- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
‘We see Jesus Crowned.’
By Andrew Murray.
“At present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because He suffered death” (Hebrews 2 v7-8).
What a glorious contrast! We do not see everything subject to him, that is, to us, but - what is far better - we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. When we look round upon this world, with all its sin and misery, it does not appear as if we were destined to be higher than the angels and to have dominion over all the works of God’s hands. But when we remember that Jesus became Man that He might taste death for all, and that He, a Man upon the throne, now lives as our Surety, our Redeemer and our Head, it is enough if we see Him crowned with glory and honour. In that we have the pledge that He will one day bring us to that glory and honour too. In that we have the assurance that He is using all that glory and honour even now on our behalf. We see not yet all things subjected to man, but - we see Jesus crowned with honour and glory. Blessed contrast!
The right knowledge and use of this contrast is the secret of the life of faith. We do not see everything subjected to us, and how exactly this expresses the disappointment and failure which is often our experience as believers when our first joy and hope begin to pass away. We find that sin is stronger than we knew, that the power of the world and the flesh and self are not yet made subject to us as we had hoped. At times it is as if we feel that the promises of God and the expectations they raised in our hearts are vain. Even if we acknowledge that God is indeed faithful to fulfil His promises we find it too hard for us, in our weakness and circumstances, to obtain them. The promises of God, to put all things in subjection to us and make us more than conquerors, are indeed most precious, but alas, again and again, the bitter experience comes, we do not see everything subjected to us.
We are indeed blessed when we can say, in living faith, ‘But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour’. We are blessed when we look away from all that we find in ourselves, of imperfection and failure, and look up and behold all the perfection and glory to be found in Jesus! Yes, blessed are we who find our delight and life in meeting every disappointment and every difficulty with, ‘But, we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. This is all I need! This satisfies my soul and gives it peace and joy and strength’.
Hebrews expounds to us the great mystery of why the Son of God was made a little lower than the angels. It was that, by the grace of God, He might taste death for every one, and so open up again the entrance into God’s presence and favour. The necessity and meaning of His suffering and death is presented to us in three different ways.
The first, in Hebrews 2 v10, is that in suffering and death Christ Himself must needs be made perfect, so that as our Leader He might open up to us the path of perfection, and prepare that new nature, that new way of living, in which we are to be led to glory.
The second, in Hebrews 2 v14-15, is that through death, making propitiation for sin, He might destroy the devil, with his power of death, and give us a perfect deliverance from all fear of it.
And the third, in Hebrews 2 v16-18, is that in what He suffered, He might be made a merciful and faithful High Priest, able to secure our perfect confidence and to give us the help we need. But before the writer thus unfolds the meaning of Christ’s humiliation he first points to His glory. It is this which constitutes the excellency of the New Testament, which gives our faith its power of endurance and victory as we see Jesus now at the right hand of the Majesty of God. Let us hold this fast as the one great lesson that the Hebrews and all feeble backsliding Christians need, Jesus, who suffered for us, Jesus, who in His suffering as our Leader opened a way to God for us, Jesus who sympathises with us, this Jesus is crowned with honour and glory. To see Him is to know that we have all we can need.
Do you give heed to this great salvation? Do you experience how completely Jesus is able to save? Do you long for all the love and presence, the holiness and joy, and the power of God to be in you as there is in Jesus for you? Here you have the secret of it all! Amid all sin and weakness, all darkness and doubt, all failure and perplexity, hold fast this one truth, engage in this one exercise of faith, that at present we do not see everything subjected to us, but we see Jesus crowned with honour and glory. This gives peace and victory and joy unspeakable.
And if you would know how to always have your heart turned to Jesus, remember He came to save His people from their sins. It is the heart that is weary of itself and its sins, that fully accepts the fact of the utter corruption and the utter helplessness of all that is of the old nature and of self, that will find itself attracted with strong desire to this mighty Redeemer. In such a heart Jesus, the crowned One, will not be a distant object but, by the Holy Spirit, an indwelling presence. The coming of the Holy Spirit is inseparably connected with, and is our only proof of, the glorifying of Jesus (John 7 v38-39; 16 v14; 17 v10), and is our only real participation in the blessings that flow from Him. Let all our worship of Him, crowned with glory and honour, be in the faith that the Pentecostal Spirit glorifies Him in us, so that our whole inner being is filled with His presence.
From: ‘The Holiest of All'.
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