The Crown of Righteousness (Part 1 of 2)

Planning for the future can be clouded with uncertainty from decisions about colleges and what to major in, to finding the right job, to knowing when to retire and where. Life holds no guarantees. But you can know what to expect after death and it can be secured now.

Here's Alistair Begg to tell us more today on Truth for Life Weekend. Two words that are increasingly familiar to us. Some of us, I think, have almost learned these eight verses off by heart by now.

That wouldn't be a bad thing. 2 Timothy 4 and verse 1, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

For I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Thanks be to God for his Word. Well, our text is verse 8, and I want you to notice that this opening word, which is here in the ESV, henceforth, should not be overlooked. The reason I say that is because when you read verse 6 and verse 7, it may appear that verse 7 would be a far more suitable ending. After all, Paul has already identified the fact that he is about to die in verse 6. Then in verse 7, he tells Timothy that he has completed his assignment.

As we saw last time, it was mission accomplished. And we might expect, then, that at the end of verse 7 there would just be a big full stop, a period, or perhaps a big exclamation mark. The fight I have fought, the race I have run, the faith I have kept, exclamation mark, finish. But no, it actually says henceforth. In other words, he wants Timothy and all of us to know that there is more that is still to come.

When J. B. Phillips paraphrases 7 into 8, he puts it like this, the glorious fight that God gave me I have fought, the course that I was set I have finished, and I have kept the faith, the future for me. The future for you? I thought you just said you were dying. You mean you were dying and you still have a future?

Well, yes, of course. But you see, unless we're paying attention, we'll just skip over something like that. The last days of my life have come, he says, but there is a future for me. Incidentally, remember we said last Sunday about taking out little pieces of foundational truth and finding that the superstructure will eventually collapse. If you think about it in these terms, just as it occurs to me as I'm speaking to you now, the death of Jesus as an atonement for sin ends in a Palestinian tomb unless you have the resurrection. But the resurrection by itself, a risen Christ who hasn't died an atoning death, means nothing either by itself. And the fact that Jesus rose if he is not ascended means that we're missing a piece, and the fact that he is ascended means that it is from there that he will return. And all of this we get from the Bible, and we're studying the Bible. And we're studying the Bible in the New Testament in particular in the awareness of the fact that either this is the most elaborate fabrication that the world has ever seen, or it actually is true, that either these people have cobbled this together because they wanted us to have this story, or these things unfolded as they did.

For myself, I have concluded long ago that there is not one page of the New Testament that was ever written apart from the conviction that all these pieces hold together, that Jesus was the incarnate God, that Jesus died an atoning death, that Jesus was raised for our justification, that Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God where he intercedes for us, and from there he will come, as Paul has said twice now in these eight verses that have been our focus. And this stands, of course, in direct contrast to many of the clichés that are part and parcel of our everyday life. The late George Carlin, who was a cynical comedian and, I don't think, a God-fearer, is credited with the line, Life is tough, and then you die.

And every so often you hear people say just that, as if somehow or another that's the end of the story. But in actual fact, Paul would be prepared to say, Life is tough, and then you die, henceforth there is still more to come. Now, you see, this is very important for us to reckon with, because Nero, who was in charge of Paul's earthly circumstances, would be, I think, justifiably regarded as an unrighteous judge. He had pronounced the guilty sentence on Paul unjustifiably, and he had ordered Paul's execution. And here now Paul, in the prospect of his execution, is writing to Timothy to say, You know, there is a higher throne, and there is another judge, and he is a just and a righteous judge. And although Nero may be the one who condemns me to death, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will grant to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. In other words, he's essentially saying that his execution was the pathway to his graduation, or we could say his consummation or his vindication.

So the idea is that although his death was going to come, and incidentally, the chronology here, when he says that day, towards the end of the verse, that day with a capital D, is not a reference to the day of his death, but is a reference to the day of the return of Jesus Christ. He's always been looking forward to the day. The day will bring it to light. Remember, he says, a man's ministry may be wood, hay, and stubble, it may be precious stones and gold and silver, but the day will bring it to light.

What day? The day when Jesus Christ, the righteous judge, brings everything to a consummation. And Paul's readers were very familiar with the crowns and the wreaths that were given out as a result of athletic prowess. Whether it was in physical combat or whether it was in the running of a race, they were familiar with the fact that somebody would reach the finish line or be victorious in the competition, and they would be awarded, they would be crowned on that day, and everybody would be aware of the fact that they had completed their journey.

Now, I want you to notice just two things in relationship to this. First of all, that this crown of righteousness is an emblem of victory. It is an emblem of victory. I take it that when Paul uses this terminology, he's referring to the moment when, having been faithful unto death, he is then given the crown of life.

That's to quote Revelation chapter 2 and verse 10. He uses this terminology all the way through his letters. He anticipates, as it were, the moment in the graduation ceremony where you move the tassel on your mortarboard from one side to the other. It's always a big question that these graduations, the students are always asking, when do we move the tassel, or what side is the tassel supposed to be on? Of all the things to be concerned about. But I know they are.

