For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. — Philippians 1:21
Paul does not say that Christ is part of his life, or important to his life, or even first in his life. He says, “to me to live is Christ.” Christ was the very sum and substance of Paul’s living. Christ was his reason to rise, his message to preach, his strength to endure, his joy in suffering, and his goal in service. Paul could say this because Christ truly lived in him. Galatians 2:20 explains it well: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Paul was in a living, vital union with Christ. His life had been taken over by the Saviour.
Then Paul says, “and to die is gain.” He is not saying the act of dying itself is gain, as though death is pleasant in itself. The gain is what follows death for the believer. The moment a child of God leaves this world, he enters the presence of Christ. The Christian loses a body marked by weakness, temptation, and sorrow, but gains the immediate presence of the Lord, fullness of joy, and future glorification. Paul saw death not as loss, but as profit. The believer never truly loses in Christ. As Jim Elliot famously wrote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose"
Death is a great loss to a carnal, worldly man, for he loses all his earthly comforts and all his hopes; but to a true believer it is gain, for it is the end of all his weakness and misery. It delivers him from all the evils of life, and brings him to possess the chief good. The apostle's difficulty was not between living in this world and living in heaven; between these two there is no comparison; but between serving Christ in this world and enjoying him in another. Not between two
evil things, but between two good things; living to Christ and being with him. See the power of faith and of Divine grace; it can make us willing to die. In this world we are compassed with sin; but when with Christ, we shall escape sin and temptation, sorrow and death, for ever. But those who have most reason to desire to depart, should be willing to remain in the world as long as God has any work for them to do. And the more unexpected mercies are before they come, the more of God will be
seen in them.
Paul does not say that Christ is part of his life, or important to his life, or even first in his life. He says, “to me to live is Christ.” Christ was the very sum and substance of Paul’s living. Christ was his reason to rise, his message to preach, his strength to endure, his joy in suffering, and his goal in service. Paul could say this because Christ truly lived in him. Galatians 2:20 explains it well: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Paul was in a living, vital union with Christ. His life had been taken over by the Saviour.
Then Paul says, “and to die is gain.” He is not saying the act of dying itself is gain, as though death is pleasant in itself. The gain is what follows death for the believer. The moment a child of God leaves this world, he enters the presence of Christ. The Christian loses a body marked by weakness, temptation, and sorrow, but gains the immediate presence of the Lord, fullness of joy, and future glorification. Paul saw death not as loss, but as profit. The believer never truly loses in Christ. As Jim Elliot famously wrote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose"
Death is a great loss to a carnal, worldly man, for he loses all his earthly comforts and all his hopes; but to a true believer it is gain, for it is the end of all his weakness and misery. It delivers him from all the evils of life, and brings him to possess the chief good. The apostle's difficulty was not between living in this world and living in heaven; between these two there is no comparison; but between serving Christ in this world and enjoying him in another. Not between two
evil things, but between two good things; living to Christ and being with him. See the power of faith and of Divine grace; it can make us willing to die. In this world we are compassed with sin; but when with Christ, we shall escape sin and temptation, sorrow and death, for ever. But those who have most reason to desire to depart, should be willing to remain in the world as long as God has any work for them to do. And the more unexpected mercies are before they come, the more of God will be
seen in them.