WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO REALLY LIVE?

"It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again" (Philippians 1:20-25 ESV).

This morning as I was praying and meditating my mind was racing with so many thoughts, fears, anxieties, burdens, and concerns. Do you ever have mornings like that? I found it very hard to be centered and felt a deep restlessness within my soul about my life. Then all the sudden the Holy Spirit prompted in me the Apostle Paul's great passion statement: "For me to live is Christ..."(Philippians 1:21). Oh how that thought is burning within my soul! It has awakened me, convicted me, and empowered me. It was the battle cry of the apostle Paul and I long to make it mine as well.

When we hear Paul make a statement like that, perhaps we might feel a complete disconnect and feel as though maybe he was just hyper spiritual or just a bit naive. That is because Paul did not think to live is the way we often define what it means "to live". What would you say? For to me to live is ...being happy? ...work?...success?...being secure?...popularity?...the acquisition of wealth and material things?...sex?... leisure, vacations, and early retirement?... to be highly regarded by others?...to have be a success at what you do?...academic achievement?...What would your "to live" be? Don’t miss the point. No one leaves that sentence blank. Everyone finishes it with something. If you don’t fill the blank with Christ, what do you put there? But for Paul, at the deepest level of his soul, “Christ" was the reason for living.

Paul’s words “For me to live is Christ” mean more than most people think. They imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ. Jesus was his every breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life.Christ is the raison d'etre, the reason for my being, the reason for my existence. He doesn't mean Christ is the source of his life, though He is. He doesn't mean Christ lives in him, though He does. He doesn't mean Christ controls him, though He does. He doesn't mean that Christ wants him to submit to Him, though He does. He simply means living is Christ. Life is summed up as Christ. I'm filled with Christ. I am occupied with Christ. I trust Christ, love Christ, hope in Christ, obey Christ, preach Christ, follow Christ, fellowship with Christ, Christ is the center circumference of my life, it's all Christ. Christ and Christ alone is my inspiration, my direction, my meaning, my purpose...consumed, dominated by Christ.

Paul takes this even farther. He says, "...and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Paul didn’t dread death. He was looking forward to being glorified—he was looking forward to being with Christ. He understood that to die is gain. He understood that to die meant to be with His Savior, the one He loved and adored and what a wonderful time that would be! Do you believe that? Do you feel that? Death=Gain? Is the thought of your own death seen as "gain" or loss? Does thinking of your death produce a feeling of fear, anxiety, dread, or joy and anticipation? Is this life the best there is or is there more, exceedingly, infinitely, wonderfully more?

Jesus Christ was the highest good and happiness for Paul. He was a man satisfied with nothing less than God himself. As the Moravian Count Zinzendorf used to say, "I only have one passion and it is He!" Paul saw himself as a man journeying towards heaven and to be forever with Jesus. Is it no wonder that death would be so looked forward to as gain for Paul? Death was the door for all Paul had valued, treasured, savored, and lived for in this life: Jesus Christ!

This is why Jonathan Edwards resolved for his life on earth: "Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

What caused Paul to have such a passionate sense of his life and his death? Paul's aim was Christ. Paul held loosely to the things of life on this earth because they did not bring him satisfaction and joy, only Jesus Christ did. So Christ was his happiness in life, and Christ would be his happiness in death.

In Philippians 3:8, Paul says, "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." "To live is Christ" means to count everything as loss now in this life in comparison to the value of gaining Christ. Do you see the word "gain" turning up here again in 3:8 just as it did in 1:21?

"To live is Christ" means experiencing Christ as gain now, not just in death. Real life, real life is knowing, loving, serving, glorifying, enjoying, communing, and fellowshipping with Jesus Christ—that is real life. In other words, the Apostle Paul is saying to you, to the Philippians, to me, he is saying: ‘My total life meaning and fulfillment is in knowing Christ, in loving Christ, in serving Christ, in glorifying Christ, in enjoying Christ, in fellowshipping with Christ, in communing with Christ. That is the whole thing!’

Jonathan Edwards put it this way:
“The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here."

In 1858 a young man named John G. Paton felt called of God to leave his ministry in Glasgow, Scotland, to go as a missionary to the New Hebrides islands in the South Pacific. In those days missionary ventures were greeted with disdain and opposition—in part because of the great danger attendant to preaching the gospel to people regarded as uncivilized. An elderly gentleman warned John Paton: “You will be eaten by cannibals.” “Mr. Dickson,” Paton replied, “You are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.”

May God open our eyes to see His worth so that we would join Paul and say: FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST AND TO DIE IS GAIN.!

The love of Christ is now constraining me
That I would love and love Him utterly.
His mighty love has touched me deep within
To consecrate my life and all to Him.
This charming One so excelling;
To His touch I'm now responding;
To surrender, to surrender to Him.

This tide of love has flowed to me from Him;
Unchanging love that keeps on rushing in.
Now I'm for Him beyond my own control;
He is now my love and my only goal.
His dying love so compelling,
And this tide has made me willing
To love Him, I can't help but love Him.

The love of Christ
Is now constraining me to love Him utterly.
His mighty love
Has touched me deep within to consecrate to Him.
This charming One so excelling;
To His touch I'm now responding;
To surrender, to surrender to Him.

This tide of love
Has flowed to me from Him that keeps on rushing in.
Now I'm for Him
Beyond my own control;
He's now my final goal.
His dying love so compelling,
And this tide has made me willing
To love Him, I can't help but love Him.

Oh how I pray that you would be so captured by the glory and the comfort and the joy of that reality that "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Oh for us to go hard after Christ in this life so as to be able to say that death is nothing but pure and joyful gain!

Longing to believe, feel, and live this truth,
Pastor Bill