
To Live Is Christ, to Die Is Gain
Introduction
If you’re joining us for the first time this week or you’re a returning visitor, I’d just like to take a moment again to welcome you to our church. For the past several weeks, we’ve been working bit by bit through a part of the Bible called Philippians. Philippians was originally written as a letter from one of Jesus Christ’s servants, Paul, to an assembly of Christians in the city of Philippi. And even though this man, Paul, really and properly wrote this letter to a specific church in the past, the text we’ll be reading today is more than just a human letter. Philippians is breathed out by God – Paul only wrote what he was prompted to write by the Spirit of God – nothing more, and nothing less. The text here, “to live is Christ, to die is gain,” and all the rest – it has come to us from God. It’s authoritative, and so is every other part of the Bible. And in God’s wisdom, this letter contains timeless truth and guidance that isn’t just intended for ancient churches in Greece. It’s also intended for us.
That being said, it’s still important for us to understand something of the original context of what’s being said, who it’s being said to, and why it’s being brought up. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen that the Philippian church was dealing with many of the same problems we face today. Persecution was on the rise. Conflict and impurity was present in the church. Some Christians were driven by pride and selfish ambition. Other Christians were paralyzed by fear and pessimism about the future.
But as we’ve been working through this letter, whether Paul’s talking about the problems of the Philippian church, or whether he’s talking about his own problems – being in prison for his faith, with rivals seeking to afflict him – in all of these situations, Paul knows what the solution is. He knows the antidote to all of life’s poisons. He knows the fix to all of this world’s brokenness. Over and over again, Paul continues to bring us back to Jesus Christ.
I think that most of us here probably recognize that Jesus is significant. But very few of us actually appreciate how significant he is. Because we’re more content than we should be to have a shallow understanding of Jesus. It can be all too easy for us to have a lazy attitude toward the Bible – to just skim through the words, looking for a verse to pop out at us that sounds nice and makes us feel good. But when it comes to reading the Bible, much of the precious gold isn’t sitting on the surface of the ground. If you’re going to enrich yourself with Jesus Christ, you should expect to spend some time digging. It’s right for you and I to read this book prayerfully, asking God to help us understand what the text actually means, and how Christ matters in everything we do.
So if you haven’t already, please turn with me Philippians, Chapter 1. We’ll pick up this morning in verse 21. Philippians, Chapter 1, starting in verse 21. But before I read the text for us, please pray with me.
[Pray and Read Text]
More Than One Good Option
Every so often, I’ll go out to eat with my family or with a friend. And I’ve found over time, whenever I’m sitting down in a new restaurant with a menu, I have an incredibly difficult time deciding what to order. The problem isn’t that there aren’t any good options. The problem is that I have a choice to make between multiple options that are good. And often times, the options are good for different reasons. One thing on the menu might be the least expensive entrée. The next item on the menu might have the highest quality ingredients. The next thing might promise to have the most appealing flavor – and so on, down the list. It can be incredibly difficult to make a selection when we’re faced with multiple good options.
And life is filled with all kinds of decisions like this. But many of our life decisions have more at stake than a simple choice from a menu. We might wonder, What should I do with my summer, or with my Saturdays? Who should I marry? What type of work should I do? How should my kids be educated? What activities should I say yes to, and which of them should I turn down? Choosing between options – especially between multiple options that are good for different reasons – can be incredibly difficult.
And the interesting thing you’ll notice in our text is that Paul seems to be torn between two different options – between living and dying. As a Christian, he recognizes that both options are good for him. But the options are good for different reasons. Of course, it’s not ultimately up to Paul to make this decision. Our future life or death is something that God oversees – Psalm 139:16 says that God has written all our days in his book, “…when as yet there were none of them.” But Paul wants the Philippian church to rightly understand, even if they’re attacked and opposed for their faith – if they’re ever faced with uncertainty as to whether their future is life or death – Paul wants to make sure they understand that both outcomes are good for those who are trusting in Christ.
At the beginning of our text, in verse 21, you’ll see that Paul makes a very brief, but very powerful statement to summarize this point. He says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
And this morning, we’re going to take some time to better understand why Paul sees both of these options as good. Because if we take Paul’s insight on life and death seriously, it’ll profound shape our priorities, and our whole outlook on life. And we’ll work through the text, first, by looking at the Goal of Life. And second, by looking at the Gain of Death. The Goal of Life, and the Gain of Death.
