To live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21)

We are used to the idea of a company having a mission statement. I suppose we could describe Paul’s words in our text as a personal mission statement. Or maybe we could regard it as a summary of his life as if someone had said to Paul, ‘Tell us about yourself,’ and he replied with the words of our text. His words naturally divide into two and that is how we will approach them in this service.

To live is Christ

Paul wanted to live for Christ because Christ had lived for him. Paul was aware of his need to have a righteous standing before God. He himself had tried to provide it through his own attempts to keep God’s law. Although he had been so dedicated in this pursuit, he had failed completely to find it. Even if his outward behaviour had conformed to what was expected, he knew that his mind and heart were far from perfect. So he needed a perfect righteousness that could be his, and he found it in the life of Jesus. Paul realised that Jesus had lived a perfect life in order to give it to sinners as their standing in God’s sight. When Paul trusted in Jesus, he was given the Saviour’s righteousness as his own. The language used by Paul to describe this is that Jesus’ obedience was reckoned or transferred to Paul’s account. Paul knew that this was a gift of grace.

Second, Paul wanted to live for Christ because Christ had died for him. Paul had heard about the death of Jesus on the cross and despised the message. Instead of thinking that the gospel was wonderful Paul initially had concluded that Jesus was a disgrace, that God had abandoned him because he was an imposter. Then he discovered the amazing truth that Jesus had gone to the cross in order to be the substitute of sinners and to pay the penalty for their sins. Paul had tried to get rid of his sins, but no matter how often he made his way to the temple and offered a sacrifice for his sins, he still knew that he had not been forgiven. But when he realised that he could be forgiven all his sins through the work of Jesus on the cross, Paul in spirit went to that cross and embraced the Saviour out of gratitude. Having found the way of forgiveness, Paul determined that he would not glory in anything save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus became his message and he declared it wherever he went. Everyone that met him knew that wanted to live for Jesus because Jesus had died for him.

Third, Paul wanted to live for Christ, because Christ had been raised for him. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and in the process defeated the power of death. This was an amazing achievement because death had been the victor previously as one by one people succumbed to its power. Paul knew that one day he would die, although he did not know when he would die. Unless something incredible happened, death would defeat Saul of Tarsus. But on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus was confronted by the risen Jesus. And he found that the risen Christ had not met him in order to destroy him, although Saul of Tarsus, who could have had the nickname of the destroyer, realised that Jesus could have done so if he had desired. Instead, Paul realised that Jesus had defeated Paul’s greatest dread and had brought life and immortality into the experience of his enemies. Because Jesus had been raised from the dead, Paul could look ahead beyond his death and anticipate a glorious resurrection. Since this was the case, Paul wanted to live for Christ.

Fourth, Paul wanted to live for Christ, because he had been called by Christ to live for him. Paul was a man with a strong sense of ambition and with that would have come a longing for meaningfulness in life. He could have climbed to the top of the tree in many areas of life. It is commonly accepted that Paul was one of the greatest minds who ever lived. Yet he found true satisfaction in serving Jesus. Paul found in Jesus a reality so profound that he became a devoted follower of the Saviour. The former persecutor could not forget the fact that Jesus, after forgiving him all his sins, gave to him the important role of ambassador, and also of being a herald inviting everyone to join the Saviour’s kingdom.

Fifth, Paul wanted to live for Christ, because Christ had brought him into a new community in which everything could be done by the gracious strength of Jesus empowering its members to live gracious lives. Paul had experienced Jesus working through him in countless cities and towns and villages; he had watched as Jesus had changed the lives of numerous sinners and that none of them were too engrained in sin for Jesus to transform; he had observed that through him Jesus had broken down so many barriers and had brought hostile peoples together. Paul had discovered that Jesus was the answer to the problems caused by sin.

Sixth, Paul wanted to live for Christ, because Christ had been faithful to him. Sadly, Paul had discovered that even the best of Christians, such as Peter and Barnabas, could at times behave in unreliable ways. Yet he would never find Jesus doing so. In 2 Timothy 2:13, which is part of his final letter, Paul says about Jesus in contrast to others, ‘if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.’ This was Paul’s testimony several years after he had written the letter to the Philippians. How could he not live for a Master who had done for Paul for over three decades what he had said he would do.

