made purifi-COVENANTER WITNESS