Observe, first of all, that in more than one of the passages to which
we have already referred great emphasis is laid upon Christ as
_giving_ the crown. That is to say, that blessed future is not
won by effort, but is bestowed as a free gift. It is given from the
hands which have procured it, and, as I may say, twined it for us.
Unless His brows had been pierced with the crown of thorns, ours
would never have worn the garland of victory. Jesus provides the sole
means, by His work, by which any man can enter into that inheritance;
and Jesus, as the righteous Judge who bestows the rewards, which are
likewise the results, of our life here, gives the crown. It remains
for ever the gift of His love. 'The wages of sin is death,' but we
rise above the region of retribution and desert when we pass to the
next clause--'the gift of God is eternal life,' and that 'through
Jesus Christ.'
Whilst, then, this must be laid as the basis of all, there must also,
with equal earnestness and clearness, be set forth the other thought
that Christ's gift has conditions, which conditions these passages
plainly set forth. In the one, which I have read as a text, we have
these conditions declared as being twofold--protracted discipline and
continuous effort. The same metaphor employed by the same Apostle, in
his last dying utterance, associates his consciousness that he had
fought the good fight and run his race, like the pugilists and
runners of the arena, with the hope that he shall receive the crown
of righteousness. James declares that it is given to the man who
_endures_ temptation, not only in the sense of bearing, but of
so bearing as not thereby to be injured in Christian character and
growth in Christian life. Peter asserts that it is the reward of
self-denying discharge of duty. And the Lord from heaven lays down
the condition of faithfulness unto death as the necessary
pre-requisite of His gift of the crown of life. In two of the
passages there is included, though not precisely on the level of
these other requirements, the love of Him and the love of 'His
appearing,' as the necessary qualifications for the gift of the
crown.
So, to begin with, unless a man has such a love to Jesus Christ as
that he is happy in His presence, and longs to have Him near, as
parted loving souls do; and, especially, is looking forward to that
great judicial coming, and feeling that there is no tremor in his
heart at the prospect of meeting the Judge, but an outgoing of desire
and love at the hope of seeing his Saviour and his Friend, what right
has he to expect the crown? None. And he will never get it. There is
a test for us which may well make some of us ask ourselves, Are we
Christians, then, at all?
And then, beyond that, there are all these other conditions which I
have pointed out, which may be gathered into one--strenuous discharge
of daily duty and continual effort after following in Christ's
footsteps.
This needs to be as fully and emphatically preached as the other
doctrine that eternal life is the gift of God. All manner of
mischiefs may come, and have come, from either of these twin
thoughts, wrenched apart. But let us weave them as closely together
as the stems of the flowers that make the garlands are twined, and
feel that there is a perfect consistency of both in theory, and that
there must be a continual union of both, in our belief and in our
practice. Eternal life is the gift of God, on condition of our
diligence and earnestness. It is not all the same whether you are a
lazy Christian or not. It does make an eternal difference in our
condition whether here we 'run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus.' We have to receive the crown as a
gift; we have to wrestle and run, as contending for a prize.
III. And now, lastly, note the power of the reward as motive for
life.
Paul says roundly in our text that the desire to obtain the
incorruptible crown is a legitimate spring of Christian action. Now,
I do not need to waste your time and my own in defending Christian
morality from the fantastic objection that it is low and selfish,
because it encourages itself to efforts by the prospect of the crown.
If there are any men who are Christians--if such a contradiction can
be even stated in words--only because of what they hope to gain
thereby in another world, they will not get what they hope for; and
they would not like it if they did. I do not believe that there are
any such; and sure I am, if there are, that it is not Christianity
that has made them so. But a thought that we must not take as a
supreme motive, we may rightly accept as a subsidiary encouragement.
We are not Christians unless the dominant motive of our lives be the
love of the Lord Jesus Christ; and unless we feel a necessity,
because of loving Him, to aim to be like Him. But, that being so, who
shall hinder me from quickening my flagging energies, and stimulating
my torpid faith, and encouraging my cowardice, by the thought that
yonder there remain rest, victory, the fulness of life, the flashing
of glory, and the purity of perfect righteousness? If such hopes are
low and selfish as motives, would God that more of us were obedient
to such low and selfish motives!
Now it seems to me, that this spring of action is not as strong in
the Christians of this day as it used to be, and as it should be. You
do not hear much about heaven in ordinary preaching. I do not think
it occupies a very large place in the average Christian man's mind.
We have all got such a notion nowadays of the great good that the
Gospel does in society and in the present, and some of us have been
so frightened by the nonsense that has been talked about the
'other-worldliness' of Christianity--as if that was a disgrace to
it--that it seems to me that the future of glory and blessedness has
very largely faded away, as a motive for Christian men's energies,
like the fresco off a neglected convent wall.
And I want to say, dear brethren, that I believe, for my part, that
we suffer terribly by the comparative neglect into which this side of
Christian truth has fallen. Do you not think that it would make a
difference to you if you really believed, and carried always with you
in your thoughts, the thrilling consciousness that every act of the
present was registered, and would tell on the far side yonder? We do
not know much of that future, and these days are intolerant of mere
unverifiable hypotheses. But accuracy of knowledge and definiteness
of impression do not always go together, nor is there the fulness of
the one wanted for the clearness and force of the other. Though the
thread which we throw across the abyss is very slender, it is strong
enough, like the string of a boy's kite, to bear the messengers of
hope and desire that we may send up by it, and strong enough to bear
the gifts of grace that will surely come down along it.
We cannot understand to-day unless we look at it with eternity for a
background. The landscape lacks its explanation, until the mists lift
and we see the white summits of the Himalayas lying behind and
glorifying the low sandy plain. Would your life not be different;
would not the things in it that look great be wholesomely dwindled
and yet be magnified; would not sorrow be calmed, and life become 'a
solemn scorn of ills,' and energies be stimulated, and all be
different, if you really 'did it to obtain an incorruptible crown?'
Brethren, let us try to keep more clearly before us, as solemn and
blessed encouragement in our lives, these great thoughts. The garland
hangs on the goal, but 'a man is not crowned unless he strive
according to the laws' of the arena. The laws are two--No man can
enter for the conflict but by faith in Christ; no man can win in the
struggle but by faithful effort. So the first law is, 'Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ,' and the second is, 'Hold fast that thou hast; let
no man take thy crown.'