Crown Him with Many Crowns III

“Crown him the virgin’s Son! The God incarnate born, whose arm those crimson trophies won which now his brow adorn!”

In my opinion, verse two is the most difficult to interpret of this song. Perhaps that is one of the reasons we never sing this verse in church? It could also lean just a little Catholic in doctrine depending on how you interpret the second half of the verse. Regardless, we see the writer encouraging us to acknowledge him as the only man to ever be born of a virgin. If you read any of my devotionals on “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” you know that I believe the virgin birth is a central truth of Christianity. Isaiah prophesied that a virgin would give birth around 700 years before Jesus was conceived (Isaiah 7:14). However, it wasn’t just important that Jesus be born of a virgin in order to fulfil prophecy, but it was also vital that he be virgin born so that he would not have a sin nature. When the Bible says, “As in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22), it wasn’t exaggerating. Adam’s sin immediately severed man’s fellowship with God. Without a perfect man to die, man would remain locked in sin. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t met any perfect people recently. Jesus was born of a virgin, born as a man, yet without sin. He died so that we could be made right with God – and he became a sympathetic High Priest who could act as our advocate and mediator (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 4:14-5:2).

The only solution was for God to take on flesh. The only Perfect One took on a body so that we could be resurrected to life eternal and our relationship with God could be restored (John 5:29, Philippians 3:20-21, Romans 5:10, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21). The very life that was in the Tree of Life in the garden (that Adam and Eve ignored in favor of the Tree of Knowledge – and isn’t that a devotional thought in itself), has become our source of salvation. He has won crimson trophies. He has won us – he has redeemed us by his blood (Ephesians 1:7, 1 Peter 1:18-20, Romans 3:23-26). Revelation 1:5-6 declares, “From Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” While we will cast our crowns at Jesus feet, we also have the opportunity to live in a way that will be a crown – a trophy – a testimony that will give him glory. While we can never “add” to Jesus glory, strength, honor, majesty, or power – we do have the phenomenal opportunity to live our lives in a way that honors him and reflects the glory of his sacrifice. We are his workmanship – literally his masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10). Did you know that the majority of the cross-references for Eph. 2:10 are related to our new identity – our new “self” and how we should behave as part of the body of Christ? When we are redeemed by the death of his body and the shedding of his blood on the cross. When this happens, we become a living example of his grace, redemption, love and mercy. We are the crimson trophies. Does the way we are living reflect a life that would adorn our Savior’s brow? Do our lives praise him? Are we living in such a way that we cannot explain our source of strength and life apart from him? Are we content to do as much as we can – without acknowledging our absolute dependence on his life as our source and strength? Do we survive our days with fretful, anxious hearts or are we living in the light of his redeeming love?