THE VICTOR’S CROWN : The proof that you don’t have to struggle anymore in life Part 1

Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them, Behold the man!

A wise man once said to me; Life is not hard only if you know the right buttons to press. Yep! And he was right – If you knew the right buttons to press, your life wouldn’t be as hard as it is for you right now. You have given excuses for your failures because you feel life is not fair and has handed good living to people who were born with silver spoons in their mouth. You are depressed because you work your sock off 40 hours a week and still can’t pay the bills – you simply live on one paycheck to the other. You feel God usually bypasses you when he’s distributing miracles and after all the hard work, you should have seen some changes in your life but you are constantly rotating at COS 90 degrees (zero). You have said, may be if I could get an extra job, or pray a little more or go to church a little more, it probably would change things.

We have often complicated our lives into thinking if we could do a little bit more of working hard on something, maybe our lives may be better. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The truth is you don’t have to work very hard, toil, and struggle and even cut corners in order to make it in life. Your life could be a whole lot better if you simply had knowledge on what to do and apply. Thank God for Christ! God has given us that tool in Christ and in a few minutes, I will show you how God in Christ, broke the curse of sin so that you will live victorious in every facet of your life.

“Every high thing must come down, every stronghold shall be broken, YOU WEAR THE VICTOR’S CROWN, You overcome, you overcome” – Darlene Zschech, Israel Houghton, Kari Jobe

You know the feeling when a song is stuck in your head and every second you catch yourself singing a line of it…well that’s exactly what this song did to me. It wouldn’t just leave my head so whilst I was yet singing, the Holy Spirit opened up the song to me through the eyes of the scriptures and said to me; “you don’t have to sweat anymore to make it, for He (Christ) wears the victor’s crown”. I said, huh? I needed to make sure I heard right so I picked up the scriptures and oh mine, everything was in plain sight.

The Greek word used for crown in the text above is στέφανον (stephanos) properly, a wreath (garland), awarded to a victor in the ancient athletic games (like the Greek Olympics) or even a hero from war; the crown of victory.
There are two types of crowns mentioned in the NT, στέφανος [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][stephanos] and διάδημα [diadēma]. Most discussions of these two words indicate that the stephanos is a victor’s crown, whereas the diadēma is a royal crown. “The stephanos was the usual crown of exaltation for victors of games, achievements in war, and places of honor at feasts whilst diadema refers to the crown / badge of royalty.

Matthew’s account notes that;

When they had twisted a crown of thorns [stephanos], they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Mat. 27:29) [Emphasis mine]

The multibillion dollar question is, they clothed Jesus and mocked him as King. So why “Stephanos” and not a “diadema” on his head? Why a victor’s crown and not a royal crown to complete his Kingly outfit? When I asked the Holy Spirit, He simply answered right away with a scripture.

1Cor 2:6-8
“Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”

Bam! Then my eyes opened. You see, these brutish and bloodthirsty Roman soldiers thought to mock him as King but not only was He truly King, he was the all Conquering King- the victorious King – A mystery they could never have figured in a million years. The best of wisdom the devil possessed at that moment was to finish Jesus off, cut off his seed; He intended to kill him and the promised Messiah will be no more. “If this is God’s best, He must have really lost his wisdom” the devil might have thought to his limited self. Yet guess what scripture they were fulfilling;

Psalm 2:2-4

“The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision”

Whilst the devil mocked and used these Gentiles to dehumanize the Messiah, they knew the least that God was on a war path to conquer sin and death. At that moment, they needed something that looked like a crown. Then the devil showed up and gave one of them a very brilliant idea. “Look over there, thorns!!! You can twist them into a crown, place it on his head and if it doesn’t fit, hit it hard with the reed lying over there until the sharp ends pierce down his skull through his eye brows – imagine the cheers of creativity you’ll receive from your colleagues”. So this guy goes out there, finds the thorns, twists it and gets a couple of bruises himself twisting those sharp-pointed projections but finally comes through for his master, the devil. But guess how smart the devil was after all?

Interestingly, ‘thorns’ is the object of the curse of sin when God pronounced judgment on mankind.

Let’s look at the following scriptures;

Gen 3:17-18
“And unto Adam he said, Because you have listened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field;”

After the fall of man, God would place a curse on the ground for man’s sake and the object of the curse to make his life a living hell was the thorns. Yet just before the pronouncement of this curse, God proclaimed the gospel (the good news) of redemption;

Gen 3:15

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”

Well to God it was all planned. At Peter’s first evangelistic work in Jerusalem, he noted that, He (Christ) was delivered according to the pre determinate counsel of the Godhead.

Acts 2:23

“Him [talking of the Christ], being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain”

Well anybody who knows me knows I’m a stickler for words and grammar. So I’m tempted to open this up real quick. What does Peter mean by [pre]determinate counsel? What Peter is saying here is that this whole plan was a fixed agreement and the perfect will of the Godhead. It was the planned knowledge of God to deliver Jesus for the sins of the world. So this didn’t take God by surprise. In his little epistle to the saints in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, Peter reiterated his message on the day of Pentecost;

1 Pet 1:20

“Who (talking of the Christ), verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you”

Some years later on the Island of Patmos, The Holy Spirit moves John to reaffirm Peter’s Statement;

Revelation 13:8

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”

So this never took God by surprise! He knew right from the time Satan entered Judas, exactly how and where it will end. I have often wondered where the guy who picked up the thorns picked them up from. It was all designed that the suffering servant (Isaiah 53) will carry on his head the symbol of the curse of sin- thorns. And as blood oozed from his bloody face and body, they were cleansing humanity as remission for sins (Heb 9:22) and paying the prize for our redemption (Rom 3:24). The stage was being set a few hours later for the most important words concerning the redemption of man; IT IS FINISHED!!!

A few hours before, Pilate stood in front of the Jewish leaders and witnesses present and proclaimed; “ECCE HOMO”-Here’s the man! I wish Pilate knew what he meant when he stood him in front of Jews and Gentiles alike and on top of his voice made that declaration. Here’s the man! Yes, here’s the man who just got flogged for your sicknesses and diseases, for your pain, grief and shame. Here’s the man through whom man was created. Here’s He in the hands of the created being, about to complete the plan of buying us back (redemption) from the hands of the one (Satan) you are busy sinning for. Here’s the man carrying the curse of sin on his head. Soon, here’s the man who will carry the weight of sin of the whole world on the cross when they take him to Golgotha. Here’s the man who will become sin for you; that you’ll become God’s Righteousness and in 3days freely justify (Rom 3:24) the whole world just as if we never sinned. Paul declares the gospel of salvation in 1Cor 15:1-4;

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”

If you just believed the scripture above, go on ahead and confess it and truly believe in your heart that God raised him for the dead (Rom 10:9) and guess what, you just got saved! Yaaay!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Now I had to add this little portion so that if you are not saved, you will have the opportunity. Again, it was expedient because it is the only way you can truly access the second part of this article in its glamour to your benefit. The second part will walk you through what you need to do to reach the place where you don’t struggle, toil and sweat to make it in life. Hope you enjoy it!

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism,

Hans-Peter Nkansah