The Goal of Life – to Live is Christ
So first, the Goal of Life. In the first half of verse 21, Paul makes the statement, “To live is Christ.” And without any context, this sort of sentence would be a little bit confusing. But in the surrounding verses, here, Paul makes it very clear what he means by this. One verse earlier, back in verse 20, Paul indicates that his aim is to honor Christ in his body. And then in verse 22, Paul explains that to live in the flesh means that he has fruitful labor to do. Not fruitful as in “full of apples and peaches” But he has fruitful labor to do, as a servant of Jesus, that’s really productive and worthwhile. That’s what he has in mind.
So between these two verses, we get the strong sense that verse 21 must be a description of Paul’s life work – his life mission. When Paul says, “For to me, to live is Christ (and to die is gain)” he’s saying that his way of life is to live for Christ. To live is Christ. He’s saying it in the strongest words possible.
And because Paul expresses this goal so emphatically he might sound like he’s a bit extreme – like he’s a bit of a wacko-fanatic who has gotten a little bit too carried away with religion. But if you really dig into the human heart, you’ll find that everyone has their own understanding of what it means to live. Most people probably wouldn’t come right out and say, “To live is fill in the blank.” But without even realizing it, people often have something (or multiple somethings!) that control their lives. To live is football. To live is food. To live is family. To live is financial prosperity. Sometimes people will even come right out and say things like, “Minecraft is my life” or “My children are my everything.” Our lives are all driven along by how we fill in the blank. To live is – what? What is your life for? What is your life about?
It turns out, that we’re all religious people – we all have some sort of belief that someone or something is the purpose for our existence – whether we believe that’s God, or ourselves, or something out there in the world we think will make us happy. We can’t escape from the reality that our lives are being lived for something. And when Paul says to live is Christ in his life, he’s asserting that you and I should make it our greatest goal to live for Christ as well.
And under this overarching goal – to live for Christ – Paul goes on in the text to explain two aspects of what this means. He identifies two distinct sub-goals. He intends to live for Christ by living for the Good of Christ’s church and by living for the Glory of Christ’s name.
The Good of Christ’s Church
So initially, here I want you to notice how Paul speaks about his commitment to live for the Good of Christ’s Church down in verses 24 and 25. Up until this point, Paul’s been doing a side-by-side comparison between living and dying. And he works his way through to the conclusion, in verse 24, that it’s necessary to remain in the flesh on account of the church, there in Philippi. It’s not entirely clear what calculations Paul made to reach that conclusion. Maybe he recognized that there were more letters he needed to write. Maybe he recognized that there were some glaring deficiencies in the church that he was uniquely equipped by God to address. Or maybe, as an apostle, God had given some sort of clear message or mission that persuaded Paul that his work on earth wasn’t over yet. But in whatever case, Paul becomes convinced that God is going to extend his life. God has fruitful work for him to do.
And Paul specifically describes what this fruitful work is in verse 25. He’s convinced that he will remain in the flesh for two things related to the good of Christ’s church – for their progress in the faith, and also for their joy in the faith. These two things: progress and joy.
And it’s worth our time to think a bit about what those things actually mean. What sort of progress is Paul aiming at here? He doesn’t directly spell it out for us in these verses. But he likely wants the church to make progress in knowing their faith, and living out their faith in love – because these are the two things Paul prayed for the Philippians back in Chapter 1, verse 9.
Making progress in our knowledge of the faith really is important. It’s how we know the God who made us. It’s how we know ourselves, and the misery of our sin, and the good news of how we can be saved. Knowing God’s truth is important to identify the lies of sin, so we can withstand temptation. It’s how we gain the discernment to recognize false teaching, so we aren’t led astray into error. The knowledge of the Christian faith is what teaches us what’s valuable, what’s good, and what’s true. We simply can’t make progress without it.
