The Christian's Course, Conflict, and Crown
James Brewster. 2 Timothy 4:6-8 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.… I. THE VIEW IN WHICH THE APOSTLE REPRESENTS HIS DECEASE. 1. He expresses neither terror nor reluctance, on account of the violent nature of the death which awaited him, but speaks of it calmly as a sacrifice and offering to God. His last and most solemn testimony would thus be given to the truths of God, which he had everywhere proclaimed; and his blood, when poured out, would simply resemble, as his words imply, the mixture of blood and wine which was poured upon the altar in the ancient sacrifices. His death would merely form the concluding part of that offering, which he had made of himself to the service of his Lord; and he seemed rather to welcome than to withhold the termination of the sacrifice. The decease of every Christian may be likewise called an offering. We are all required to "yield ourselves to God"; to present ourselves to him as living sacrifices; and in our dying hour, or in our devout preparations for it, we may bear our testimony to His perfections, by manifesting our firm faith in His promises and our full submission to his will. 2. But the apostle here speaks farther of his decease, in a sense still more applicable to that of all men; "the time of my departure" (or as his words directly signify, "the time of my loosing anchor") "is at hand." Thus he teaches us to take a much more enlarged view of our existence than to regard our death as, strictly speaking, the last of its acts; and rather to consider the dissolution of our mortal frames as the transferring of that existence from the service of God on earth to the presence of God in heaven. II. THE REFLECTIONS WITH WHICH THE APOSTLE HERE LOOKS BACK UPON HIS LIFE ON EARTH. 1. Justly does he speak of his life as a fight, in which he had been engaged, and which he had maintained with the most unshaken resolution to that very hour. 2. This service he farther likens to a race, to one of those contests of bodily strength, or speed, or skill, in which it was common in those days for men to seek the prize of victory, and in which it was accounted the highest earthly honour to gain the corruptible crown. "I have finished my course." In this course of the Christian he had long and perseveringly run, and he is now approaching the goal with the prize full in his view. He was the more encouraged in his anticipation of the recompense placed before him by the consideration that he had "kept the faith"; that he had not only run the Christian race, but had duly observed the rules of the contest. "If a man strive for mastery, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully"; and the first law of the race here spoken of is to "walk by faith," "to run with patience, looking unto Jesus," to be animated in every step and turn of your course by a devout love to His name, a humble trust in His grace, a fervent desire of His glory. In this manner had the apostle kept his fidelity to his Lord, both in fulfilling with diligence the portion of service assigned to him and in his course of labour "living by the faith of the Son of God." By His grace and to his glory he has done the work given him to do; and, through his promised mediation, he now looked for the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul. III. THE HOPES BY WHICH THE DYING APOSTLE IS CHEERED IN VIEW OF AN ETERNAL WORLD. You are thus called to exercise a rational regard to your own true happiness, looking forward to an eternal blessedness, which can be compared to nothing less than crowns and kingdoms; a settled approbation of perfect righteousness, desiring to receive, as the sources of your felicity, the approbation and favour and future presence of the righteous Judge of all the earth; a benevolent sympathy in the best interests of others, delighting in the thought that so many of your fellow-creatures may participate in your company, in the same blessed inheritance; and finally, a devout sentiment of love to the Son of God, anticipating with joy His own appearing, as the consummation of all His felicity to your own souls and to multitudes of His redeemed of every age and people. (James Brewster.) Parallel Verses KJV: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. WEB: For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come.