Crown Of Righteousness
2 Timothy 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only,
but unto all them also that love his appearing.
A Crown of Righteousness
A Crown of Righteousness seems like an impossible dream to those of us living in a very dark and sinful world. A world where sinful acts are celebrated and published for the whole world to see. A world where infants in the womb are not safe, old people are abandoned and left on their own, where citizens are concerned about walking in their own towns for fear of attack. Poverty and lack abounds all over the world. Yet in the midst of all that the Bible promises we can live a righteous life. How can that happen?
When Jesus took our place on the cross of Calvary, He took all our sins and bore the punishment of them. He replaced hopelessness with hope and joy. He became sin that we can become righteous through Him. It is not how “good” we are, how many works we do for Him that make us righteous. Rather it the finished work of the Cross of Christ. We have become righteous in Him. I love the way Paul the Apostle puts it. He was pursuing righteousness. His heart was following hard after Jesus Christ. His old ways were pushed out of the way as he pursued Jesus. He was determined to win that “crown of righteousness”. Let us take up that same call today. Let us pursue Jesus and the work of righteousness in our own lives.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Philippians 3:8-14
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.