A Kingdom, a Crown, an Inheritance
“Happy will I be and forever happy, if after death I might hear the melody of those hymns and hallelujahs which the citizens of that celestial kingdom and the squadron of those blessed spirits sing in praise of the eternal king. This is that sweet music which St. John heard in the Revelation, when the inhabitants of heaven sang, ‘Let all the world bless thee, O Lord.’ To Thee be given all honor and dominion for a world of worlds. — — Amen.”
—JERrEMY TAYLOR.
’ ), YHAT magnificence and splendor are there in a kingdom! What ambitions by the desire of possessing a kingdom! What a stimulant this to noblest effort! Heaven is to be won as a kingdom is won. Heaven is to be struggled for as a kingdom is struggled for. Heaven is to stimulate as a kingdom stimulates. The work of grace in the human heart is called a kingdom, the kingdom of grace. Heaven is called a kingdom, the kingdom of glory. “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you”” — these are the words as Jesus rewards the honored ones who are on His right hand in the day of judgment:
“That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory,” warns Paul. Here we have a combination of the two, kingdom and glory. Magnificent combination! “Rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom,” says James. “Have an entrance administered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” declares Peter.
The future life is declared to be a throne:
“To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 3: 21).
A crown it is: “Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” It is an incorruptible crown, a crown whose glory never dims, whose power never abates. Paul is speaking of the Isthmian games and its runners, their strenuous self-denial and arduous efforts. ‘“Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
Paul declares at the very point of death: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but. unto all them also that love his appearing.” “A crown of righteousness,” awarded according to rigid demands of inflexible rectitude. “A crown of life!” “Blessed,” says James, “is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”
Peter declares, “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” How it stimulates to the strictest temperance and self-denial!
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9: 24-27).
This was the effect of this incorruptible crown on the chief of the apostles.
How grand and imposing the awards of eternity are! Glory, all preéminence, and effulgence: A kingdom, authority, elevation and grandeur are in it! A throne, that has in it royal dignity, elevation, rule! A crown belongs to kingly heads, to conquerors, and heroes. Kingship belongs to it. Overcomers, conquerors, are they all who enter the realms of life. How greatly were Grecian athletes stimulated by the crown though perishable! But to win these perishable crowns, there were no toils they would not endure, no efforts they could not put forth. The gathered crowds, the spectators of their contest and carriage, the judge and the crown, at the end of the race — all these matchless excitants are presented as ensamples for us in our contest for heaven.
In Revelation we have a sweeping declaration of heirship: “For he that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Chap. 21: 7).
In Colossians we have a combination of reward and inheritance: “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
Heaven is called an inheritance. It comes by relationship and heirship:
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:15-17). And in Galatians (Chap. 4:6-7) we read: “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of the Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
Peter has a magnificent statement of the heirship and the future inheritance of the saints in heaven; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1: 3-5).
It is represented as a gift: “The gift of God is eternal life.”
This diversity and wealth of expression as to the character of heaven, and how it comes to us, is seen as a great “reward”’; a magnificent and imperishable “inheritance” of fadeless beauty and unending richness; a “prize,” the greatest of time or eternity; a “gift,” unspeakable and indescribable in all its elements. The refined and refining stimulant of heaven has produced the saintliest saints, the most heroic heroes, the greatest conquerors, the most self-denying toilers.
How strong are the stimulating forces that heaven awakens! We could not dispense with them, that is, when held in our mind and hearts as they ought to be held, in deepest conviction, in most ardent faith, and interested loyalty. These heavenly forces are always strengthening our weakness, elevating our depression, brightening our darkness — always calling us to purity and nobleness, always charging us to awaken to righteousness and sin not. The mighty quickener of faith is heaven. ‘The only sure and solid foundation of hope is heaven. ‘The only solution of earth’s mysteries, the only righter of earth’s wrongs, the only divorce from earth to heaven, the only cure for worldliness, is heaven. We need such an infusion of heaven into our faith and hope as will create a homesickness for that blessed place. God’s home place is heaven. Eternal life and all good were born there and flourish there. All life, all happiness, all beauty, all glory, are native to the home of God.
And all this belongs to and awaits the heirs of God in heaven. What a glorious inheritance! What a pleasing prospect!
’Tis God’s all-animating voice
That calls thee from on high;
*Tis his own hand presents the prize
To thine aspiring eye —
That prize, with peerless glories bright,
Which shall new luster boast,
When victors’ wreaths and monarchs’ gems
Shall blend in common dust.
Blest Saviour, introduced by thee,
Have I my race begun;
And, crowned with victory, at thy feet
Pll lay my honors down. — Philip Doddridge.
Ly,
PARADISE, AND ETERNAL LIFE
“Go on, and faint not. Something of yours is in heaven, beside the flesh of your exalted Saviour; and ye go on after your own. ‘Time’s thread’s shorter by an inch than it was. An oath is sworn and past the seals; whether afflictions will or will not, ye must grow, and swell out of your shell, and live, and triumph and reign, and be more than a conqueror. For your Captain who leadeth you on is more than conqueror and He maketh you partaker of His conquest and victory.”
—SAMUEL RUTHERFORD.
HE word “paradise” is used by Paul as
equivalent to the third heaven, the abode
of God. So also the word paradise is
used in Revelation, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of Life which grows in the midst of the paradise of God.”
Paradise is a place separated, distinguished, emphasized as a marked and distinct place, and as a place of eminent distinction and beauty, — as the abode of God and the angelic beings, and to which true Christians will be taken after death. God’s paradise — how matchless its beauty! How unparalleled in every excellence, dignity and loveliness it must be! To that the thief was to be translated — to be translated that day — -gracious home to him when that jeering and infuriated mob took him out that his cross might defame and cast equal odium on that of the Son of God. How, instead of increasing the ignominy and shame of Jesus, it added to the luster and power of that cross by lifting a robber from the shame and guilt of the cross to the glorious beauties of heaven! “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” has given hope of immortality to many a sinner as he has lifted his prayerful, dying eyes, and said, “‘ Remember me.”
