NOTES for Ti2 4:7-8
Being in prison and summing up his ministry and earthly path, Paul says of himself that he has "fought the good fight," "finished the race," and preserved faith, clearly not simply as some system of views, but above all as fidelity to Christ and trust in Him. And now the Savior, according to the apostle's word, has prepared for him the crown of righteousness.
The crown that, according to Paul's own witness, turns his life into a sacrificial libation. Here the apostle clearly recalls the words of the Savior Himself about the life that in translation is often called "soul," and that a person can either give to Christ for the sake of the good news, thereby preserving it, or keep for himself and then ultimately lose it.
Indeed, soul in the biblical sense is not a structure and not any static formation at all; it is a process, a stream resembling a river flowing through a person, in which at the same time the person himself, his spiritual "I," his heart as the Bible calls this "I," dwells in a mysterious way. And one can enter the Kingdom only by allowing the One who brought the Kingdom into the world to direct the stream of one's own life. One will have to part with life; it will cease to belong to us even before our physical body dies.
While the body is still alive, it will already belong to Christ, and we will exist in it as He commands us. The stream of our life will then become something like a sacrificial libation: wine or oil are not sacrifices in themselves; they are only an addition to the main thing, but they become part of that spiritual-natural process which every genuine Yahwist sacrifice was.
And now something similar takes place within the boundaries of one human life and on the scale of the whole body of Christ at the same time. Thus a Christian receives the crown of righteousness: through this handing over of himself into Christ's power, he receives the fullness of the life of the Kingdom, in which his own life is preserved as well. The Kingdom is in many ways like an ocean, but in one respect it still differs from it: the current of each life that the Kingdom receives does not disappear in it without a trace, as the current of river water disappears when the river flows into the ocean.
The fullness of the Kingdom includes the fullness of life of each of its residents. And therefore the fullness of his righteousness too, for unrighteous life cannot exist in the Kingdom. Of course, there is an alternative: one can keep one's life for oneself. But then after the death of the body it will go away like water into sand. The choice is simple: spill one's life in vain, or give it to the King who will be able to preserve it in His Kingdom. The apostle has evidently made his choice, and he does not regret it.