Who has the crown?
There is a wonderful old hymn you may know, which begins with these words:
“Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless king through all eternity.”
Some of the old hymns are amazing and have such rich language and meaning. Behind these words is a wonderful truth, which was sometimes lost in the dramatic tune. This speaks of acknowledging Jesus for who He is and intentionally placing Him as ruler over your life.
We have become comfortable with the thought of Jesus being our friend, which He is, but it is also God’s intention that we should relate to Jesus as lord of our life.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:8-11
This is a fact which does not change, even if some don’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord, He still is. We don’t need others to acknowledge His lordship to make Him lord of our lives.
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” – Acts 2:32
There is no question to us that Jesus is Lord, but do we allow Him to truly function as Lord of every part of our life, or do we give other people or other things that crown?
In this old hymn, we are encouraged to crown him with many crowns. That is to actively give him the status and position of ruler which He deserves in all the many aspects of our lives. The hymn is a declaration and almost a command to crown Jesus as the lord of our life, lord of our love and lord of our years.
Only Jesus can be the Lord of life, because He overcame death. In salvation, we must choose to acknowledge this fact and live accordingly.
but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel – 2 Timothy 1:10
The great love which was shown at Calvary as Jesus died for us is more than anyone else has shown, either before or since. No one else in our lives has shown so much love for us and as such He deserves first place in our affections, to be crowned as lord of our love.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. – John 15:13.
We know that God is outside of time. Even though Jesus stepped into history 2000 years ago, Christ the son has always been part of the godhead and will always be. Our times are in His hands and yet so often we make time for everything but Him. God gives us the very time we have and we should consider Him first as we plan our days, let Him be crowned lord of our time.
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen. – 1 Timothy 1:17
However it is all too easy to allow ourselves to be ruled by other things. When we give our body over to destructive habits, we give that habit authority over us. We can break a bad habit by putting our good God in charge. Make Him lord of our thoughts, desires and our physical body.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. – Romans 6:12-14
Ultimately it is impossible to understand this or make Jesus Lord of our lives, without Holy Spirit revelation.
Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. – 1 Corinthians 12:3
Simply trying to live godly lives does not make us disciples, but being disciples of Christ, makes us desire to live in a way which pleases God. We need to be sure that God alone has the crown of lordship over every part of our life. Then we will know what God wants us to do and the goodness of God will flow out of us as a result.
In the words of another old hymn, today we need to ‘Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all’.