I watched them the other weekend when I was there. Some of them were very particular after they shook hands, received the plumber, and then, whoop, off it went on whatever side it was supposed to go. It's not as if they got their grade by moving the tassel, or they moved the tassel and that graduated them, or anything.

They didn't do anything at all. They just moved the tassel. But it did say to themselves and to those watching, I have completed my course, I have achieved my results, and this is an indication of all that has been awarded to me. And that's the language of Paul here. It's a symbol of success, a confirmation of his completed course. Well then, says somebody, what is he saying here, that he is being awarded something on account of his own good efforts? Well, yes.

But isn't he actually saying that his award is an undeserved award? Well, yes. Well, make up your mind. Well, no.

Why not? Because both are true. Do you remember when he writes to the Philippians and he says to them, I want you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling? In other words, you do what you're supposed to do. Then what does he immediately say? For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

There are some people whose perspective of the Christian life is this. You don't do anything. The key to success is you do nothing. You just sit back and let God do everything. So apparently, you don't run the race, he does. You don't fight the fight, he fights it. You don't keep the faith, he keeps it for you.

Nothing could be more ridiculous. Then there's another group of people who are just perspiring horribly, trying to do everything on I've got to fight this fight, I've got to run this race, I've got to keep this faith. And the answer is that we work out what he works in. So he looks forward to a crown that will be given to him, and he knows that any race that he's run, any fight that he's fought, any victory that is his, is ultimately solely a result of the grace of God to him, in him, and through him. That's why the crown is an emblem of victory. Second thing to notice is that he uses in describing it what we might refer to as the language of certainty.

The language of certainty. If your Bible is open, you will notice the way in which he puts it, "'Henceforth it is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will award to me on that day.'" It's laid up for him. If you like, it has his name on it. It has his size. He's not just going to have God look around and say, hey, find a crown. There'll be one there that you can wear. No, he said, I have your crown. I have your crown for you.

It's already sized for you. It's being kept for you. Really?

Yeah, really. I remember when I came here at first and I was introduced to a strange place. They told me to go to pick up tickets. They told me, go to Will Call.

I said, pardon? They said, go to Will Call. I said, no, you're going to have to slow that down. What are you saying? Who is Will Call?

No, they said, no, it's Will Call. I said, well, why didn't you say that? Then I would have understood.

And then I got it. Okay, so there's a place you go and if you tell them, hey, it's me, then they'll give you what is there for you. Which is distinct from another thing that I discovered, which is called layaway, which was a JC penny, where you could lay stuff away.

You put a little down payment, then you add a little bit more. And eventually if you've laid enough cash away to get what you laid away, then you can finally get it at the end of the long journey. Some people's Christian life is a kind of layaway thing.

They're trying to lay away a little bit of this, a little bit of merit, a little bit of church attendance, a little bit of good works, a little bit of self-effort, and when they finally get enough, then maybe they'll get up there and get the crown. Well, no, it's not layaway, it's Will Call. And the best Will Call visit for a Scotsman is when you say to the fellow, what do I need when I get there? And he says, you need nothing.

It's all paid for. Just give him your name. Oh, what a feeling this is.

What a feeling this is. You mean all I have to do is say my name? And they hand it over.

That's exactly right. Paul is going to stand before the bar of God's judgment, and he's going to say, I was once Saul of Tarsus. I am Paul.

I believe you've kept something here for me. And the righteous judge will say, I have it exactly for you. And Paul is saying—this is not unique to me, he says—I'm in a large graduating class.

And those other graduates we'll mention in a moment or two. You see, Paul's confidence lay in the fact that God had begun the work in his life, God was sustaining the work in his life, and God was going to bring to completion the work in his life. That's what he said when he wrote to the Philippians for their encouragement. He says, I am convinced of this, or being confident of this, that God, who has begun a good work in you, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

It's that same notion which runs through all of Paul's letters when he writes to the Galatian believers. At one point he says to them, for through the Spirit—that's by the enabling of God—through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. He's not saying we wait there for the possibility of it, but the certainty of it. For, as we've discovered so many times, hope is used in that way of something that is not yet realized, but is absolutely guaranteed. We're not going to go up to Wilco and say, and they're going to go, Oh no, we don't have anything here for you.

No, it is actually there. And we eagerly await the hope of righteousness. Because when you think about it, the work of God's Spirit is not perfected in us until we are actually raised from the dead. The work of God within us is not perfected in us, is not brought to completion until we're raised from the dead.

That's why we teach our children, isn't it? We teach one another the three tenses of salvation, so that we're able to put it very straightforwardly that in Jesus we have been saved, past tense, from sin's penalty, we are being saved, present tense, from sin's power, and one day we will be saved, future tense, from sin's presence. But in the meantime, in Christ, we're still sinners. We're still sinful. And there's not a day goes by without the fact that we're aware of that. And the evil one comes to accuse us and says, Well, you know, if you really were a proper believing person, surely you wouldn't have thought that, surely you wouldn't have said that.

I thought you would have done that, and you've left it undone. What is the answer to that? Well, the answer is that we have been saved from the penalty of sin, and one day we will be saved from the presence of sin. But in the meantime, we are wrestling with the power of sin.