Yet making progress in love is just as necessary. The goal isn’t just to love in and of itself – because in 1 John 2, verse 15, we’re explicitly told, “Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” We mustn’t love worldliness. We shouldn’t love created things more than the Creator. Instead, as Christians, God has poured out his love on us so that we’d be raised up to love the right things, to the right degree. And Paul’s concerned about helping the church make progress in this. Paul wants to remind them about the deep, self-sacrificial love of Jesus. Paul wants to give them an example of his own love. He wants to remind them that God’s commands for love are summarized as loving God with all your being, and loving your neighbor as yourself. He wants to point out the benefits of love, and it’s pleasurableness. Every church leader, and every church member should be concerned about making progress in the faith, both in knowledge and in love.
But Paul isn’t just concerned about the church’s progress. He’s also concerned about the church’s joy. He’s convinced that God has fruitful work for him to do for their joy in the faith.
It’s possible, as individual Christians or as churches, to be so focused on progress in the faith, that the Christian life can feel like an overwhelming burden. We can begin to get a distorted version of God, even, as though he’s a track coach, yelling “Faster, faster!” Or a raging fire that’s always demanding more wood. But we need to understand that our progress in the faith and our joy in the faith – they aren’t opposites. They aren’t two rams, butting heads. But they’re two strands of the same thread.
Progress in the faith – growing in Christlikeness love, gaining a deeper knowledge of God’s grace to us – these sorts of things are intended for our joy. Paul wants to help them make progress so that the Philippians can more clearly see the greatness of who God is, what he’s done, and what he’s continuing to do.
You could almost say that the Christian life is designed to be like a mountain hike. As we hike on and get higher up on the mountain – as we make progress, we gain a better, more awe-inspiring view of the landscape and a greater appreciation for the mountain. It’s not as though the landscape itself has changed, or that the mountain has become different – but our progress up the mountain allows us encounter stunning new opportunities to behold delightful and beautiful things. Our progress is for our joy. And our joy helps to motivate continued progress. So Paul wants these things for us, because his goal is to live for Christ, by seeking the good of Christ’s church.
The Glory of Christ’s Name
But if you go on into verse 26, you’ll also see that Paul desires to live for Christ by also seeking the glory of Christ’s Name. Paul intends to continue living and serving the church, not so that the church would celebrate the skill and intelligence of Paul, but so that they’d adore Jesus. In fact – just look at the way Paul speaks here – he says that he’ll work for the Philippians progress and joy in the faith “so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus” (or to boast in Christ Jesus).
Paul is reminding the church here, that his service to them is actually evidence of Jesus’s greatness – not his own greatness. Even though the church will see Paul serving, and hear him teaching, the good that Paul’s bringing to the church isn’t from him. It’s ultimately from Christ. Paul’s simply the bugle through whom Jesus is producing a melody. He’s simply a herald, bringing the well-crafted good-news message that belongs to Jesus. In Paul, the church is being given ample cause to give credit to Jesus.
And by putting himself in the background here, Paul is actually serving the church in a really important way. Because one day, Paul’s going to be dead and gone, and he doesn’t want the church to say, “if only Paul were here, everything would be better!” or “Do you remember back when Paul was around? Those were the glory days.” Instead, the church needs to understand that the glorious one is Jesus – and he won’t ever be taken from them! The church will always have ample cause to glory in Jesus, whether it’s through Paul, or through the work of some other servant. The critical factor in play isn’t the magnificence of Paul, but the majesty of Christ.
It’s obvious here – Paul loved Jesus. He was mesmerized by his authority and greatness. And over and over again in his other letters, too, Paul spoke about Jesus’s glory. Jesus is the one through whom and for whom all things were created – Colossians 1:16. Jesus is the one who died, who was raised, and who is at the right hand of God, interceding for us – Romans 8:34. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory – 2 Timothy 3:16. Jesus is the power and wisdom of God – 1 Corinthians 1:24. Jesus is the one who has secured every spiritual blessing for us in the heavenly places – Ephesians 1:3. In the face of Jesus Christ, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is revealed to us – 2 Corinthians 4:6. And on and on we could go with examples. Paul is a servant of Christ, because he understands that Jesus is worthy. The name of Jesus is the greatest name.
So we don’t boast in Pastor Devon. We don’t boast in Fellowship Reformed Church. We don’t boast in your favorite internet preacher or podcast host. Jesus is our life. There’s no one and nothing else that we should be more eager to live for. And there’s no one else we should be more willing to die for.
The Gain of Death – to Die is Gain
This brings me to my second main point, which will be more brief – but not less important. I want to give attention to how Paul speaks about the gain of death. The gain of death.