Heaven is a place of rarest beauty and purity, but the sinful robbers go there, washed in the blood of the Lamb. “With me” — what exalted glory, supreme dignity, divine companionship, for a thief! How close the union, how infinite the condescension of Jesus, to be the companion, and to share His glory and joy with him! One of the noblest memorials to the death of Jesus is that thief lifted from the cross of guilt to a throne of glory. The wonders of that death! What tongue can tell of its marvels, what imagination discover its miracles! This is one of them. “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” but that is only the beginning, the index printing to its untold volumes.
In the notable conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, the position to which He will elevate
all who believe in Him is denominated “eternal life.”
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, butes
have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3: 15-16).
And again, in the fourth chapter (v. 36), the eternal glory is designated as eternal life, and it is the harvest of our faithful patient sowing and tilling in this life. ‘“And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.”
The resurrection is unto life:
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John
me 20),
That wonderful saying to Martha is the declaration of the same great truth that the crowning glory of the future is eternal life:
“Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She said unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which should come into the world” (John 2: 23-27).
So also we hear Jesus say:
“He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).
We come to that magnificent comforting promise which Jesus gave to His disciples among His last talks with them before His death, while the gloom of Gethsemane and Calvary was on them and on Him:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14: 1-3).
Heaven will relieve all the troubles of this life. Every earthly pain is to be eased, all fiery trials quenched, all tears dried by heaven. Jesus in this statement makes heaven a place; “I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you — where I am” — Jesus is local, and located in heaven. ‘There ye may be also. Somewhere in God’s house of many mansions does Jesus hold sway, sit up on His throne, and manifest His glory. There with their exalted Lord, His saints dwell in eternal, unalloyed good. We cannot fail to see not only the purpose and inflexible decree of Jesus to have us in His Father’s house, but also the longings of His heart: “Where I am, there ye may be also,’ — an announcement of association and eternal union in felicity, honor and power.
This comes out most fully in His sacerdotal prayer: ‘‘ Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.” Not idle speculations of that glory, but sharers as well as seers of that glory. That Jesus wants us with Him, is not a mere sentiment, to adorn or sweeten, but it is a declared, operative, and eternal decree, “Father J will.” His heart and authority are in it.
“‘T have the desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better,” says Paul. To be in heaven, is to be with Christ, “‘ at home with the Lord.”
That Jesus has “gone to heaven to appear in the presence of God for us,” is true, and that by the mystery and ministry of His death, and the glory and wealth of His intercession, He is preparing a place for us and preparing us for the place, is also true.
Jesus is exalted in heaven at the right hand of the throne of God. ‘The throne is the symbol of power, and the right hand the symbol of honor, glory, and majesty. So Jesus is exalted to the highest place in heaven to which God’s power can raise Him. The apostle declares the exalted dignity of Jesus thus: “According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church; which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
The highest position of legal glory is His, and we are to be with Him and share His place, and be partners with Him in all the splendors and emoluments of the eternal world. With what divine munificence and magnificence does God crown, exalt and glorify Jesus! So with the same exhaustless munificence and magnificence the Son dispenses to His glorified ones the boundless wealth of heaven.
What Jesus has done for us here in the startling and extravagant advent of Himself into this world, His humiliation and suffering unparalleled in the annals of time and of eternity, — these are the true mirrors of the wonderful, unspeakable, and in- - describable things which He will do for us in the other world, but only the faint reflection of them. For His ability is much increased, and the conditions far more favorable there, for Him to do for us than when under the limitations which fettered Him here.
What will be the material blessings and settings of that heavenly life, we cannot tell, but that they will be of the purest and most exquisite form and material, we may be well assured, and of the most reposeful and rapture-giving kind.
Of one thing we are constantly reminded, that Jesus will be with us and will serve us ever like a shepherd feeding his flock, on the richest and best food of heaven, and leading us even to new and living fountains of bliss and knowledge and light. To have Jesus with us will be the acme and sum of all happiness, of all perfection, of all good. What beauty in His face! What wealth untold in His character! How illimitable His resources to bless, eternity only can unfold.
This Christ, what matchless, indescribable
charms has He here for those who are possessed of His love. The gifted and saintly Samuel Rutherford while in prison, overflowing with love, uses his great gifts, which by his great love are turned to poetry, to speak of Jesus and His loveliness: “I never believed till now that there was so much to be found in Christ on this side death and heaven. Oh, the ravishments of heavenly joy which may be had here, in the small gleanings and comforts that fall from Christ.”
If Jesus was so much to the gifted and holy Samuel Rutherford, while banished and a prisoner and in this world, what must He be to those in heaven? What ineffable beauties must there be in the unfoldings of His character to the glorified! What a heaven it must be! It cannot be said too strongly we are bound to love heaven for Jesus’ sake. We are bound to long for heaven because Jesus is there. We are bound to be filled with transportation joy when the hour comes to go there, because it is the hour to see Jesus, the hour to meet Jesus, the hour to enjoy Jesus, and to enjoy Him forever, the hour to be with Him and to be with Him forever.
O Paradise, O Paradise,
Who doth not crave for rest?
Who would not seek the happy land
Where they that loved are blest;
Where loyal hearts and true,
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture, through and through
In God’s most holy sight?
O Paradise! O Paradise!
The world is growing old;
Who would not be at rest and free
Where love is never cold?