For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21
Once a family got transferred to a new place. They found a church nearby. And the first day of church, after Sunday School, his parents asked the child how was the experience at the Sunday School. The little boy answered it was good. The parents further asked how did he find his new teacher. After a pause, he replied, "Well, she must have been Jesus' grandmother because Jesus was the only person she kept talking about the whole class."
Though it is just a story I like it. In fact the grandmother is sort of like Apostle Paul. For Paul too when he speaks he has only one guy to talk about.
For me to live is Christ and die is gain. This is Paul's motto and slogan. This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible. Among Christian circles, we have heard it or its been quoted by us. This is Paul's slogan and this could have been very well on Paul's tombstone. It would have been written here lied the Apostle Paul. For him to live was Christ and to die was gain.
Can we for a moment take that little phrase and make it our own for a minute. For me to live is _____. You fill in the blank. And then to die is ______. The only one that would or the only thing or person we could put in the first blank to make it say gain would be Christ. Why do I say so, I will explain.
Let's say we were to say that for us to live is wealth. Well, then, we have to say that to die is loss because we cannot take our wealth with us. We leave it all behind. For us while living it may be getting a lot of money but when you die it is a total loss. If we were to say that for us to live is fame and notoriety and status, then we would also have to say, for us to die is loss, because we lose those when we die. We are famous here, but not there.
If we say for us to live is having a perfect physical body, well, we are going to have to put loss there too, because when we die we get ugly in a day. The only one, or thing, we could put that says gain is Christ. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. That's why this is the summum bonum of Paul's life. This is the pinnacle statement that sums up everything. For me, to live is Christ. To die is gain.
We all know that Paul is in prison and he doesn't know if he's going to live or die. But Paul said this because if he will live he will live for Christ and if he dies he will live with Christ. Either way there's life in either equation. Jesus said this, I am the Resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Paul believed that to the core.
I am just fast forwarding what happened to Paul. Paul, in jail, will be set free, And he'll spend a year out of jail. We don't know what he's doing, but since for him to live is Christ, he's out there doing something for Christ. He's preaching the gospel, starting some church somewhere. A year later he gets arrested again in Troas and brought to Rome the second time. This time he's not under house arrest like he is now, with a little bit of freedom. The second time he is placed in a prison called the Mamertine prison in Rome. It's still there. It's a hole in the ground. There are no windows in it. It is solitary confinement. He gets food that is lowered through a rope in the hole in the ground. That's where he spends his final days. He's taken up out of the Mamertine prison, taken to the Basilica Julia, a building that was built by and for Julius Caesar, named after him, And he is given the death verdict, condemned to die. History tells us how he died.
A.T. Robertson in his book Epochs in the Life of Paul describes it the following way
"The crowds flowed into town. Some were going out. Paul was only a criminal going to be beheaded. Few, if any, in the crowd would know or care anything about him. At a good place on the road some miles out, the executioner stopped. The block was laid down. The executioner stood ready, as in hand. The men stripped Paul, tied him, kneeling upright to the low pillar which exposed his back and his neck. The guards beat him with rods for the last time. He groaned and bled from his nose and his mouth. And then, without a hint of hesitation, the executioner frowned as he swung the blade down swiftly, hitting its mark with a dull thud. And the head of the greatest preacher of the ages rolled upon the ground." That's how Paul died.
Paul said, for me to live is Christ. To die is gain. For that one year, he was preaching Christ. Now, in that one brutal moment, Paul, moved from the imperial city of Rome to the external city of heaven. He was preaching Christ. Now he is with Christ.
And Paul knew it all along. That's why he wasn't afraid. If I live, I'll preach Christ. You kill me, I'll be with him. Either way, I win. Either way, I am delivered. Either way, I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to be confident. I'm going to have hope because I'm going to have life either way,.
Dear friends, we might not be able to able to predict our future circumstances. But, there is one circumstance we can predict. And that is, we will spend eternity in heaven or in hell? We can accurately predict that because we believe in Jesus Christ and not because of our own good works or our religious works, but that we trust in his finished work, unequivocally, no doubts at all, we are going to heaven.
God Bless you.
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