6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future 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. 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NASB)
In the passage above some may say that Paul’s crown of righteousness would be based upon how well he fought the good fight and finished the course while keeping the faith….
However if you read down to end of v8 it is clear that the same award will be for all who have loved His appearing. Is that you? I know what my life was like before God had mercy on me. I know what it was like to be blind to His truth and see Christianity as just another religion. However, I remember clearly that day when the Spirit took over and regenerated me and I saw the truth with a heart that was alive instead of one that was stone cold dead. That was 36 years ago this month, but I can remember the details of how things happened that day just a vividly as it if was just a few days ago. As I have grown and matured as a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ since then I have learned that we are accepted by our dear heavenly Father because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, not because of our religiosity or good works. We are saints because of His work not ours as we saw in last night’s post entitled Saints. Since this is true then how should we look at what awaits us in Heaven?