Scroll down to see and play Audio.
Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
The weekend has arrived and I trust you’ll enjoy it greatly.
Each day this week we’ve been considering a Guiding Life Principle which I’ve found in Paul’s ‘epilogue letter’ to his young friend Timothy. I am calling it Paul’s ‘epilogue letter’ since it was his last writings before he was executed, and like epilogues, it is a summary challenge letter to Timothy.
So here’s the Guiding Life Principle for this weekend, based on 2 Timothy 4:7,8: “Live today with your Epilogue in View.” It means there’s wisdom in living each day as though it will be significant at the end of your life. Few people die quickly, most linger with plenty of time for reflection on their lives and ample time to pass along their end of life reflections to their family and friends. So how will today, this weekend, fit into your end of life reflections?
Paul said this for Timothy: “…the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…” It is very significant Paul uses the word “departure“ rather than ‘death‘. While he knows, of course, that his earthly journey is nearing an end, and likely he will be executed in the Roman prison where he is being held, Paul uses this statement to once again confirm his death is NOT the end of his life!
Paul understands life is immortal, as designed by God, for all of us. Once God conceives us in our mother’s womb, our soul and spirit, which He has created and inserted into our tiny body, will never cease to exist, thus we are immortal beings. Only God is eternal, with no beginning and no end. We each have a definite moment of beginning, but God intends that we will never cease to exist. Thus what we call ‘death’ is a departure, leaving behind this human body, but our soul and spirit continuing to live. The big question, of course, is WHERE?!
Paul had written extensively to Christ followers all across the Roman empire, that when we ‘depart’, as people who have trusted Jesus Christ to save us from our sin condemnation, we can be certain our soul and spirit will go immediately from earth to God’s Presence in heaven. (Phil. 1:20-26; 2 Cor. 5:8) Jesus had made it abundantly clear that WE, each of us, determines where we will spend eternity after our earthly death, and that is the Gospel, the ‘good news’!
Jesus’ atonement death and resurrection make it possible for Holy God to offer us Salvation from our sin condemnation IF we will trust fully in the death of Jesus to have paid fully for our sin rebellion against God. God will then forgive our sin, and reconcile us back to a relationship with Himself, and place His Holy Spirit within us, and assure us we will ‘depart’ for heaven at the moment of our earthly death. (John 3:16; 5:24; Phil. 1:23)
Do you notice Paul reflects on his life as a ‘fight’ which he has faithfully fought; and a ‘race’ he has faithfully run; and a ‘faith’ he has faithfully kept? What do you think he meant by that?
Listen to what the writer to the Hebrews says about the race of life: “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…” (Heb. 12:1,2) Do you see the idea that life can be viewed as a race course, laid out by God Himself, and we can run this race empowered by the Holy Spirit living with us, our eyes fixed on Jesus our Savior and Lord who leads us, and guided by His Word, which coaches us? So where has the course of your life taken you thus far, and how well have you run it with God’s help? What have been those things which have attempted to distract you or entangle you or hinder you or draw you off course? And did you notice the beginning of Hebrews 12:1 “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…” Who are those who are watching you run your life race and both cheering you on, and learning from you?
Paul says life is a ‘fight’, have you found that to be true? In Ephesians 6:10-18 Paul was quite detailed about the spiritual battle in which we all are involved and the weapons Jesus has made available to us. All of Paul’s letters speak to the issue of the battles Christ followers face of living God honoring lives in a sin filled world. But Paul’s theme is always that we, Holy Spirit indwelt followers of Jesus, can live VICTORIOUSLY in the battle, because of Jesus and His resurrection and His reign over all.
Perhaps most significant of all is Paul’s confident statement “I have kept the faith…” Faith is the cornerstone of our relationship with God. Hebrews 11:1,6 says “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see…and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Paul had dedicated his life to proclaiming to all who would hear him, that our salvation from our sin is ONLY granted by God in response to our complete FAITH in Jesus and His accomplished work of atonement on the cross. Nothing we could ever do can contribute to earning our salvation, Jesus did it all! Faith is difficult isn’t it my friends, for we cannot see God or normally hear His audible voice. That’s why despite all the hardships Paul faced, he wanted Timothy to know his FAITH in Jesus Christ had never wavered.
Finally Paul says: “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the LORD, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not to me only, but to all who long for His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8) What is this ‘crown of righteousness‘? Oh my friends, Paul had worked so hard as a young Pharisee to be blameless in his keeping of all the laws of the Old Testament. He wrote to his friends in Philippi: “If anyone has reason to put confidence in themself, I have more: circumcised on the 8th day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ…” (Phil. 3:4-7)
Paul knew even in all his effort, he fell far short of God’s holiness, and therefore his great expectation that when he arrived in God’s presence, Jesus would place upon his head a ‘crown of righteousness’. He knew it was NOT because of his efforts but because of what Jesus accomplished for him. Thus he wrote to the Christians in Corinth: “if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ: that God was reconciling the world to Himself not counting men’s sins against them…God made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to become a sin offering for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.“ (2 Cor. 5:17-21)
It’s the ‘great exchange’! Our sin placed upon Jesus, and His righteousness placed upon us who trust fully in Him! Thus Paul anticipated God declaring him finally and fully righteous as the crown of righteousness is placed on his head, BECAUSE Jesus’ righteousness had been applied to Paul, replacing his sinfulness. And as Paul says, that is available to any and all of us if we will trust in Jesus as he did!
Oh my friends, I wonder how this ‘epilogue’ of Paul’s compares to what you will say at the end of your life journey? You’ll notice it is intended to be motivational to Timothy, urging him to follow the same path.
May I invite you to continue reading the last few verses Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4? Notice please Paul speaks of people who have been an important part of his life. Read it carefully to see what Paul says about each person. Then, finally this: “The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it (the Gospel). And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Paul was determined to finish well, confident his life was entirely in the hands of his Savior and Lord Jesus. Do you see his confidence that Jesus will bring him home to heaven? I wonder if Paul was remembering and holding tightly to what Jesus had said and John recorded for us in John 6:37-40 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me, and this is the will of Him who sent Me: that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me; but raise them up at the last day For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Oh my “Walking with Jesus” friends, I hope you are as confident as Paul was, that this includes YOU, and that you will have a similar epilogue statement to make at the end of your life journey.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.