159. Crown of Life
Revelation 2:10 Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
The conditional promise of Jesus in this verse is: If you are faithful unto death, then Jesus will give you a crown of life. The condition is that one must be faithful all through life until he dies; then after death he will receive life as a crown of the entire life; this crown is eternal life that never ends. The condition of being faithful is not up to the individual for he is unable to be faithful by himself; a sinful human being cannot remain faithful because his sin is inherently incapable of faithfulness. The faithfulness is God’s doing and it is up to Him to be faithful for us. He promises to keep us faithful, and he promises to finish what He started within us. He will do what He says and keep us faithful to the end. Thus God does it all; He keeps us and He gives eternal life as a result of his keeping.
God is faithful to us, and a part of God’s faithfulness is keeping us faithful to Him through all of life until we die. After death God continues his faithfulness by granting the crown of life. Crowns are given as a reward or crowns are given to those who have authority to rule. Both aspects of crown are in view in this promise. First, the crown of life is given as a reward but not for our faithful life and good works but as a reward for Jesus’ faithful life and good works. Jesus earns the reward and gives the crown to us by grace.
Second, regarding the crown as the right to rule, like a king, believers are given ruling authority over all the enemies of life. Jesus has absolute authority and uses it to overcome on our behalf. Believers will receive the crown of kings, who in eternity will rule the new heaven and new earth for the good and the positive benefit of all. The life we will enjoy in eternity will be governed beneficently for the extreme good of all who are there. The crown is an awesome privilege and responsibility. And we will have a part of putting right everything that has gone wrong in earth’s history.