For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. (7) I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (8) Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearance……(16) At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. (17) But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. (18) And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!

The second letter to Timothy was written by the apostle Paul. This is Paul’s final letter written as he was imprisoned in a hole in the Mamertine prison in Rome, awaiting execution for preaching the gospel. He viewed his life as an offering to God – a culminating offering of a sacrificial life. In the Jewish faith, after the sacrificial lamb had been placed on the altar and just before it was lit on fire, the priest poured out about a quart of wine as a drink offering. Paul writes of martyrdom as already beginning and of his present suffering. In His harsh treatment he would not allow Timothy or any Christian who revered him to be dismayed or shocked – he used calm triumphant language indicating that death held no terror for him but was the appointed passage to glory.

Paul was born a Roman citizen and as such he could appeal directly to the emperor for justice. He had been under arrest for a number of years for preaching the gospel and did appeal to Rome where he was imprisoned and had his first trial. No one showed up in his defense but the Lord was with him and he preached and defended the gospel and was released. (Out of the mouth of the lion). But Timothy 2 was his second and last letter after his final imprisonment and he knew execution was immanent. Paul finished well because he viewed his death as a departure. In the Bible death is a separation of the soul from the body. It is a departure, never a cessation of existence. Death was a release of this corruptible body from it’s bonds and enabled him to be able to finish without fear and even with anticipation – present life was a sacrifice to God and impending death was a departure to be with Christ.

C.s. Lewis in The Weight of Glory talks of the imagery of Scripture and death: “At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. “