By Jack Wyman

He was sitting alone on a cot. The room was dark and damp.

What light there was helped little against his failing eyesight.

Short of stature, he was balding, but lean and sinewy. He squinted at the parchment. Oblivious to his sparse, inhospitable surroundings, he focused with a single-minded intensity on his writing.

Paul the Apostle, intellectual giant and fearless, outspoken evangelist for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was in a Roman jail cell. It was likely in the mid to late first century. From here Paul, who wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament, is penning his final words—to Timothy, “my true son in the faith” (I Timothy 1:2).

Paul, once Saul.

No person in the Bible experienced a more dramatic, dynamic, or total spiritual conversion than this rabbinically-educated “Hebrew of Hebrews.” He was once the terror of Christians for his unstoppable, self-appointed bloody mission to persecute the followers of Jesus, and eradicate their religion from the face of the earth.

On the road to Damascus, this proud and confident Jew was suddenly confronted by the One he opposed with such virulence. Paul’s Type A personality wasn’t replaced—it was transformed. He was transformed. So complete and radical was this change it became a metaphor for similar spiritual awakenings throughout history.

Enduring painful hardships and persecution for his new-found faith, Paul’s journey as a Christian evangelist was a tumultuous voyage of missionary travels, church plantings, and controversial preaching. He embraced his new purpose with the same determination and energy he had shown before his conversion. Here was a holy boldness, immersed in intellectual certitude and fueled by a God-anointed passion for the souls of the lost.

Paul, wrote theologian F.F. Bruce, was an Apostle of the Heart Set Free.

He may have worn out—he suffered greatly in various oppositions. “We have been beaten, put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food” (II Corinthians 6:5). But there was no danger Paul would ever rust out.

His life was now nearly spent. In this final imprisonment, he knew the likelihood of the executioner’s block. In his two letters to Timothy, he had set forth the challenges and conditions of living “in the last days.” What he described is undeniably manifest in the 21st century of western civilization.

Paul told Timothy how he must live, lead, and serve in such interesting times. His exhortations have guided the church through centuries of trial and tribulation. They guide us still 

Suddenly, as he draws his second and final letter to a close, Paul becomes reflective. This is not a side of the tireless gospel champion we see often. We know him as a man of action, not contemplation. He pauses to look ahead and consider his impending death—and he looks back upon the abrupt contours of his tempestuous life.  

Paul the Apostle could not possibly grasp the historic and lasting impact he would have on the world. His spiritual vision, as robust as it was, could not begin to capture the enormity of his work, his leadership, his writings, or his legacy.

Paul changed the world of his time. He changed the world for all time.

His simple and plain words to Timothy are infused with an eloquent poignancy.

“The time of my departure is at hand” (II Timothy 4:6). Death is a great stock-taker. Paul is taking stock. Something we all should do on occasion. His words display the calm of a man meeting an appointment scheduled long before. “It is appointed unto man once to die” (Hebrews 9:27).

Now follows the autobiographical summation of a great life. Were there a memorial to this Man in Christ, or even a headstone, here’s what he’d want carved on it. This is Paul’s swan song.

“I have fought a good fight.” Resistance.

Much of Paul’s writing is about the Christian’s spiritual warfare—what it is, and what it isn’t. He tells us how to engage, and the weapons to use. Because Satan and his demons are always on relentless attack, our posture is so often defensive. Paul tells us to stand—three times just in Ephesians 6.

“Resist the devil,” James commands, “and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Paul did this time and again. It was a permanent feature of his ministry, his mindset, his worldview, and his life. Paul wasn’t afraid to confront the devil. He knew life was a battle for every Christian. He wanted to be remembered as a Christian soldier.

“I have finished my course.” Perseverance.

Paul never gave up. He never gave in. He never gave out. He forgot the past and always pressed on toward the prize. Nothing distracted him, nothing derailed him, nothing stopped him. He faced discouragements, yes. He confronted perplexities, yes. He got down, yes. But he always got back up.

Paul not only wanted to win the prize of his high calling, he wanted to break the tape. He may have been down, but Paul was never out. “Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (II Corinthians 4:9).

“I have kept the faith.” Adherence.

Paul never shimmied on the truth. He spoke it—always in love—never in fear. Even at Mars Hill, surrounded by intellectual skeptics, Paul boldly and creatively proclaimed the faith once delivered. He met them on their turf, but still stood his ground.

Paul never apologized for the gospel, never compromised it, never weakened his message, never lost his goal or his nerve; never surrendered to culture, correctness or accommodation.

To Paul, the Christian faith was everything. He gave everything to it. Including his life.

May each of us be able to say, at the end, when the time of our own departure comes, “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.” It is upon this, above all else, that we must search our hearts—and rest our hope.

Let this be, as it was for Paul, our Swan Song.

To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.

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