It's not a question about ultimate victory, but it is a question about the ongoing battle. That's why Paul elsewhere says, We're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. That's why he says, For the Ephesian church, they've got to make sure they have the whole armor of God, that their head is secure by the helmet of salvation, that the breastplate of righteousness is protecting them from the attacks of the evil one. There's nothing for your back. It's all for the front, the belt of truth, and the sword of the Spirit, and prayer, and so on.

All of that is necessary. It's not calling in question the crown that is there, but it is acknowledging the reality of what it's like to get there. Now, let me come back to this George Carlin thing, if I may. Life is tough, and then you die. It's usually said in a way that sort of defines life in that way. You know, you die, and there's nothing more to be concerned about.

You know, oblivion. What the Bible says—and this is what is so striking—is that it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this comes judgment. Comes judgment. Now, you see, this is how Paul has framed this exhortation to Timothy.

You'll notice what he says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Notice the next phrase, who is to judge the living and the dead. The reason he says it's so important, Timothy, that you tell people this good news, is because there is a judgment that's going to come. Jesus himself has said that he will separate the sheep from the goats.

We didn't invent this. This is the words of the loving shepherd. The warning that is inherent in it, the loving wooing and urgency that is inherent in it, it is because of the reality of that that the charge that is given to Timothy and to all contemporary Timothy's is so urgent. And now he comes back to it.

He's back again at the righteous judge. Now, to talk like this is to make oneself immediately vulnerable. Whether you're in a pulpit, as I am now, or kind of one, or whether you're talking with somebody on the bus or on the train or whatever else it is. There's a great temptation, isn't there, just to draw back, just to pull out a couple of the little blocks, just not to say it all. Because it's very unappealing to people. And especially to our intelligent friends, they want you to be as intelligent as they are, and they've decided that if you're going to be as intelligent as they are, you're going to have to give up on some of this silly stuff.

Why don't you take a couple of those breaks out? Well, because you can't. When Paul, who wasn't exactly a dunce, was invited to address the intelligentsia in Athens, he didn't pull any punches. He was very skillful, he was gracious.

You remember what he did? Acts chapter 17, you can read it for yourself. He said to them, well, I am delighted the opportunity to speak to you. And as I was wandering around the place this afternoon, I noticed that you are a very religious group of people, and that you have various altars and shrines and statues to all kinds of gods and goddesses. And I noticed that you have one that you've actually made to cover your bases to the unknown God. That's pretty clever.

You don't want to miss out. And he said, I'm glad you have that one because it gives me an introduction to my talk. The God that you don't know, I want to tell you about. I want to tell you about the unknown God.

You can imagine their ears going up. They thought they knew everything. Whoa, he's going to tell us about the unknown God. And then what does he do? He starts with the doctrine of creation. The God who made the world and everything in it.

So we are created by God, yes? And you are accountable to God. He's not accountable to you. He's in charge of geography, establishing the parameters of the world. He's sovereignly in charge of history. And as he moves towards his conclusion, quoting the poets and drawing them in, he finally ends in this way. I can just imagine him pausing, taking a breath, and saying, so let me just wrap this up by pointing out, quote, God commands all people everywhere to repent.

How comprehensive is that? Exactly. God commands all people everywhere to repent.

And I'll tell you why, he says. Because he has fixed a day when he would judge the world in righteousness by a man he has appointed. So in other words, he doesn't back off from the reality of this, because he realizes that a world that does not ultimately reckon with the execution of justice is a meaningless world. When things are broken, they need to be fixed, and to get them fixed, somebody has to pay.

They do not get fixed without payment coming from somewhere. And our broken world is not going to be repaired apart from a payment. The execution of that which is necessary in order to restore that which is broken, which is dysfunctional, which is warped. And so he says, he has established this day. And it is this day that he's referring to here, the day when he appears, verse 8 of chapter 4.

And this righteous judge will judge the living and the dead, verse 1. You're listening to Alistair Begg with the first part of a message titled, The Crown of Righteousness. This is Truth for Life weekend. Alistair will continue this topic next week. If you've been enjoying this study in 2 Timothy, perhaps you'd like to own the entire series. It's called Guard the Truth. You'll find all four volumes.

That's 38 messages on one USB. Look for it when you visit truthforlife.org slash store. All throughout this weekend series, we've been learning from the Apostle Paul as he passes the baton of leadership to a young man named Timothy. One thing's become increasingly clear, leadership isn't easy.

It wasn't back then, and it certainly isn't today. So here's a book suggestion that'll encourage your pastor and show him how grateful you are for his commitment to the gospel. It's a brand new book titled Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most. And it's written by Alistair's friend and fellow pastor Rico Tice. Rico pulls from scripture and from personal experience to look at what it takes to lead a ministry. And also live a life that pleases God. He teaches that it's not all about talent and giftedness. It's about faithfulness to the calling. You can find out more about the book Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most by visiting our website truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. Hope you'll join us again next weekend when Alistair considers the crown that were promised in light of the crown Jesus once wore. Why does his crown matter? What does it mean for us? Join us next time. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.