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"There is laid up" apokeimai. Bloomfield cites Plutarch, Demosthenes, Pindar and
Josephus, to support the idea, that:
"Crowns and all sorts of prizes held forth to conquerors were said to be laid up
(apokeisthai), because they were set apart as their due."
In Colossians Paul had taught that our "life" is hid with Christ in God, and that it is in
safe keeping until "the appearing" (Col. 3: 3, 4). This hope, he said was "laid up"
(apokeimai) in heaven (Col. 1: 5). The same blessed security attaches to the crown when
once it has been won, it is "laid up" and will be awarded "in that day". Paul knew that a
believer could be "beguiled of his reward" (Col. 2: 18), even as he could not assume that
he had "attained" the prize in Phil. 3: 3-14, knowing full well the typical history of his
fathers (I Cor. 9: 24 - 10: 13), but, once the believer receives the assurance that he has
finished his course, then, he need no more fear of failing to receive his reward, than that
his life which is hid in Christ with God can ever be forfeited or lost.
"The crown of righteousness." Paul makes it very clear in all his testimony, that
righteousness is unattainable by any works that the flesh can produce. He who was
assured that he would receive the crown of "righteousness" said that he had flung aside as
so much refuse, all righteousness that may have come to him by his own obedience to the
law (Phil. 3: 8-10), and with justification by faith as a solid fact, he entered the running
for the prize (Phil. 3: 11-14), which he learned at length was "the crown of
righteousness".
We have demonstrated in earlier volumes, that the epistle we are studying is balanced
by the epistle to the Philippians. In both we have the references to "depart" and being
"offered". In both there is the atmosphere of a race, a conflict. Philippians speaks of
"pressing toward the mark", II Timothy says: "I have finished my course", and "no man
is crowned except he strive lawfully". In II Timothy the reward is that of a "crown", in
Philippians it is that of a "prize". The apostle when writing to the Corinthians had
already indicated that the "prize" he had in view was a "crown".
It is pitiable to read the attempt of the Commentators to justify the apostle's
exhortation to run and to win, with the doctrine of free grace, and salvation by faith
alone. There is no need to attempt a justification, for the apostle is not dealing with
salvation but with "going on unto perfection" after that salvation is secure.
In Gen. 15: Abraham is "justified by faith"; in Gen. 17:, he receives the
exhortation to "be perfect"; in Rom. 4: Paul treats of Abraham's initial justification by
faith, and James, in his epistle, deals with Abraham's subsequent justification by works.
Paul takes us to Gen. 15: for his basis; James takes us to Gen. 22:, and tells us that
the latter "perfected" and "fulfilled" the former.
Writing the epistle to the Hebrews, Paul makes it plain that he has believers in view,
for he calls them "Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling". Yet he brings
Israel's forty years wandering in the wilderness to bear upon their subsequent "going on
unto perfection", and urges them to lay aside every weight and run the race which was set