When the apostle Paul knew his life was about to end, he told his beloved son in the faith: 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.'

At a time when he had more enemies and fewer friends than ever, how could Paul hold that kind of confidence in the face of imminent death? And what would it take for a Christian to say the same? John MacArthur works through 2 Timothy 4 in a short booklet written for anyone nearer the end of the race than the start.