Back in verse 21, Paul asserts that for him, as a Christian, “to live is Christ and to die is gain!” Now for many of us, it may not seem to us that dying is gain. Because when we die, there are so many things we can’t take with us. We can’t take our earthly sense of identity or our reputation. We can’t take our money. We can’t take our homes. Death strips us of everything we possessed on earth! And yet, Paul says to die is gain. In fact, Paul evaluates his earthly accomplishments and attainments in Chapter 3, and in verse 7, he says, “Whatever gain I had, I counted loss for the sake of Christ. (verse 8) Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ…”
And that’s the gain Paul has in mind when he says to die is gain. He will gain Christ. That’s why dying is gain.
So this phrase “to die is gain” shouldn’t be taken to mean that human life isn’t important or valuable. Human beings are made in the image of God, and the righteous standard of heaven insists that human life should be respected and protected – whether it’s a fertilized embryo in the womb, or an elderly woman on dialysis. Human life has dignity, and it would be a misuse of Paul’s words here to claim otherwise.
And it’s also important to clarify here that when Paul says, “to die is gain,” he isn’t just saying that death is a way to escape pain or to get away from other things that are bad or inconvenient. Death isn’t just loss of unpleasant things. It’s gain. As a Christian, Paul knows that the power of death over him has been broken. He’s been given eternal life through faith in Jesus. When he dies, he recognizes that his physical body will decay and dissolve, as it waits for the day that Christ will return to bring resurrection. But while that’s all happening, the non-physical, conscious soul of Paul will be brought to be with Jesus.
So death won’t be the end. It won’t hit a reset button, where Paul will be reincarnated as a monkey or a princess. He won’t enter into some sort of metaphysical deep sleep. And death won’t cause Paul to lose everything. Instead, for Paul, for the Christian, death is gain. Because through it, we gain Christ.
This is what Paul describes in verse 23. He says that it’s his desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better – far better than life on earth. And I just want to highlight here, the phrase “that is far better,” doesn’t just mean a tablespoon better, or even a lot better – but, literally, in the Greek, Paul stacks three superlatives on top of each other – it’s much more greater – vastly, wildly, unbelievably better to be with Christ.
Because in Christ, God brings to us all the riches of his perfection and beauty and glory and power and love! Every noble desire is fulfilled in him. Every weary heart that leans on Jesus finds refreshment. Every anxious mind finds peace. We experience gain when we die, not just because heaven is free from bedbugs and radioactive waste. But death is gain because we are able to know, and touch, and be with the crown jewel of paradise – we get to be with Jesus! In his presence there is fullness of joy. At his right hand, there is pleasure forevermore (cf. Psalm 16:11).
So Paul isn’t afraid of death. He’s not afraid about the troubles or trials of life that might lead to death. Paul understands that even death, which in some regard is the worst thing that could happen to him – even death is gain. Because Paul has Christ in this life. And in death, he will have Christ even more. And this is what prompts Paul to confidently affirm, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
“To Die Is Gain” Only if You Know Christ
But you might hear Paul saying, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” – and you might think, “Sure, Paul, I’m glad that works for you. I’m glad that Jesus sounds good to you. You do what makes you happy, and I’ll do what makes me happy.”
But when Paul says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” he isn’t just stating an opinion. He isn’t saying “This is true to me, but you need to find what’s true for you.” No, Paul’s point here is that he has responded to the reality that he is a sinner, in need of grace. And that in Christ, he’s now in a position where he can face life and death with purpose, with confidence, and with hope.
Paul can now say, “to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” But the question then comes – what about for you? If you’re living for yourself, resisting what the Bible says, pushing Jesus onto the backburner, living as an enemy of God – then you can’t say what Paul’s been saying here. For the non-Christian, “To live is selfishness and Christlessness and to die is loss.”
Without Jesus, life is a worthless thing. Day after day, we’re just piling up more guilt, worshiping and living for ourselves instead of God, chasing after the wind. And without Jesus, death is a terrible thing. Because in that case, death means judgment for your sin. Hell.
But in Christ, life is good and productive, and death is transformed into gain. In Christ, we’re given a new commission to live for the one who died for us, and confidence to die for the one who lives for us. So let it be our life’s refrain, to live is Christ, to die is gain.