The Savior's Many Crowns

Spurgeon organizes his meditation on "many crowns" into three categories: crowns of dominion — Christ reigns as King of Heaven commanding angels, King of Hell holding the chains of the damned, King of creation who spoke the universe into being, King of providence who sustains every atom, and King of grace who opens and shuts the door of mercy — making the point that there is nowhere a believer can go where Christ does not reign, so every fear is groundless and every burden should be left in his hands. He then turns to crowns of victory — won in fierce battles against the world (which tried poverty, threats, and blandishments and failed), against sin (whose poison Christ absorbed in his own body), against death (whose domain he broke open at the resurrection), against Satan (whose head he crushed in the very hour of his own wounding), and against the hard human heart (which yields only to the sight of the bleeding Savior on the cross). He closes with the sweetest category — crowns of thanksgiving — tracing how prophets, apostles, martyrs, soul-winners, infants, aged saints, and chief sinners all stream into heaven and without exception take their crowns off and lay them at Christ's feet, because every crown was won by his grace and blood, and he invites every hearer to make this day their day of espousals to Christ and so put one more crown on his already-adorned head.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on October 30th, 1859.