No doubt, Paul could have mentioned many other reasons why he lived for Christ. But we can turn now to think about what Paul thought about the future when he said that it would be gain to die. There are many suggestions that can be made because he is referring to the experience of heaven. Most of us will have thought of heaven when those we loved went there and it is appropriate for us to think about it again at this time.

To die is gain

Obviously, this opinion by Paul is in contrast to how most people would estimate things. Indeed, some may conclude that only a person who has lost his reason would make such a statement. Yet since we know that Paul was not in that category we need to ask why he would make such a comment, one that he strengthens when he says that it will be far better than anything we know on earth.

There are some obvious reasons why Paul could have said this. For example, his circumstances were not pleasant – he was in prison for his faith, and in those times people in such situations were dependant on the goodwill of friends, and he was not sure if he would be put to death or not. Moreover, his health was not good – reading between the lines of his letters it seems that he had problems of various kinds and they would have become worse as time went on. Furthermore, he was getting old, and it is the case that old age changes a person’s view of life. In addition, things were not going well in the church in Rome, as he describes earlier in the chapter. Yet if they were all the reasons that he had, we could suggest that his longing for a change was motivated by escapism.

No doubt, those reasons would have played a part, but Paul would have still had this estimation if those problems were removed. If he was living in luxury rather than in imprisonment, if his health was good rather than bad, if he was young rather than old, and if the church was living in harmony rather than divided and squabbling, he would still have had this desire. So we should conclude that what motivated Paul was not escapism but expectation. It was what he would experience there that made being with Christ so much better.

So we can ask what it was that made this prospect so appealing to Paul. First, he would become sinless. If we were to ask Paul what the biggest problem in his life was, he would have responded by saying it was his own heart. He was aware of the wrong attitudes and various deceits that other people had, yet he regarded himself as the chief of sinners. His longing was to be delivered from all the sinful tendencies that marred his life, and he knew that would only occur when he reached heaven. This is a reminder of the remarkable change that believers in Jesus experience when they die – as our catechism says, they are made perfect in holiness.

Second, he would enter the second stage of his personal salvation when he went to heaven. The first stage is what happens in this life when we come to believe in Jesus; the second stage is what occurs when the soul of a believer goes to heaven at death; the third stage is what will take place on the resurrection morning when body and soul will be reunited in a glorified condition. Although salvation is guaranteed, it is experienced in stages. Apart from those believers who will be alive when Jesus returns, every other believer will go through stage two. Yet it will be progress in his experience, although it will not be as great as what will occur when stage three is reached.

Third, he would encounter the activities of Jesus in a greater way than he had experienced when he was here, even while serving as an apostle. In this life, he had known Jesus as his prophet, priest and king, as his shepherd and guide through life. He had enjoyed wonderful experiences of Jesus as his teacher and what insights were given to Paul. On many occasions, he had experienced the almighty sympathy of Jesus as his heavenly helper and he had grasped by faith some of the competency of Jesus as the supplier of his needs. He had known the powerful protection of Jesus as his sovereign. Yet in heaven he would move to university rather than be in primary school, so great will be the truths that he will be taught by Jesus about God and his salvation. In heaven, he would see the special activities of Jesus in which he engages there as the advocate of his cause and the leader of the praise that ascends without ceasing to God. And in heaven he would discover in a fuller way what it means to be a joint-heir of the kingdom with Jesus the king. Who can tell what it will be like to be there?

Fourth, Paul would see from heaven the way that the gospel spreads down the centuries in places that he had never heard of. Constantly he would hear the songs of celebration that arise as news of another conversion on earth reaches the inhabitants of heaven. Jesus said that there is joy in heaven when a sinner is converted. How many times has Paul joined in that song since he reached there? He sang in heaven when each of us was converted.

Fifth, what insights Paul would get into the grace of God, into his patience, into his love, even into what he regards as precious, because each time a believer dies, God expresses his value of that saint (Ps. 116:15). It does not matter who that believer was, or how he died, or how old he was, or where he was at that moment. All that mattered was that each believer discovered how much they meant to God and were taken by him into his nearer presence.

No doubt, there are many Bible verses that could be used to describe Donald. But I would suggest that this verse by Paul from Philippians describes Donald perfectly. He lived for Christ and now he is experiencing the gain.